It was a beautiful sight to see the mails on the King’s birthday assembled at the General Post Office—the men all dressed in new liveries, and in most cases with new harness; the horses decorated with bouquets of flowers—making a promenade through the principal streets in the west of London.
This parade did not in any way interfere with the regular work, and nearly all the night mails assembled at the General Post Office at eight o’clock to receive their bags. Some of the Western and Southern mails were met by a mail-cart with their bags at their own booking offices in the West-end. The fastest mail out of London was the “Devonport,” commonly called the “Quicksilver;” and who that ever saw can forget it, with its four chestnuts, driven by Charles Ward, leaving the White Horse Cellars at half-past eight!
How it rattled through Piccadilly! passing all the other mails, eight in number, and arriving first at Hounslow, where they all changed horses.
Ward drove on to Bagshot, returning with the up-mail about three A.M.; sixty miles a-night, and this for seven years.
Another coachman, Bill Harbridge, to whom I have already referred in these pages, drove the “Manchester” mail for two years out of London, performing one hundred miles a-night; fifty miles down and fifty miles up. I have his own authority for saying that he used to take as much as fourteen pounds to sixteen pounds a-week in fees, the Manchester merchants used to pay so well. The General Post Office also allowed him two guineas a-week. He was another instance of the total want of prudence, unfortunately so common to his class, and died in the workhouse.
Although coachmen and guards, when coaching was in its zenith, were in receipt of comfortable incomes, it is very rare that an instance is found of their having provided for a rainy day, and still more rare to find any instance of their having taken service in any railway establishment.
Many of the coaches, when there was not too much opposition, would earn from five pounds to six pounds a-mile per month. If corn and beans were not unusually high, three pounds a mile was said to pay.
The profits of a coach were divided monthly, and all outgoings disbursed—the mails having considerable advantage from their having neither duty nor gates to pay. One of the largest sources of revenue was derived from the booking of parcels, each article being charged twopence. Articles of value were registered, and paid according to the amount insured.