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Thomas Hardy’s Mail Coach Ruse

Henry Kentfield (also recorded as Kenfield) was a guard on the mail coach which ran from Dorchester to London back in the 1830s. As a defence against highwaymen, he carried a blunderbus, two pistols and a cutlass in a long tin box in front of him. Both post and passengers were carried and horses were changed every ten or so miles. He would have been the sole Post Office employee onboard as the driver would have been provided by a contractor. To ensure the driver kept strictly to the schedule, the guard carried a locked timepiece regulated to London time.  Kentfield would blow his horn at every place where a mail bag was to be collected. Dressed in his red frock coat uniform with blue flaps to the pockets and a blue collar, he had a sideline hustle which was a nice little earner. In collusion with the coachman, with the route passing through Blandford and Salisbury, he would take packages to the capital on his own account.

He used to have eggs and butter brought to him by old dairyman, Hedditch and game which he bought from poachers. All would be packed into a hamper which would be collected from John Downton, a youth Kentfield employed. This would take place at a brief stop a couple of miles after leaving Dorchester. All the provisions were put in the boot of the coach with the mail bags under the seat where the guard was sitting. On the return journey without stopping, Kentfield would throw the empty hamper down at the same place to be collected by the youth.

In bad weather, Kentfield would drink mulled wine to keep warm and wear an old greatcoat over his red uniform. Apparently he was a heavy drinker and upon retirement as a mail coach guard, he took on the appropriately named Coach and Snow Inn in Dorchester.

Dorchester Innkeeper Henry Kentfield died in 1836 at the age of just 36 years. He was survived by his wife Susannah and was from the hamlet of High Bockhampton. This is the same hamlet where author Thomas Hardy was born. Kentfield’s colourful life was recorded in Hardy’s personal notebooks. Designed to prevent corruption, the job of mail coach guard offered the prospect of a pension. In Henry Kentfield’s case this policy was ineffective!

(Source: Thomas Hardy’s Picture of English Country Life (1987) edited by Joanna Cullen Brown.)
 



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