In 1830, many of the public coaches started from Portsmouth and passed through Portsea and Landport, but—
"In olden time two days were spent
'Twixt Portsmouth and the Monument;
When flying Diligences plied,
When men in Roundabouts would ride
And, at the surly driver's will,
Get out and climb each tedious hill.
But since the rapid Freeling's age,
How much improved the English stage,
Now in eight hours with ease, the post
Reaches from Newgate Street our coast."
In the years 1837 and 1838 the Portsmouth mail coach was despatched at 7.5 p.m., from Bristol Post Office—then located at the corner of Exchange Avenue. The posting of letters without fee was allowed up to 6.35 p.m., and, with fee, paid and unpaid letters alike up to 6.50 p.m. The coach started from the White Lion coach office, Broad Street, at 6.45 p.m., so as to be in readiness at the Post Office to take up the mails at the appointed time. The arrival of the mail at Portsmouth from Bristol was at 6.45 a.m. These times are an improvement upon the service in operation in 1836. At that time the coach left Bristol at 5.30 p.m., with a posting up to 5.0 p.m. without fee, and with fees paid, up to 5.15 p.m. On the inward journey the Coach did not arrive until 8.9 a.m.
It will be appropriate here to enumerate certain interesting incidents connected with the carrying on of the Mail Coach system.
On Saturday, Jan. 5, 1805, the London Mail of Friday se'nnight, had not arrived at Swansea where it was due early in the morning, till eleven o'clock that night, having been detained seventeen hours at the New Passage, in consequence of such large shoals of ice floating down the Severn as to render it unsafe for the mail boat to cross until Friday morning.
Thursday se'nnight, an inquest was held at Swansea on the body of John Paul, driver of the mail coach between that place and Caermarthen which on Sunday was overturned about two miles from Swansea, while proceeding with great rapidity down a hill, it being supposed the coachman's hands were so benumbed with cold that he could not restrain the horses' speed, the consequence of which was that he was so much bruised as to occasion his death on Wednesday night. The guard was slightly hurt, but the passengers escaped uninjured. Verdict, accidental death.
Very few details exist of that exceptional season, in 1806, when Nevill, a guard on the Bristol mail, was frozen to death; but the records of the great snowstorm that began on the Christmas night of 1836 are more copious.
A valuable reminiscence of that night—Dec. 27, 1836—is Pollard's graphic picture of the Devonport mail snowed up at Amesbury. Six horses could not move it, and Guard F. Feecham was in parlous plight. Pollard's companion picture of the Liverpool mail in the snow near St. Alban's on the same night is equally interesting. Guard James Burdett fared little better than his comrade on the Devonport mail:
"An accident occurred to the Worcester mail Coach on Friday evening, March 27, 1829, opposite the Bull and Mouth Office, in Piccadilly, which, we are sorry to say, has proved fatal to Turner, the coachman. Just as Turner had taken hold of the reins, and while he was wrapping a large coat over his knees, the leaders started, and, turning sharply to the right, dashed one of the fore-wheels against a post. The shock was so violent that the coachman was flung from his seat. He fell on his back, and his neck came violently against the curb-stone. Not a moment was lost in securing the assistance of a surgeon, by whom he was bled. The poor man was shortly removed to St. George's Hospital, where he died at about eight o'clock on Saturday evening. He left a wife and three infant children in a state of destitution, without even the means of buying a coffin."
As a "Caution to Mail Coachmen," the following notice was issued on June 20, 1829:—"On Friday, Thomas Moor, the driver of the London mail from Bristol to Calne and back, appeared before the Magistrates at Brislington to answer an information laid against him by Mr. Bull, the Inspector of Mail Coaches, by order of the G.P.O. for giving up the reins to an outside passenger, and permitting him to drive the mail, on May 29 last, from Keynsham to Bath, against the remonstrances of the guard. The magistrates convicted Moor in the mitigated penalty of £5 and 11s. costs. Mr. Bull presented the Bath Hospital with the amount of the fine."