1-158-689 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

'The Last of the Coaches', c1840. The Royal Mail coach service, begun in the 1780s, flourished until the coming of the railways in 1830. It was not long before mail was being carried by the cheaper and faster railway network and the coaches were phased out. This picture shows the London to Louth, Lincolnshire, coach being loaded onto the railway and the four horses which would have drawn it being taken away.