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The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
46
"Whereas
Walter
Price,
the
driver
of
the
Chester
and
Manchester
mail-coach,
on
Thursday
night
the
22d
Nov.
1810,
on
arriving
in
Chester,
incautiously
left
his
horses
without
any
person
at
their
heads,
to
give
out
a
passenger's
luggage
(while
the
guard
was
gone
to
the
post-office
with
the
mail-bags),
when
they
ran
off
with
the
mail-coach
through
the
city
of
Chester,
taking
the
road
to
Holywell,
but
fortunately
without
doing
any
injury;
in
consequence
of
which
neglect,
the
driver
was,
on
the
Saturday
following,
brought
before
the
magistrates,
and
fined
in
the
full
penalty
of
Five
pounds,
according
to
the
late
Act
of
Parliament."
And
through
the
city
of
Chester,
with
its
narrow
streets!
It
seems
a
miracle
how
four
runaway
horses,
with
a
coach
at
their
heels,
could
have
cleared
the
town
without
dire
disaster.
Again,
it
would
come
to
pass
that
in
dark
nights
the
horses
would
sometimes
stumble
over
a
stray
donkey
or
other
animal
which
had
taken
up
its
night-quarters
in
the
middle
of
the
road,
and
there
made
its
bed.
Nor
were
these
the
only
perils
of
the
road,
which
were
always
increased
when
the
nights
were
thick
with
fog.
On
the
morning
of
the
30th
December
1813,
the
mail
from
the
South
reached
Berwick
late
owing
to
a
fog,
the
horses
being
led
by
the
driver,
notwithstanding
whose
care
the
coach
had
been
overturned
twice.
The
drivers
were
called
upon
on
occasions
to
make
up
their
minds
in
a
moment
to
choose
one
of
two
courses,
when
danger
suddenly
burst
upon
them
and
there
was
no
escape
from
it.
A
good
instance
of
such
a
case
happened
to
the
driver
of
the
Edinburgh
to
Dumfries
mail-coach,
who
proved
that
he
could
reason
his
case
quickly
and
take
his
resolve.
At
one
of
the
stages
he
had
changed
horses,
and
was
proceeding
on
his
way,
the
first
portion
of
the
road
being
down
a
steep
hill
with
an
abrupt
turn
at
the
foot.
He
had
hardly
got
his
coach
fairly
set
in
motion,
when
to
his
dismay
he
perceived
that
the
wheelers,
two
new
horses,
had
no
notion
of
holding
back.
The
animals
became
furious,
while
the
passengers
became
alarmed.
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