The Manchester and Glasgow Road, Volume 1 (of 2) / This Way to Gretna Green

by Charles G. Harper

THE MAILS

The accompanying official time-bills of the London and Carlisle and the Carlisle and Glasgow mails, as run in 1837, will prove interesting:

GENERAL POST OFFICE-THE EARL OF LICHFIELD. HER MAJESTY’S POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

Time Bill, London and Carlisle Mail.
Contractors’ Names.	Miles and furlongs.	Time allowed.
			Despatched from the General Post Office the of 183 , at 8 p.m. Coach No. sent out.
		H. M.	With timepiece safe No. to .
Sherman	11 2	1 18	Arrived at Barnet, 9.18
	8 4		Hatfield.
	5 4	1 28	Arrived at Welwyn, 10.46.
W. & G. Wright	6 3		Stevenage.
	5 7	1 20	Arrived at Baldock, 12.6.
	7 5		Biggleswade.
	1 4	0 56	Arrived at Caldecot, 1.2 a.m.
	8 4	0 53	Arrived at Eaton Socon, 1.55.
Arnold	5 4		Buckden.
	5 1	1 4	Arrived at Alconbury, 2.59.
Coveney	9 2	0 57	Arrived at Stilton, 3.56.
T. Whincup	8 5		Wansford.
	6 0	1 32	Arrived at Stamford, 5.28.
H. Whincup	8 0	0 50	Arrived at Stretton, 6.18.
Burbidge	5 1		Colsterworth.
	8 1	1 22	Arrived at Grantham, 7.40. by timepiece, by clock. Coach No. gone forward. Delivered the time-piece safe, No. to .
		0 40	Forty minutes allowed.
	6 0	0 36	Arrived at Foston, 8.56.
Lawton	8 0	0 48	Arrived at Newark, 9.44.
	13 1	1 19	Arrived at Ollerton, 11.3.
Lister	8 4	0 49	Arrived at Worksop, 11.52.
Dawson	8 3	0 48	Arrived at Bagley, 12.40.
	4 1	0 23	Arrived at Wadsworth, 1.3 p.m.
Dunhill	4 1	0 23	Arrived at Doncaster, 1.26.
Outhwaite	14 3	1 27	Arrived at Pontefract, 2.53.
	10 0	0 59	Arrived at Aberford, 3.52.
Cleminshaw	7 4	0 44	Arrived at Wetherby, 4.36. Coach No. gone forward. By timepiece at ; by clock ; off at , by timepiece.
		0 35	Thirty-five minutes allowed.
	12 1	1 12	Arrived at Boroughbridge, 6.23.
Cook	12 1	1 12	Arrived at Leeming Lane, 7.35.
Couldwell	11 0	1 6	Arrived at Catterick Bridge, 8.41.
Fryer	9 0	0 54	Arrived at Foxhall, 9.35.
Martin	4 4	0 27	Arrived at New Inn, Greta Bridge, 10.2.
	10 0	1 8	Arrived at New Spital, 11.10.
	9 4	1 5	Arrived at Brough, 12.15.
Fryer	8 0	0 52	Arrived at Appleby, 1.7 a.m.
Doulim	13 4	1 21	Arrived at Penrith, 2.28.
Teather	9 3	0 55	Arrived at Hesketh, 3.23.
Barton	8 6	0 54	Arrived at the Post Office, Carlisle, the of , 183 , at 4.17 a.m. Coach No. arrived. By timepiece ; by clock .
	302 7	32 17
Time Bill, Carlisle and Glasgow Mail.
Contractors’ Names.	Miles and furlongs.	Time allowed.
			Despatched from the Post Office, Carlisle, the of , 183 , at 5. a.m. by timepiece; by clock, . London Mail arrived 4.17 a.m. Manchester Mail arrived 4.48 a.m. Coach No. sent out. With timepiece safe, No. ; to .
		H. M.
Teather, junr.	9 6	0 55	Arrived at Gretna, 5.55.
Burn & Paton	9 2	0 53	Arrived at Ecclefechan, 6.48.
	5 6	1 1	Lockerbie.
	5 0		Arrived at Dinwoodie Green, 7.49.
Wilson	9 3	0 53	Arrived at Beattock Bridge Inn, 8.42. Bags dropped for Moffat. Toll Bar. Bags dropped for Leadhills.
	14 0	1 44	Arrived at Abington, 10.26.
	4 3
Burn & Paton	9 0	0 52	Arrived at Douglas Mill, 11.18. Bagsdropped for Lesmahago.
	6 0	0 46	Arrived at Knowknack, 12.4.
	2 0
	9 3	0 53	Arrived at Hamilton, 12.57.
	11 0	1 3	Arrived at the Post Office, Glasgow, the of , 183 , at 2 p.m. by timepiece; at by clock. Coach No. arrived Delivered the timepiece safe, No. , to .
	94 7	9 0

In their last years, however, the Carlisle and Glasgow and the Carlisle and Edinburgh mails were run to clear 11 miles an hour: the time between Carlisle and Glasgow being cut down to 8 hours 32 minutes. Cautious folk steered clear of such performances, for accidents were frequent. But it was not speed that caused the dreadful accident to the up Manchester mail from Carlisle, overturned at Penrith on September 25th, 1835. The coach was passing the “Greyhound” inn when the horses, startled by a sudden thunderstorm, upset the coach. A gentleman on the roof was killed, and three other outsiders and the coachman were stunned.

But this was not the full measure of the Glasgow mails. The London and Manchester mail, once proceeding no further than Manchester, was extended by a second coach to Carlisle. This and the regular old Glasgow mail were in later years timed to meet at Penrith at four o’clock in the morning, and went on together to Carlisle. Carlisle was thus a busy centre for the mails, and in addition sent out, besides its local coaches and a mail for Edinburgh, a four-horse mail-coach for Portpatrick, carrying the mails for the north of Ireland. This also went along the main road so far as Gretna, whence it branched for Dumfries; continuing from that town to Portpatrick as a two-horse affair.

The cost of being conveyed by mail-coach from London to Glasgow was enormous. It is possible to voyage in these days to America, a distance of 3,000 miles, for less. In 1812 it cost an inside passenger, all the way to Glasgow, for fare alone, apart from the necessary tips to coachmen and guards, and exclusive of expenditure for food and drink all those weary hours, no less than £10 8s.: at the rate of about 6¹⁄₈d. a mile. To-day, the fastest train takes exactly eight hours, and the first-class fare, answering to the mail-coach fare, is £2 18s.; while one may travel, third class, in greater luxury than the old passengers by mail, for 33s.

III

DISCOMFORTS OF TRAVELLING

No one ever in coaching days thought it worth while to write the story of the Glasgow mail. The hard, dry facts of it may be sought, and with some diligence found and collated, in Parliamentary Papers, and in the pages of Cary, or in the coaching information common to directories of that age; but intimate accounts are sought in vain. Travellers who experienced the miseries of long-distance journeys were only too glad to be done with them, and to dismiss the memory of their sufferings. To have passed nearly forty-two hours continuously on the roof of a coach in severe weather, with every hair standing up like a porcupine’s quills, and with rain, dew, and hoar-frost as one’s dreary portion, forbade all that glamour with which that old era is regarded at this convenient distance of time.