se of historical record, subjoined is a picture of the first
Motor vehicle used (1904-1905) in Bristol for the rapid transport of His
Majesty's Mails by road. No doubt, in process of time, this handy little
5-horse power car, built to a Bristol Post Office design, to carry loads
of 3-1/2 cwt., and constructed by the Avon Motor Company, Keynsham, near
Bristol, will have numerous fellow cars darting about in the roads and
crowded thoroughfares of Bristol for the collection of letters and
parcels in conjunction with larger cars of higher horse power to do the
heavy station traffic and country road work.

Still, little "Mercury" will have the credit of being the pioneer car in
the Bristol Post Office Service. During its trials the car did really
useful service, and did not once break down.

[Illustration: THE "AVON" TRIMOBILE, USED BY THE BRISTOL POST OFFICE.]

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BUSH TAVERN, BRISTOL'S FAMOUS COACHING INN, AND JOHN WEEKS, ITS
WORTHY BONIFACE, 1775-1819.--THE WHITE LION COACHING HOUSE, BRISTOL.
ISAAC NIBLETT.--THE WHITE HART, BATH.

It appears that John Weeks was landlord of the Bush Tavern, Bristol,
from 1775 to 1801, and continued to be a coach proprietor until 1806. In
the Eastern cloister of Bristol Cathedral there is a mural tablet
erected to his memory, with a well-executed medallion portrait of him in
profile, with inscription as shown in the illustration.

Verger Sproule, of old time, who was born in the first year of the
nineteenth century, once told Mr. Morgan, present senior lay clerk, that
he well remembered John Weeks, and that the portrait on the tablet was
an excellent likeness of him.

In "Mornings at Matlock," by Robey Skelton Mackenzie, D.C.L., author of
"Titian: an Art Novel" (London, Henry Colburn, publisher, 1850), a book
which contains a collection of twenty-six short stories supposed to have
been told by people stopping at Matlock, there is an interesting story
relating to what was known as the Bush Guinea. Briefly told, Dr.
Mackenzie's Bush Guinea story runs thus:--"It was the delight of this
Boniface (John Weeks) on every Christmas Day, to cover the great table
with a glorious load of roast beef and plum pudding, flanked most
plenteously with double home-brewed of such mighty strength and glorious
flavour that we might well have called it malt wine rather than malt
liquor. At this table on that day every one who pleased was welcome to
sit down and feast. Many to whom a