coach, it will be in London as soon.” How sweet a sop for lazy travellers, none too eager to rise, and how bitter the taunt to the old firm! It is not to be supposed that they tamely submitted to this impudence. Their reply was soon forthcoming. It stated that the proprietors of the “original London and Salop Machine,” in the modern taste, on steel springs (the Machine, not the proprietors) and bows on the top, called upon all travellers to observe “that the road through Coventry, being several miles nearer than through Oxford, will fully demonstrate the most speedy conveyance to London.” The “bows on the top” were seats for the outsides, who, if carried before, must have been accommodated in the “basket,” a wicker-work structure, hung on behind. Unfortunately for the “original,” it had very determined competitors to deal with. Its business suffered, just as, thirteen years before, it had come upon the scene and cut up the trade of the “Long Coach” and Fowler’s “Shrewsbury Stage.” [Illustration: WYLE COP AND THE “LION”] The rivals even put on another conveyance, the “Diligence” they called it, conveying three passengers at the express speed of Shrewsbury to London in one day, at £1 11_s._ 6_d._ each. This startling innovation was announced to go three times a week. There were thus in 1776 three modes of getting to London. Rivalry, however, had outrun custom, and discretion had far out-distanced both. The “Original” slipped back to a two days’ journey, twice a week, the “Fly” dropped one weekly journey during the winter, and the “Diligence” soon ceased to run at all. But Robert Lawrence, the landlord of the “Raven and Bell,” and partner in the newer coaching enterprises with Payton, of Stratford-on-Avon, was a remarkable man. Given a wider sphere of action, there is no knowing to what greatness he might have developed. As it was, he did much for Shrewsbury in his time, and greatly influenced the traffic along the Holyhead Road, from end to end. The route had until then been invariably by way of Chester; but the casual inspection of any map will soon show that that city lies at a considerable distance to the north of a direct line drawn from London to Holyhead, and that Shrewsbury is placed much more centrally. It occurred to Lawrence that the difficulties and dangers of the route by what we now call the Holyhead Road, _viâ_ Llangollen and Capel Curig, were much exaggerated, and that time might be saved and the dangerous ferry (as it then was) of Conway missed by avoiding Chester altogether. In that case Shrewsbury would regain much of the trade that belonged to it by virtue of its geographical position.