CHAPTER XIII 1854-1857 DURING the Long Vacations of 1854 and 1855, I was at home ; and as I had my pony I was wont to ride about the county visiting all parts of Dartmoor, and seeing the churches, of which I drew to scale the carved oak or stone pulpits, and the screens that were so abundant in the county, though, alas, since that date several of the latter have disappeared. The mail coach from London to Falmouth and back was called the " Quicksilver." The stages on an average were eight miles, and the horses, four-in-hand, went at a gallop. The guard, who sat behind, wore the royal livery of scarlet, and always had a blunderbuss handy, in case of an attempt by " scamps-men " i.e. highway-men, to hold up the coach. He was furnished as well with a horn which he played lustily as he approached or drove through town or village. The " Quicksilver " was never held up. But I recall hearing of a case that occurred on the road between Exeter and Teign-mouth, on which occasion the mail-bags were taken, and were found cut open in a gravel-pit. My grandfather had been wont to drive to Exeter and put up at the " White Lion," kept by a man whose daughter had married one James Lawless, a character, who, in his father-in-law's time, had driven the mail, and who contracted for the coach-horses along the London and Falmouth road. He had some forty horses in his stables at Exeter, and along the road. My grandfather always carried pistols in the back of the carriage where they could be reached at a moment's alarm, and it was only when my father succeeded to the estate that this custom of arming the carriage was abandoned. As Lawless belonged to a condition of life and manner now 236
