Cheers guys. Still sifting through all the bits and pieces I've discovered.
The 1830's were the peak time for the horse drawn coaches. Moonbeam's relative would be looking for another job pretty soon afterwards. New steam-powered technology in manufacturing and transportation was changing the world a bit like our digital revolution is doing today.
The early guards on the mail coaches were armed with “two short guns or blunderbusses”.
The formal organisation of the long distance mail coaches goes all the way back to the 1780's, credited to John Palmer, Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office.
In 1789, Palmer was presented with 50 guineas by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce for a silver plate, in gratitude for his improved design for the carriages used for the London mail coach which could then achieve "brain addling" speeds of six to seven miles an hour!
Here is a comparison of the speeds in 1788 and in 1837 when Queen Victoria came to the throne. In the space of a whole human lifetime the average speed had gone up all the way from 6mph to 9mph!
In 1812 the cost of a journey for a gentleman travelling from London to Glasgow was £10.8s, exclusive of tips to coachmen and guards and the cost of food, drink and overnight accommodation. The fare for his manservant travelling on the outside was £6.5s. The total cost was £19.10s, excluding the expense of 3 overnight stops at roadside inns.
In 1837 passengers on the the more efficient Glasgow to London mail coaches were charged nearer £40 for the journey.
That year marked the beginning of the end for the stage-coaches to and from London, when on 20th July 1837 the London & Birmingham Railway opened from Euston to Boxmoor, near Hemel Hempstead, creating one of London's earliest commuter suburbs.
Britain's mail coach mileage peaked at 6,643,217miles in 1837. There was a steady year-by-year decrease as the railway network was developed.