CHAPTER XV.

GUARDS.

The guard of the olden day was generally exceedingly quick in putting on the skid and taking it off, which with fast coaches travelling hilly roads, before the patent break was in use, was of first-rate importance. Most of them were able to do the former without entirely stopping the coach, but only a very few could unskid without the coachman pulling up and backing his horses. It required a man of unusual strength and activity to unskid whilst the coach was in motion, as it was necessary for him to twist the wheel back out of the pan with the right hand, and at the same moment to seize the chain with the left, and hang it to the hook on the coach, and these skid-pans were not a very light weight.

Probably few of my readers will know the manner in which wheels were dragged in a frost, therefore I will try and explain it here. It is manifest that the usual way of doing it would have been not only useless, but absolutely mischievous, as it would have had a tendency to pull the hind part of the coach into the side of the road when it was slippery. The method adopted, therefore, was to tie a strong chain round the felloe of the wheel, in such a position that it pressed upon the ground and broke up the surface sufficiently to get a good hold on it. This chain was then fastened to the safety hook.

Guards were frequently obliged to work very long hours, as it was usually the case that, on coaches running long distances, one of them would cover the ground driven over by four coachmen. In severe weather this was naturally very trying, consequently, they did not work every day. For instance, the "Wonder," from Shrewsbury to London, a distance of one hundred and fifty-four miles, had three guards, each of whom worked two double journeys and then rested for one. The object of these men going the whole journey no doubt was that there should be no break in the parcel department, which might have caused delay or loss.

Talking of the "Wonder" reminds me that, fast as it travelled, the proprietors had intended doing better. The late Mr. Taylor, who horsed it out of Shrewsbury, told me that it had been in contemplation to expedite it so as to perform the journey in thirteen hours instead of sixteen, and that, to enable this pace to be kept up, the stages would have been limited to six miles each, and the coach was not to stop to pick up passengers, or for any other business, except at the changes. This idea, however, was abandoned when it was seen that the railways would certainly obtain possession of the traffic.

I question whether the public would have been satisfied with the proposed arrangement. They would have complained very much of being obliged to go two or three miles to get on to the coach when it passed their own doors. But really that part of the plan was hardly necessary. Horsed as the "Wonder" was, and travelling over such a first-rate road, it would not have puzzled it much to do twelve miles an hour; but then every stage exceeding seven miles must have been divided.

Some guards were quite natty with their parcels and luggage. I was one day, when driving the Aberystwith and Shrewsbury mail, amused with Jem Large, who was one of the guards on it at the time, and perhaps the best to get a coach through a country that I ever drove. He had, as usual, before leaving Shrewsbury, packed the front boot so carefully that he could lay his hand upon everything in it even in the dark. When, however, the mail arrived at Welshpool, it was found necessary to change the coach, and as Jem was occupied with Post-office business, he was unable to attend to the front boot, and, consequently, what he had placed at the top of one was promptly consigned to the bottom of the other. When we reached Caersws a passenger left us, and Jem opened the boot to take out his portmanteau; but what did he see? Instead of what he wanted being at the top, it was now at the bottom, and with many groans and anathemas he began to dive in pursuit of it, and as he disappeared further and further the language which I heard from under my feet became more and more pointed, till at last it became quite unparliamentary, even for the present day.

The situation of guard was a very responsible one also in a pecuniary point of view, as he had the power of defrauding his employer to a very considerable extent, and the temptation to do so was enhanced by the pace the coach travelled at; more especially was this the case when the opposition was keen, and I fear it was sometimes too strong to be resisted.

To obviate this he always carried with him a "way-bill," and the theory was that it was compared by the book-keeper with the number of passengers on the coach at each stage. It often happened, however, that by the time the parcels had been given in and compared with the way-bill, the horses were changed and the coach was off again without the passengers having been counted, and thus having afforded opportunities for what was called "shouldering," that is, pocketing a passenger's fare, or "swallowing him," as it was sometimes denominated.

Everything had to be done at the "change," as there was no convenience for the guard to go over his parcels, as is done in a van on the railways. By the bye, I wonder what John Ash would have thought of himself if he had got down from the back of the "Wonder" with a pencil behind his ear?

To a certain extent, what were termed "shorts" were allowed, as it was customary for all passengers' fares not exceeding two shillings to be the perquisite of the coachman and guard on coaches, and of the latter only on mails, as he was the servant of the proprietors, carrying the way-bill and having charge of the parcels. The Post-office guard was occupied with his bags; but his was a rather anomalous position, receiving only the munificent sum of ten shillings and sixpence a week from the Post-Office, and being supposed to eke out a living by fees from the passengers, to whom he had little or no time to attend. Of quite late years, however, this was corrected, and the few who were then employed were more liberally dealt with. They received as much as seventy pounds a year from the Post-Office; but then they were not supposed to take fees from the passengers, or, at any rate, not to ask for them. So much was this system of "shorts" an acknowledged thing, that I have had two shillings handed to me by the book-keeper as I was getting on to my box, with the following remark, "I took it from him, thinking he might fork out something more when he gets down." These perquisites, however, were not altogether untaxed, as coachmen were expected to subsidize the wages of the horse-keepers to the amount of one shilling a week, and sometimes more.

Talking of parcels brings to my mind a rather comical scene I once witnessed. It so happened that one day I came across one of the "Tourist" coaches, running between Caernarvon and Dolgelly, which had pulled up at a wayside inn about thirteen miles from Tan-y-bwlch. I was attracted by the coachman, whose name was, if I recollect rightly, Roberts, intently studying the address on a small parcel. It evidently caused him great trouble to decipher it, as he first turned it up, and then he turned it down, but neither right side up nor wrong side up could he satisfy himself, and, at last, looking up and seeing me, he came for assistance out of his difficulties, saying he was not a very good scholar. When I looked at the address, I said, "You should have left this at Tan-y-bwlch." "Well, dear me," said he, "that was a bad job; indeed, it is doctor's stuff."