This time-bill, quoted by Mr. Stanley Harris in his "Coaching Age," is dated April 1841, and shows, by a side-light, the innate conservatism of all Government institutions. At that time the London and South-Western Railway--then called the London and Southampton--had been opened eleven months, with a station at Portsmouth and a London terminus at Nine Elms, yet her Majesty's mails still went by road, and at a pace scarcely equalled for slowness among all the coaches of England. Nine hours and ten minutes taken, at this late period, in journeying between London and Portsmouth! Why, the Jehus of the Bath and Exeter Roads, the drivers of the "Quicksilver" and the "Regulator," even, would have scorned this jog-trot. The present generation, which knows less of coaching times than of the Wars of the Roses or any other equally far-removed period, will be puzzled over the references to clocks and time-pieces in the bill printed above. These time-pieces were served out at the General Post Office to all mail-coaches. They were wound up and set going in correct time, and, enclosed in a securely-fastened box to prevent its being tampered with, one was handed to the guard of each mail leaving London. By means of his time-piece the guard could check the progress of the mail, and could hurry up the driver on an occasion. It was the guard's duty to deliver up his time-piece on arrival at his destination, when the time shown by it was entered by the postmaster, and any late arrivals notified to the Postmaster-General. [Sidenote: _REVIVALS_]