Mr. John Palmer’s[24] “diligences” were put upon the road in 1783, and with these the proprietor laid the first crude foundation of the mail service. The ordinary post was carried by boys on horseback and was both slow and uncertain owing to the poor quality of the horses, the badness of the roads and not least to the untrustworthiness of the boys. Every letter for which expedition was necessary was now sent by diligences where they were established, and they ran from nearly all the towns in the kingdom to London and between many of the principal towns. Postage by these was very expensive: a letter by the ordinary post from Bath to London cost fourpence, whereas it cost two shillings for “booking, carriage and porterage” if sent by diligence. The greater speed and safety were the inducements to use the diligence for important letters, as on the stage coaches both guard and coachman were well armed; the former sat on the box with the driver, and, says a writer of the time, “always sat with his carbine cocked on his knees.” [24] The story of John Palmer’s work in connection with the postal service, may be read in Joyce’s _History of the Post Office_ (1893), and in many histories and other works dealing with Bath. Palmer became Member of Parliament for Bath in 1801. The conveyance of letters by diligence or “coach diligence” from Bath, where Mr. Palmer resided, to London was an experiment on the success of which that gentleman depended largely in his battle with the officials of Parliament and Parliamentary Committees when he sought to bring about change in the method of carrying letters. For a considerable time those in authority refused to admit the possibility of a coach travelling from Bath to London, 108 miles, in eighteen hours; but after a hard struggle Mr. Palmer triumphed, and the first mail coach ran from Bristol to London on August 2, 1784. Six miles an hour had been promised, but the journey, 117 miles, was performed in seventeen hours, or at a rate of nearly seven miles an hour, about double the speed of the mounted post-boy. [Illustration: JOHN PALMER. (_From a portrait in the possession of Henry G. Archer, Esq._)] 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.