Produced by Chris Curnow, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is shown within _underscores_; boldface text is shown within =equals signs=. Other notes will be found at the end of the text. STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR =The Brighton Road=: Old Times and New on a Classic Highway. =The Portsmouth Road=, and its Tributaries: To-day and in Days of Old. =The Dover Road=: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. =The Bath Road=: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old Highway. =The Exeter Road=: The Story of the West of England Highway. =The Great North Road=: The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols. =The Norwich Road=: An East Anglian Highway. =The Holyhead Road=: The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols. =The Cambridge, Ely, and King’s Lynn Road=: The Great Fenland Highway. =Cycle Rides Round London.= =The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road=: Two Vols. [_In the Press._ [Illustration: THE MAIDENHEAD AND MARLOW POST-COACH, 1782. _From a contemporary painting._ ] STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE _A PICTURESQUE HISTORY OF THE COACHING AGE_ VOL. I BY CHARLES G. HARPER [Illustration] _Illustrated from Old-Time Prints and Pictures_ LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED 1903 _All rights reserved_ PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY. [Illustration: PREFACE] _“Hang up my old whip over the fireplace,” said Harry Littler, of the Southampton “Telegraph,” when the London and Southampton Railway was opened, in 1833,--“I shan’t want it never no more”: and he fell ill, turned his face to the wall, and died._