MR. STANLEY WHITE'S MOTOR CAR.
At a function in Bath in 1902, described in these pages, Colonel Palmer, a descendant of John Palmer, presented a small curiosity to the Corporation. Readers of Pickwick will remember that, when Mr. Pickwick was proceeding to Bath, Sam Weller discovered inside the coach the name of "Moses Pickwick," and wanted to fight the guard for what he considered an outrage on his master. Among John Palmer's papers was an old contract for the Bristol and Bath Mail Service, and one of the parties bore the name of Pickwick, and was the landlord of the White Hart Hotel at Bath. It was that contract which Colonel Palmer presented to the Corporation, as a memorial both of his grandfather and of Dickens.
CHAPTER IX.
TOLL GATES AND GATE-KEEPERS.
As this book is devoted in great measure to the mail services of old time—which had to be carried on entirely by horse and rider or driver—allusion may fittingly be made to the toll gate system, which played its part in connection with mail vehicular transport.
Toll bars originated, it seems, so far back as the year 1267. They were at first placed on the outskirts of cities and market towns, and afterwards extended to the country generally. The tolls for coaches and postchaises on a long journey were rather heavy, as the toll bars were put up at no great distances from each other. In the year 1766, Turnpike Trusts, taking advantage of Sabbatarian feeling, charged double rates on Sundays, but experienced travellers sometimes journeyed on that day, and submitted to the double impost, to gain the advantage of avoiding highwaymen, who did not carry on their avocation on Sunday, but gave themselves up to riot, conviviality, or repose.
