Fortunately the keeper
of the first gate was on the look-out, and he was horrified when he saw
the horses coming at their usual great speed without Sandy the driver;
he immediately closed the gate, and, with the aid of the brave woman,
who had recovered the reins, the horses were brought to a dead stop at
the gate, Mr. Sandy arriving a few minutes afterwards. The last run of
this coach was in 1862, about nine years before our visit, and there was
rather a pathetic scene on that occasion. We afterwards obtained from
one of Mr. Elder's ten children a cutting from an old newspaper she had
carefully preserved, a copy of which is as follows:
Mr. Elder, the Landlord of the "Cross Keys Hotel," was the last of
the Border Royal Mail Coach Drivers and was familiarly known as
"Sandy," and for ten years was known as the driver of the coach
between Hawick and Carlisle. When the railway started and gave the
death-blow to his calling, he left the seat of the stage coach, and
invested his savings in the cosy hostelry of the road-side type
immortalised by Scott in his "Young Lochinvar." He told of the time
when he did duty on the stage coach for Dukes, Earls, and Lords, and
aided run-a-way couples to reach the "blacksmith" at Gretna Green.
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