A good performance in long distance railway running was established by the Great Western Railway Company in connection with the visit in 1903 of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Cornwall. Their Royal Highnesses left Paddington in a special division of the Cornishman at 10.40 a.m., the train being timed to do the non-stop run to North Road, Plymouth, a distance of 245 miles, in four hours and a half. This time was, however, reduced to the extent of 36-1/4 min., the train steaming into North Road at 33-3/4 minutes past 2 o'clock. The train covered during the first hour's run 67-3/4 miles, the average speed for the whole journey to Plymouth being 1.049 miles per minute. The journey was performed in about half the time occupied in 1854. [Illustration: [_By permission of "Great Western Railway Magazine."_ "LA FRANCE"--POWERFUL NEW GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY ENGINE.] The up train, which runs from Bristol to London in exactly two hours, via Badminton, is matched by a down train in the same time by the easier but slightly longer main line (_via_ Bath), giving a start-to-stop speed of 59-1/8 miles an hour, with a dead slow through Bath Station. But to Bath, where a coach is slipped, the inclusive speed is 60 miles an hour, as the distance is 107 miles (all but 10 chains), and the time from Paddington, 1 hr. 47 min. This is by the 10.50 a.m. "Cornishman," and is said to be the first Great Western train ever booked at a mile a minute, and the first train on any London Railway even "scheduled" at that speed. In connection with the Mail Services between the Metropolis and Bristol, the "Gate of the West," it may be appropriate here to mention the recent arbitration case between the Great Western Railway Company and H.M. Postmaster-General in regard to remuneration for conveyance of Mails. The Company, dissatisfied with the payment of £115,000 a year under their contract of 1885, subsequently raised by small additions, from time to time, to £126,000 a year, brought their case before the Railway Commissioners, who awarded £135,855 a year from the 1st July, 1902. This amount covered the provision of a new postal train in each direction between London and Penzance. It was Sir Frederick Peel who delivered the judgment of the Court. CHAPTER XII. PRIMITIVE POST OFFICE.--FIFTH CLAUSE POSTS.--MAIL CART IN A RHINE.--EFFECT OF GALES ON POST AND TELEGRAPH SERVICE. The Bristol Postal District, stretching from the Severn banks beyond Oldbury-on-Severn to a point near Bath, and thence straight across to the Bristol Channel again, consists of ground within the City and County of Bristol, and the Counties of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. The border of Wiltshire is touched near Dyrham and Badminton, and the district is separated from Monmouthshire by the estuary of the River Severn. [Illustration: HORTON THATCHED POST OFFICE AT THE FOOT OF COTSWALD HILLS.]