were timed to leave London at 8 p.m., and arrive
at Liverpool and Manchester at 2.30 p.m. On the up journey the coaches
left Manchester and Liverpool at 11.30 a.m., and reached London at 6.30
a.m.

The conveyance of the mail partly by road and partly by rail came into
operation on the Western road from 1838 to 1841 as section by section of
the Great Western Railway became completed. Thus, in 1840, mails which
had come by road between Maidenhead and Bath were brought into Bristol
by trains composed of very primitive engines, tenders and coaches, as
depicted in the illustrations taken from engravings of the period.

Mr. J.W. Arrowsmith, the world-wide known Bristol Publisher, recently
reprinted Arrowsmith's Railway Guide of 1854, the year of its first
issue. It is interesting to note from the re-publication that the
shortest time in which Mails and passengers were conveyed between London
and Plymouth was 7 hours, 25 minutes, and between Plymouth and London 7
hours, 35 minutes. What a change a half-century has brought about! The
pace of the trains has been vastly increased, and even goods trains
accomplish the journey from London to Bristol in three hours. There is
no such thing as finality in speed, as the Great Western Railway Company
has been trying a French engine, with a view to beat all previous
records. One of these engines was tried in France with the equivalent of
fifteen loaded coaches behind it. It was brought to a dead stop on a
steep incline, and when started again it gathered speed, so that before
the summit was reached it was travelling at its normal speed--74.6 miles
an hour.

This new engine, "La France," recently accomplished a brilliant feat.
She was started from Exeter with a load of twelve of the largest
corridor-bogies, one being a "diner," the whole weight behind her
tender, including passengers, staff, luggage, and stores, being nearly
330 tons. "La France" ran the 75-1/2 miles to Temple Meads Station,
Bristol, in 72-1/2 minutes, start to stop, thus averaging 62.5 miles an
hour, although she had to face a 20-mile climb at the start, the last 27
miles of this stretch being at 1 in 115. She went on from Bristol to
London, 118-1/2 miles, with the same heavy load, in exactly 118 minutes.
Her time from Bath to Paddington, 107 miles, was 104 minutes; from
Swindon, 77-1/4 miles, 72 minutes; from Reading, 36 miles, 33 minutes.

A good performance in long distance railway running was established by
the