Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-08-31


haunting the brain of such "old stagers'
as the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Maccles
field, Gen. Tyrwhitt, Mr. 4. Il. Drake
say, the sold Times" with Major Dixol
or James Selby on the box, coming alonf
Piccadilly and pulling up with full loa(
of passengers at the White Horse Cellar
That holiday drag, plying every day il
Summer between Piccadilly and Virgins
Water, recalls the far more business-like
mails and coaches which filled former
generation with wonder when George OF
William Nv. was King. There are many
still living, who can even remember the
procession of the mails on the birthday
of George III.-the 4th of June-when
every coachman and guard sported n
brand-new scarlet livery, and had mag
niticent posy stuck in his breast, as he
fooled his perfectly matched team of four
horses neatly up to the General Post
Office, in st. Martin s-le- Grand. Who
could say what weather or what accident
each of those superbly horsed mails
might not encounter before they reached
their respective destinations? On dark
night in October, nearly 20 years since,
the Exeter mail drew up ut Winterslow
Hut, one of the widest and bleakest
spots in Wiltshire, and not far distant
from Salisbury Plain, when lioness sud-
denly emerged from the darkness and
sprang upon the off-leaders back. Great
was the uproar which Immediately arose.
The solitary valley re-echoed with the
cries of the affrighted passengers, some
of whom fled precipitately and took shell
ter in the inn, where they locked them
selves up in bedroom. A diversion in
the horses favor was effected by large
mastiff, which attacked the lioness, and
soon paid with his life the penalty for in
terfering. Leaving the horse, the lioness
turned upon the dog. and, after q short
pursuit, tore him in pieces. At last the
keeper of the savage animal, which had
escaped from n caravan bound for Sails
bury Fair, arrived upon the scene of ac-
tion, and with great difficulty drove her
into an out t-house. The off leader recov-
cred from his wounds, and worked for
many subsequent years between Winter
slow and Devices.
''Ws used in those days to have day
coaching and night-coaching," says MIR.
Stanley Harris, mo less than Winter
coaching and Summer coaching, and, of
course, were obliged to accommodate our
amateur coaches of to-day, although ex-
eye as regards the beauty of the harness,
the elegance of the drags, and the sym
metry and harmony of the well-matched
horses, will reveal to those who, as boys,
went to school upon the top of a stage or
mail coach that pleasure, not business, is
nowadays the object aimed at. Who that
was ever exposed to q snow storm as an
outside passenger for couple of days
and nights will desire a renewal in Win
ter OF what it is the fashion ignorantly to
call "the good old times" On the eve
ming of Christmas Day, 1886, for in
stance, n tremendous fall of snow COM
menced over the whole of England and
Scotland, II was such storm as that
which, beginning in London on "White
Tuesday" the 18th of January. 1881,
continued during the whole of the next
day with unabated severity, and left the
metropolis isolated and cut off from the
provinces on the morning of Jan. 90. In
1886 the snow-storm was general all over
the island, having been in Scotland about
the Goth of December, and reached tho
south of England on the night of Christ
mas Day. "Never before" says con-
temporary newspaper, "was the London
Iiaif stopped upon every road for whole
night, and unable to get to the General
Post Office. None of the regular coaches
due on Monday from every part of the
country had arrived, as was their custom,
during tho night" Fourteen mail-coaches
were abandoned upon various roads. Tho
mail from London to Brighton reached
Crawley, but was obliged to return, while
the Dover mail could get no further than
Gravesend. The Brighton up mail, start
ing on Sunday evening, was upset in a
snowdrift, and when the guard, who had
gone in search of assistance, returned he
could find no sign of vehicle, coachman,
or passengers. At last the castaways were
discovered, but it was impossible to move
the coach. The passengers aud ooach-
man got with extreme difficulty TO Clay
ton, seven miles from Brighton, on foot,
while the guard, with the mail-b bags slung
across his back. set of on horseback for
London, but did not get there until Tues
day night late Fifty hours between
Brighton and London! The misery in
volved in these words, anu the concomi-
tant exposure to the weather, hunger and
extremity of cold, can scarcely be realiz-
ed by first class pesGsAgers in the after
noon Brighton express, who grumble be-
Jond measure if even an hour and half
is spent by them in passing from London
Bridge to Preston station, where tickets
are collected before tho "Queen of Water
ing Places" invites them to her reinvigor.
Hsing breezes and spacious esplanades