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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
61
"Day
hath
put
on
his
jacket,
and
around
His
burning
bosom
buttoned
it
with
stars,"
the
eeriness
of
a
night-journey
would
be
experienced.
During
hard
frost
the
clear
ring
of
the
horses'
feet
would
be
heard
upon
the
road;
the
discomfort
of
fellow-passengers
rolling
about
in
their
places,
overcome
by
sleep,
would
be
felt;
while
in
the
solemn
dulness
of
the
darker
hours
of
night
the
monotony
of
the
situation
would
be
relieved
at
intervals,
in
the
mineral
districts,
by
miniature
mountains
of
blazing
coal,
shedding
their
lurid
glare
upon
the
coach
as
it
passed,
and
showing
up
the
figures
of
soiled
and
dusky
men
employed
thereat,
thus
creating
a
horrible
impression
upon
the
passengers,
and
seeming
to
afford
an
effective
representation
of
Dante's
shadowy
world.
Or,
on
occasions
of
great
national
triumph--when,
for
example,
some
important
victory
crowned
our
arms--the
coach,
decked
out
with
ribbons
or
green
leaves,
would
be
the
bearer
of
the
joyful
and
intoxicating
news
down
into
the
country,--the
driver
and
guard,
as
the
official
representatives
of
the
Crown,
being
the
heroes
of
the
hour.
But
it
may
be
of
interest
to
learn
what
a
mail-coach
journey
was
from
one
who
had
just
completed
such
a
trip,
and
who,
in
the
freshness
of
youth,
and
with
the
unreserve
which
can
only
subsist
in
correspondence
between
members
of
a
family
or
dear
friends,
immediately
commits
his
impressions
to
writing.
We
have
a
vivid
sketch
of
a
journey
of
this
kind
from
no
less
a
personage
than
Felix
Mendelssohn,
the
great
musical
composer.
Mendelssohn
was
at
the
time
a
young
man
of
twenty:
he
had
been
making
a
tour
in
Scotland
with
his
friend
Klingemann--the
visit
being
that
from
which,
by
the
way,
Mendelssohn
derived
inspiration
for
the
composition
of
his
delightful
Scotch
symphony;
and
the
means
by
which
he
quitted
the
northern
kingdom
was
by
mail-coach
from
Glasgow
to
Liverpool.
The
following
letter,
descriptive
of
the
journey,
and
dated
August
19,
1829,
is
copied
from
an
interesting
work
called
'The
Mendelssohn
Family':--
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