"You remember you are to go down with the coach to Weymouth, and come up with the last Tuesday afternoon. Take care that they do not drive fast, make long stops or get drunk. I have told you this all before."
The following letter addressed in the same year to one of the horse contractors throws some light upon the way in which the work was done.
"Some time since, hearing that your harness was in a very unfit state to do duty, I sent you a set, as is the custom of the office to supply contractors whose harness and reins are bad, when they do not attend to the representatives of the office. The harness cost fourteen guineas, but, as they had been used a few times with the 'King's Royal,' Weymouth, you will only be charged twelve for them."
Who would have supposed that from so unpromising a beginning there should have developed the most perfect system of road travelling which the world has ever seen? Verily, it goes to prove the truth of the old adage that "practice makes perfect."
This same year, on 11th May, the Liverpool and Hull mail coach was stopped by a pressgang outside Liverpool. A rather serious affray took place, but no mischief was done. The Mayor of Liverpool was communicated with, and asked to give such instructions to the lieutenant of the gang as would prevent any further molestation. Probably, the pressgang saw some passengers on the mail which they supposed to be seafaring men, but it goes to show that the relative positions and rights of the different branches of His Majesty's service were not well understood. However this might have been, it appears that the guards and coachmen of the mails were capable of exerting their rights of free passage along the road to, at least, their full extent. In July, 1796, three gentlemen were riding on horseback, when the Liverpool and Manchester mail coach came up behind them. It would appear that they did not attempt to get out of the way, whereupon the coachman is stated to have used his whip to one of them, and the guard pulled another off his horse, and then brought out his firearm, and threatened to shoot them. According to the guard's statement the gentleman, without speaking a word, stopped the horses of the coach by laying hold of the reins, and nearly overturned it. The coachman flogged the gentleman and his horse; the guard got down and begged them to be off, and when they were going to strike him he threatened to shoot them, upon which they let them go. After a full inquiry from passengers, etc., it was found that the guard's statement was false, and he was instantly dismissed, as was also the coachman.
From the following instructions given in 1796, to a contractor, asking how the coachman should act under certain circumstances, it appears that passengers were apt to be very inconsiderate and difficult to manage in those days, as they continued to be later on.
"Stick to your bill, and never mind what passengers say respecting waiting over time. Is it not the fault of the landlord to keep them so long? Some day, when you have waited a considerable time, say five or eight minutes longer than is allowed by the bill, drive away and leave them behind, only take care that you have a witness that you called them out two or three times. Then let them get forward how they can."
This is much more consideration than was generally shown in later years.
I was once driving a mail when I had a Yankee gentleman for one of the outside passengers, who was disposed to give trouble in this way, and after being nearly left behind once or twice, he told me that I was bound to give him five minutes at every change of horses. I told him I would not give him two if I could help it, and would leave him behind as soon as look at him. I guess he was smarter in his movements for the rest of the journey.
The following instructions, issued to the guards in the same year, seem to point to their having delivered single letters as they passed through the villages, but I certainly never saw such a thing done in later years. In all the towns there were probably post-offices, though such things were then few and far between, not as they are now, in every village.