to
great prominence in 1903. The Postmaster-General was appealed to on the
subject, and the phantom of the old Bristol and Portsmouth mail coach
was conjured up to form a comparison detrimental to present-day
arrangements. The discussion recalls somewhat vividly the mail coach
traditions of the pre-railway period, and certainly the community of
to-day has, at all events, fallen on better times as regards security of
the mails, if not better night mail services. In the General Post Office
letter in Lombard Street, 26th April, 1720, this note appears:--"The
Bristol Mail was again robbed yesterday, in the same place as on Friday,
by one highwayman."

_Mist's Journal_ of Apl. 30, 1720, states:--"Last week the Oxford Stage
Coach was robbed between Uxbridge and London, by the same highwaymen as
is supposed who robbed the Bristol Mail, one of them having a scar on
his forehead."

"A man lately taken up near Maidenhead Thicket, and charged with robbing
the Cirencester Stage Coach, has been examined by a Justice of the
Peace, who has committed him to Reading Gaol. He is said to be a
butcher's son of Thame, in Oxfordshire."

The following particulars relate to a Bristol mail coach robbery in
1721. They were taken from a pamphlet written by Wilson, who was one of
the highwaymen therein alluded to, and saved his neck by informing.
Wilson was a person of education, but some of his statements were
questionable. The pamphlet was full of moral reflections upon the evils
of bad company, gambling, &c.; it ran through several editions, so it
was no doubt popular. It will be interesting as indicating the
difficulties attending the Bristol mail services of the period, and that
death was the penalty for robbing his Majesty's mails. It runs thus in
the heading:--

"A full and impartial account of all the robberies committed by John
Hawkins, George Sympson (lately executed for robbing the Bristol mails),
and their companions. Written by Ralph Wilson, late one of their
confederates. London: Printed for J. Poole at the Lockes Head in
Paternoster Row. Price 6d."

The following is an abbreviation of the contents so far as they relate
to the Bristol mails:--

John Hawkins was the son of poor but honest parents. His father was a
farmer, and lived at Staines, Middlesex. Had a slender education. At 14
he waited on a gentleman, then was a tapster's boy at the Red Lion, at
Brentford; got into service again, was butler to Sir Dennis Daltry; took