February 11, 1808

A great snow storm. The coaches which should have arrived on Friday did not reach Norwich until the following Tuesday and Wednesday.

“The mail guards were obliged to traverse the country with the bags on their shoulders, sometimes on foot, up to their breasts in snow and sometimes on horseback, across the open fields and heaths. Labourers were employed in clearing the highways, and in some places they cut three miles through the snow. So complete an obstruction to communication had not occurred since 1797, when the coaches were four days performing the journey from London.”