These early mail coaches (the “old heavies”) were cumbrous vehicles, and by no means remarkable for strength of construction: indeed, until Mr. Palmer took the matter firmly in hand and compelled the contractors to replace their worn-out coaches by new ones (which were built by Besant), three or four breakdowns or upsets were daily reported to the Post-master General. They were drawn by four horses; carried six inside passengers and, until the law of 1785 already noticed, twelve “outsides.” Their speed on the principal roads was gradually accelerated about this time, and after the mail coaches began to work the pace of “fly stage coaches,” or flying coaches, was increased to eight miles an hour.
On some roads the old slow coaches remained; as late as the year 1798 the Telegraph left Gosport at one o’clock in the morning and reached Charing Cross at eight in the evening, thus occupying nineteen hours over a journey of 80 miles; a speed of little over four miles an hour.
In 1792 sixteen mail coaches left London daily; and seven years later these had increased to about eighty.
REGULATIONS FOR MAIL AND STAGE COACHES.
During George III’s reign, three Acts of Parliament had been passed defining the number of outside passengers that any stage coach might carry, and making other regulations in the public interest; these three Acts were repealed by a fourth placed on the statute book in 1810, which enacted that any “coach, berlin, landau, chariot, diligence, calash, chaise-marine or other four-wheeled vehicle,” employed as a public carriage and drawn by four horses might carry ten outside passengers including the guard but not the coachman; that only one person might share the box with the coachman; and of the remaining nine, three should sit in front and six behind. No passenger might sit on the baggage. Stages drawn by two or three horses might carry not more than five outside passengers; “long coaches” or “double-bodied coaches” might carry eight.
The social distinction between “inside” and the “outside” is betrayed by a clause of this law which forbade any outside passenger to travel inside unless with the consent of one inside passenger; and the “inside” who gave consent was to have the “outside” placed next him.
This Act also prescribed important limitations to the height of coaches: neither passenger nor luggage might be carried on the roof of any coach the top of which was over 8 feet 9 inches from the ground and whose width was under 4 feet 6 inches measured from the centre of one wheel track to the centre of the other. On a four-horse coach 8 feet 9 inches high the baggage might be piled to a height of two feet; on one drawn by two or three horses, to a height of eighteen inches. As it was considered expedient to encourage low-hung coaches with the view of attaining greater immunity from accidents, it was legal to pile baggage up to a height of 10 feet 9 inches from the ground. Any passenger might require any turnpike keeper to count the “outsides” or to measure the height of the luggage on the roof. At a later date the fast mail coaches were prohibited by the Post-master General from carrying any baggage at all on the roof.
MAIL COACH PARADE ON THE KING’S BIRTHDAY.