These prime facts grasped, Lawrence set himself to alter the course that traffic had taken for centuries, and devoted his life to this one aim. It was, as may readily be supposed, no easy matter, and he was obliged to begin his reforms slowly. Thus, on July 3rd, 1779, we find him setting up a post-coach to Holyhead by Wrexham, Mold, St. Asaph, and Conway, three times a week, and in one and a half days, in conjunction with other innkeepers. The fare was £2 2_s._ This ceased in 1783, but in the meanwhile, in conjunction with some London innkeepers, he had started the first stage-coach to perform the whole journey between London and Holyhead. This was established in May, 1780, going through Coventry, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Llangollen, Corwen, Llanrwst, and Conway. In November of that year Lawrence removed from the “Raven and Bell” to the “Lion,” next door, a larger house, and announced his determination to pursue with unremitting industry the object he had in view, of securing the Chester traffic for Shrewsbury. This bold pronouncement roused the Chester proprietors and the innkeepers along that route to fury. They threatened Payton with opposition to his Birmingham, Oxford, and London coaches if he did not break his connection with Lawrence, and when Payton declined to listen to them, established themselves as a confederacy at the “Raven and Bell,” just vacated by his partner, and put the “Defiance” coach on the road to London, by Worcester. Lawrence, in his turn, perhaps somewhat alarmed by the storm he had raised, issued an advertisement, thanking the public for their patronage, and entreating further support in his attempts to open up a direct road to Holyhead. Without this encouragement, he said, “several years’ labour and great expense he has been at (together with the great advantage to the town of Shrewsbury) would be entirely lost.”