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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
112
A
hundred
miles
of
the
new
Great
North
Road,
south
of
York,
was
laid
out
in
a
perfectly
straight
line.[66]
All
the
requisite
arrangements
were
made
for
beginning
the
work,
when
the
talk
of
locomotive
engines
and
tramways,
and
especially
the
result
of
the
locomotive
contest
at
Rainhill
in
the
year
1829,
had
the
effect
of
directing
public
and
official
attention
to
a
new
and
promising
method
of
travelling,
and
of
preventing
an
outlay
of
what
must
have
been
a
most
enormous
sum
for
the
purposes
of
this
great
work.[67]
The
scheme
was
in
abeyance
for
a
few
months,
and
this
time
sufficed
to
develop
the
railway
project,
and
demonstrate
its
usefulness
to
the
postal
system
of
the
country.
But
we
are
anticipating
matters,
and
must,
at
any
rate,
speak
for
a
moment
of
the
services
of
Mr.
Macadam.
The
improvements
which
this
gentleman
brought
about
in
road-making
had
a
very
sensible
effect
on
the
operations
of
the
mail-coach
service.
Most
of
the
post-roads
were
macadamized
before
the
year
1820,
and
it
was
then
that
the
service
was
in
its
highest
state
of
efficiency.
Accelerations
in
the
speed
of
the
coaches
were
made
as
soon
as
ever
any
road
was
finished
on
the
new
principle.
From
this
time,
the
average
speed,
including
stoppages,
was
nine
miles,
all
but
a
furlong.
The
fastest
coaches
(known
as
the
"crack
coaches"
from
this
circumstance,
and
also
for
being
on
the
best
roads)
were
those
travelling,
in
1836,
between
London
and
Shrewsbury
(accomplishing
154
miles
in
15
hours),
London
and
Exeter
(171
miles
in
17
hours),
London
and
Manchester
(187
miles
in
19
hours),
and
London
and
Holyhead
(261
miles
in
27
hours).
On
one
occasion,
the
Devonport
mail,
travelling
with
foreign
and
colonial
letters,
accomplished
the
journey
of
216
miles,
including
stoppages,
in
21
hours
and
14
minutes.
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