_How militant parochial patriots may be the writer already knows. You may criticise the British Empire and prophesy its downfall if you feel that way inclined, and welcome; but it is the Unpardonable Sin to say that Little Pedlington is anything less than the cleanest, the neatest, and the busiest for its size of all the Sweet Auburns in the land! Has not the writer been promised a bad quarter of an hour by the local press, should he revisit Crayford, after writing of that uncleanly place in the_ DOVER ROAD? _and have the good folks of Chard still kept the tar and feathers in readiness for him who, daring greatly, presumed to say the place was so quiet that when the stranger appeared in its streets every head was out of doors and windows?_ _Point of view is everything. The stranger finds a place charming because everything in it is old, and quiet reigns supreme. Quietude and antiquity, how eminently desirable and delightful when found, he thinks. Not so the dweller in such a spot. He would welcome as a benefactor any one who would rebuild his house in modern style, and would behold with satisfaction the traffic of Cheapside thronging the grass-grown market-place._ _No brief is held for such an one in these pages, nor is it likely that the professional antiquary will find in them anything not already known to him. The book, like all its predecessors, and like those that are to follow it, is intended for those who journey down the roads either in person or in imagination, and to their judgment it is left. In conclusion, let me acknowledge the valuable information with regard to Wiltshire afforded me by Cecil Simpson, Esq., than whom no one knows the county better._ CHARLES G. HARPER. PETERSHAM, SURREY, _October 1899_. [Illustration: _List of Illustrations_] SEPARATE PLATES PAGE 1. THE LIONESS ATTACKING THE EXETER MAIL, ‘WINTERSLOW HUT.’ (_After James Pollard_) Frontispiece. 2. THE ‘COMET’ 13 3. THE ‘REGULATOR’ ON HARTFORD BRIDGE FLATS 19 4. THE ‘QUICKSILVER’ MAIL:--‘STOP, COACHMAN, I HAVE LOST MY HAT AND WIG’ 23 5. THE WEST COUNTRY MAILS STARTING FROM THE GLOUCESTER COFFEE HOUSE, PICCADILLY. (_After James Pollard_) 35 6. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S STATUE 39 7. THE WELLINGTON ARCH AND HYDE PARK CORNER, 1851 41 8. ST. GEORGE’S HOSPITAL, AND THE ROAD TO PIMLICO, 1780 43 9. KNIGHTSBRIDGE TOLL-GATE, 1854 45 10. KNIGHTSBRIDGE BARRACKS TOLL-GATE 49 11. BRENTFORD 57