sgate Street, and White Bear,
Piccadilly; the Cambridge "Telegraph," daily, the Red Lion, Royston,
and the White Horse, Fetter Lane; the "Rocket," daily, the Bull,
Royston, and White Horse, Fetter Lane; the "Wisbeach," daily, the Bull
Hotel, Royston, and Belle Sauvage and Golden Cross, London; the
"Stamford," up and down alternate days, the Crown, Royston, and the
Bell and Crown, Holborn; the "Wellington," from York, the Queen
Victoria, Royston (now the Coffee Tavern), and the Bull and Mouth,
London; the "Rapid," daily (including Sunday), the Red Lion, Royston;
Edinburgh and York mail and the Cambridge mail, daily, the Red Lion,
Royston, for the General Post Office, London.

The times at which these coaches arrived at Royston followed in fairly
consecutive order like a railway time table--thus of the up coaches the
"Star," 8.20 a.m., "Beehive," 11.30, and so on up to the "Rocket," at
4.30, while the Edinburgh and Cambridge Mails passed through at 1 and 2
in the morning; the return journeys were of course chiefly towards the
evening. The usual time from Royston to London was 44 hours, excepting
the York mail, in the night time, which reached the General Post Office
within four hours after leaving the Red Lion, at Royston.

One of the coaches in the above list, the "Star," naturally leads one
from coaches to coachmen. I am not aware who was the driver of the
"Tally-ho," but of the rival coach, the "Safety," the driver was Joe
Walton, the driver of the "Star" at the later date mentioned above, a
famous coachman in his day who lived to see, and curse from {149} his
box that "iron horse," which was destined to break up the traditions of
the road.

It was the general testimony of those who had ridden behind him, or
beside him on the box, that Joe Walton had few superiors on the road as
a driver of a stage coach, especially for the manner in which he would
handle his "cattle," and pull his coach through the streets of the
Metropolis. He was, however, daring to a fault, but a strong will and
an iron nerve could only have enabled him to carry that heavy handful
of reins for ten hours at a stretch--fifty miles up and fifty miles
back on the same day, all through the season. This was no child's play!

He was a driver who was not easily turned aside by difficulties or
obstacles in the way, and has been known to conduct his coach across
"hedges and ditches" when snow blocked up the highways. The firm grip
of his position wa