ffs (uriosifies REESE LIBRARY * NIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. JUN 14 1893 No. THE ROYAL MAIL / w.t- c c USybj^. ^ fssiiy THE ROYAL MAIL ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE BY JAMES WILSON HYDE i SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH THIKD EDITION LONDON SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. MDCCCLXXXIX. NOTE. It is of melancholy interest that Mr Fawcett's death occurred within a month from the date on which he accepted the following Dedication, and before the issue of the Work. TO i THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY FAWCETT, M.P. HER MAJESTY'S POSTMASTER-GENERAL, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. E second edition of ' The Eoyal Mail ' having been sold out some eighteen months ago, and being still in demand, the Author has arranged for the publication of a further edition. Some additional particulars of an interest- ing kind have been incorporated in the work; and these, together with a number of fresh illustrations, should render ' The Royal Mail ' still more attractive than hitherto. The modern statistics have not been brought down to date; and it will be understood that these, and other matters (such as the circulation of letters), which are sub- ject to change, remain in the work as set forth in the first edition. EDINBURGH, February 1889. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. fTIHE favour with which 'The Royal Mail' has been -*- received by the public, as evinced by the rapid sale of the first issue, has induced the Author to arrange for the publication of a second edition. This edition has been revised and slightly enlarged ; the new matter consisting of two additional illustrations, contributions to the chapters on " Mail Packets," " How Letters are Lost," and " Singular Coincidences," and a fresh chapter on the subject of Postmasters. The Author ventures to hope that the generous appre- ciation which has been accorded to the first edition may be extended to the work in its revised form. EDINBURGH, June 1885. INTRODUCTION. OF all institutions of modern times, there is, perhaps, none so pre-eminently a people's institution as is the Post-office. Not only does it carry letters and newspapers everywhere, both within and without the kingdom, but it is the transmitter of messages by telegraph, a vast banker for the savings of the working classes, an insurer of lives, a carrier of parcels, and a distributor of various kinds of Government licences. Its services are claimed exclusively or mainly by no one class; the rich, the poor, the educated, and the illiterate, and indeed, the young as well as the old, all have dealings with the Post-office. Yet it may seem strange that an institution which is familiar by its operations to all classes alike, should be so little known by its internal management and organisation. A few persons, no doubt, have been privileged to see the interior working of some important Post-office, but it is the bare truth to say that the people know nothing of what goes on within the doors of that ubiquitous establishment. When it is remem- bered that the metropolitan offices of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin have to maintain touch with every petty office and every one of their servants scattered throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland; that discipline has to be X- INTRODUCTION. exercised everywhere; that a system of accounting must necessarily be maintained, reaching to the remotest corners; and that the whole threads have to be gathered up and made answerable to the great head, which is London, some vague idea may be formed of what must come within the view of whoever pretends to a knowledge of Post-office work. But intimately connected with that which was the original work of the Post-office, and is still the main work the conveyance of letters there is the subject of circu- lation, the simple yet complex scheme under which letters flow from each individual centre to every other part of the country. Circulation as a system is the outcome of planning, devising, and scheming by many heads during a long series of years its object, of course, being to bring letters to their destinations in the shortest possible time. So intricate and delicate is the fabric, that by interference an unskilled hand could not fail to produce an effect upon the structure analogous to that which would certainly follow any rude treatment applied to a house built of cards. These various subjects, especially when they have become settled into the routine state, might be considered as afford- ing a poor soil for the growth of anything of interest that is, of curious interest apart from that which duty calls upon a man to find in his proper work. Yet the Post- office is not without its veins of humour, though the metal to be extracted may perhaps be scanty as compared with the vast extent of the mine from which it has to be taken. The compiler of the following pages has held an appoint- ment in the Post-office for a period of twenty-five years the best, perhaps, of his life; and during that term it has been his practice to note and collect facts connected with the Department whenever they appeared of a curious, interesting, or amusing character. While making use of such notes in connection with this work, he has had INTRODUCTION. XI recourse to the Post-office Annual Keports, to old official documents, to books on various subjects, and to newspapers, all of which have been laid under contribution to furnish material for these pages. The work is in no sense a historical work: it deals with the lighter features of a plain, matter-of-fact department; and though some of the incidents mentioned may be deemed of trivial account, they will be found, it is thought, to have at least a curious or amusing side. The author desires to mention that he has received valuable help from several of his brother officers, who have supplied him with facts or anecdotes; and to these, as well as to gentlemen who have lent him books or given him access to files of old newspapers, he expresses his grateful acknowledgments. He also tenders his sincere and respect- ful thanks to the Postmaster-General for permission granted to make extracts from official papers. The Post-office renders an unpretending yet most im- portant service to commerce and to society; and it will be a source of deep gratification to the author if what he has written should inspire in the reader a new and unexpected interest in "the hundred-handed giant who keeps up the intercourse between the different parts of the country, and wafts a sigh from Indus to the Pole." CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. OLD ROADS, . . . . . . . 1 II. POSTBOYS, .11 III. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES, . . . .24 IV. FOOT-POSTS, -. .61 V. MAIL-PACKETS, 68 VI. SHIPWRECKED MAILS, 82 VII. AMOUNT OF WORK, 84 VIII. GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES, . . 95 IX. CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE, . . .104 X. THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, . . .116 XI. SORTERS AND CIRCULATION, . . . .124 XII. PIGEON-POST, . . . . ... 135 XIII. ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, AND OTHER PETTY FRAUDS, ., . . . ; 140 XIV CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGK XIV. STRANGE ADDRESSES, . . . . .153 XV. POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES, . . . .170 XVI. TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDERS, .... 200 XVII. HOW LETTERS ARE LOST, . . 204 XVIII. ODD COMPLAINTS, ...... 239 XIX. CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST- OFFICE, . . . . . . . 245 XX. SINGULAR COINCIDENCES, .... 262 XXI. SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES, .... 269 XXII. REPLIES TO MEDICAL INQUIRIES, . . .275 XXIII. VARIOUS, 277 XXIV. ABOUT POSTMASTERS, 292 XXV. RED TAPE, . . . . . . 303 ILLUSTRATIONS. MAIL-COACH ACCIDENT AT ELVANFOOT, . . Frontispiece CAUTION TO POSTBOYS, Page 18 ROTHBURY AND MORPETH MAIL-DRIVER, . .11 22 EWENNY BRIDGE OUTRAGE NOTICE OF, . n 36 HOLYHEAD AND CHESTER MAILS SNOWED UP NEAR DUNSTABLE 26TH DEC. 1836. (From an old Print), l( 39 DEVONPORT MAIL-COACH FORCING ITS WAY THROUGH A SNOWDRIFT NEAR AMESBURY 27TH DEC. 1836. (From an old Print), . >.i 42 NOCTURNAL REFRESHMENT, . . . . n 55 ST MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND IN THE COACHING DAYS, n 59 'LADY HOBART' MAIL PACKET, . . . M 76 POSTBOY JACK, ...... n 77 STEAMSHIP 'AMERICA,' ... 79 XVI ILLUSTRATIONS. TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, .... Page 117 DELIVERING ARM, SHOWING HOW THE POUCH IS SUSPENDED, M 121 CAUTION AGAINST LETTER CARRYING, . . ?i 147 STRANGE ADDRESSES, (158-169 FALSTAFF AS A HIGHWAYMAN, . . . n 172 GRIZEL COCHRANE AND POSTBOY, . . . it 174 SELBY MAIL-BAG, M 182 LETTER-BOX TAKEN POSSESSION OF BY TOMTITS, M 211 THE MULREADY ENVELOPE, . . . . n 285 INTERIOR OF AN OLD POST-OFFICE, ' . . n 295 THE POSTMISTRESS OF WATFORD, . . . M 299 FORM OF POSTMASTER'S APPOINTMENT, . . n 302 THE ROYAL MAIL CHAPTER I. OLD ROADS. rilHE present generation, who are accustomed to see the -- streets of our cities paved with wood or stone, or other- wise so laid out as to provide a hard and even surface suited to the locomotion of wheeled vehicles, or who by business or pleasure have been led to journey over the principal highways intersecting the kingdom in every direction, can form no idea of the state of the roads in this country during the earlier years of the Post-office or even in times comparatively recent unless their reading has led them to the perusal of accounts written by travellers of the periods we now refer to. The highways of the present day, radiating from London and the other large centres of industry, and extending their arms to every corner of the land, are wellnigh perfect in their kind, and present a picture of careful and efficient maintenance. Whether we look, for example, at the great north road leading from London, the Carlisle to Glasgow road, or the Highland road passing through Dunkeld, we find the roads have certain features in common : a broad hard roadway for vehicles ; a neatly kept footpath where required ; limits strictly defined A 2 THE ROYAL MAIL. by trim hedges, stone walls, or palings ; and means provided for carrying off surface-water. The picture will, of course, vary as the traveller proceeds, flat country alternating with undulating country, and wood or moorland with cultivated fields; but the chief characteristics remain the same, consti- tuting the roads as worthy of the age we live in. How the people managed to get from place to place before the Post-office had a history, or indeed for long after the birth of that institution, it is hard to conceive. Then, the roads were little better than tracks worn out of the surface of the virgin land, proceeding in some cases in a manner approaching to a right line, over hills, down valleys, through forests, and the like ; in others following the natural features of the country, but giving evidence that they had never .been systematically made, being rather the outcome of a mere habit of travel, just as sheep-tracks are produced on a mountain-side. Such roads in winter weather, or in rainy seasons, became terrible to the traveller : yet the only repairs that were vouchsafed consisted in filling up some of the larger holes with rude stones ; and when this method of keeping up repairs no longer availed, another track was formed by bringing under foot a fresh strip of the adjoining land (generally unenclosed), and thus creating a wholly new road in place of the old one. Smiles, in his ' Lives of the Engineers,' thus describes certain of the English roads : " In some of the older settled districts of England, the old roads are still to be traced in the hollow ways or lanes, which are met with, in some places, eight and ten feet deep. Horse- tracks in summer and rivulets in winter, the earth became gradually worn into these deep furrows, many of which in Wilts, Somerset, and Devon, represent the tracks of roads as old as, if not older than, the Conquest." And again : " Similar roads existed until recently in the imme- diate neighbourhood of Birmingham, long the centre of OLD ROADS. 3 considerable traffic. The sandy soil was sawn through, as it were, by generation after generation of human feet, and by pack-horses, helped by the rains, until in some places the tracks were as much as from twelve to fourteen yards deep." In the year 1690, Chancellor Cowper, who was then a barrister on circuit, thus wrote to his wife : " The Sussex ways are bad and ruinous beyond imagination. I vow 'tis melancholy consideration that mankind will inhabit such a heap of dirt for a poor livelihood. The country is a sink of about fourteen miles broad, which receives all the water that falls from two long ranges of hills on both sides of it, and not being furnished with convenient draining, is kept moist and soft by the water till the middle of a dry summer, which is only able to make it tolerable to ride for a short time." In Scotland, about the same time, the roads were no better. The first four miles out of Edinburgh, on the road towards London, were described in the Privy Council Record of 1680 to have been in so wretched a state that passengers were in danger of their lives, " either by their coaches overturning, their horse falling, their carts breaking, their loads casting and horse stumbling, the poor people with the burdens on their backs sorely grieved and dis- couraged ; moreover, strangers do often exclaim thereat." Nor does there appear to have been any considerable improvement in the state of the roads in the northern kingdom for long afterwards, as we find that in 1750, according to Lang's ' Historical Summary of the Post-office in Scotland,' " the channel of the river Gala, which ran for some distance parallel with the road, was, when not flooded, the track chosen as the most level and the easiest to travel in." The common carrier from Edinburgh to Selkirk, a distance of thirty-eight miles, required a fortnight for the journey, going and returning ; and the stage-coach from 4 THE ROYAL MAIL. Edinburgh to Glasgow took a day and a half for the journey. A Yorkshire squire, Thomas Kirke, who travelled in Scotland in 1679, gave a better account of the roads; but his opinion may have been merely relative, for travel- ling showmen to this day prefer the roads in the south of Scotland to those in the north of England, on account of their greater hardness ; and this derives, no doubt, from the more adamantine material used in the repair of the Scotch roads. This traveller wrote : " The highways in Scotland are tolerably good, which is the greatest comfort a traveller meets with amongst them. The Scotch gentry generally travel from one friend's house to another ; so seldom require a change-house (inn). Their way is to hire a horse and a man for twopence a mile ; they ride on the horse thirty or forty miles a-day, and the man who is his guide foots it beside him, and carries his luggage to boot." Another visitor to Scotland in 1702, named Morer, thus describes the roads : " The truth is, the roads will hardly allow these conveniences " (meaning stage-coaches, which did not as yet exist in Scotland), " which is the reason that the gentry, men and women, choose rather to use their horses. How- ever, their great men often travel with coach-and-six, but with so little caution, that, besides their other attendance, they have a lusty running footman on each side of the coach, to manage and keep it up in rough places." 1 It 1 In the north of Scotland a similar account was given of the roads there about the year 1730. The writer of ' Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland' stated that "the Highlands are but little known even to the inhabitants of the low country of Scotland, for they have ever dreaded the difficulties and dangers of travelling among the mountains ; and when some extraordinary occasion has obliged any one of them to such a progress, he has, generally speaking, made his testament before he set out, as though he were entering upon a long and dangerous sea-voyage, wherein it was very doubtful if he should ever return." OLD ROADS. 5 might be supposed that the roads leading from Windsor, where one of the royal residences was, would have been kept in a tolerable state, so as to secure the Sovereign some comfort in travelling. But their condition seems to have been no better than that of roads elsewhere. An account of a journey made in 1703 by Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, from Windsor to Petworth, runs as follows : " The length of way was only forty miles, but fourteen hours were consumed in traversing it ; while almost every mile was signalised by the overturn of a carriage, or its temporary swamping in the mire. Even the royal chariot would have fared no better than the rest had it not been for the relays of peasants who poised and kept it erect by strength of arm, and shouldered it forward the last nine miles, in which tedious operation six good hours were consumed." Yet later still, and in close proximity to London, a royal party had a most unsatisfactory journey, owing to the miserable state of the roads. It happened that in 1727 George II. and Queen Caroline were proceeding from the palace at Kew to that at St James's, when they had to spend a whole night upon the way ; and between Hammersmith and Fulham they were overturned, the royal occupants of the coach being landed in a quagmire. A year or two after this, Lord Hervey wrote that " the road between this place [Kensington] and London is grown so infamously bad, that we live here in the same solitude as we would do if cast on a rock in the middle of the ocean and all the Londoners tell us that there is between them and us an impassable gulf of mud." No part of the country could boast of a satisfactory con- dition of the roads, these being everywhere in the same neglected and wretched state, and travellers who had the 6 THE ROYAL MAIL. misfortune to use them have recorded their ideas on the subject in no gentle terms. Arthur Young, who travelled much in the middle of last century, thus alludes to a road in Essex : "Of all the cursed roads that ever disgraced this kingdom in the very ages of barbarism, none ever equalled that from Billericay to the King's Head at Tilbury. It is for near twelve miles so narrow that a mouse cannot pass by any carriage. I saw a fellow creep under his waggon to assist me to lift, if possible, my chaise over a hedge. To add to all the infamous circumstances which concur to plague a traveller, I must not forget the eternally meeting with chalk-waggons, themselves frequently stuck fast, till a collection of them are in the same situation, and twenty or thirty horses may be tacked to each to draw them out one by one." In a somewhat similar way he describes the road from Bury to Sudbury in Suffolk. Here, he says, " I was forced to move as slow in it as in any unmended lane in Wales. For ponds of liquid dirt, and a scattering of loose flints just sufficient to lame every horse that moves near them, with the addition of cutting vile grips across the road under the pretence of letting the water off, but without effect, altogether render at least twelve out of these sixteen miles as infamous a turnpike as ever was beheld." In one of his journeys, Young proceeded to the north by the great north road, thence making branch trips to the various agricultural districts. Of many of these roads he gives a sorry account. Thus : " To "Wakefield, indifferent ; through the town of Wakefield so bad that it ought to be indicted. To Castle Howard, infamous; I was near being swallowed up in a slough. From Newton to Stokesley in Cleveland, execrably bad. You are obliged to cross the moors they call Black Hambledon, over which the road runs in narrow hollows that admit a south- country chaise with such difficulty, that I reckon this part OLD ROADS. 7 of the journey made at the hazard of my neck. The going down into Cleveland is beyond all description terrible ; for you go through such steep, rough, narrow, rocky preci- pices, that I would sincerely advise any friend to go a hundred miles to escape it. The name of this path is very judicious, Scartkneck that is, Scare-Nick, or frighten the devil. " From Eichmond to Darlington, part of the great north road ; execrably broke into holes like an old pavement, sufficient to dislocate one's bones." " To Morpeth ; a pavement a mile or two out of Kew- castle ; all the rest vile. "To Carlisle; cut up by innumerable little paltry one- horse carts." One more instance from the pen of Young and we leave him. In the course of one of his journeys, he makes his way into Wales, where he finds his bete noire in the roads, and freely expresses himself thereupon in his usual forcible style : " But, my dear sir, what am I to say of the roads in this country 1 the turnpikes, as they have the assurance to call them, and the hardiness to make one pay for ? From Chepstow to the half-way house between Newport and Cardiff they continue mere rocky lanes, full of hugeous stones as big as one's horse, and abominable holes. The first six miles from Newport they were so detestable, and without either direction-posts or milestones, that I could not well persuade myself I was on the turnpike, but had mistook the road, and therefore asked every one I met, who answered me, to my astonishment, ' Ya-as.' "Whatever business carries you into this country, avoid it, at least till they have good roads ; if they were good, travelling would be very pleasant." The necessity for a better class of road cannot but have forced itself upon the Government of the country from time 8 THE ROYAL MAIL. to time, if not for the benefit of travellers and to encourage trade, at any rate to secure a rapid movement of troops in times of disturbance or rebellion ; yet we find the state of streets in the metropolis, and roads in the country, as in 1750, thus described in Blackie's ' Comprehensive History of England ' : " When the only public approaches to Parlia- ment were King Street and Union Street, these were so wretchedly paved, that when the King went in state to the House, the ruts had to be filled up with bundles of fagots to allow the royal coach a safe transit. While the art of street-paving was thus so imperfect, that of road-making was equally defective, so that the country visitor to the metro- polis, and its dangers of coach-driving, had generally a sufficient preparative for the worst during his journey to town. This may easily be understood from the fact that, so late as 1754, few turnpikes were to be seen after leaving the vicinity of London, for 200 miles together, although it had been made felony to pull them down. These roads, indeed, were merely the produce of compulsory pauper labour, contributed by the different parishes ; and, like all such work, it was performed in a very perfunctory manner." The same authority gives a further picture of the state of the highways some twenty years later, when apparently little improvement had taken place in their condition : " Not- withstanding the numerous Acts of Parliament, of which no less than 452 were emitted between the years 1760 and 1764, for the improvement of the principal highways, they still continued narrow, darkened with trees, and intersected with ruts and miry swamps, through which the progress of a waggon was a work of difficulty and danger. One of these the turnpike road from Preston to Wigan is thus described by an angry tourist in 1770, and the picture seems to have been too generally realised over the whole king- OLD ROADS. 9 dom : "To look over a map, and perceive that it is a prin- cipal one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent ; but let me most seriously caution all travellers who may accidentally purpose to travel this terrible country, to avoid it as they would the devil ; for a thousand to one but they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They will here meet with ruts, which I actually measured, four feet deep, and floating with mud only from a wet summer ; what, therefore, must they be after a winter ? The only mending it receives is the tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts ; for I actually passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles, of execrable memory." Obvious as it must be to every mind capable of appre- hending ordinary matters in the present day, that the opening up of the country by the laying down of good roads would encourage trade, promote social intercourse, knit together the whole kingdom, and render its government the more easy and effective ; yet it is a fact that the improvement of the roads in various parts of the country, both in England and Scotland, was stoutly opposed by the people, even in certain places entailing riot and bloodshed. So strong were the prejudices against the improved roads, that the country people would not use them after being made. This bias may perhaps have partaken largely of that unreasoning conservatism which is always prone to pronounce that that which is is best, and opposes change on principle an example of which is afforded by the conduct of the driver of the Marlborough coach, who, when the new Bath road was opened, obstinately refused to travel by it, and stuck to the old waggon-track. " He was an old man," he 10 THE ROYAL MAIL. said ; " his grandfather and father had driven the aforesaid way before him, and he would continue in the old track till death." Other grounds of objection were not wanting, having some show of reason ; but these, like the others, were useless in stemming the tide of improvement which eventually set in, and brought the roads of the nation into their present admirable state. 11 CHAPTER II. POSTBOYS. ' ' Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn ! He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter' d boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks, News from all nations lumbering at his back, True to his charge the close-pack'd load behind; Yet careless what he brings, his one concern Is to conduct it to the destined inn, And, having dropp'd the expected bag, pass on. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful : messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, To him indifferent whether grief or joy." COWPER. AS described in the preceding chapter, these were the roads over which postboys had to travel with their precious charges during a long series of years, and to their wild and disreputable state must to a great extent be attri- buted the slow rate at which the post was then wont to travel. "When it is considered that these men or boys were exposed to all accidents of weather, stoppages by swollen rivers, delays through the roads being cut up, to their straying from the beaten track during fogs, and to all other chances of the road, including attacks by footpads or high- waymen, their occupation cannot have been a light or agreeable one. It is by no means easy to construct a 12 THE ROYAL MAIL. detailed outline of the duties which postboys had to perform, or to describe under what rules they proceeded from stage to stage ; but we have ample evidence of the rate at which they covered the ground, and how their speed varied at different periods, owing, it must have been in some cases, to the lack of supervision. The following evidence of the speed of a post messenger in the latter half of the sixteenth century is furnished by a letter in the correspondence of Archbishop Parker, the times at which the letter reached the various stages on its journey being endorsed upon it. The letter is as follows, "ARCHBISHOP PARKER to SIR W. CECIL. " SIR, According to the Queen's Majesty's pleasure, and your advertisement, you shall receive a form of prayer, which, after you have perused and judged of it, shall be put in print and published immediately," &c. &c. "From my house at Croydon this 22d July 1566, at 4 of the clock afternoon. Your honour's alway, MATTH. CANT. "To the Rt. Honble. Sir W. CECIL." Endorsed by successive postmasters : "Received at Waltham Cross, the 23d of July, about 9 at night." "Received at Ware, the 23d July, at 12 o'clock at night." " Received at Croxton, the 2 4th of July, between 7 and 8 of the clock in the morning." " So that his Grace's letter, leaving Croydon at 4 in the afternoon of July 22d, reached Waltham Cross, a distance of nearly 26 miles, by 9 at night of the 23d, whence, in POSTBOYS. 13 3 hours, it seems to have advanced 8 miles to Ware ; and within 8 hours more to have reached Croxton, a further distance of 29 miles, having taken nearly 40 hours to travel about 63 miles." In 1635 a public post between London and Edinburgh was established, the journey being limited to three days. This mail set out as a rule but twice a-week, and some- times only once a-week. An express messenger conveying news of the death of Charles II., who died on the 6th February 1685, was received in Edinburgh at one o'clock on the morning of the 10th February; and it may also be mentioned here though the matter hardly reflects upon the speed of postboys, who travel by land and not by water that in 1688 it required three months to convey the tidings of the abdication of James II. of England and VII. of Scotland to the Orkney Islands. Down to this period the mails from London to Scotland were carried on horseback with something like tolerable speed, taking previous performances into account, for in 1689 it is noted that parliamentary proceedings of Saturday were in the hands of the Edinburgh public on the ensuing Thursday. This rate of travelling does not appear to have been kept up, for in 1715 the post from London to Edin- burgh took six days to perform the journey. When it is considered that nearly a century before, the same distance could be covered in three days, this relapse seems to bespeak a sad want of vitality in the Post-office manage- ment of the age. The cause of the slow travelling, which appears to have continued for over forty years, comes out in a memorial of traders to the Convention of Burghs in 1758, wherein dissatisfaction was expressed with the exist- ing arrangements of the post, the mail for London on reaching Newcastle being there delayed about a day, again detained some time at York, and probably further delayed 14 THE ROYAL MAIL. in the south ; so that the double journey to and from London occupied eleven days instead of seven or eight, as the memorial deemed sufficient. To the Post-office mind of the present age, this dilatory method of performing the service of forwarding mails is incomprehensible, and the circumstance reflects discreditably both on the Post-office officials who were cognisant of it, and on the public who submitted to it. It is fair to mention, however, that at this period the mail from London to Edinburgh covered the ground in eighty-seven hours, or in fully three and a half days ; and that as a result of the memorial, the time was reduced to eighty-two hours, and the journey from Edinburgh to London reduced to eighty-five hours. In 1763, the London to Edinburgh mail commenced to be despatched five times a-week, instead of only three times ; and at this time, during the winter season, the mail leaving London on Tuesday night was generally not in the hands of the people of Edinburgh until the afternoon of Sunday. We are informed, in Lang's 'Historical Summary of the Post-office in Scotland,' that in 1715 there was not a single horse-post in that country. There must, however, have been some earlier attempts to establish horse- posts in the northern kingdom, for Chambers, in his ' Domestic Annals of Scotland,' under the year 1660, refers to the fact of a warrant being granted against interlopers who were carrying letters by foot on the same line on which Mr Mean had set up a horse-post. A traveller in 1688 relates, also, that besides the horse-post from Edinburgh to Berwick, there was a similar post from Edinburgh to Portpatrick in connection with the Irish packet service. Again, Chambers tells us that in 1667 the good people of Aberdeen having had "long experience of the prejudice sustained, not only by the said burgh of Aberdeen, but by the nobility, gentry, and others in the north country, by POSTBOYS. 15 the miscarrying of missive letters, and by the not timeous delivery and receiving returns of the samen," bestirred themselves to establish a better state of things. It was considered proper that "every man might have their letters delivered and answers returned at certain diets and times ;" and it was accordingly arranged, under Post-office sanction, that Lieutenant John Wales should provide a regular horse-service to carry letters to Edinburgh every Wednesday and Friday, returning every Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon. In 1715 the first horse-post between Edinburgh and Stirling was established, and in March 1717 a similar post between Edinburgh and Glasgow was set up. This latter post went three times a-week, travelled during the night, and performed the distance between the two places in ten hours being at the rate of about four miles an hour. Were we to give further instances of the slowness of the horse-posts, we should probably prove tedious, and there- fore the proofs adduced on this point must suffice. Though the state of the roads may be held to account for some of the delay, the roads must not be charged with everything. In 1799 a surveyor in the north of Scotland wrote as follows : " It is impossible to obtain any other contractors to ride the mails at 3d. out, or IJd. per mile each way. On this account we have been so much distressed with mail-riders, that we have sometimes to submit to the mails being conveyed by mules and such species of horses as were a disgrace to any public service." The same surveyor reported in 1805, that it would give rise to great inconvenience if no boys under sixteen years were allowed to be employed in riding the posts many of them ranging down from that age to fourteen. So, what from the con- dition of the highways, the sorry quality of the horses, and the youthfulness of the riders, it is not surprising that 16 THE ROYAL MAIL. the writers of letters should inscribe on their missives : " Be this letter delivered with haste haste haste ! Post haste ! Ride, villain, ride, for thy life for thy life for thy life !" unnecessary though that injunction be in the present day. The postboys were a source of great trouble and vexa- tion to the authorities of the Post-office through the whole course of their connection with the department. A sur- veyor who held office about the commencement of the eighteenth century ^ found, on the occasion of a visit to Salisbury, something wrong there, which he reported to headquarters in these terms: " At this place [Salisbury] found the postboys to have carried on vile practices in taking bye-letters, delivering them in that city, and taking back the answers and especially the Andover riders. On a certain day he found on Richard Kent, one of the Andover riders, five bye- letters all for Salisbury. Upon examination of the fellow, he confessed that he had made it a practice, and persisted to continue in it, saying that he had no wages from his master. The surveyor took the fellow before the magis- trate, proved the facts, and as the fellow could not get bail, was committed ; but pleading to have no friends nor money desired a punishment to be whipped, and accordingly he was to the purpose. The surveyor wrote the case to Andover, and ordered that the fellow should be discharged ; but no regard was had thereto. But the next day the same rider came post, run about the cittye for letters, and was insolent. The second time the said Richard Kent came post with two gentlemen, made it his business to take up letters ; the fellow, instead of returning to Andover, gets two idle fellows and rides away with three horses, which was a return for his masters not obeying instructions, as he ought not have been suffered to ride after the said facts was proved against him." POSTBOYS. 17 The same surveyor complained bitterly, with respect to the postboys, " that the gentry doe give much money to the riders, whereby they be very subject to get in liquor, which stops the males." Indeed the temptation of the ale-house was no doubt another factor in the slow journeying of the postboys, as it was the source of much trouble in the days of mail-coaches. Mr Palmer, through whose initiative and perseverance mail-coaches were subsequently established throughout the country, thus described the post as it existed in 1783: " The post, at present, instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest, conveyance in the country ; and though, from the great improvement in our roads, other carriers have proportionably mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever. It is likewise very unsafe, as the frequent robberies of it testify ; and to avoid a loss of this nature, people generally cut bank bills, or bills at sight, in two, and send the bills by different posts. The mails are generally intrusted to some idle boy, without character, mounted on a worn-out hack, and who, so far from being able to defend himself or escape from a robber, is much more likely to be in league with him." Including stoppages, this mode of travelling was, up to 1783, at the rate of about three to four miles an hour. We are again indebted to Mr Chambers for the follow- ing statement of careless blunders made by postboys in connection with the Edinburgh mails : " As indicating the simplicity of the institution in those days, may be noticed a mistake of February 1720, when, instead of the mail which should have come in yesterday (Sunday), we had our own mail of Thursday last returned the presumption being, that the mail for Edinburgh had been in like manner sent back from some unknown point in the road to London. And this mistake happened once more in December 1728, B 18 THE ROYAL MAIL. CAUTION to POST-BOYS. BY the A& of 5 th of Geo. III. If any Poft-Boy, or Rider, having taken any of His Majefty's Mails, or Bags of Letters, under his Care, to convey to the next Poft Town or Stage, ftiall fuffer any other Perfon ( except a Guard to ride on the Horfe or Carriage, or fhall Loiter on the Road, and wilfully mifpend his Time, fo as to retard the Arrival of the faid Mails, or Bags of Leters, at the next Poft Town or Stage. Every fuch Offender fhall, on Conviction before One Juftice, be committed to the Houfe of Correction, and con- fined to hard Labour for one Month. All Poft- Boys and Riders are therefore defired to take Notice of this, and are hereby cautioned not to fail in the regular Performance of their Duty, otherwife they will moft affuredly be pumfhed as the Law directs. And it is hoped and requefted, for the Benefit of public Correfpondence, that all Perfons, who may obferve any Poft-Boy or Rider, offending as aforefaid. will give immediate Notice to _ Q_> Surveyor of the General Poft-Office, POSTBOYS. 19 the bag despatched on a Saturday night being returned the second Sunday morning after; 'tis reckoned this mistake happened about half-way on the road." We hardly agree, however, that these mistakes were owing to the simplicity of the institution, but rather to the routine nature of the work ; for it is the fact that blunders equally flagrant have occurred in the Post-office in recent times, even under elaborate checks, which, if rightly applied, would have rendered the mistakes impossible. Many of the troubles which the Post-office had with its postboys may possibly be ascribed to the low rate of wages paid by the contractors for their services. This matter is referred to by the Solicitor to the Scotch Post-office, who was engaged upon an inquiry into the robbery of the mail on the stage between Dingwall and Tain in the year 1805. The distance between these places is about twenty-five miles, and five hours were occupied in making the journey. One of the postboys concerned stated in his declaration that his whole wages were 5s. a-week ; and with reference to this, the solicitor in his report observes as follows : " Of course it may fairly be presumed that no respectable man will be got to perform this duty. Dismission to such a man for committing a fault is no punishment ; and the safety of the conveyance of the mail, which the public have a right to require, seems to render some regulation in this respect necessary." The following account of the violation of the mails by a postboy may perhaps be aptly introduced here : In the autumn of 1808, a good deal of anxiety was caused to the authorities of the Post-office in Scotland, in consequence of reports being made to them that many bankers' letters had been tampered with in course of their transmission by post through certain of the northern counties. To discover who was concerned in the irregu- 20 THE ROYAL MAIL. larities was rendered the more difficult, owing to the fact that the mail-bags in which the letters had been despatched were reported to have reached their destinations duly sealed. But a thing of this kind could not go on without discovery, and investigation being made, the storm burst over the head of a poor little postboy named William Shearer, a lad of fifteen years of age, who was employed riding the north mail over the stage from Turriif to Banff. From the account we have of the matter, it would seem that in this case, as in many others, it was opportunity that made the thief; for the mail-bags had on some occasions been insecurely sealed, the despatching postmasters having failed to place the wax over the knots of the string and the postboy was thus able to get to the inside of the bags without cutting the string or breaking the seals, by simply undoing the knots. Here the temptation presented itself ; and although some twenty-six letters were found inside his hat when he was searched, it is riot unlikely that he commenced by merely peeping into the letters by pulling out their ends, for several bank letters containing notes for considerable sums had been so violated, while the contents were found safe. To cover one delinquency the boy had recourse to others. In order to account for his delay on the road, he opened the bag containing his way-bill, borrowed a knife from a shoemaker who kept one of the toll-houses, and altered his hour of despatch from his starting-point. The unfortunate youth also gave way to drink, stopping at the toll-houses, and calling sometimes for rum, sometimes for whisky, the keepers sharing in the refreshments, which were purchased with stolen money. On one occasion the boy opened a parcel intrusted to him, and from a letter inside abstracted a twenty-shilling note. Whether to render himself all the more redoubtable on the road, over a section of which he travelled in the dark, or POSTBOYS. 21 for some other purpose, is not clear, but with six shillings of the aforesaid sum he bought a sword, and with two shillings a pistol, the balance going in drink. The occupa- tion of riding the mail was not for one so young : yet it was found that full-grown men often gave more trouble than boys ; and it may be here remarked that the adventure of Davie Mailsetter in the ' Antiquary ' is no great exaggera- tion of the service of postboys at the period to which it refers. The poor boy Shearer was put upon his trial before the Circuit Court of Justiciary at Aberdeen ; and when called upon to plead, confessed his guilt. There was every disposition on the part of the public prosecutor, and of the presiding judge, to let the case go as lightly as possible against the prisoner doubtless on account of his youth; but the law had to be vindicated, and the sentence passed was that of transportation for a period of seven years. Since then humanity has made progress, and no such punishment would be inflicted in such a case nowadays. Exposed to all the inclemency of the seasons, both by night and day; having to weather snowstorms and suffer the drenchings of heavy rain ; to grope a way through the dense fogs of our climate, and endure the biting frosts of midwinter ; or yet to face the masked highwayman on the open heath, or the footpad in the deep and narrow road, these were the unpleasantnesses and the dangers which beset the couriers of the Post-office in past years, ere the department had grown to its present robust manhood. As to the exposure in wintry weather, it is stated that postboys on reaching the end of their stages were sometimes so be- numbed with the cold that they had to be lifted out of their saddles. Some idea of what the postboys suffered may be gathered from the adventure of the Rothbury to Morpeth mail driver in the snowstorm of the 1st March 1886. This man, Robert Paton, left Rothbury with two horses, and 22 THE ROYAL MAIL. another was sent from Morpeth to meet him. On his way two of the horses succumbed to fatigue, and these, with the inail-cart, were left behind in charge of a companion, while Paton proceeded on the third horse, that sent from Morpeth, to his destination. One of the horses abandoned was so knocked up that it had to be left in the snow till next day. At one time the snow would just reach the horses' knees, at another the animals would be plunging Ko thbury and Morpeth Mail Driver. desperately through quickly forming wreaths, in snow reaching half-way up their shoulders, and then an open stretch of country would expose them to the fury of the blinding storm. Paton had started from Eothbury at five o'clock in the afternoon, arid was due at Morpeth at 8.40 P.M., but he did not reach the Post-office there till 11.45 P.M., and his son, who had carried the parcel basket for the last three miles, did not come in till midnight. On his arrival at Morpeth, Paton presented a most grotesque appear- POSTBOYS. 23 ance, something like the pictures of Father Christmas, being covered over with snow, and adorned with icicles hanging from his hair and beard. He required the aid of a friendly hand to steady him when he descended, as his lower limbs seemed cramped and powerless, owing to the cold and long continuance in the saddle. Of the attacks made upon postboys by highwaymen, some instances more or less tragic are given in another chapter. This we will conclude by recording the fate that befell a postboy who was charged with the conveyance of the mail for London which left Edinburgh on Saturday the 20th November 1725. This mail, after reaching Berwick in safety and proceeding thence, was never again heard of. A notice issued by the Post-office at the time ran as follows : " A most diligent search has been made ; but neither the boy, the horse, nor the packet has yet been heard of. The boy, after passing Goswick, having a part of the sands to ride which divide the Holy Island from the mainland, it is supposed he has missed his way, and rode towards the sea, where he and his horse have both perished." The explana- tion here suggested is not at all improbable, in view of the fact that November is a month given to fogs, when a rider might readily go astray crossing treacherous sands. 24 CHAPTER III. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. PRIOK to the middle of the seventeenth century, about which period stage-coaches came into use in England, the only vehicles available to ordinary travellers would seem to have been the carrier's stage-waggon, which, owing to its lumbering build and the deplorable state of the roads, made only from ten to fifteen miles in a long summer's day. The interior of such waggons exhibited none of the refine- ments of modern means of travel, the only furnishing of the machine being a quantity of straw littered on the floor, on which the passengers could sit or lie during the weary hours of their journey. Though the stage-coaches came into vogue about the middle of the seventeenth century, as already stated, the heavy waggons seem also to have held a place till much later for in one of these Roderick Random performed part of his journey to London in 1739 ; and it was doubtless only the meaner class of people who travelled in that way, as the description given by Smollett of his companions does not mirror, certainly, people of fashion. M. Sobriere, a Frenchman, on his way from Dover to London in the reign of Charles II., thus writes of his experience of the waggon : " That I might not take post, or be obliged to use the stage-coach, I went from Dover to London in a waggon. It was drawn by six horses, one before another, STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 25 and driven by a waggoner, who walked by the side of it. He was clothed in black, and appointed in all things like another St George. He had a brave Montero on his head, and was a merry fellow, fancied he made a figure, and seemed mightily pleased with himself." Unlike travelling in the present day, when one may go 1 00 miles in a railway carriage with- out speaking to a fellow-passenger, the journey in the old- fashioned waggon brought all the travellers too close and too long together to admit of individual isolation, for the passen- gers might be associated for days together as companions, had to take their refreshment together, lived as it were in common, and it was even the custom to elect a chairman at the outset to preside over the company during the journey. But the stage-coach gradually became the established public conveyance of the country, improving in its construction and its rate of progression as the improved state of the roads admitted of and encouraged such improvement. Still, compared with the stage-coaches of the best period, travelling by the earlier stage-coaches was a sorry achievement. Here is an advertisement of stage-coaches of the year 1658 : "From the 26th April there will continue to go stage- coaches from the George Inn, without Aldersgate, London, unto the several cities and towns, for the rates and at the times hereafter mentioned and declared: "Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday To Salisbury, in two days, for xx. s.; to Blandford and Dorchester, in two days and half, for xxx. s.; to Burput, in three days, for xxx. s. ; to Exmister, Hunnington, and Exeter, in four days, for xl. s.; to Stamford, in two days, for xx. s. ; to York, in four days, for xl. s." Indeed the charges might have been reckoned by time, the travelling being at the rate of about 10s. a day. Another advertisement in 1Y39 thus sets forth the merits of some of the stage-coaches of the period: 26 THE ROYAL MAIL. "Exeter Flying Stage-coach in three days, and Dor- chester and Blandford in two days. Go from the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ; and from the New Inn, in Exeter, every Tuesday and Thursday." Then the advertisement makes known the fact, with regard to another coach, that the stage begins "Flying on Monday next." They were not satisfied in those days with a coach "going," "running," or " proceeding," but they set them " flying " at the rates of speed which may be gathered from these notices. Nearly thirty years later another advertisement set forth that the Taunton Flying Machine, hung on steel springs, sets out from the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, and Taunton, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at three o'clock in the morning, the journey taking two days. There were places inside for six passengers, and the fares were as follows, viz. : To Taunton, ... . . 1 16 ,, Ilminster, . . . . 1 14 Yeovil, . . ... . 180 ,, Sherboriie, . . . . 160 Shaftesbury, . . . . 140 Outside passengers, and children in the lap, were half these fares. To follow out in a historical fashion the development of the coaching period down to the introduction of railways, would be beyond the purpose of this work, nor will the limits of these pages admit of so great an extension of the subject. The earlier modes of travelling, and the difficulties of the roads, are treated of in several histories of England in a general way, and more fully in such books as the * Lives of the Engineers,' by Smiles ; ' Old Coaching Days,' by Stanley Harris; and 'Annals of the Koad,' by Captain Malet, all of which contain much that is enter- STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 27 taining and interesting. Here it is proposed merely to recall some of the incidents of the coaching days, so far as they relate to the mail-service, between the time when Palmer's mail-coaches were put on the road in 1784, down to the time when they were shouldered off the road by the more powerful iron horse. The dangers to which the mail-coaches were exposed were chiefly of three kinds, the danger of being robbed by footpads or highwaymen; that of being upset in the road by running foul of some cart, dray, or waggon, or other object placed in the way ; and the peril of being overtaken by snowstorms, and so rendered helpless and cut off from the usual communications. It was an almost everyday occurrence for the mail-bags to be robbed on the night journeys, when the principal mails were carried. We know of these things now through notices which were issued by the Post-office at the time, of which copies are still in existence. Here are the terms of a notice issued to the mail-guards in March 1802 : "Three Irishmen are in custody for highway robbery. One of them has confessed, and declares that their purpose in going out was to rob the mail-coach. Their first step was to watch an opportunity and fire at the guard, which it is supposed might have been easily obtained, as they are so frequently off their guard. They had pistols found on them. It is therefore necessary, in addition to your former instruc- tions, to direct that you are particularly vigilant and watch- ful, that you keep a quick eye to every person stirring, and that you see your arms are in the best possible condition, and ready for instant duty." On the 21st December 1805, a bag of letters for Stock- port was stolen out of the mail-box while the coach was in Macclesfield. It was a Sunday night about ten o'clock when the robbery took place, and the bag was found empty THE ROYAL MAIL. under a haystack near the town. The following notice of another robbery was issued by the Postmaster-General on the 1st March 1810: " Whereas the bags of letters from this office (London), of last night, for the following towns viz., Hatfield, St Neots, Spalding, Welwyn, Oundle, Lowth, Stevenage, Stilton, Horncastle, Baldock, Wansford, and Biggleswade, Grantham, Boston, Kimbolton, Spilsby, were stolen from the mail-box, about ten o'clock on the same night, supposed at Barnet, by forcibly wrenching off the lock whilst the horses were changing ; whoever shall apprehend and convict, or cause to be apprehended and convicted, the person or persons who stole the said bags, shall be entitled to a reward of One Hundred Pounds," &c. On Monday the 19th November of the same year, the bags of letters from Melton Mowbray, Thrapston, Oakham, Highara Ferrers, Uppingham, and Ketteriiig, Wellingborough, were stolen at Bedford at about nine o'clock in the evening. Again, in January 1813, a further warning to the guards was issued, showing the necessity for vigilance on the part of these officers, by describing some of the recent robberies which were the occasion for the warning: "The guards are desired by Mr Hasker to be particularly attentive to their mail-box. Depredations are committed every night on some stage-coaches by stealing parcels. I shall relate a few, which I trust will make you circumspect. The Bristol mail-coach has been robbed within a week of STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 29 the bankers' parcel, value 1000 or upwards. The Bristol mail-coach was robbed of money the 3d instant to a large amount. The ' Expedition' coach has been twice robbed in the last week the last time of all the parcels out of the seats. The 'Telegraph 7 was robbed last Monday night between Saracen's Head, Aldgate, and Whitechapel Church, of all the parcels out of the dicky. It was broken open while the guard was on it, standing up blowing his horn. The York Mail was robbed of parcels out of the seats to a large amount." The following account of a stage-coach robbery committed on that, at one time, notoriously dangerous ground called Hounslow Heath, is taken from the ' Annals of the Koad,' already referred to in this work : "In the reign of King George III., a stage coach, driven by one Williams, and going over Hounslow Heath on the road between Beading and London, was stopped by a highwayman, who, riding up, demanded money of the passengers. A lady gave up her watch, a gent his purse, and away goes the highwayman, followed, however, by Williams (the bold) on one of the leaders, who ' nailed ' and brought him back to the coach, on which he was placed and taken to Staines. This occurred on a Tuesday; the hearing before the magistrates took place on Wednesday ; on Thursday he was in Newgate ; on Friday he was tried, and sentenced to be hung on Monday. Williams then got up a memorial, petitioning for a reprieve ; and on this being- presented to his Majesty, the sentence was commuted to transportation for life. The king was so pleased with Williams's daring, that he presented him with a key of Windsor Park gates, to be used by him and his descendants so long as they drove a coach from Reading to London. This royal authority allowed them to pass through the park instead of going by the turnpike road." 30 THE ROYAL MAIL. Another very interesting account of a mail-coach robbery is given by Mr S. C. Hall in his ' Ketrospect of a Long Life,' the object of the outrage being, not apparently plunder for plunder's sake in the ordinary sense, but to recover some legal documents and money paid as rent by a man in the neighbourhood who stood high in local favour, but was understood to have been harshly treated by his landlord. The case occurred in Ireland, and is characteristic of the way in which the Irish people give vent to their feelings when they are stirred by affection or sentiment. " I was travelling in Ireland (it must have been about the year 1818), between Cork and Skibbereen, when I witnessed a stoppage of the mail to rob it. The road was effectually barricaded by a huge tree, passage was impossible, and a dozen men with blackened faces speedily surrounded the coach. To attempt resistance would have been madness : the guard wisely abstained from any, but surrendered his arms ; the priming was removed, and they were returned to him. The object of the gang was limited to acquiring the mail-bags ; they were known to contain some writs against a gentleman very popular in the district. These being extracted, the coach pursued its way without further inter- ruption. The whole affair did not occupy five minutes. It was subsequently ascertained, however, that there had been a further purpose. The gentleman had that day paid his rent all in bank-notes ; when the agent desired to mark them, there was neither pen nor ink in the house ; the mail-bag contained these notes. Where they eventually found their way was never proved, but it was certain they did not reach the landlord, whose receipt was in the hands of his tenant, duly signed." Interceptions of the mail for the purpose of preventing the serving of writs by means of the post are not unknown in Ireland at the present time. In August 1883 a post- STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 31 runner near Mallow was stopped by two men, dressed in women's clothes and with blackened faces, who seized his mail-bag, and made search for registered letters which it was supposed might have contained ejectment notices. None were found, however, and the men returned the other letters to the runner. A similar outrage was committed in the same neighbourhood in 1881. - The following exciting and unpleasant adventure happened to the passengers by the Enniskillen mail-coach on its way to Dublin on the morning of the 4th January 1813. The coach had safely made its journey to a point within two miles of a place called Dunshaughlin, the time being about 3 A.M., when the mail-guard, watchful as his duty required, espied a number of men suspiciously lying on each side of the road in advance of him. The night must have been clear, and probably there was bright moonlight ; as other- wise, at that early hour in the month of January, the men lying in wait could not have been observed. There being- little doubt that an attack upon the mail was contemplated, the carriage was at once drawn up, and the alarm given. The drowsy or benumbed travellers, thus rudely aroused and brought to a sense of their danger, hastily jumped to the ground, and demanded the spare arms which were carried for use on like emergencies. These were immediately served out to the passengers, -who, if not animated by true Irish spirit at so early an hour, to fight for fighting's sake, were at any rate determined to defend their lives and property. At the head of the coach-party in this lonely and trying situation was a clergyman of the County Cavan named King, who, like Father Tom in the play, had not forgotten the accomplishments of his youth, and who was prepared to carry the message of peace and goodwill with the blunderbuss at the ready, this being the weapon with which he had armed himself. The robbers, perceiving that 32 THE ROYAL MAIL. they were to encounter a determined opposition, thought it wise to retreat ; and while the guards stood by their charge the mail-coach the men were pursued over a field by Mr King, on whom they fired, without, however, doing any damage. The parson, deeming a return necessary, replied with the gaping blunderbuss and to some purpose it was thought, for three of the men were within twenty yards of him when he fired. The would-be robbers being now driven off, the passengers had time to realise their fright ; and gathering themselves again into the coach, the journey was continued, though it is hardly likely that sleep resumed its sway over the terrified passengers for the remaining hours of that particular night. These are but a few instances of the robberies against which the guards were constantly warned to be on the alert, and which they were enjoined to prevent. They were pro- vided with a blunderbuss and a brace of pistols, to make a good defence in case of need ; and it may be interesting to recall that the charge for the former was ten or twelve shot the size of a pea, and two-thirds of such charge for the latter the quantity of lead mentioned being sufficient, one would suppose, if well directed, to give a hot welcome to any one attempting the mail. But the guards were very often not so vigilant as they should have been, the ale-houses having then the attractions which to many they still have : sometimes they fell asleep on their boxes, and in other respects wofully infringed the regulations. The following official notice plainly shows this : " I am very sorry to be under the necessity of addressing the mail-guards on such a subject; but though every direction and inspection are given them, and they are fully informed of the punishments that must follow if they do not do their duty, yet, notwithstanding this, and every STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 33 admonition given in every way that can be devised, four guards that were looked upon as very good ones, have in the course of last week been guilty of such misconduct as obliges their discharge for the public, who trust their lives and property in the conduct of the office, can never be expected to suffer such neglect to pass unnoticed. The four guards discharged are John , for having his mail- box unlocked at Ferry-bridge while the mail was therein ; Wm. , for going to the office at York drunk to fetch his mail, though barely able to stand ; W. , for bring- ing the mail on the outside of the mail-box and on the roof, and converting the mail-box to another use ; W. , for going from London to Newmarket without firearms." On another occasion a guard was fined five guineas " for suffering a man to ride on the roof of the mail-coach," and at the same time he was told that if he had not owned the truth he would have been dismissed this being followed by the quaint observation, looking like a grim official joke, " which he may be now, if he had rather than pay the fine to the fund " ! One more notice as to the vice of taking drink on the part of the guards, and as showing the impres- sive and formal manner of carrying out a dismissal in the coaching days. The document is of the year 1 803, and runs as follows, viz.: " I am very sorry to order in all the guards to witness the dismissal of one old in the service ; but so imperious is the duty, that was he my brother he would be dismissed : indeed I do not think there is a guard who hears this but will say, a man who goes into an ale-house, stays to drink (and at Brentford) at the dusk of morning, leaving his mail-box unlocked, deserves to lose his situation ; and he is dismissed accordingly. And I am sure I need not stimulate you to avoid fresh misconduct to read your instructions, and to mind them. I am the more sorry for this, as guards C 34 THE ROYAL MAIL. who have been some time in the service are fit for no other duty." Towards the drivers also of the mail-coaches severe measures were taken when they got drunk ; and the penalty sometimes took a peculiar form, as witness the following public act of submission and contrition : "Whereas I, John , being driver of the mail- coach, on my way from Congleton to Coleshill on Monday, December 25, 1809" (some excuse, perhaps, on account of its being Christmas-day), " did stop at several places on the road to drink, and thereby got intoxicated, from' which misconduct, driving furiously, and being from my coach on its returning, suffered the horses to set .off and run through the town of Coleshill, at the risk of overturning the carriage, and thereby endangering the lives of the passengers, and other misfortunes which might otherwise have occurred : for which misdeeds the Postmasters- General were deter- mined to punish me with the utmost rigour, and if it had been prosecuted, would have made me liable to the penalty incurred by the said offence of imprisonment for six months, and not less than three; but from my general good character, and having a large family, have generously forgiven me on my showing contrition for the past offence, as a caution to all mail and other coachmen, and making this public acknowledgment." In another case a mail-coach driver was summoned before a magistrate for intoxication and impertinence to passengers, and was thereupon mulcted in a penalty of <10, with costs. The accidents that befell the coaches were sometimes of a really serious character, and of very frequent occurrence some of them, or perhaps many of them, being due wholly to carelessness. A person writing in 1822 remarks as follows : " It is really heartrending to hear of the dreadful STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 35 accidents that befall his Majesty's subjects now on their travels through the country. In my younger days, when I was on the eve of setting out on a journey, my wife was in the habit of giving me her parting blessing, concluding with the words, ' God bless you, my dear ; I hope you will not be robbed.' But it is now changed to ' God bless you, my dear; I hope you will not get your neck broke, and that you will bring all your legs safe home again.' " Sometimes the drivers, if it fell in their way to overtake or be over- taken by an opposition coach, would go in for proving who had the best team, and an exciting race would result. Sometimes a horse would fall, and bring the coach to grief; and in the night-time the horses would occasionally tumble over obstacles maliciously placed on the road to bring this about. Whether this was always done to facilitate robbery, or out of sheer wantonness, is not quite clear, but instances of such acts of wickedness were frequent. On the night of the 5th June 1804, some evil-disposed persons placed a gate in the middle of the turnpike 'road near Welwyn Green, and set up two other gates at the entrance of Welwyn Lane, also across the road, with the view of obstructing the mail-coach and injuring the persons of the passengers. Early on the morning of the 14th April 1806, the mail-coach was obstructed, in coming out of Dumfries, by some evil-disposed persons placing boughs or branches of trees across the turnpike road, by which the lives of the passengers were put in peril and the mail much delayed. A similar outrage was committed on the night of the 27th August 1809, when a large gate was placed in the middle of the road on Ewenny Bridge, near Bridgend, in Glamor- ganshire. In this instance the horses of the mail-coach took fright, imperilling the lives of all upon the coach; for it is very likely that they narrowly escaped being thrown over the bridge. Again, on the night of the 30th April 36 THE ROYAL MAIL. 1812, some persons placed eleven gates at different points across the road two or three miles out of Lancaster, on the way to Burton-in-Kendal, whereby destruction was nearly brought upon the mail-coach and its human freight. Between Northwich and Warrington, early on the morning GENERAL POST-OFFICE 1 I/A September, 1809. WHEREAS Some evil disposed Person or Pertoni, on the Night of the yith vu. Placed a large Gate in the Centre of the Road upon Ewenny Bridge, Near Bridgend, in Glamorganshire, which caused the Horses of the Mail Coach to take fright, and endangered the Lives of the Coachman, Guard, and Passengers. His Majesty's Postmaster General, For the Discovery and bringing to Justice the Person or Persons guilty of so wanton an Act, is hereby~pl eased to offer A Reward of Fifty Pounds, To be paid upon Conviction. By Command of die Postmaster General, F. FREELING, Secretary. of the 19th November 1815, eight or ten gates and a door were placed in the way of the mail-coach, and further on a broad-wheeled cart, with the view of wrecking the mail. On Sunday, the 15th June 1817, the horses of the mail- coach were thrown down near Newmarket, and much injured, by stumbling over a plough and harrow, wickedly STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 37 placed in their way by some evil-doers. These are but a few of the cases of such malicious acts, with respect to which rewards were offered by the Postmaster-General at the time, for the discovery of the offenders. But there were other ways in w r hich the mail was placed in jeopardy namely, by waggoners with teams getting in the middle of the highway, and not clearing out smartly to let the mails go by, or by otherwise so driving their horses as to foul with the mail-coach. And it is curious to observe how such cases were dealt with by the Post-office. The following poster, issued publicly, will explain the matter : " CAUTION TO CARTERS. " Whereas I, Edward Monk, servant to James Smith of Pendlebury, near Manchester, farmer, did, on Tuesday the 24th day of July last, misconduct myself in the driving of my master's cart on the Pendleton road, by not only riding furiously in the cart, but damaging the York and Liverpool mail-coach, and endangering the lives of the passengers for which the conductor of the mails has directed a prosecu- tion against me ; but on condition of this my public sub- mission, and paying the expenses attending it, all proceedings have been discontinued. And I thank the conductor, and the gentlemen whose lives I endangered, for their very great lenity shown me ; and I promise not to be guilty of such outrage in future. And I trust this will operate as a caution to all carters or persons who may have the care of carts and other carriages, to behave themselves peaceably and properly on the king's highway. Witness my hand, the 2d Aug. 1804." Then there was the danger attending the running away of the horses with the coach, of which the following is an instance, the facts being succinctly set forth in a notice of 1810, of which the following is a copy : 38 THE ROYAL MAIL. " Whereas Walter Price, the driver of the Chester and Manchester mail-coach, on Thursday night the 22d Nov. 1810, on arriving in Chester, incautiously left his horses without any person at their heads, to give out a passenger's luggage (while the guard was gone to the post-office with the mail-bags), when they ran off with the mail-coach through the city of Chester, taking the road to Holywell, but fortunately without doing any injury; in consequence of which neglect, the driver was, on the Saturday following, brought before the magistrates, and fined in the full penalty of Five pounds, according to the late Act of Parliament." And through the city of Chester, with its narrow streets! It seems a miracle how four runaway horses, with a coach at their heels, could have cleared the town without dire disaster. Again, it would come to pass that in dark nights the horses would sometimes stumble over a stray donkey or other animal which had taken up its night-quarters in the middle of the road, and there made its bed. Nor were these the only perils of the road, which were always in- creased when the nights were thick with fog. On the morning of the 30th .December 1813, the mail from the South reached Berwick late owing to a fog, the horses being led by the driver, notwithstanding whose care the coach had been overturned twice. The drivers were called upon on occasions to make up their minds in a moment to choose one of two courses, when 'danger suddenly burst upon them and there was no escape from it. A good instance of such a case happened to the driver of the Edinburgh to Dumfries mail-coach, who proved that he could reason his case quickly and take his resolve. At one of the stages he had changed horses, and was proceeding on his way, the first portion of the road being down a steep hill with an abrupt turn at the foot. He had hardly got his coach fairly set in motion, STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 39 when to his dismay he perceived that the wheelers, two new horses, had no notion of holding back. The animals became furious, while the passengers became alarmed. It seemed a hopeless task to control the horses under the circumstances, and to attempt to take the turn at the foot of the hill would have assured the upsetting of the coach and all its belongings. At this juncture the passengers observed a strange smile creep over the coachman's face, while he gathered up the reins in the best style of the profession, at the same time lashing his horses into a good gallop. Terror-struck, the passengers saw nothing but destruction before them ; yet they had no alternative but to await the issue. Opposite . the foot of the hill was a stout gate leading into a field, and this was the goal the driver had in view. Steadying the coach by keeping its course straight, he gave his horses all the momentum they could gather, and shot them direct at the gate. The gate went into splinters, the horses and coach bounded into the field, and were there immediately drawn up, neither horses, coach, nor passengers being seriously hurt by the adventure. Of all the interruptions to the mail-coach service, none were so serious as those which were occasioned by snow- storms, nor were the dangers attending them of a light nature to the drivers, guards, or passengers. The work achieved by man, either for good or evil, how insignificant does it not seem when contrasted with the phenomena of nature ! In the year 1799 a severe snowstorm occurred in the country, which very much deranged the mail-service, as may be gathered from the following circular issued by the London Post-office on the 27th April of that year : " Several mail-coaches being still missing that were obstructed in the snow since the 1st February last, this is to desire you will immediately represent to me an account 40 THE ROYAL MAIL. of all spare patent mail-coaches that are in the stage where you travel over, whether they are regular stationed mail- coaches or extra spare coaches, and the exact place where they are, either in barn, field, yard, or coach-house, and the condition they are in, and if they have seats, rugs, and windows complete." So that here, after a lapse of about three months, the Post-office had not recovered the use of all its mail-coaches, and was beginning to hunt up the missing vehicles. Another snowstorm occurred in January 1814, evidence of which, from a passenger's point of view, is furnished by Macready in his 'Reminiscences.' He wrote as follows : " The snow was falling fast, and had already drifted so high between the Ross Inn and Berwick-on-Tweed that it had been necessary to cut a passage for carriages for some miles. We did not reach Newcastle until nearly two hours after midnight : and fortunate was it for the theatre and ourselves that we had not delayed our journey, for the next day the mails were stopped ; nor for more than six weeks was there any conveyance by carriage between Edinburgh and Newcastle. After some weeks a passage was cut through the snow for the guards to carry the mails on horseback, but for a length of time the communications every way were very irregular." But Christmas of 1836 must bear the palm for snow- storms which have succeeded in deranging the mail-service in England, and it maybe well to quote here some accounts of the circumstances written at the time : " The guard of the Glasgow mail, which arrived on Sunday morning, said that the roads were in the northern parts heavy with snow, and that at one place the mail was two hours getting over four miles of road. Never before, within recollection, was the London mail stopped for a whole night at a few miles from London ; and never before STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 41 has the intercourse between the southern shires of England and the metropolis been interrupted for two whole days." " Fourteen mail-coaches were abandoned on the various roads." " The Brighton mail (from London) reached Crawley, but was compelled to return. The Dover mail also returned, not being able to proceed farther than Gravesend. The Hastings mail was also obliged to return. The Brighton up-mail of Sunday had travelled about eight miles from that town, when it fell into a drift of snow, from which it was impossible to extricate it without further assistance. The guard immediately set off to obtain all necessary aid ; but when he returned, no trace whatever could be found either of the coach, coachman, or passengers, three in number. After much difficulty the coach was found, but could not be extricated from the hollow into which it had got. The guard did not reach town until seven o'clock on Tuesday night, having been obliged to travel with the bags on horse- back, and in many instances to leave the main road and proceed across fields, in order to avoid the deep drifts of snow." " The Bath and Bristol mails, due on Tuesday morning, were abandoned eighty miles from London, and the mail- bags brought up in a postchaise-and-four by the two guards, who reached London at six o'clock on Wednesday morning. For seventeen miles of the distance they had to come across fields." "The Manchester down-mail reached St Albans, and getting off the road into a hollow, was upset. The guard returned to London in a post-chaise and four horses with the bags and passengers." " About a mile from St Albans, on the London side, a chariot without horses was seen on Tuesday nearly buried in the snow. There were two ladies inside, who made an 42 THE ROYAL MAIL. earnest appeal to the mail-guard, whose coach had got into a drift nearly at the same spot. The ladies said the post- boy had left them to go to St Albans to get fresh cattle, and had been gone two hours. The guard was unable to assist them, and his mail being extracted, he pursued his journey for London, leaving the chariot and ladies in the situation where they were first seen." " The Devonport mail arrived at half-past eleven o'clock. The guard, who had travelled with it from Ilminster. a distance of 140 miles, states that journey to have been a most trying one to both men and cattle. The storm 'commenced when they reached Wincanton, and never afterwards ceased. The wind blew fresh, and the snow and sleet in crossing Salisbury Plain were driving into their faces so as almost to blind them. Between Andover and Whitchurch the mail was stuck fast in a snowdrift, and the horses, in attempting to get out, were nearly buried. The coachman got down, and almost disappeared in the drift upon which he alighted. Fortunately, at this juncture, a waggon with four horses came up, and by unyoking these from the waggon and attaching them to the mail, it was got out of the hollow in which it was sunk." These are some of the reports, written at the time, of the disorganisation of the mail-service in consequence of the snowstorm. Some slight idea of the magnitude of the drifts may be obtained from one or two additional particulars. The mail proceeding from Exeter for London was five times buried in the snow, and had to be dug out. A mail-coach got off the road seven miles from Louth, and went over into a gravel-pit, one of the horses being killed and the guard severely bruised. So deeply was another coach buried on this line of road that it took 300 men, principally sappers and miners, working several hours, to make a passage to the coach and rescue the mails and si STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 43 passengers. Near Chatham the snow lay to a depth of 30 or 40 feet, and the military were turned out to the number of 600 to clear the roads. On the line of road from Chatham to Dover, a sum of 700 was spent by the road-trustees in opening up the road for the resumption of traffic, an official report stating that for 26 miles the road "was blocked up by an impenetrable mass of snow varying from 3 feet to 18 feet in depth." Between Leicester and Northampton cuttings were made, just wide enough for a coach to pass, where the snow was heaped up to a height of 30, 40, and in some places 50 feet. About a stage from Coventry, near a place called D unchurch, seventeen coaches were reported to be laid up in the snow ; and in other parts of the country a similar wholesale derangement or stoppage of road-traffic took place. On the 9th January 1837, an official report set forth that " the mail-coach road between Louth and Sheffield had on the 6th inst. been closed twelve days in consequence of the snow, and it is stated that it will be a week before the mail can run." An attempt was made to get the mail forward from Lewes to London by post-chaise and four horses ; but after proceeding about a mile from the town, the chaise returned, the driver reporting that it was im- possible to proceed, as the main road was quite blocked up with snow to a depth of 10 or 12 feet. These were the good old times ; and no doubt to us they have a romance, though to the people who lived in them they had a very practical aspect. The general instructions to mail-guards in cases of break- down were as follows : " When the coach is so broke down that it cannot pro- ceed as it is on its way to London, if you have not above two passengers, and you can procure a post-chaise without 44 THE ROYAL MAIL. loss of time, get them and the mail forward in that way, with the horses that used to draw the mail-coach, that they may be in their places (till you come to where a coach is stationed) ; and if you have lost any time, you must endeavour to fetch it up, which may be easily done, as the chaise is lighter than the coach. "If you cannot get a post-chaise, take off one of the coach-horses, and ride with your bags to the next stage ; there take another horse, and so on till you come to the end of your ground, when you must deliver the bags to the next guard, who must proceed in the same manner. If your mail is so large (as the York, Manchester, and two or three others are at some part of the road) that one horse cannot carry it, you "may take two ; tie the mail on one horse and ride the other. The person who horses the mail must order his horsekeeper at every stage to furnish you with horses in case of accidents. Change your horses at every post-town, and do all your office-duty the same as if the coach travelled. " If in travelling from London an accident happens, use all possible expedition in repairing the coach to proceed ; and if it cannot be repaired in an hour or two, take the mail forward by horse or chaise if the latter, the passengers will go with you." In pursuance of these instructions, many instances of devotion to duty were given by the mail-guards, in labouring to get the mails forward in the midst of the snowstorm of 1836. On the 26th of December the Birmingham mail-coach, proceeding to London, got rather beyond Aylesbury, where it broke down. Some things having been set right, another effort was made, and some little further way made ; but the attempt to go on had to be given up, for the snow was getting deeper at every step. A hurricane was blowing, STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 45 accompanied with a fall of fine snow, and the horses shook with extreme cold. In these circumstances, Price the mail- guard mounted one of the horses, tied his mail-bags on the back of another, and set out for London. He was joined farther on by two postboys on other horses with the bye- bags, and all three journeyed in company. The road- marks being frequently effaced, they were constantly de- viating from their proper course, clearing gates, hedges, and ditches ; but having a general knowledge of the lie of the country, and Price being possessed of good nerves, they succeeded in reaching the metropolis. The guard was in a distressing state of exhaustion when he reached his destination. This was only one instance of the way in which the guards acquitted themselves during this memor- able storm, and for their great exertions they received the special thanks of the Postmaster-General. At a place called Cavendish Bridge the mails were arrested by the storm, and the exertions of the coachman and guard were thus referred to by a private gentleman of the neighbourhood, who communicated with the Post-office on the subject : "I take leave to remark that the zeal and industry evinced by the guard and coachman, more especially the former (named Needle), upon the trying occasion to which your communication has reference, was well worthy of imitation, and formed a striking contrast to the reprehensible apathy of two gentlemen who were inside passengers by the mail." A notable instance of the devotion to duty of a coach- man and mail-guard, and one illustrating the dangers and hardships which Post-office servants of that class had to encounter, occurred in the winter of 1831. On Tuesday the 1st February of that year, James M 'George, mail- guard, and John Goodfellow, coachman, set out from Dumfries for Edinburgh at seven o'clock in the morning, 46 THE ROYAL MAIL. and after extraordinary exertions reached Moffat, beyond which, however, they found it impossible to proceed with the coach, owing to the accumulation of snow. They then procured saddle-horses, and with these, accompanied by a postboy, they went on, intending to continue their journey in this way. They had not proceeded beyond Erickstane Hill, a rising ground in close proximity to the well-known natural enclosure called the DeiPs Beef-Tub, when it be- came evident that the horses could not make the journey, and these were sent back in charge of the postboy to Moffat. The guard and coachman, unwilling to give in, continued their journey on foot, having in view to reach a roadside inn at Tweedshaws, some two or three miles farther on. The exact particulars of what thereafter happened will never be known, beyond this, that the mail- bags were afterwards found tied to one of the road- posts set up in like situations to mark the line of road on occasions of snowstorms, and that the two men perished in the drift. The last act performed by them, before being quite overcome by exhaustion and fatigue, was inspired by a sense of duty, their aim being to leave the bags where they would more readily be found by others, should they themselves not live to recover them. Shortly after this the two men appear to have succumbed ; for their bodies were found five days afterwards within a hundred yards of the place where they left the bags, and where at the cost of their lives they had rendered their last service to the Post-office and their country. " And down he sinks Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift, Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death, Mix'd with the tender anguish Nature shoots Through the wrung bosom of the dying man, His wife, his children, and his fiiends unseen. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. On every nerve| The deadly winter seizes ; shuts up sense ; And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold, Lays him along the snows, a stiffened corse, Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast." THOMSON. We who are accustomed to the comforts of railway travelling, are nevertheless, in regard to accidents, very much like the ostrich ; for though we do not purposely close our eyes to danger, we are nevertheless placed in such a position that we are unable, when shut up in a railway carriage, to see what is before us, or about to happen. Far otherwise was the case in the days of coaching. The passengers, as well as the drivers and guards, were not only exposed to the drench ings from long-continued rain, the terrible exposure to the cold night-air in winter travelling, and the danger of attack from highwaymen, but they ran the risks of all the accidents of the road, many of which they could see to be inevitable before they happened. There were occasions when passengers were frozen to death on the coaches, and others when they fell off benumbed with cold. It is said sometimes that first impressions are often correct; but there are, of course, erroneous first impressions as well. A story is told of a mail-guard in Scotland who had the misfortune to be on a coach which upset, and from which all the outside people were thrown to the ground. The guard came down upon his head on the top of a stiff hedge, and from this temporary situation rolled into a ditch, where for a moment he lay. Coming to himself from a partial stupor, he imagined there was something wrong with the top of his head, and putting up his hand, he felt a flat surface, which to his dawning perception appeared to be a section of his neck, his impression being that his head had been 48 THE ROYAL MAIL. cut off.- This was, however, nothing but the crown of his hat, which, being forced down over his head and face, had probably saved him from more serious damage. Broken limbs were accidents of common occurrence ; but affairs of much more serious import occasionally took place, of which the following is a notable example : On the night of Tuesday the 25th October 1808, the road between Carlisle and Glasgow was the scene of a catastrophe which will serve to illustrate in a striking degree one of the perils of the postal service in the mail- coach era. The place where the event now to be described occurred, lies between Beattock and Elvanfoot (about five miles from the latter place), where the highway crosses the Evan Water, a stream which takes its rise near the sources of the Clyde, but whose waters are carried southward into Dumfriesshire. To be more precise, the situation is between two places called Raecleuch and Howcleuch, on the Carlisle road ; and a bridge which now spans the water, in lieu of a former bridge, retains by association, to this day, the name of the " Broken Bridge." It was at the breaking up of a severe storm of frost and snow, when the rivers were flooded to such an extent as had never been seen by the oldest people in the neighbourhood. The bridge had been but recently built ; and though it was afterwards stated that the materials composing the mortar must have been of bad quality, no doubt would seem to have been entertained as to the security of the bridge. The night was dark, and accompanied by both wind and rain elements which frequently usher in a state of thaw. The mail-coach having passed the summit, was speeding along at a good round pace, the " outsiders " doubtless making them- selves as comfortable as circumstances would allow, while the "insides," as we might imagine, had composed them- selves into some semblance of sleep, the time being between STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 49 nine and ten o'clock, when, suddenly and without warning, the whole equipage horses, coach, driver, guard, and passengers on reaching the middle of the bridge, went headlong pre- cipitate into the swollen stream through a chasm left by the collapse of the arch. It is by no means easy to realise what the thoughts would be of those concerned in this dreadful experience pitched into a roaring torrent, in a most lonely place, at a late hour on such a night. The actual results were, however, very serious. The two leading horses were killed outright by the fall, while one of the wheelers was killed by a heavy stone descending upon it from the still impending portions of the wrecked structure. The coach and harness also were utterly destroyed. But, worse still, two outside passengers, one a Mr Lund, a partner in a London house, and the other named Brand, a merchant in Ecclefechan, were killed on the spot, while a lady and three gentlemen who were inside passengers miraculously escaped with their lives, though they were severely bruised. The lady, who had scrambled out of the vehicle, sought refuge on a rock in mid-stream, there remaining prisoner for a time ; and by her means a second catastrophe of a similar kind was happily averted. The mail from Carlisle for Glasgow usually exchanged " Good-night " with the south- going coach, when they were running to time, just about the scene of the accident. Fortunately the coach from Carlisle was rather late ; but when it did arrive, the lady on the rock, seeing the lights approach, screamed aloud, and thus warned the driver to draw up in time. Succour was now at hand. Something ludicrous generally finds itself in company with whatever is of a tragic nature. The guard of the Carlisle coach was let down to the place where the lady was, by means of the reins taken from the horses. Hugliie Campbell that was the guard's name when deliberating upon the plan of rescue, had some delicacy as to how he D 50 THE ROYAL MAIL. should affix the reins to the person of the lady, and called up to those above, " Where will I grip her ? " But before he could be otherwise advised, the lady, long enough already on the rock, broke in, " Grip me where you like, but grip me firm," which observation at once removed Hughie's difficulty, and set his scruples at ease. The driver of the wrecked coach, Alexander Cooper, was at first thought to have been carried away ; but he was afterwards found caught between two stones in the river. He survived the accident only a few weeks serious injuries to his back proving fatal. As for the guard, Thomas Kinghorn, he was severely cut about the head, but eventually recovered. It was usual for the coachman and guard over this wild and exposed road to be strapped to their seats in stormy weather; but on this occasion Kinghorn, as it happened, was not strapped, and to this circumstance he attributed his escape from death. When the mail went down, he was sent flying over the bridge, and alighted clear from the wreck of the coach. The dead passengers and the wounded persons were taken by the other coach into Moffat. It may be added that the fourth horse was got out of its predicament little the worse for the fall, and continued to run for many a day over the same road ; but it was always observed to evince great nervousness and excitement when- ever it approached the scene of the accident. Yet the mail-coach days had charms and attractions for travellers, if they at the same time had their drawbacks : the bustle and excitement of the start, when the horses were loosed and the driver let them have rein, under the eyes of interested and admiring spectators ; the exhilarating gallop as a good pace was achieved on the open country - road ; the keen relish of the meals, more especially of breakfast, at the neatly kept and hospitable inn ; the blithe note of the guard's horn, as a turnpike-gate or the end of a STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 51 stage was approached ; and the hurried changing of horses from time to time as the journey progressed. Ever-varying scene is the characteristic of the occasion : the village with its rustic quiet, and odd characters, who were sure to present themselves as the coach flew by ; the fresh and blooming fields ; the soft and pastoral downs ; the scented hedgerows in May and June ; the stretches of road embowered with wood, affording a grateful shade in warm weather ; the farmer's children swinging on a gate or over- topping a fence, and cheering lustily with their small voices as the coach swept along. And then, the hours of twilight being past, when " Day hath put on his jacket, and around His burning bosom buttoned it with stars," the eeriness of a night-journey would be experienced. During hard frost the clear ring of the horses' feet would be heard upon the road; the discomfort of fellow-passengers rolling about in their places, overcome by sleep, would be felt ; while in the solemn dulness of the darker hours of night the monotony of the situation would be relieved at intervals, in the mineral districts, by miniature mountains of blazing coal, shedding their lurid glare upon the coach as it passed, and showing up the figures of soiled and dusky men employed thereat, thus creating a horrible impression upon the passengers, and seeming to afford an effective representation of Dante's shadowy world. Or, on occasions of great national triumph when, for example, some important victory crowned our arms the coach, decked out with ribbons or green leaves, would be the bearer of the joyful and intoxicating news down into the country, the driver and guard, as the official repre- sentatives of the Crown, being the heroes of the hour. But it may be of interest to learn what a mail-coach 52 THE ROYAL MAIL. journey was from one who had just completed such a trip, and who, in the freshness of youth, and with the unreserve which can only subsist in correspondence between members of a family or dear friends, immediately commits his impressions to writing. We have a vivid sketch of a journey of this kind from no less a personage than Felix Mendelssohn, the great musical composer. Mendelssohn was at the time a young man of twenty : he had been making a tour in Scotland with his friend Klingemann the visit being that from which, by the way, Mendelssohn derived inspiration for the composition of his delightful Scotch symphony ; and the means by which he quitted the northern kingdom was by mail-coach from Glasgow to Liverpool. The following letter, descriptive of the journey, and dated August 19, 1829, is copied from an interesting work called ' The Mendelssohn Family ' : " We flew away from Glasgow on the top of the mail, ten miles an hour, past steaming meadows and smoking chimneys, to the Cumberland lakes, to Keswick, Kendal. and the prettiest towns and villages. The whole country is like a drawing-room. The rocky walls are papered with bushes, moss, and firs ; the trees are carefully wrapped up in ivy ; there are no walls or fences, only high hedges, and you see them all the way up flat hill-tops. On all sides carriages full of travellers fly along the roads ; the corn stands in sheaves; slopes, hills, precipices, are all covered with thick, warm foliage. Then again our eyes dwelt on the dark-blue English distance many a noble castle, and so on, until we reached Ambleside. There the sky turned gloomy again, and we had rain and storm. Sitting on the top of the * stage,' and madly careering along ravines, past lakes, up-hill, down-hill, wrapped in cloaks, and umbrellas up, we could see nothing but railings, heaps of stones or ditches, and but rarely catch glimpses of hills and lakes. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 53 Sometimes our umbrellas scraped against the roofs of the houses, and then, wet through, we would come to a second- rate inn, with a high blazing fire, and English conversation about walking, coals, supper, the weather, and Bonaparte. Yesterday our seats on the coach were accidentally separated, so that I hardly spoke to Klingemann, for changing horses was done in about forty seconds. I sat on the box next by the coachman, who asked me whether I flirted much, and made me talk a good deal, and taught me the slang of horsemanship. Klingemann sat next to two old women, with whom he shared his umbrella. Again manufactories, meadows, parks, provincial towns, here a canal, there a railway, then the sea with ships, six full coaches with towering outsiders following each other ; in the evening a thick fog, the stage running madly in the darkness. Through the fog we see lamps gleaming all about the horizon ; the smoke of manufactories envelops us on all sides ; gentlemen on horseback ride past ; one coach-horn blows in B flat, another in D, others follow in the distance, and here we are at Liverpool." Speed was of the first consideration, and the stoppages at the wayside stages were of very limited duration. At an inn, the travellers would hardly have made a fair start in appeasing their hunger, when the guard would be heard calling upon them to take their seats, which, with mouths full, and still hungry, they would be forced to do, though with a bad grace and a growl the acknowledged privilege of Englishmen. A story is told of one passenger, however, who was equal to the occasion. Leisurely sipping his tea and eating his toast, this traveller was found by the land- lord in the breakfast-room when the other passengers were seated and the coach was on the point of starting. Boniface appealed to him to take his place, or he would be left behind. " But," replied the traveller, " that I will 54 THE ROYAL MAIL. not do till I have a spoon to sup my egg." A glance apprised the landlord that not a spoon adorned the table, and rushing out he detained the coach while all the passengers were searched for the missing articles. Then out came the satisfied traveller, who also submitted to be searched, and afterwards mounted the coach ; and as the mail drove off he called to the landlord to look inside the teapot, where the artful traveller had placed the dozen spoons, with the double object of cooling the tea for his second cup, and detaining the coach till he drank it. The illustration here inserted, from an old print, shows a passenger securing refreshment on a cold night. In the year 1836 the speed of some of the mail-coaches was nearly ten miles an hour, including stoppages, and this was kept up over very long distances. From Edin- burgh to London, a distance of 400 miles, the time allowed was forty-five and a half hours ; in the opposite direction the time was curtailed to forty-two and a half hours. From London to York, 197 miles, twenty hours were allowed; London to Manchester, 185 miles, nineteen hours; London to Exeter, 176 miles, nineteen hours; London to Holyhead, 259 miles, twenty-seven hours; London to Devonport, 216 miles, twenty-one hours. But in the earlier days of the mail-coach, travelling was much less rapid; for we find that in 1804 the mail-coach from Perth to Edinburgh, a distance by way of Fife of 40 miles, took eight hours for the journey, including stoppages and the transit by Ferry across the Forth that is, at the rate of five miles an hour. The mail-guards rode about twelve hours at a stretch quite long enough, in all conscience, on a wet or frosty night. But though in the earlier days of the mail-coaches the speed achieved by them, even on the main lines, was probably not more than seven or eight miles an hour, the STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 55 56 THE ROYAL MAIL. people at head-quarters would seem to have regarded this as a thing not to be trifled with ; for in a Postmaster- General's minute of 1791, directing that, owing to the frequent robberies, a caution should be given to the public against sending bank notes otherwise than in halves, the following bit of advice is added. The minute directs that the notice shall contain " also a printed caution at the foot of the Table, directing all persons to avoid, as far as may be, sending any cash by the post, partly from the prejudice it does the coin by the friction it occasions from the great expedition -with which it is conveyed, and especially as the cash is so liable to fall out of the letter by jolting, and to be found at the bottom of the bag," &c. It would be a species of high treason to treat with levity any kind of expression or decision proceeding from a reigning Postmaster- General, but at this safe distance of time we may venture to smile at the idea here propounded, that coins would seriously suffer by sweating in a mail-bag conveyed by coach at the surprising rate of eight miles an hour. Such ill-founded apprehensions of the mail-coach speed were not, however, confined to post officials, for Lord Campbell was frequently warned against the danger of travelling in this way, and instances were cited to him in which passengers died from apoplexy induced by the rapidity with which these vehicles travelled ! An incident of a romantic nature happened about the year 1780 in connection with the stage-coach (not a mail- coach, however, be it noted) running between Edinburgh and Glasgow at that period. The stage-coach, drawn by four horses, had been on the road for many years, having been established about the year 1758. The time occupied in the journey was twelve hours ; nor, down to the period in question, had any acceleration taken place. A young lady of Glasgow, of distinguished beauty, having to travel STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 57 to Edinburgh, a lover whose suit towards her had not hitherto proved successful, took the remaining tickets for the journey, and so became her sole companion on the way. By assiduous attentions, and all the winsome ways which the tender passion knows to suggest, as well as by earnestness of pursuit, the lover won the lady to his favour, and she soon thereafter became his wife. But the full day did not justify the brightness of the morning : the husband failed to prove himself worthy of his good fortune ; " and the lady, in a state worse than widowhood, was, a few years after, the subject of the celebrated Clarinda correspondence of Burns." In addition to the obvious duties of the mail-guards to protect the mails and carry out their exchange at the several stations they were sometimes required to perform special duties unconnected with Post-office work. They were, for example, called upon to keep watch in the early part of the present century upon French prisoners of war who might be breaking their parole, a likely way of escaping being by the mail-coaches. The guards were instructed to question any suspicious foreigner travelling by the coach, and to report the matter to the postmaster at the first town at which they arrived. This was doubtless looked upon as a pleasure rather than as a hardship ; for they were re- minded that the usual reward was ten guineas each not a bad price for a Frenchman under the circumstances. No record of the mail-coach days would be complete without a description of the annual procession of mail- coaches which used to be held in the metropolis on the monarch's birthday. As every corporation or society has its saint's day, or yearly festival, so the Jehus of the Post- office were not without theirs ; an occasion on which they showed themselves to advantage, and drew admiring crowds to behold them. The following account of one of these 58 THE ROYAL MAIL. displays is from the 'Annals of the Road,' a work of great interest on subjects connected with coaching generally; and as the description is given with spirit and apparent truth- fulness, we cannot do better than give it at length, and in this way bring the present chapter to a close : "The great day of the year was the King's birthday, when a goodly procession of four-in-hands started from the great coach manufactory of Mr John Vidler, in the neigh- bourhood of Millbank, and wended its way to St Martin's- le-Grand. Splendid in fresh paint and varnish, gold lettering and Royal arms, they were the perfection of neatness and practical utility in build, horsed to perfection, and leathered to match. They were driven by coachmen who, as well as the guards behind, were arrayed in spick-and-span new scarlet and gold. No delicate bouquets, but mighty nose- gays of the size of a cabbage, adorned the breasts of these portly mail coachmen and guards, while bunches of cabbage- roses decorated the heads of the proud steeds. In the cramped interior of the vehicles were closely packed buxom dames and blooming lassies, the wives, daughters, or sweet- hearts of the coachmen or guards, the fair passengers arrayed in coal-scuttle bonnets and in canary-coloured or scarlet silks. On this great occasion the guard was allowed two seats and the coachman two, no one allowed on the roof. But the great feature, after all, was that stirring note, so clearly blown and well drawn out, and every now and again sounded by the guards, and alternated with such airs as ' The Days when we went Gipsying/ capitally played on a key-bugle. Should a mail come late, the tune from a passing one would be, ' Oh. dear ! what can the matter be ? ' This key-bugle was no part of the mail equipment, but was nevertheless frequently used. " Heading the procession was the oldest-established mail, which would be the Bristol. On the King's birthday, STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 59 1834, there were 27 coaches in the procession. They all wore hammer-cloths, and both guard and coachman were in red liveries, the latter being furnished by the mail contractor. They wore beaver hats with gold lace and cockades. Such a thing as a low billycock hat was not to be seen on any coach anywhere. Sherman's mails were drawn by black horses, and on these occasions their harness was of red morocco. St Martin 's-le-Grand in the Coaching Days. " The coaches were new each year. In these days brass mountings were rarely known ; plated or silver only were in use. On the starting of the procession, the bells of the neighbouring churches rang out merrily, continuing their rejoicing peals till it arrived at the General Post-office. Many country squires, who were always anxious that their best horses should have a few turns in the mail-coaches in travelling, sent up their horses to figure in the pro- cession. "From Millbank the procession passed by St James's Palace, at the windows of which, above the porch, stood King William and his Queen. The Duke of Richmond 60 THE ROYAL MAIL. (then Postmaster-General) and the Duke of "Wellington stood there also. Each coach as it passed saluted the King, the coachman and guard standing up and taking off their hats. The appearance of the smart coaches, emblazoned with the Royal arms, orders, &c., coachman and guard got up to every advantage, with their nosegays stuck in their brand-new scarlet liveries, was at this point strikingly grand. The inspectors of mail-coaches rode in front of the procession on horseback." 61 CHAPTER IV. FOOT-POSTS. " I know of no more universally popular personage than this humble official. Bearer of love-letters, post-office orders, cheques, little care- fully tied packages, all the more charming that it is difficult to get at their contents, it is who shall be first to open the door to him. He is welcomed everywhere; smiling faces greet him at every door. In England, the postman is the hero of Christmas time ; so he strikes the iron while it is hot, and on Boxing-day comes round to ask for a reward, which all are ready to give without grudging." Max O'Rell in ' John Bull and his Island. ' in former times foot-messengers or, as they -L are called, post-runners were employed to convey many of the principal mails over long stretches of country, their work in this way has been almost wholly superseded by the railway and by horse-posts ; and while post-runners are perhaps now numerically stronger than they ever were, their work is principally confined nowadays to what may be termed the capillary service of the Post-office. They are chiefly employed in conveying correspondence between country towns and the outlying points forming the outskirts or fringes of inhabited districts. These men have in many cases very arduous work, being required to walk from sixteen to twenty-four miles a-day ; and it is not improbable that the circumstances of these later times make the duties more trying in some respects than they were formerly. For the messengers are so timed for arrival and departure that 62 THE ROYAL MAIL. they are prevented from taking shelter on occasions of storm, and are obliged to plod on in spite of the elements ; whereas in remote times, when a runner took several days to cover his ground, he could rest and take refuge at one stage, and make up lost time at another. Be this, however, as it may, it is the fact that very many post-runners die from that insidious disease, consumption. In the year 1590, the magistrates of Aberdeen established a post for conveying their despatches to and from Edin- burgh, and other places where the royal residence might for the time be. This institution was called the " Council Post"; and the messenger was dressed in a garment of blue c.loth, with the armorial bearings of the town worked in silver on his right sleeve. In the year 1715, there was not a single horse-post in Scotland, all the mails being conveyed by runners on foot ; and the ground covered by these posts extended from Edinburgh as far north as Thurso, and westward as far as Inveraray. About the year 1750, an improved plan of forwarding the mails was introduced in Scotland by the horse-posts proceeding only from stage to stage the mails being transferred to a fresh postboy at each point ; but in the majority of cases the mails were still carried by foot-runners. Before the change of system the plan of proceeding was this, taking the north road as an example : " A person set out with the mail from Edin- burgh to Aberdeen: he did not travel a stage and then deliver the mail to another postboy, but went on to Dundee, where he rested the first night; to Montrose, where he stayed the second ; and on the third he arrived at Aberdeen ; and as he passed by Kinghorn, it behoved the tide, and sometimes also the weather, to render the time of his arrival more late and uncertain." The plan of conveying mails by the same runners over long distances continued much later, however ; for we find FOOT-POSTS. 63 that in 1799 a post-runner travelled from Inverness to Lochcarron a distance across country as the crow flies of about fifty miles making the journey once a-week, for which he was paid five shillings. Another messenger at the same period made the journey from Inverness to Dunvegan in Skye a much greater distance also once a-week, the hebdomadal stipend in this instance being seven shillings and sixpence. As with the postboys, so with the runners ; the surveyors seem to have had some trouble in keeping them to their prescribed duties, as will be gathered from the following report written in the year 1800 : "I found it had been the general practice for the post from Bonaw to Appin to lodge regularly all night at or near the house of Ardchattan, and did not cross Shien till the following morning, losing twelve hours to the Appin, Strontian, and Fort William districts of country; and I consider it an improvement of itself to remove such private lodgings or accommodations out of the way of posts, which, as I have been informed, is sometimes done for the sake of perusing newspapers, as well as answering or writing letters." Nor was the speed of the foot-posts in some cases, at any rate very much to boast of, these humble messengers being at times heavily weighted with the correspondence they had to carry. In the year 1805, before the Dumbarton to Inveraray mail service was raised to the dignity of a horse -post, the surveyor, in referring to the necessity for the employment of horses, thus deplores the situation : " I have sometimes observed these mails, at leaving Dumbarton, about three stones or forty-eight pounds weight, and they are generally above two stones. During the course of last winter, horses were obliged to be occasionally employed ; and it is often the case that a strong Highlander, with so great weight on him, cannot travel more than two miles an hour, 64 THE ROYAL MAIL. which greatly retards the general correspondence of this extensive district of country." In winter-time, and on occasions of severe storms, the post-runners have sometimes to endure great fatigue ; and it is then that their loyalty to the service is put to the test. An instance of stern fidelity to duty on the part of one of these men, at the time of the snowstorm of 1836, formed the subject of a petition to the Postmaster- General from the inhabitants of Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppy. The document recites that a foot-messenger named John "Wright continued for nine days, from the 25th December 1836, to carry the mails between Sheerness and Sitting- bourne a distance for the double journey of about twenty- four miles. At the end of this time he was so completely exhausted and overcome by the effects of cold and exposure, that he had to give up duty for a time. The memorial sets forth that "the road is circuitous and crooked, through marshes, and very exposed, without any protection from the drift (in many places very deep), and with a ditch on either side the water of which was frozen just sufficient to bear the weight of the snow, thereby rendering the travelling extremely hazardous, inasmuch as the dangers were in a great measure unseen; and had the postman mistaken his road (which from the frequent drifting of the snow, and the absence of traffic at that time was often untracked), and fallen into one of these ditches, he must no doubt have perished." It appeared further, that between the two places there was a ferry which the postman had to cross, and that in making the passage on the night of the 25th December, the boat in which he was nearly swamped, and he " was compelled to escape through mud and water up to his waist." It is not an uncommon thing for messengers to lose their lives in the discharge of their duties, and a severe FOOT-POSTS. 65 winter seldom passes without some fatality of this kind. In the winter of 1876-77, a sad accident befell a messenger employed in Northumberland. On a night of intense dark- ness and storm, this man turned off the usual road in order to avoid crossing a swollen stream ; and subsequently losing his way, he sank down and died, overcome by exposure and fatigue. In another case a messenger at Lochcarron, in Scotland, being unable to pursue his usual route over a mountain 2000 feet high, on account of a heavy fall of snow, proceeded by water to complete his journey; but the boat which he had engaged capsized, and both the messenger and two other persons who accompanied him were drowned. A few years ago, on the evening of Christmas-day, a rural messenger at Bannow, in Ireland, while on his return journey along a narrow path flanked on each side by a deep ditch, is believed to have been tripped by a furze-root, and being precipitated into one of the ditches, was unfortunately drowned. The rural post-messengers having, moreover, to visit isolated houses along their route, are exposed to the attacks of dogs kept about the premises. A few years ago a rural messenger was delivering letters at a farmhouse, when he was severely bitten by a retriever dog, and he died six weeks afterwards from tetanus. It is perhaps in the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland that the most trying conditions for the rural messengers present themselves. From Ullapool to Coigach and Eieff in Eoss-shire, for example, a journey of twenty- six miles, the messenger travels out one day, and back again the next. Proceeding from Ullapool, the main road is followed for about three miles, when the man strikes off into the hills, and after a time reaches a river. This he is enabled sometimes to cross by means of stepping-stones ; but so often does the water cover these, that he is generally obliged to ford it, and in doing so gets himself thoroughly E 66 THE ROYAL MAIL. wet. Then he pursues a course along or over one of the most dangerous rocks in Scotland for a distance of three or four miles, the rock in some places being so precipitous that he is obliged to cling to it for dear life. 1 After passing this rock- he continues some distance further over the hills, and ultimately regains the main road, by which he completes his journey. Apart altogether from the dangerous character of the road, the distance which the post-runner has to walk day after day must necessarily be severe and trying work. From Lochmaddy to Castlebay there is a chain of posts seventy-five miles long, served partly by foot-messengers, partly by horse-posts, and partly by boats. The line is intersected by dangerous ferries, one between Kilbride and Barra being six miles wide, and exposed to the full force of the waves from the Atlantic. From Garrynahine to Miavaig, in the island of Lewis, there is another dangerous service, partly by foot- post and partly by boat, the distance being seventeen miles. The road lies all through bog a dreary waste while the sea portion is on a most exposed part of the coast. These are a few instances of the laborious and dangerous services performed by the rural postmen. Their brother officers in the towns, though in many cases having quite hard enough work (Mr Anthony Trollope tells that the hardest day's work he ever did in his life was accompanying a Glasgow postman up and down stairs on his beat), have not the exposure of the men in the country; and as they are familiar to the eyes of every one, any special notice of them here would be out of place. It may, however, be mentioned, that the men who formerly delivered letters in small towns were not always in 1 Eoute changed since 1885. FOOT- POSTS. 67 the pay of the Post-office or under its control.. This appears by an official report of 1810, relating to the town service of Greenock, which runs as follows : " As the Greenock letter- carrier is not paid by Government, nor their appointment properly in us, they are of course elected by the magistrates or inhabitants of the town, who have the right to choose their own carriers, or call for their letters at the office." 68 CHAPTER V. MAIL-PACKETS, THE employment of vessels for the conveyance of mails seems to have passed through three several stages, each no doubt merging into the next, but each retaining, never- theless, distinct features of its own. First, there was the stage when Government equipped and manned its own ships for the service ; then there was an age of very heavy sub- sidies to shipping companies who could not undertake regularity of sailing without some such assistance ; and now there is the third stage, when, through the great develop- ment of international trade and the consequent competition of rival shipowners, regularity of sailing is ensured apart from the post, and the Government is able to make better terms for the conveyance of the mails. It is curious to take a glimpse of the conditions under which the early packets sailed, when they were often in danger of having to fight or fly. The instructions to the captains were 'to run while they could, fight when they could no longer run, and to throw the mails overboard when fight- ing would no longer avail. In 1693, such a ship as then performed the service was described as one of " eighty-five tons and fourteen guns, with powder, shot, and firearms, and all other munitions of war." A poor captain, whose ship the ' Grace Dogger ' was lying in Dublin Bay awaiting the MAIL-PACKETS. 69 tide, fell into the hands of the enemy, a French privateer having seized his ship and stripped her of rigging, sails, spars, and yards, and of all the furniture " wherewith she had been provided for the due accommodation of passengers, leaving not so much as a spoone or a naile-hooke to hang anything on." The unfortunate ship in its denuded state was ransomed from its captors for fifty guineas. If we may judge from this case, the fighting of the packets does not seem always to have been satisfactory; and the Postmasters- General of the day, deeming discretion the better part of valour, set about building packets that should escape the enemy. They did build new vessels, but so low did they rest in the water that the Postmasters-General wrote of them thus : " Wee doe find that in blowing weather they take in soe much water that the men are constantly wet all through, and can noe ways goe below to change themselves, being obliged to keep the hatches shut to save the vessel from sinking, which is such a discouragement of the sailors, that it will be of the greatest difficulty to get any to endure such hardshipps in the winter weather." These flying ships not proving a success, the Postmasters-General then deter- mined to build " boats of force to withstand the enemy," adopting the bull-dog policy as the only course open in the circumstances. It may be interesting to recall how these packets were manned. In May 1695 the crews of the packets between Harwich and Holland were placed on the following footing : Master and Coi mander, Mate, Surgeon, . Boatswain, Midshipman, Carpenter, Boatswain's in a Per mensem, n- . 10 3 10 3 10 350 1 15 350 te, . 1 15 Gunner's mate, Quartermaster, Captain's servant, 11 Able seamen at 1, 10s., Agent's instrument, In all, . Per mensem. 1 15 1 15 100 16 10 200 . 50 70 THE ROVAL MAIL. These wages may not have been considered too liberal considering the risks the men ran ; and as an encourage- ment to greater valour in dealing with the enemy, and as an additional means of recompense, the crew were allowed to take prizes if they fell in their way. They also "received pensions for wounds, according to a code drawn up with a nice discrimination of the relative value of different parts of the body, and with a most amusing profusion of the technical terms of anatomy. Thus, after a fierce engage- ment which took place in February 1705, we find that Edward James had a donation of 5 because a musket-shot had grazed on the tibia of his left leg; that Gabriel Treludra had 12 because a shot had divided his frontal muscles and fractured his skull; that Thomas Williams had the same sum because a Granada shell had stuck fast in his left foot; that John Cook, who received a shot in the hinder part of his head, whereby a large division of the scalp was made, had a donation of 6, 1 3s. 4d. for present relief, and a yearly pension of the same amount ; and that Benjamin Lillycrop, who lost the fore-finger of his left hand, had 2 for present relief, and a yearly pension of the same amount." Some other classes of wounds were assessed for pensions as follows : " Each arm or leg amputated above the elbow or knee is 8 per annum ; below the knee is 20 nobles. Loss of the sight of one eye is 4, of the pupil of the eye 5, of the sight of both eyes 12, of the pupils of both eyes 14 ; and ac- cording to these rules we consider also how much the hurts affect the body, and make the allowances accordingly." But between different parts of the United Kingdom, not a century ago, it is remarkable how infrequent the com- munications sometimes were. Nowadays, there are three or four mails a-week between the mainland and Lerwick, in Shetland, whereas in 1802 the mails between these parts were carried only ten times a-year, the trips in December and MAIL-PACKETS. 71 January being omitted owing to the stormy character of the weather. The contract provided that there should be used "a sufficiently strong-built packet," and the allowance granted for the service was 120 per annum. It may perhaps be worthy of notice that the amount of postage upon letters sent to Shetland in the year ended the 5th July 1802 was no more than 199, 19s. Id. It was also stipulated, by the terms of the agreement, that the contractors should adopt a proper search of their own servants, lest they should privately convey letters to the injury of the revenue; and they were also required to take measures against passengers by the packet transgressing in the same way. On one occasion the good people in these northern islands, when memorialising for more frequent postal service, suggested that the packets would be of great use in spying out and reporting the presence of French privateers on the coast ; but the Post- master-General of the period took the sensible view that the less the packets saw of French privateers the better it would be for the packet service. Difficulties are experienced even in the present day in communicating with some of the outlying islands of the north of Scotland, weeks and occasionally months passing without the boats carrying the mails being able to make the passage. The following is from a report made by the post- master of Lerwick on the 27th March 1883, with reference to the interruption of the mail-service with Foula, an out- lying island of the Shetland group : " A mail was made up on the 8th January, and several attempts made to reach the island, but unsuccessfully, until the 10th March. Fair Isle was in the same predicament as Foula, but the mail-boat was more unfortunate. A trip was effected to Fair Isle about the end of December, but none again until last week. About 9th March the boat left for Fair Isle, and nothing being heard of her for a 72 THE ROYAL MAIL. fortnight, fears were entertained for her safety. Fortun- ately the crew turned up on 23d March, but their boat had been wrecked at Fair Isle. During the twenty years I have been in the service, I have never been so put about arrang- ing our mails and posts as since the New Year; we have had heavier gales, but I do not think any one remembers such a continuation of storms as from about the first week of January to end of February; indeed it could hardly be called storms, but rather one continued storm, with an occasional lull of a few hours. I cannot recall any time during the period having twenty-four hours' calm or even moderate weather. If it was a lull at night, it was on a gale in the morning ; and if a lull in the morning, a gale came on before night. The great difficulty in working Foula and Fair Isle is the want of harbours ; and often a passage might be made, but the men dare not venture on account of the landing at the islands." This statement gives a fair idea of the difficulties that have to be overcome in keeping up the circulation of letters with the distant frag- ments of our home country. In the packet service deeds of devotion have been done in the way of duty, as has been the case on occasions in the land service. At a period probably about 1800, a Mr Ramage, an officer attached to the Dublin Post-office, being charged with a Government despatch, to be placed on board the packet in the Bay of Dublin, found, on arriving there, that the captain, contrary to orders, had put to sea. Mr Ramage, being unable to acquit himself of his duty in one way, undertook it in another ; and hiring an open boat, he proceeded to Holy head, and there safely landed the despatch. Another instance is related in connection with the shipwreck of the 'Violet' mail-packet sailing between Ostend and Dover ; the particulars being given as follows in the Post- master-General's report for 1856: MAIL-PACKETS. 73 " Mr Mortleman, the officer in immediate charge of the mail-bags, acted on the occasion with a presence of mind and forethought which reflect honour on his memory. On seeing that the vessel could not be saved, he must have removed the cases containing the mail-bags from the hold, and so have placed them that when the ship went down they might float ; a proceeding which ultimately led to the recovery of all the bags, except one containing despatches, of which, from their nature, it was possible to obtain copies." It has already been mentioned that at the close of the seventeenth century a mail-packet was a vessel of some 85 tons a proud thing, no doubt, in the eyes of him who commanded her. The class of ship would seem to have remained very much the same during the next hundred years; for, in the last years of the eighteenth century, a mail-packet on the Falmouth Station, reckoned fit to proceed to any part of the world, was of only about 179 tons burthen. Her crew, from commander to cook, comprised only twenty-eight persons when she was on a war footing, and twenty-one on a peace footing ; and her armament was six 4-pounder guns. The victualling was at the rate of tenpence per man per day ; the whole annual charge for the packet when on the war establishment, including interest on cost of ship, wages, wear and tear of fittings, medicine, &c., being 2112, 6s. 8d.; while on the peace establishment, with diminished wear and tear, and reduced crew, the charge was estimated at 1681, 11s. 9d. The packets on the Harwich station, performing the service to and from the Continent, were much less in size, being of about 70 tons burthen. During the wars with the French at this period the mail- packets were not infrequently captured by the enemy. From 1793 to 1795 alone four of these ships were thus lost namely, the 'King George,' the ' Tankerville,' the 74 THE ROYAL MAIL. ' Prince William Henry,' and the ' Queen Charlotte.' The ' King George/ a Lisbon packet, homeward bound with the mails and a considerable quantity of money, was taken and carried into Brest. The ' Tankerville,' on her passage from Falmouth to Halifax, with the mails of November and December 1794, was captured by the privateer ' Lovely Lass/ a ship fitted out in an American port, and probably itself a prize, there having been some diplomatic correspondence with the United States shortly before on the subject of a captured vessel bearing that name. Before the * Tankerville ' fell into the hands of the enemy, the mails were thrown overboard, in accordance with the standing orders which have already been referred to. The officers and crew were carried on board the ' Lovely Lass/ and then the ' Tankerville' was sunk. Soon afterwards the captive crew were released by the commander of the privateer, and sent in a Spanish prize to Barbadoes. But though the mail-packets were intended to rely for safety mainly upon their fine lines and spread of canvas, and were expected to show fight only in the last resort, we may be sure that, when the hour of battle came upon them, they were not taken without a struggle. Nor, indeed, did they always get the worst of the fray, as will be seen by the following account of a brilliant affair which took place in the West Indies, copied from the 'Annual Register' of 1794: " The ' Antelope ' packet sailed from Port Royal, Jamaica, November 27, 1793. On the 1st of December, on the coast of Cuba, she fell in with two schooners, one of which, the ' Atalanta/ outsailed her consort ; and after chasing the ' Antelope ' for a considerable time, and exchanging many shots, at five o'clock in the ensuing morning, it being calm, rowed up, grappled with her on the starboard side, poured in a broadside, and made an attempt to board, which was MAIL-PACKETS. 75 repulsed with great slaughter. By this broadside, Mr Curtis, the master and commander of the ' Antelope/ the first mate, ship's steward, and a French gentleman, a passenger, fell. The command then devolved on the boatswain (for the second mate had died of the fever on the passage), who, with the few brave men left, assisted by the passengers, repelled many attempts to board. The boatswain, at last observing that the privateer had cut her grapplings, and was attempting to sheer off, ran aloft, and lashed her squaresail-yard to the ' Antelope's ' fore-shrouds, and imme- diately pouring in a few volleys of small arms, which did great execution, the enemy called for quarter, which was instantly granted, although the French had the bloody flag hoisted during the whole contest. The prize was carried into Annotta Bay about eleven o'clock the next morning. The 'Antelope' sailed with 27 hands, but had lost four before the action by the fever, besides two then unfit for duty : so that, the surgeon being necessarily in the cockpit, they engaged with only 20 men, besides the passengers. " The * Atalanta ' was fitted out at Charlestown, mounted eight 3-pounders, and carried 65 men, French, Americans, and Irish, of whom 49 were killed or wounded in the action ; the ' Antelope ' having only two killed and three wounded one mortally. " The House of Assembly at Jamaica, as a reward for this most gallant action, voted 500 guineas 200 to be paid to the master's widow, 100 to the first mate's, 100 to the boatswain, and 100 among the rest of the crew." Another adventure of a mail-packet worthy of mention happened a few years later. The ' Lady Hobart,' an Atlantic packet of 200 tons burthen, left Halifax, Nova Scotia, for England in June 1803, and a few days after leaving port, fell in with a French schooner, called 4 L'Aimable Julie,' laden with salt fish. Captain Fellowes 76 THE ROYAL MAIL. of the packet took possession of the schooner, and put a prize crew in charge. A few days later, however, the ' Lady Hobart ' ran into an iceberg ; and there being no hope of saving the ship, the mails were lashed to pigs of ballast and thrown overboard. The crew and passengers took to the 'Lady Hobart,' Mail-Packet, 200 tons. boats, and the ' Lady Hobart ' shortly thereafter foundered. After suffering great hardships, the voyagers reached Newfoundland on the 4th July. The illustration is from a contemporary print. The duty of throwing the mails overboard, when serious danger was apprehended, appears sometimes to have been MAIL-PACKETS. 77 carried out with undue haste ; for we find an account in the 'Annual Eegister' of March 4, 1759, that the Dutch Mail of the 23d February had been thus disposed of through an unlucky mistake. The ship conveying it was of Dutch nationality, and, being boarded by a privateer, those in charge had hastily concluded that the visitor must be an enemy. When too late, they discovered their mistake, for the stranger proved to be a friendly English cruiser ; and they thereafter reached Harwich with a budget of regrets in place of the mails. The packet-boats sailing from the ports of Harwich and Dover, being habitually in the " silver streak," were subject to frequent interruptions from English privateers and men-of-war frequenting these waters ; and to lessen the inconvenience thus arising, the packets at one time carried what was called a " post-boy jack." An official record of 1792 thus describes the flag: "It is the Union-jack with the figure of a man riding post with a mail behind him, and blowing his horn." These flags were made of bunting, and cost 1, 2s. each. 78 THE ROYAL MAIL. Happily there has not for a long time been any need for using fighting ships to convey the mails of this country over the high seas ; and this is a danger which it has not been needful to provide against in the packet service of the present generation. Before leaving these mail-padkets of former days, it is perhaps worth recording, that while needy passengers were sometimes carried on board at half the usual fares, and those in destitute circumstances for nothing at all, the poor Jews were kept outside the pale of the generous concession; and the Post-office thus joined the world's mob in the general harsh treatment of that unhappy race. This appears by an official order of 1774, and the hardship was only removed under an authority dated August 24, 1792. The Post- master-General's minute on the subject is as follows: " The Postmaster-General thinks that the last words of the order which proscribes all Jews, merely because they are Jews, is not consistent w r ith the usual liberality of the office ; but that the agent should be directed to give to them the same privileges that are given to all the rest of the world without any exception to them on account of their religion." We will be pardoned one more quotation. It is a conces- sion on the score of religion, made by the Postmaster-General in a minute, dated October 19, 1790. It runs thus: " Let the Secretary write a civil letter to Mr Coke, that the Postmaster -General is very willing to relinquish, on the part of the King, the usual head money of 12 guineas for three persons at 4, 4s. each, whom Mr Coke represents to be sent to the West Indies for the purpose of instructing the negro slaves in the principles of the Christian religion." While in the eighteenth century but trifling advancement would seem to have been made in naval matters, what a MAIL- PACKETS. 79 contrast is presented by the achievements of the last eighty years ! As compared with the ' Etruria ' and the 4 Umbria ' recent acquisitions of the Cimard Company, for the convey - ance of the mails between Liverpool and New York, each of 8000 tons burthen and 12,500 horse-power, vessels of the past almost sink into nothingness; and we" cannot but acknowledge the rapidity with which sucli stupendous agencies have come under the control of man for the furtherance of his work in the world. 80 THE ROYAL MAIL. A favourite American packet of our own era, for travellers crossing the Atlantic, was the ' America ' of the National Steamship Company, which has since been purchased by the Italian Government for service as a fast cruiser. It is a ship of 6500 tons gross tonnage; and is a surprising con- trast to the American packet of eighty years ago already described. We would present a further contrast between the past and the present as regards the packet service. So late as 1829, and perhaps later still, the voyages out to the under- mentioned places and home again were estimated to take the following number of days, viz.: Days. Days. To Jamaica, . . 112 ,, America, . . 105 , Leeward Islands, . 91 To Malta, ... 98 Brazil, . . .140 ,, Lisbon, . . .28 There were then no regular packets to China, New South Wales. Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Goree, Senegal, St Helena, and many parts of South America; opportunity being taken to send ship letter-bags to these places as occasion offered by trading vessels. Nowadays the transit of letters to the places first above- mentioned is estimated to occupy the following number of days : Days. To Jamaica, . . 18 ,, America, . . 7 ,. West Indies, . 16 To Malta, Days. Brazil, . ' . . 21 Lisbon, . . . 3 And the return mails would occupy a similar amount of time. In nothing perhaps will the advantages now offered by the Post-office, in connection with the packet service, be more appreciated by the public than in the reduced rates of postage. The following table shows the initial rates for letters to several places abroad in 1829 and in 1884: MAIL-PACKETS. 81 1829. 1884. France, . 2s. Id. Italy, . . 2s. lOd. Spain, . . 3s. Id. Sweden, . 2s. 7d. 1829. 1884. Gibraltar, . 3s. Id. 2Jd. Malta, . . 3s. 5d. -2^d. United States, 2s. 5d. 2|d. Brazil, . . 3s t 9d. 4d. Portugal, . 2s. 9d. 2Jd. If we were asked to point out a mail-packet of the present day as fulfilling all modern requirements in regard to the packet service, and showing a model of equipment in the vessels as well as order in their management, we would not hesitate to name the mail-steamers plying between Holyhead and Kingstown. It may not be generally known, but it is the case, that these vessels carry a post-office on board, wherein sorters perform their ordinary duties, by which means much economy of time is effected in the arrangement of the correspondence. In stormy weather, when the packets are tumbling about amid the billows of the Channel, the process of sorting cannot be comfortably carried on, and the men have to make free use of their sea- legs in steadying themselves, so as to secure fair aim at the pigeon-holes into which they sort the letters. But the departure of one of these ships from Kingstown is a sight to behold. Up to a short time before the hour of departure friends may be seen on the hurricane-deck chatting with the passengers ; but no sooner is the whistle of the mail-train from Dublin heard than all strangers are warned off; in a few minutes the train comes down the jetty ; the sailors in waiting seize the mail-bags and carry them on board ; and the moment the last of the bags is thus disposed of, the moorings are all promptly cast off, and the signal given to go ahead : and with such an absence of bustle or excitement is all this done, that before the spectator can realise what has passed before his eyes, the ship is majestically sailing past the end of the pier, and is already on her way to England. 82 CHAPTER VI. SHIPWRECKED MAILS. OUTSIDE the Post-office department it is probably not apprehended to what extent care is actually bestowed upon letters and packets when, in course of transit through the post, their covers are damaged or addresses mutilated in order to secure their further safe transmission; many envelopes and wrappers being of such flimsy material that, coming into contact with hard bundles of letters in the mail-bags, they run great risk of being thus injured. But the occasions on which exceptional pains are taken, and on a large scale, to carry out this work, are when mails from abroad have been saved in the case of shipwreck, and the contents are soaked with water. Then it is that patient work has to be done to get the letters, newspapers, &c., into a state for delivery, to preserve the addresses, and to get the articles dried. In certain instances the roof of the chief office in St Martin's-le-Grand has been used as a drying-green for shipwrecked newspapers, there being no sufficient space indoors to admit of their being spread out. The amount of patching, separating, and deciphering in such circumstances cannot well be conceived. But perhaps the most curious difficulty arising out of a shipwrecked mail was that which took place in connection with the loss of the Union Steamship Company's packet SHIPWKECKED MAILS. 83 ' European ' off Ushant, in December 1877. After this ship went down the mails were recovered, but not without serious damage, through saturation with sea-water. One of the registered letter-bags from Cape Town, on being opened in the chief office in London, was found to contain several large packets of diamonds, the addresses on which had been destroyed by the action^ of the water, and some 7 Ibs. weight of loose diamonds, which had evidently formed the contents of a lot of covers lying as pulp at the bottom of the bag, and from which no accurate addresses could be obtained. Every possible endeavour was made to trace the persons to whom the unbroken packets were consigned, and with such success, that after some little delay they reached the hands of the rightful owners. To discover who were the persons having claims upon the loose diamonds, which could not be individually identified, was a more serious matter, involving much trouble and correspondence. At length this was ascertained ; and as the only means of satisfying, or attempting to satisfy, the several claims, the diamonds were valued by an experienced broker, and sold for the general behoof, realising 19,000. This means of meeting the several claimants proved so satisfactory, that not a single complaint was forthcoming. 84 CHAPTER VII. AMOUNT OF WORK. Correspondence. THE amount of work performed by the Post-office in the transmission of letters and other articles of corre- spondence within the space of a year, may be gathered from the following figures, taken from the Postmaster-General's annual report issued in 1883 : The Letters numbered, . . 1,280,636,200 Post-cards, .... 144,016,200 Books and circulars, . . . 288,206,400 Newspapers, . . . . ,140,682,600 Total, . . 1,853,541,400 These figures are, however, of little service in conveying to our minds any due conception of the amount of work which they represent. Nor, when the scene of the work is spread and distributed over the whole country, and the labour involved is shared in by a host of public servants, would any arrangement of figures put the matter intelligibly within our grasp. The quantity of paper used in this annual interchange of thought through the intermediary of the British Post-office, may perhaps be measured by the AMOUNT OF WORK. 85 following facts : Supposing each letter to contain a single sheet of ordinary-sized note-paper ; the post-cards taken at the size of inland post-cards; book-packets as containing on an average fifty leaves of novel-paper ; and newspapers as being composed of three single leaves 18 inches by 24 inches, the total area of paper used would be nearly 630 millions of square yards. This would be sufficient to pave a way hence to the moon, of a yard and a half in breadth ; or it would give to that orb a girdle round its body 53 yards in width ; or again, it would encircle our own globe by a band 14 yards in width. Another way to look at the magnitude of the Post-office work is as follows : Suppose that letters, book-packets, newspapers, and post-cards are taken at their several ascertained averages as to weight, the total amount of the mails for a year passing through the British Post-office, exclusive of the weight of canvas bags and small stores of various kinds, would exceed 42,000 tons, which would be sufficient to provide full freight for a fleet of twenty-one ships carrying 2000 tons of cargo each. What a burthen of sorrows, joys, scandals, midnight studies, patient labours, business energy, and everything good or bad which proceeds from the human heart and brain, does not this represent ! Yet, after all, what are the figures above given, when put in the balance with the facts of nature ? The whole paper, according to the foregoing calculations, although it would gird our earth with a band 14 yards wide, could only be made to extend hence to the sun by being attenuated to the dimensions of a tape of slightly over one-eighth of an inch in width ! Bearing in mind the great quantity of correspondence conveyed by the post, as well as the hurry and bustle in which letters are often written, it is not astonishing that writers should sometimes make mistakes in addressing their letters ; but it will perhaps create surprise that one year's 86 THE ROYAL MAIL. letters which, could neither be delivered as addressed, nor returned to the senders through the Dead-letter Office, were over half a million in number ! It is curious to note some remarks written by the Post-office solicitor in Edinburgh eighty years ago with respect to misdirected letters. He speaks of " the very gross inattention in putting the proper addresses upon letters a cause which is more productive of trouble and expense to the Post-office than any other what- ever. In fact, three out of four complaints respecting money and other letters may generally be traced to that source, and of which, from the proceedings of a few weeks past, I have ample evidence in my possession at this moment." Letters posted in covers altogether innocent of addresses, number 28,000 in the year; and the value in cash, bank-notes, cheques, &c., found in these derelict missives is usually about 8000. Letters sent off by post without covers, or from which flimsy covers become detached in transit, number about 15,000; while the loose stamps found in post-offices attain the annual total of 68,000. The loose stamps are an evidence of the scrambling way in which letters are often got ready for the post, and probably more so of the earnest intentions of inexperienced persons, who, in preparing stamps for their letters, roll them on the tongue until every trace of adhesive matter is removed, with the result that so soon as the stamps become dry again they fall from the covers. Letters which cannot be delivered in consequence of errors in the addresses, or owing to persons removing without giving notice of the fact to the Post-office, are no less than 5,650,000, such being the number that reach the Dead-letter Office. But of these it is found possible to return to the writers about five millions, while the remainder fail to be returned owing to the absence of the writers' addresses from the letters. The other AMOUNT OF WORK. 87 articles sent to the Dead-letter Office in a year are as follows, viz.: Post-cards, nearly . . . 600,000 Book-packets, ,, ... 5,000,000 Newspapers, ,, ... 478,000 As regards the book-packets, it is well to know that a large part of the five millions is represented by circulars, which are classed as book-packets, and the addresses on which are not infrequently taken by advertisers from old directories or other unreliable sources. There is one trifling item which it may be well to give, showing how the smallest things contribute to build up the great, as drops of water constitute the sea, and grains of sand the earth. Those tiny things called postage- stamps, which are light as feathers, and might be blown about by the slightest breeze, make up in the aggregate very considerable bulk and weight, as will be appreciated when it is mentioned that one year's issue for the United Kingdom amounts in weight to no less than one hundred and fourteen tons. ST VALENTINE'S DAY. " The day's at hand, the young, the gay, The lover's and the postman's day, The day when, for that only day, February turns to May, And pens delight in secret play, And few may hear what many say." LEIGH HUNT. The customs of St Valentine's day have no direct connection with the saint whose name has been borrowed to designate the festival of the 14th of February. It is only by a side-light that any connection between the saint and the custom can be traced. 88 THE ROYAL MAIL. In ancient Rome certain pagan feasts were held every year, commencing a'bout the middle of February, in honour of Pan and Juno, on which occasions, amid other cere- monies, it was the custom for the names of young women to be placed in boxes, and to be drawn for by the men as chance might decide. Long after Christianity had been introduced into Rome, these feasts continued to be observed, the priests of the early Christian Church failing in their attempts to suppress or eradicate them. Adopting a policy which has served missionaries in other quarters of the globe, the priests, while unable at once to destroy the pagan superstitions with the obscene observ- ances by which they were accompanied, endeavoured to lessen their vicious character, and to bring them more into harmony with their religion ; and one step in this policy was the substitution of the names of the saints for those of young women previously used in the lotteries. Now it happened that the fourteenth day of February was the day set apart for the commemoration of the saint named Valentine ; and as the feasts referred to commenced, as has been seen, in the middle of February, a connection would seem to have been set up between the lotteries of the pagan customs (carried down to the time when Valentines were drawn for) and the saint's festival, merely through a coincidence of days. That St Valentine should have been selected as the patron of the custom known to us nowadays, is too unlikely, knowing as we do from history something of his life and death. He was a priest who assisted the early Christians during the persecutions under Claudius II., and who suffered a cruel martyrdom about the year 270, being first beaten with clubs, and then beheaded. The customs of St Valentine's Day have ^passed through many phases, each age having its own variation, but all AMOUNT OF WORK. 89 having a bearing to one idea. The following is an account of the ceremony in our own country as observed by "Misson," a learned traveller of the early part of last century : " On the eve of St Valentine's Day the young- folks of England and Scotland, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival. An equal number of maids and bachelors get together, each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up and draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men's billets, and the men's the maids'; so that each of the young- men lights upon a girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man whom she calls hers. By this means each has two Valentines, but the man sticks faster to the Valentine that has fallen to him than to the Valentine to whom he has fallen. Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples, the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport often ends in love." Pennant also, in writing of his tour in Scotland in 1769, refers to the observance of this custom in the north of Scotland in these words : " The young people in February draw Valentines, and from them collect their future fortune in the nuptial state." In later times the drawing of a lady's name for a Valentine was made the means of placing the drawer under the obligation to make a present to the lady. The celebrated Miss Stuart, who became the Duchess of Blch- mond, received from the Duke of York on one occasion a jewel worth ,800, in discharge of this obligation ; and Lord Mandeville, who was her Valentine at another time, presented her with a ring worth some 300. The term Valentine is no longer used in its more general application to denote the lady to whom a present is sent on 90 THE ROYAL MAIL. the 14th of February, but the thing sent, which is usually a more or less artistic print or painting, surmounted by an image of Cupid, and to which are annexed some lines of loving import. Thirty years ago Valentines were generally inexpensive articles, printed upon paper with embossed margins. Their style gradually improved until hand- painted scenes upon satin grounds became common ; and Valentines might be bought at any price from a halfpenny to five pounds. It should not be omitted to be noted that for many years Valentines have had their burlesques, in those ridiculous pictures which are generally sent anony- mously on Valentine's Day, and which were often observed to be decked out in extraordinary guises, and having affixed to them such things as spoons, dolls, toy monkeys, red herrings, rats, mice, and the like. On one occasion a Valentine was seen in the post having a human finger attached to it. But as every dog has its day, and each succeeding period of life its own interests and allurements, so have customs their appointed seasons, and ideas their set times of holding sway over the popular mind. The wigs and buckled shoes of our forefathers, the ringlets of our grandmothers, which in their day were things of fashion, have lapsed into the category of the curious, and have to us none other than an antiquarian interest. The Liberal in politics of to-day becomes the Conservative of to-morrow ; and the custom of sending Valentines, at one time so common, that afforded so great pleasure not only to the young, but sometimes to those of riper years, has already had its death-knell sounded ; and at the present rate of decline, it bids fair very soon to be relegated to the shades of the past. The rage for sending Valentines probably had its culmina- tion some ten years ago, since when it has steadily gone down; and now the festival is no longer observed by AMOUNT OF WORK. 91 fashionable people, its lingering votaries being found only among the poorer classes. The following facts show how far the Post-office was called upon to do the messenger's part in delivering the love-missives of St Valentine when the business was in full swing. At the chief office in London on Valentine's Eve 1874, some 306 extra mail-bags, each 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, were required for the additional work thrown on the Post-office in connection with Valentines, and at every Post-office in the kingdom the staff was wont to regard St Valentine's Eve as the occasion of the year when its utmost energies were laid under requisition for the service of the public. But the decay of the ancient custom of sending Valentines has probably not come about from within itself ; it may rather be attributed to the progress made in what may be called the rival custom of sending cards of greeting and good wishes at Christmas-time. It would almost seem that two such customs, having their times of observance only a few weeks apart, cannot exist together; and it will probably be found that the new has been growing precisely as the old has been dying, the former being much the stronger, choking the latter. Valentines were sent by the young only or for the most part, at any rate while Christmas-cards are in favour with almost every age and condition of life. It follows, then, that a custom such as this, having developed great energy, and being patronised by all classes, must throw a larger mass of work upon the Post-office the channel through which such things natur- ally flow than Valentines did. And so it has been found. The pressure on the Post-office in the heyday of Valentines was small by comparison with that which is now experienced at Christmas. During the Christmas season of 1877, the number of letters, &c., which passed through the Inland 92 THE ROYAL MAIL. Branch of the General Post-office in London, in excess of the ordinary correspondence, was estimated at 4,500,000, a large portion of which reached the chief office on Christmas morning; while in the Christmas week of 1882 the extra correspondence similarly dealt with was estimated at 14,000,000, including registered letters (presumably con- taining presents of value), of which there was a weight of no less than three tons. Everywhere similar pressure has been felt in the post-offices, and it is by no means settled that we have yet reached the climax of this social but rampant custom. In the London Metropolitan district there are employed 4030 postmen ; and taking their daily amount of walking at 12 miles on the average a very low estimate this would represent an aggregate daily journeying on foot of 48,360 miles, or equal to twice the circumference of our globe. Articles of many curious kinds have been observed passing through the post from time to time, some of them dangerous or prohibited articles, which, according to rule, are sent to the Returned-letter Office the fact showing that the Post-office is not only called upon to perform its first duty of expeditiously conveying the correspondence intrusted to it, but is made the vehicle for the carriage of small articles of -almost endless variety. Some of these are the following, many of them having been in a live state when posted viz., beetles, blind- worms, bees, caterpillars, crayfish, crabs, dormice, goldfinches, frogs, horned frogs, gentles, kingfishers, leeches, moles, owls, rabbits, rats, squirrels, stoats, snails, snakes, silk-worms, sparrows, stag- beetles, tortoises, white mice ; artificial teeth, artificial eyes, cartridges, china ornaments, Devonshire cream, eggs, geranium-cuttings, glazier's diamonds, gun-cotton, horse- shoe nails, mince-pies, musical instruments, ointments, AMOUNT OF WORK. 93 perfumery, pork-pies, revolvers, sausages, tobacco and cigars, &c., &c. Occasionally the sending of live reptiles through the Post-office gives rise to interruption to the work, as has occurred when snakes have escaped from the packets in which they had been enclosed. The sorters, not knowing whether the creatures are venomous or not, are naturally chary in the matter of laying hold of them; and it may readily be conceived how the work would be interfered with in the limited space of a Travelling Post-office carriage containing half-a-dozen sorters, upon a considerable snake showing his . activity among the correspondence, as has in reality happened. On another occasion a packet containing a small snake and a lizard found its way to the Keturned-letter Office. Upon examining it next day the lizard had disappeared, and from the appearance of the snake it was feared that it had made a meal of its companion. Another live snake which had escaped from a postal packet was discovered in the Holyhead and Kingstown Marine Post-office, and at the expiration of a fortnight, being still unclaimed, it was sent to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. In the Returned- letter Office in Liverpool, a small box upon being opened was found to contain eight living snakes ; but we are not informed as to the manner in which they were got rid of. The strike of the stokers employed by the Gas Com- panies of the metropolis in 1872 is remembered in the Post-office as an event which gave rise to a considerable amount of inconvenience and anxiety at the time. That the Post-office should be left in darkness was not a thing to be thought possible for a moment ; for such a circum- stance would almost have looked like the extinction of civilisation. On the afternoon of the 3d December in the year mentioned, intimation reached the chief office that 94 THE ROYAL MAIL. the Gas Company could not guarantee a supply of gas for more than a few hours, in consequence of their workmen having struck work. The occasion was one demanding instant action in the way of providing other means of lighting, and accordingly an order was issued for a ton of candles. These were used at St Martin's-le-Grand and at the branch offices in the East Central district ; while arrangements were made to provide lanterns and torches for the mail-cart drivers, and oil-lamps for lighting the Post-office yard. In the evening the sorting-offices pre- sented the novel spectacle of being lighted up by 2000 candles ; and this reign of tallow continued during the next three days. The total cost of this special lighting during the four days' strike was 58 \ but there was a saving of about 160,000 feet of gas, reducing the loss to something like 27. 95 CHAPTER VIII. GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. WHEN the past history of the Post-office is looked into, at a period which cannot yet be said to be very remote, it is both curious and instructive to observe the contrast which presents itself, as between the unpretending institution of those other days, and the great and ubiquitous machine which is now the indispensable medium for the conveyance of news to every corner of the empire. To imagine what our country would be without the Post-office as it now is, would be attempting something quite beyond our powers ; and if such an institution did not exist, and an endeavour were made to construct one at once by the conceits and imaginings of men's minds, failure would be the inevitable result, for the British Post-office is the child of long experience and never-ending improvement, having a complexity and yet simplicity in its fabric, which nothing but many years of growth and studied application to its aims could have produced. But it is not the purpose here to go into the history of its improvements, or of its changes. It is merely proposed to show how rapidly it has grown, and from what small beginnings. The staff of the Edinburgh Post-office in 1708 was 96 THE ROYAL MAIL. composed of no more than seven persons, described as follows : Salary. Manager for Scotland, .... 200 Accountant, . . . . 50 Clerk, 50 Clerk's Assistant, . . . 25 Three Letter-carriers, at 5s. a-week each. In 1736 the number of persons employed had increased to eleven, whose several official positions were as follows : Postmaster-General for Scotland. Accomptant. Secretary to the Postmaster. Principal Clerk. Second Clerk. Clerk's Assistant. Apprehender of Private Letter-carriers. Clerk to the Irish Correspondents. Three Letter-carriers. The apprehender of private letter-carriers, as the name implies, was an officer whose duty it was to take up persons who infringed the Post-office work of carrying letters for money. The work continued steadily to grow, for in 1781 we rind there were 23 persons employed, of whom 6 were letter-carriers; and in 1791 the numbers had increased to 31. In 1828 there were 82; in 1840, when the penny post was set on foot, there were 136 ; and in 1860, 244. In 1884 the total number of persons employed in all branches of the Post-office service in Edinburgh was 939. The Post-office of Glasgow, which claims to be the second city of the kingdom, shows a similar rapidity of growth, if not a greater ; and this growth may be taken as an index of the expansion of the city itself, though the GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 97 former has to be referred to three several causes namely, increase of population, spread of education, and develop- ment of trade. In 1799 the staff of the Glasgow Post-office was as follows, viz.: Salary. Postmaster, ..... 200 First Clerk, . ''.'' . . . 30 Second Clerk, . . . . 25 Four Letter-carriers, at 10s. 6d. a-week each, . 109 4 A Stamper or Sorter, at 10s. 6d. a-week, . 27 6 So that the whole expense for staff was no more than 391, 10s. per annum, and this had been the recognised establishment for several years. But it appears from official records, that though the postmaster was nominally receiving .200 a-year, he had in 1796 given 10 each to the clerks out of his salary, and expended besides, on office-rent, coal, and candles, ,30, 2s. 8d. Somewhat similar deductions were made in 1797 and 1798, and thus the postmaster's salary was then less than ,150 a-year in reality. It is worthy of note here that letters were at that time delivered in Glasgow only twice a-day. Some ten years earlier that is, in 1789 the indoor staff consisted of the postmaster and one clerk, the former receiving 140 a-year, and the latter 30. A penny post, for local letters in Glasgow, was started in the year 1800, when, as part and parcel of the scheme, three receiving-offices were opened in the city. The revenue derived from the letters so carried for the first year was under 100, showing that there cannot have been so many as eighty letters posted per day for local delivery. After a time the experiment Was considered not to have been quite a success, for one of the receiving- offices was closed, and a clerk's pay reduced 10 a-year, in order to bring the expense down to the level of the revenue earned. In 1803 G 98 THE ROYAL MAIL. matters improved, however, as in the first quarter of that year the revenue from penny letters was greater than the expense incurred. At the present time, the staff of the Glasgow Post-office numbers 1267 persons, and the postmaster's salary is over a thousand pounds a-year. To those who know Liverpool, with its expansive area, its vast shipping, its stir of commerce, and, in the present relation, its army of postmen, the following facts will exhibit a striking contrast between the past and the present. In 1792, when the population of that town stood at some- thing like 60,000, the number of postmen employed was but three, whose wages were 7s. a-week each; but, to be quite correct, it should be added that one of the postmen, having heavier work than the others, was aided by his wife, and for this assistance the office allowed from ,10 to 12 a-year. One of the postmen delivered the letters for the southern district, including Everton, St Ann's, Kich- mond, &c.; another served the northern portion, taking in part of the old dock, the dry dock, George's Dock, &c.; while the third disposed of the letters for the remaining portions of the town. The duties of these men seem to have been carried out with a good deal of deliberation. The postmen arranged the correspondence for distribution in the early morning, then they partook of breakfast, and set out upon their rounds about 9 A.M., completing their work of delivery about the middle of the afternoon. And thus it would appear that Liverpool at that time had only one delivery per day. Upon all letters delivered by two of the postmen the two first mentioned a halfpenny per letter over and above the postage was charged for delivery; in the other case the ordinary postage only was levied. The reason for the additional charge was no doubt this GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 99 that the postmaster was allowed by the Department only one postman; and that consequently the wages of the other men who were necessarily employed had to be met by the special tax referred to. The following minute of the Post- master-General, dated 28th October 1792, while in some sense affording an explanation of the matter, shows that some- what peculiar notions prevailed with regard to providing force where such was required. It runs as follows : w There are only two instances in the kingdom where more than one letter-carrier is allowed, viz., Portsmouth and Bath. I understand it has been held as a general rule not to allow more than one to any other place, however extensive and populous it may be; in the two exceptions to this rule the inhabitants had been accustomed to pay the deputies a gratuity for delivering the letters, but having refused to continue the payment, these postmasters felt their income considerably reduced, and I believe it was not till after much discussion the rule was broke through." The minute continues as follows : "Mr Palmer had some ideas respecting such a modification of the rates of postage as might induce the inhabitants of every place in the kingdom to pay with cheerfulness an extra halfpenny or penny over and above the rates; this extra payment to be sanctioned by an Act of Parliament ; and then the whole amount of the sums now paid for letter-carriers, being 1927, 8s. per year, would be saved to the Revenue." If this accurately represents Mr Palmer's ideas, Mr Palmer did not quite understand the British public. At the same period to which we refer, there were only three letter-carriers in Manchester, four at Bristol, and three or four at Birmingham ; but in each case only one was allowed by the Department, the others being employed as extras, and provided for, no doubt, by a special tax upon the letters delivered. This system of charging extra for 100 THE ROYAL MAIL. delivery would seem to have been open to abuse, for we find that in 1791 the Postmaster-General called for explanation of an exceptional charge at Eton, in a Minute as follows : " Let the Comptroller-General inquire who serves, and by whose authority, the parts of the country circumjacent to the Eton delivery, as they charge no less a sum than 3d. for each letter, in addition to the postage, for all letters delivered at Upton, which is not above a mile from the College." And the Postmaster-General makes this very wise observation on the practice " This enormous expense for letters must check and ruin all correspondence, and essentially hurt the revenue." At the end of last century and beginning of this and indeed it may be said throughout the whole term of the existence of the Post-office humble petitions were always coming up from postmasters for increase of pay, and from these we know the position in which postmasters then were. The postmaster of Aberdeen showed that in 1763, when the -revenue of his office was 717, 19s. 4d., with something for cross post-letters, probably about .400, his salary had been 93, 15s.; while in 1793, with a revenue of over 2500, his whole salary was only 89, 15s., and out of this he had to pay office-rent and to provide assistance, fire, wax, candles, books, and cord. At Arbroath, now an important town, the revenue was, in 1763, 76, 12s. 8d., and the postmaster's salary, 20. At this figure the salary remained till 1794, though the revenue had increased to 367, 13s. 5d.; but now the post- master appealed for higher pay, and brought up his supports of office-rent, coal, candles, wax, &c., to strengthen his case. In Dundee, in the year 1800, the postmaster's salary was 50, and the revenue 3165, 9s. 5d. At Paisley, the postmaster's salary was fixed at 33 in 1790 and remained at that figure till 1800 when a petition GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 101 was sent forward for what was called in official language an augmentation. In the memorial it is stated that the re- venue for 1799 was .1997, Is. lid., and that the deductions for rent, coal, candles, wax, paper, pens, and ink, reduced the postmaster's salary to from 15 to ,20 a-year ! To show how these towns have grown up into importance within a period of little more than the allotted span of man, and as exhibiting perhaps the yet more bounding expansion of the Post-office system, the following particulars are added, and may prove of interest : At Aberdeen, at the present time, the annual value of postage-stamps sold, which may be taken as a rough measure of the revenue from the carriage of correspondence alone, is little short of 30,000; the staff of all sorts employed numbers 191; and the postmaster's salary exceeds .600 a-year. Arbroath is less pretentious, being a smaller town ; but the letter revenue is over ,4000 a-year ; the persons employed, 14; and the postmaster's salary nearly 200. Dundee shows a postage revenue of over 35,000; 193 persons are employed there ; and the postmaster's salary is little short of 600. While at Paisley the revenue from stamps is nearly 10,000 ; the persons employed, 43; and the postmaster's salary, 300. Notwithstanding the vast decrease in the rates of postage, these figures show, in three of the cases mentioned, that the revenue from letters is now about twelve times what it was less than a century ago. It will probably be found that one of the most mushroom- like towns of the country is Barrow-in-Furness, now a place of considerable commerce, and an extensive shipping port. The following measurements, according to the Post-office standard, may repay consideration. Prior to 1847 there was nothing but a foot-postman, who served the town by walk- ing thither from Ulverston one day, and back to Ulverston the next. Later on, he made the double journey daily, 102 THE ROYAL MAIL. and delivered the letters on his arrival at Barrow. In 1869 the town had grown to such dimensions that the office was raised to the rank of a head-office, and three postmen were required for delivery. Now, in 1884, thirteen postmen are the necessary delivering force for the town. About the year 1800 the Post-office had not as yet carried its civilising influence into the districts of Bal- quhidder, Locheamhead, Killin, and Tyndrum, there being no regular post-offices within twenty, thirty, or forty miles of certain places in these districts. The people being desirous of having the Post-office in their borders, the following scheme was proposed to be carried out about the time mentioned : A runner to travel from Callander to Locheamhead fourteen miles at 2s. a journey, three times a-week, . 1512 Salary to postmaster of Loehearnhead, . . >".,. 5 A runner from Locheamhead to Killin eight miles at Is. a journey, three times a-week, . . .'.7160 Salary to postmaster of Killin, ... ' . ; ''. 4 t 5 Receiving-house at Wester Lix, . . . . 200 Runner thence to Lnib four or five miles Is. 6d. per week, . . i .'."' 3 18 Office at Luib, v . i .' . ; , . 400 Total, . 43 6 So that here a whole district of country was to be opened up to the beneficent operations of the Post at an annual cost of what would now be no more than sufficient to pay the wages of a single post-runner. It may be proper, however, to remark in this connection, that money then was of greater value than now; and since it has been shown that a messenger had formerly to travel as much as fourteen double miles for 2s., it is not surprising that Scotchmen, brought up in such a school, should like to cling to a sixpence when they can get it. It were remiss to pass over London without remark, GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 103 whose growth is a marvel, and whose Post-office has at least kept up in the running, if it has not outstripped, London itself. In 1796 the delivery of London extended from about Grosvenor Square and Mayfair in the west, to Shad well, Mile End, and Blackwall in the east ; and from Finsbury Square in the north, to the Borough and Rotherhithe in the south ; and the number of postmen then employed for the general post-delivery was 126. London has since taken into its maternal embrace many places which were formerly quite separate from the metropolis, and nowadays the agglomeration is known, postally, as the Metropolitan district. In this district the number of men required to effect the delivery of letters in 1 884 is no less than 4030. It may be mentioned that the general post-delivery above mentioned had reference to the delivery of ordinary letters coming from the country. Letters of the penny post or local letters and letters from foreign parts, were delivered by different sets of men, who all went over the same ground. In 1782 the number of men employed in these different branches of delivery work was as follows, viz.: For Foreign letters, ,, Inland letters ,, Penny-post letters, . . . . 44 Total, . 155 It was not till many years later that all kinds of letters came to be delivered by one set of postmen, and that thus needless repetition of work was got rid of. At the same period namely, in 1782 the other officers of all kinds employed in the London Post-office numbered 157. At the present time the officers of all kinds (exclusive of postmen, who have been referred to separately) employed in the Metropolitan district are nearly 16,000 in number. 104 CHAPTER IX. CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. IX his Autobiography, Mr Anthony Trollope, many years a Post-office surveyor, records how he was employed in England, for a considerable period about the year 1851, revising and extending the rural-post service ; and he there mentions the frequency with which he found post-runners to be employed upon routes where there were but few letters to deliver while in other directions, where postal communication would have been of the utmost benefit, there were no post-runners at all. This state of things had no doubt had its origin in the efforts of influential persons, at some previous time, to have the services established for their own personal benefit ; while persons in other districts, having less interest at headquarters, or being less imperious in their demands, were left out in the cold, and so remained beyond the range of the civilising influence. The posts in such cases, once established, went on from year to year; and though the arrangements were out of harmony with the surroundings, very often nothing was done for in all likelihood no one complained loud enough, or, at any rate, in a way to prove effective. But though the Department did wake up to the need for a better distribution of its favours in the country districts in 1851, there were earlier instances of surveyors attempting CLAIMS FOE POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 105 to lay down the posts for the general good, instead of for a select few, and in these cases the surveyors had sometimes a hard battle to fight. The following report from a surveyor in Scotland, written in the year 1800, will illustrate what is here mentioned. It is given at length, and will possibly be found worthy of perusal; for it not only shows both spirit and independence on the part of the surveyor, who was evidently a man determined to do his duty irrespective of persons, but it sheds some light on the practices of the post-runners of that period, and their relations with their superiors on the one hand, and the public on the other. It affords us, too, a specimen of official writing remarkable for some rather quaint turns and expressions. The report proceeds : " I am much obliged by the perusal of my Lord 's card to you of the 29th ultimo, with the copy of a fresh memorial from his lordship and other gentlemen upon the long- argued subject of the alteration of the course of the post betwixt Perth and Coupar- Angus. " It is certainly one of those cases which hath become of tenfold more importance by the multiplicity of writing, than from any solid reasoning or essential matter of informa- tion to be drawn from it. " It having fallen to my official duty to execute the alteration of this post proposed by my late colleague Mr , to whose memory I must bear testimony, not only of his abilities, but his impartiality in the duties of his office, and under the authority of the late respectable and worthy Postmaster-General Mr , whose memory is far above any eulogium of mine, I considered the measure as proper and expedient, equally for the good of the country in general, and the revenue under the department of the Post-office; and I can with confidence deny that it was 1 hastily, inconsiderately, or partially ' gone into, as this 106 THE ROYAL MAIL. memorial would wish, to establish. In this capacity, and under these circumstances, it is no wonder I could have wished the epithets used against this official alteration, of ignorance, arbitrary and oppressive proceedings, to have dropped from a person less honourable, respectable, and conspicuous than I hold the Honble. at the head of this memorial. Before this last memorial was presented, I understood from Mr , Secretary, in the presence of Lord , that any further opposition upon the part of the Blairgowrie gentlemen to a re-alteration was now given up ; indeed this cannot be surprising if they had learned, as stated in the memorial, page 9, that they had protested, did now protest, and would never cease to complain loudly of it, until they obtain redress. "Whether this argument is cool or arbitrary I have not time nor inclination to analyse, but having been removed from this ancient district of road, and given my uniform opinion upon the merits of the alteration itself, I have no desire to fight the memorialists to all eternity. Before, however, taking final leave of this contest, and of a memorial said to be unanswerable, I con- sider myself in duty and honour called upon to vindicate the late Mr , as well as myself, from the vindictive terms of ' ignorance, arbitrary, and oppressive ' implied in the memorial, and which, if admitted sub silentio, might not be confined to the mismanagement of the Post-office, but to every other department of civil government. In order to this, I shall as briefly as I can follow the general track of the memorial, as of a long beaten road in which, if there is not safety, there is no new difficulty to encounter. It is needless to go over the different distances, I am ready to admit them they have not formed any material part of the question, and the supposed ignorance of the surveyor here is not to the point. The alteration neither did nor should proceed upon such mathematical nicety. CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 107 The idea of posts is to embrace the most extensive and most needful accommodation. In establishing a post to Blairgowrie it was neither ignorant nor arbitrary to take the line by Isla Bridge, which was the centre of the country meant to be served by it that is, the Coupar and the Stormont and Highland district. It is of some con- sequence to observe here, that with all the great and rapid improvements mentioned in the memorial, of the lower or Coupar district, the upper or Stormont district was, upon the first year's trial, above one-half of its revenue to the Post-office, the second nearly or about three-fourths, and continuing to increase in proportion. Coupar- Angus revenue for the year ending 10th October last was 159, 3s. 7d., and Blairgowrie 123, 4s. lOd. Now, if the Coupar district of country, which contains in it a populous market- town, can produce no more than this proportion for the whole district, it is evident that the district of Stormont, with only as yet a little village for its head town, has more correspondence in regard to its state of agriculture and improvement as an infant district, than the parent district with its antiquity can lay claim to, and equally well entitled at least to be protected and nourished. Much is said of the memorialists' line of road, and of its being one from time immemorial. I have said in a former paper that this may be the case ; many of the roads in Scotland, God knows, are old enough. But unless the feudal system should still exist upon any of them, I know of no law, no regulation, no compulsion, that can oblige the post, more than any other traveller, to take these old beaten tracks where they can find any other patent or better road. Nay, more, as a traveller, I am entitled to take any patent road I choose, good or bad ; and the moment this privilege is doubted in regard to the post, you resign at once the power of all future improvements so far as it belongs to your 108 THE ROYAL MAIL. official situation to judge it, and let or dispose of in lease the use of your posts to particular and local proprietors of lands, who will be right to take every advantage of it in their power, and include it specifically in the rental of their estates, as I have known to be the case with inns in which post-offices had formerly been kept. "There are three great roads to the north of Scotland from Perth (besides one by Dunkeld) viz., one by Dundee, &c., one by Coupar, &c., and one by Blairgowrie, which run not at a very great distance in general from each other in a parallel line. The great post-line or mail-coach road is by Dundee ; and there is little chance, I believe, of this being departed from, as there is no other that can ever be equally certain. The next great road to the westward is by Coupar and Forfar, &c., and is supplied by branch-posts from the east or coast line. And the third or upper line is by Blairgowrie and Spittal of Glenshee, which have no post for 50, 60, or 70 miles ; and if ever that part of the country is to have the blessing of a regular post, it surely ought not to be by branching from the coast-line through all the different centres, but by the more immediate and direct line through Blairgowrie. Every one will call his own line the great line; but surely, if I am to travel either, I should be allowed to judge for myself ; and I believe it would be thought very arbitrary indeed, if, before I set out, a proprietor or advocate for any of these great lines should arrest my carriage or my horse, and say, You shall not proceed but upon my line. I confess myself so stupid that I can see no difference betwixt this and taking it out of the power of the Post-office to judge what line they shall journey mails. If this is not the case, then all the present lines of the post, however absurd and ridiculous they now are or may become, must, as they were at the beginning and now are, remain so for ever. And I would expect CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 109 next to see legal charters and infeftments taken upon them as post-roads merely, and travellers thirled to them as corn to a mill. But in regard to the voluminous writings already had upon this subject, and now renewed in this last memorial, it may be necessary to be a little more particular. " Setting the distances aside, which no persons should have a right to complain of except the inhabitants of Coupar and beyond it, by any delay occasioned on that account, what is the whole argument founded upon 1 That, by the alteration, the memorialists, some of them in the near neighbourhood of Coupar- Angus, but betwixt Perth and it, have had the privilege from time immemorial, as it is said, of receiving their letters by the post from Perth, and sending them back by the same conveyance to Perth, without benefiting the Revenue a single sixpence, which would accrue to it by such letters being either received from or put in at the office at Coupar-Angus, as they ought to be. For, so far as I understand the regulations of the office, they are to this purpose, that if any letters shall be directed for intermediate places, at least three-fourths from any post-office, they shall be put into the bag and conveyed (if conveyed at all by post) to the post-office nearest them, or at which they shall be written, one-fourth of the distance of the whole stage, and rated and charged accordingly. The Post-office could not be ignorant of this rule not being observed, for it was evident that very few letters for this populous and thriving district were put into the bag, except such as behoved to go beyond Coupar or Perth, and bearing the name of ' short letters.' It was impossible to convict the posts of fraud in carrying them without opening the letters, a privilege which cannot be exercised without much indelicacy as well as danger, But it required no penetra- tion to discover that this was a very commodious and cheap 110 THE ROYAL MAIL. way of corresponding, though it did not augment the revenue. It was an ancient privilege, and in that view it might be considered arbitrary and oppressive to meddle with or interrupt it. It is a little curious that the memori- alists are principally gentlemen of property upon the road short of Coupar, and who require to be supplied daily with their small necessary articles from Perth. I have seen no remonstrance or complaint from the town of Coupar itself as to this alteration, nor of the consequent lateness of arrival and danger it is said to have occasioned, nor from a number of gentlemen beyond, whose letters come in the bag for the delivery of Coupar. The noise has chiefly been made by gentlemen who pay nothing for this post to Coupar- Angus, and it puts me in mind of an anecdote I met with of a gentleman who had influence enough with a postmaster in the country to get the post by his house, and deliver and receive his letters, proceeding by a line of road in which he avoided an intermediate office, and thereby saved an additional postage both ways. " This line was also a very ancient one, and from time immemorial a line too upon which our forefathers had fought hard and bled ; but their children somehow or other had discovered and adopted what they thought a much better line. I said the delivery of short letters was not all the advantages privately had by the old plan of the post to Coupar-Angus. This post was in the known and con- stant habit of carrying a great deal more than letters for the inhabitants short of, as well as for Coupar itself ; and in the delivery of various articles upon the road, and receiving reimbursements for his trouble one way or other, he lost one-fourth of his time ; and if, as* the memorialists assert, there are fewer places to be served on the Isla road, it is a demonstration that the longest way is often all the nearest, and upon this head I have already ventured to CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. Ill assert, and still do, that by a regular management which may be easily accomplished, the post may come sooner by Isla to Coupar than ever it did formerly by the ancient road; and if it was possible to watch and hunt after the irregularity of the post as established upon the old system, the memorialists would find themselves in no better situation than they now are. I beg to mention here a specimen I met of this old system of private accommodation, with the consequence that followed, which may illustrate a little upon which side the imputation of ignorance, arbitrary, and oppression may lie. Having met this post with a light cart full of parcels, and a woman upon it along with the mail, I charged him with the impropriety of his conduct as a post, and threatened that he should not be longer in the service. ' Oh/ says he, ' sir, you may do as you please ; I have served the country so long in this way, that if you dismiss me, the principal gentlemen on the road have determined to support me, and I can make more M r ithout your mail than I do by it.' He was dismissed. He was supported by a number of names which it is not now in my power to recollect, but which are well known in Coupar-Angus, and he issued in consequence hand-bills that, being now dismissed as a post, he would continue to carry on as before ; and it was not till the arbitrary hand of the Solicitor of the Post-office fell upon him, that he would either have been convicted or discouraged from his employ. " In this view, therefore, and not from ignorance, I know it is better for the Revenue in some instances to pay for 19 miles of a post, than 14 or 15, and to pay for three short runners than one long one. We have no greater faith in Blairgowrie than Coupar posts, and they were both put upon the same footing ; and notwithstanding all the argu- ments stated against the measure, or upon the absurdity, 112 THE ROYAL MAIL. arbitrary, and oppression, so much insisted on, I am still humbly of the opinion, which was maturely weighed and decided, that the system now in practice was best for the Kevenue, whatever it might be to particular individuals ; and in this decision I only followed the coincident opinion of judgments much superior to my own. "A great deal is said upon the danger of committing care of bags or letters to two separate runners instead of one. With regard to carrying letters privately, or executing commissions, it may be so. This is the great inconvenience felt from the change. But is there any instance where posts have opened any of the bags containing letters, and thereby committed felony ? Is there any instance where a wilful and felonious delay has happened here more than may be natural to any change of bags anywhere else in the kingdom ? I have heard of their not meeting sometimes so regularly in very bad or stormy weather. This will happen to the most regular mail-coaches and horse-posts in Britain; and before such general objections are to be founded upon, wilful and corrupt misconduct should be proved, such as I am able to do upon the old system of one post only. "The poor blacksmith is next brought forward. I do not know that a man's character is to be decided by his calling. He was engaged by the Office to keep a receiving- house for the runners. He is paid for his trouble by Government, and is as much under the confidence and trust of the Office, till he proves himself unworthy of it, as the postmasters of Perth, Coupar- Angus, or Blairgowrie. It is not surprising, however, that this poor blacksmith should be in general terms decided unfit for such duty, when officers who should have been much better acquainted with the hammer and nails of office, do not know how to drive them ! "A very short explanation to the idea mentioned by the memorialists that the opposition by the Blairgowrie CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 113 gentlemen rose from the supposition that they were to be cut out of their post altogether. I never heard of this before, nor do I know this idea to have existed. The Blairgowrie district did not interfere with the Post-office, nor the Office with them, more than has happened in writing ; nor, so far as consists with my knowledge, have I heard or understood that the Coupar district wished to deprive Blairgowrie of an office. That Coupar wishes to have Blairgowrie subservient to and passing through it is clear enough. But they do not advert that, as both Coupar and Blairgowrie are within one stage of Perth ; had Coupar gone through Blairgowrie or Blairgowrie through Coupar, the law might say that one of them must pay an additional rate from Perth that is, 4d. instead of 3d.; and which both Mr Edwards and I were clearly of opinion would rather have injured than improved the Revenue, as has been experienced in some similar cases. This legal dis- tinction my Lord does not appear to have observed. It is, however, stated, that by this plan of going through Coupar to Blairgowrie a very easy and direct communication would be established betwixt the two places. This I have no doubt of for private business-parcels, money, &c., &c. ; because it would be easier for Blairgowrie to communicate in this way by one runner, by one with Coupar and two to Perth, than by two to Coupar and two to Perth, and for Coupar to communicate with Perth by one than two each way. This is harping on the old key. But it is a reduc- tion of service, like the shortening of the road here, I do not wish to see. I do not want a reconciliation of this kind ; and whatever obloquy I may endure, with imputation of ignorance and other general epithets of a similar kind, I believe the memorialists, upon cool reflection, may be more inclined to ascribe these observations to proceed from honest zeal rather than wanton opposition. If it should be other- H 114 THE ROYAL MAIL. wise, I shall remain very satisfied that I have given rny judgment of it according to conscience; and I cannot be afraid, if it is necessary, that the whole writings upon the subject should be again submitted to the final decision of his Majesty's Postmaster-General. In regard to the power of altering the course of the posts, I am decidedly of opinion the question ought to go to their lordships' judg- ment ; but as to any personal opposition to the memorialists, I disclaim it ; and as they say they are determined to fight till they conquer, I would now retire from the contest, with this observation, that, though such doctrines and resolutions may be very good for the memorialists, they would, in my humble opinion, if generally expressed and followed, be very bad for the country." It is really surprising how some of the ideas and practices of the feudal times still survive, ancient arrangements coming up from time to time for revision, as those who suffer acquire greater independence or a truer conception of their position in the State. Quite recently the Postmaster- General was called upon to settle a dispute between the Senior Magistrate of Fraserburgh and Lord (the local seigneur) as to who had the right to receive letters addressed to "The Provost" or "Chief Magistrate" of Fraserburgh, both parties claiming such letters. His lordship had hitherto obtained delivery of the letters, on the ground of his being " heritable provost " or baron-bailie, titles which smell strongly of antiquity; but the modem Provost and Chief Magistrate being no longer disposed to submit to the arrangement, appealed to headquarters, and obtained a decision as follows ^-viz., that he being Senior Police Magis- trate, should receive all communications addressed to " The Provost," " The Chief Magistrate," or " The Acting Chief Magistrate," and that Lord should have a right to claim any addressed to the " Baron-Bailie." The surprise CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 115 is, that the ancient method of disposing of the letters should have been endured so long, and that a town's Provost should have been so slighted. Personal interest, unfortunately, often steps in to prevent or hinder the carrying out of reforms for the general good ; even the selfishness of mere pleasure placing itself as an obstacle to the accomplishment of things of great conse- quence in practical life. The Post-office being called upon to consider the question of affording a daily post to a small place in Ireland, which until then had had but a tri-weekly post, a gentleman called upon the postmaster to urge that things might be left as they were, stating as his reason that the change of hours, as regards the mail-car, rendered necessary in connection with the proposed improvements, would not suit himself and some other gentlemen, who were in the habit of using the car when going to fish on a lake near the mail-car route ! Is not this a case showing a sad lack of public spirit ? 116 CHAPTER X. THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. rriRAVELLERS who are in the habit of journeying over *- the principal railway lines, must at some time or other have noticed certain carriages in the express trains which had an unusually dull and van-like appearance, though set off with a gilded crown and the well-known letters Y.K., and that generally these carriages appeared to have no proper doors, and were possessed of none but very diminutive windows on one side, at any rate. It will have been observed, also, that sometimes two, three, or more of such carriages are placed end to end in certain trains, and that a hooded gangway or passage enables those inside one carriage to visit any or all of the other carriages. When the small square holes or dwarf doorways which communicate with the outside are open, a glare of light is seen within, which reveals a variety of human legs and much canvas the latter in the shape of mail-bags, either sus- pended from the walls of the carriage or lying on the floor. These carriages are what are called in the Post-office the " Travelling Post-office " ; or, when brevity is desirable as is often the case the " T.P.O." There are several travel- ling post-offices of more or less importance pursuing their rapid flight during the night in different quarters of the country; but the most important, no doubt, are the " London THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 117 and North-Western and Caledonian," running from London to Aberdeen; the "Midland," running from Newcastle diagonally across England to Bristol ; and the " London and Holyhead" travelling post-office, by which the Irish mails to Dublin are conveyed as far as Holyhead. If a stranger were allowed to travel in one of these carriages, the first thing that would probably take his notice would be the brilliant light which fills the interior ; and the necessity for a good light to enable men, standing Travelling Post-office. on a vibrating and oscillating floor, to read quickly all sorts of manuscript addresses, will be understood by whoever has attempted to peruse writing by the light derived from the ordinary oil-lamps of a railway carriage. Yet for years the light supplied in the Travelling Post-office has been given by improved oil-lamps, though more recently gas has been introduced in some of the carriages. The next thing he would notice would likely be the long series of pigeon-holes occupying the whole of one side of the vehicle, divided into 118 THE ROYAL MAIL. groups each box having a name upon it or a number, and a narrow table running along in front of the boxes, bearing a burden of letters which the sorters are busily disposing of by putting each one in its proper place that is, in the pigeon-hole, from which it will afterwards be despatched. Then hanging on the walls or lying under the table will be seen canvas bags and canvas sacks, each having its name stencilled in bold letters on its side ; and somewhere about the floor great rolls of black leather, with enormously strong straps and buckles the expanse of leather in each roll being almost sufficient to cover an ox. The use of these hides of leather will be described further on. The raison d'etre of the travelling post-office is to cir- cumvent time, to enable that to be done on the way which, without it, would have to be done before the train started or after it arrived at its destination, at the expense of time in the doing, and to collect and dispose of corre- spondence at all points along the route of the train which correspondence would otherwise in many cases have to pass through some intermediate town, to be detained for a subsequent means of conveyance. The T.P.O. is one of the most useful parts of the machinery of the Post-office. Among the smaller things that might be observed in the carriage would be balls of string for tying bags or bundles of letters, cyclopean sticks of sealing-wax, a chronometer to indicate sure time, a lamp used for melting the wax, and various books, report-forms, seals, &c. The stranger would be surprised, also, to see with what expedition an experienced sorter can pass the letters through his hands, seldom hesitating at an address, but reading so much of it as is necessary for his purpose, and, without raising his eyes, carrying his hand to the proper pigeon- hole, just as a proficient on a musical instrument can strike with certainty the proper note without taking his eye off THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 119 his music. In some cases as in dealing with registered letters a sorter has much writing to do ; but, standing with his feet well apart, and holding a light board on his left arm on which to write, and further, by accommodating his body to the swinging of the carriages, he is able to use his pen or pencil with considerable freedom and success. As the duties in the T.P.O. are for the most part per- formed during the night, the sorters employed have a great deal of night-work, and in some cases their terms of duty are very broken and irregular. Thus, with the hardships they have to endure in periods of severe frost, when no heating apparatus is supplied except a few warming-pans, they live a life of duty far removed from ease or soft idleness. The large pieces of leather with stout straps attached, already referred to, called pouches, are used as a protection to mail-bags which have to be delivered by what is commonly known as the apparatus. The mail-bags to be so disposed of are rolled up inside one of these pouches ; the ends of the leather are folded in ; the whole is bound round with the strong leather straps ; and, the buckles being fastened, the pouch is ready for delivery. But, first, let the apparatus itself be described. This consists of two parts : an arm or arms of stout iron attached to the carriage, which can be extended outwards from the side, and to the end of which the pouch containing the bag is suspended when ready ; and a receiving net, also attached to the side of the carriage, which can likewise be extended outwards to catch the mails to be taken up this portion acting the part of an aerial trawl-net to capture the bags suspended from brackets on the roadside. The apparatus on the roadside is the counterpart of that on the carriage, the suspending arm in each case fitting itself to the nets on the 120 THE ROYAL MAIL. carriage and roadside respectively. Now the use of this apparatus demands much attention and alacrity on the part of the men who are in charge of it ; for arms and net must not, for fear of accidents, be extended anywhere but at the appointed places, and within 200 or 300 yards of where the exchange of mails is to take place. The operators, in timing the delivery, are guided by certain features of the country they are passing through a bridge, a tree on a rising ground which can be seen against the sky, a cutting along the line through which the train passes with much clatter, a railway station, and so on as well as by their estimate of the speed at which the train is running. When the nights are clear, a trained operator can easily recognise his marks ; but in a very dark night, or during a fog, his skill and experience are put to the test. On such occasions he seems to be guided by the promptings of his collective senses. ^He puts his face close to the window, shutting off the light from the carriage with his hands, and peers into the darkness, trying to recognise some wayside object ; he listens to the noise made by the train, estimates its speed of travelling, and by these means he judges of his position, and effects the exchange of the mails. It is indeed marvellous that so few failures take place j but this is an instance of how, by constant application and experience, things are accomplished which might at first sight be considered wellnigh impossible. When the exchange takes place, it is the work of a moment " thud, thud." The arm w r hich bore the bag springs, disengaged, to the side of the carriage ; the operator takes the inwards bag from the net, draws the net close up to the side of the vehicle, and the whole thing is done, and we are ready for the next exchange. The blow sustained by the pouch containing the mail- THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 121 bag at the moment of delivery, on occasions when the train is running at a high speed, is exceedingly severe, and sometimes causes damage to the contents of the bags when of a fragile nature and these are not secured in strong covers. A bracelet sent by post was once damaged in this way, giving rise to the following humorous note : "Mr is sorry to return the bracelet to be repaired. It came this morning with the box smashed, the bracelet bent, and one of the cairngorms forced out. Among the modern improvements of the Post-office appears to be the introduction of sledge-hammers to stamp with. It would be advisable for Mr = to remonstrate with the Postmaster-General," &c. Delivering Arm, showing how the Pouch is suspended. The Travelling Post-office apparatus is said to have been originally suggested by Mr Ramsay of the General Post- office ; but his machinery was not very satisfactory when brought into practice. The idea was, however, improved upon by Mr Dicker, who was able to bring it into working condition ; and for his services in this matter he was awarded a sum of 500 by the Lords of the Treasury, and- the Postmaster-General conferred upon him an appointment as Supervisor of mail-bag apparatus. Some further im- 122 THE ROYAL MAIL. provements were carried out by Mr Pearson Hill, as, for example, the double arm, so that two pouches might be discharged at once from the same carriage-door. The apparatus first came to be used about thirty years ago, and there are now in the United Kingdom some 250 points or stations at which this magical game of give and take is carried on daily, and in many cases several times a day. At certain places not merely one or two pouches are discharged at a time, but a running fire is sometimes kept up to the extent of nine discharges of pouches. By the limited mail proceeding to the North, nine pouches are discharged at Oxenholme from the three Post-office carriages, the method followed being this : Two pouches are suspended from the arms at each carriage-door, and upon these being discharged, three of the arms are imme- diately reloaded, when the pouches are caught by a second set of roadside nets, distant only about 600 yards from the first. It is necessary that great care should be taken in adjusting the nets, arms, and roadside standards to their proper positions in relation to one another, for any departure from such adjustment sometimes leads to accident. The pouches occasionally are sent bounding over hedges, over the carriages, or under the carriage- wheels, where they and their contents get cut to pieces. Pouches have been found at the end of a journey on the carriage-roof, or hanging on to a buffer. In November last, a pouch containing several mail-bags was discharged from the Midland Travelling Post-office at Cudworth, near Barnsley ; but something going wrong, the pouch got cut up, and the contents were strewn along the line as far as Normanton. Some of these were found to be cheques, a silver watch, a set of artificial teeth, &c. The following is a list of the Travelling Post-offices in the United Kingdom, most of which travel by night, dis- THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 123 tributing their freight of intellectual produce through all parts of the country : North-Western and Caledonian. Birmingham and Stafford. London and Holyhead. Bangor and Crewe, and Nor- manton and Stalybridge. London and Exeter. Bristol and Exeter. York and Newcastle. Dublin and Belfast. Belfast and Northern Counties. Ulster. St Pan eras and Derby. Midland. Bristol and Newton Abbot. South-Western. South-Eastern. Great Northern. London and Bristol. London and Crewe. Midland (Ireland). Great Southern and "Western. Dublin to Cork. There are, besides, a great many other Travelling Post- offices of minor importance throughout the country, designated Sorting Tenders. 124 CHAPTER XL SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. POST-OFFICE sorters, unlike men who follow other avocations, are a race unsung, and a people unknown to fame. The soldier of adventure, the mariner on the high seas, the village blacksmith, the tiller of the soil, the woodman in the forest nay, even the tailor on his bench, all of these have formed the theme of song, and have claimed the notice of writers of verse. It is otherwise with the men who sort our letters. This may possibly be due to two causes that sorters are comparatively a modern institution, and that their work is carried on practically under seal. In times which are little beyond the recollec- tion of persons now living, the lines of post were so few, and the division and distribution of letters so simple, that the clerks who examined and taxed the correspondence also sorted it : and the time taken over the work would seem to show much deliberation in the process ; for we find that in 1796, when correspondence was very limited, it took above an hour at Edinburgh "to tell up, examine, and retax " the letters received by the mail from England for places in the north ; and that, when foreign mails arrived, two hours were required ; and further time was necessary for taxing and sorting letters posted in Edinburgh for the same district of country the staff employed in the business SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 125 being two clerks. In those days there were really no sorters, unless such as were employed in the chief office in London. As to the work being carried on under seal, it is not going beyond the truth to say that, to the great majority of persons, the interior of the Post-office is a terra incognita, their sole knowledge of the institution being derived from the pillar and the postman. Yet the sorters of the present age, forming a very large body, are ever engaged in doing an important and by no means simple duty. As letters arrive in the morning, and are handed in at the breakfast- table, speculation arises as to their origin ; a well-known hand is recognised, interest is excited by the contents, or the well-springs of emotion are opened joy is brought with the silvered note, or sorrow with the black insignia of death; and thus, absorbed in the matter of the letters themselves, no passing thought is spared to the operators whose diligent hands have given them wings or directed their line of flight. When most men are enjoying the refreshment of nature's sweet restorer, which it is the privilege of the night-hours to give, the sorters in a large number of post- offices throughout the country are hard at work, and on nearly all the great lines of railway the travelling post- offices are speeding their wakeful flight in every direction, carrying not only immense quantities of correspondence, but a large staff of men who arrange 'and sort it in transit. Unconsciously though it may be, these men by their work are really a most powerful agency in binding society together, and promoting the commercial enterprise of the country. It lies in the nature of things that sorters' duties should largely fall into the night. Like a skilful mariner who bends to his use every wind that blows, the Post-office avails itself of every opportunity to send forward its letters. To lay aside till morning, corre- 126 THE ROYAL MAIL. spondence arriving at an intermediate stage at night, would not consort with the demands of the age we live in ; despatch is of the first consequence, and hence it is that to deal with through correspondence, many offices are open during the night. Some offices are never closed : at all hours the round of duty goes on without intermission ; but in these, as also in many other cases where the periods of duty are long, relays of sorters are necessarily employed. Much might be said of the broken hours of attendance, the early risings, the discomforts and cold of the travelling post- offices in winter, and the like, which sorters have to endure ; and something might also be said of their loyalty to duty, punctuality in attendance, and readiness to strain every nerve under the pressure of occasions like Christmas. But these things would not, perhaps, be of general interest, and our object here is rather to show what a sorter's work really is. Does it ever occur to an ordinary member of the com- munity how letters are sorted? And if so, what has the thinking member made of it? We fear the idea would wear a somewhat hazy complexion. This is how it is done in Edinburgh, for example. The letters when posted are of course found all mixed together, and bearing addresses of every kind. They are first arranged with the postage- stamps all in one direction, then they are stamped (the labels being defaced in the process), and thereafter the letters are ready to be sorted. They are conveyed to sorting frames, where a first division is carried out, the letters being divided into about twenty lots, representing roads or despatching divisions, and a few large towns. Then at these divisions the final sortation takes place, to accord with the bags in which the letters will be enclosed when the proper hour of despatch arrives. This seems a very simple process, does it not ? SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 127 But before a sorter is competent to do this work, he must learn "circulation," which is the technical name for the system under which correspondence flows to its destination, as the blood courses through the body by means of the arteries and veins. By way of contrast to what will be stated hereafter, it may be convenient to see how letters circulated less than a hundred years ago. In 1793 the London mail arrived at Glasgow at 6 o'clock in the morning, but the letters for Paisley did not reach the latter place till 1 1 A.M. that is, five hours after their arrival in Glasgow, though the distance between the places is only seven miles. A couple of years before that, letters arriving at Edinburgh on Sunday morning for Stirling, Alloa, and other places north thereof, which went by way of Falkirk, were not despatched till Sunday night; they reached Falkirk the same night or early on Monday morning, and there they remained till Tuesday morning, when they went on with the North mail so that between Edinburgh and Falkirk two whole days w r ere consumed. In the year 1794 the London mail reached Edinburgh at 6 A.M., unless when detained by bad weather or breakdowns. The letters which it brought for Perth, Aberdeen, and places on that line, lay in Edinburgh fourteen hours viz., till 8 P.M. before being sent on. The people of Aberdeen were not satisfied with the arrangement, and as the result of agitation, the hour was altered to 1 P.M. This placed them, however, in no better position, for the arrival at Aberdeen was so late at night, that the letters could only be dealt with next day. It was not easy to accommodate all parties, and there was a good deal of trouble over this matter. The Edinburgh newspapers required an interval, after the arrival of the London mail, for the printing of their journals and preparing them for the North despatch. The Aberdeen people thought that an interval of three 128 THE ROYAL MAIL. hours was sufficient for all purposes, and urged that the North mail should start at 9 A.M. In one of their memorials they write thus : " They think that the institu- tion of posts was, in the first place, to facilitate commerce by the conveyance of letters with the quickest possible despatch from one end of the kingdom to the other, and, in the next place, to raise a revenue for Government ; and they cannot conceive that either of those ends will be promoted by the letters of two-thirds of the kingdom of Scotland lying dormant for many hours at Edinburgh." In another of the petitions from the people of Aberdeen, they strangely introduce their loyalty as a lever in pressing their claims : " Were we of this city," say they, " to lay claim to any peculiar merit, it might perhaps be that of a sincere attachment to order and good government, which places us, in this respect at least, equal to the most dignified city in Britain." From a Post-office point of view, the memorialists appeared to be under some mistake as to the gain to be derived from the change desired, for there was something connected with the return mails which did not fall in with the plan, and the surveyor made some opposition to it. In one of his reports he makes this curious observation : (< I am persuaded that some of them, as now appears to be the case, may be very well pleased to get free from the obligation of answering their letters in course and particularly in money matters " ! One or two instances of the cross-post service of former times, in England itself, which might be supposed to be more fortunate than its Scottish neighbour, will repay con- sideration. Thus we find it duly recorded in official reports, that in 1792 there was no direct post between Thrapston and Wellingborough, though the distance separating them was only nine miles. Letters could circulate between SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 129 these towns by way of Stilton, Newark, Nottingham, and Northampton, performing a circuit of 148 miles, or they could be sent by way of London, 74 miles up and 68 J down, in which latter case they reached their destination one day sooner than by the former round-about route. Again, from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds, two important towns of 11,277! and 7655 1 inhabitants respectively, and distant from one another only 22 miles, there was no direct post. Letters had to be forwarded either through Norwich and Newmarket, or by way of London, the distance to be covered in the one case being 105 miles, and in the other 143 J miles. We have not the means of computing the time letters took to travel from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds in 1792, but an Itinerary for 1812 affords the necessary information as regards the later period. Suppose a letter were posted at Ipswich for Bury St Edmunds on Monday, it would be despatched to Norwich at 5.30 A.M. on Tuesday, reaching Norwich some six hours thereafter. It would leave Norwich at 4.0 P.M. same day (Tuesday), and arrive at Newmarket at about 11.0 P.M., where it would lie all night and the greater part of next day, and would only arrive at Bury St Edmunds at 5.40 P.M. on Wednesday. If the letter were sent by the Metropolitan route, its time would be the same, thus : Leaving Ipswich at 9.30 P.M. on Monday, it would reach London at 8.0 A.M on Tuesday. Thence it would not get despatched till 7.30 P.M.; and proceeding to New- market, would arrive there at 4.0 A.M. on Wednesday. Here it would remain till the afternoon, and would reach Bury St Edmunds, as in the former case, at 5.40 P.M. (on Wednes- day). So that, in practice, to cover this short interval of 22 miles by post, three whole days were necessary. One more instance : From Salisbury to South Wales, a 1 From published records of 1812. 130 THE ROYAL MAIL. distance of some 70 miles, letters had to circulate through London, making a journey, up and down, of something like 220 miles, and this without alternative. These facts show what a poor circulation the Post-office had at the period in question, and what splendid intervals there were in which to sort the correspondence. Nowadays, in any office pretending to importance, the letters pour in all day long (and all night too, possibly), and they pour out in a constant stream at the same time letters being in and out of an office in certain instances within the space of a few minutes. A good sorter will sort letters at the rate of 25 to 40 a minute. But let us look at what a sorter has to learn to do this. A leaf of the circulation book in use at Edinburgh for places in England is here inserted (p. 131), which will be of assistance in understanding the matter. It will be observed that there are seven times in the day at which despatches are made to England. Letters for Martock, in Somersetshire, for example, in accordance with the hour at which they may be posted, would be sent thus : to Birmingham at 10.0 A.M.; to the Midland Travelling Post-office Forward, third division, at 2.40 P.M. ; no circula- tion at 4.15 P.M. ; to the Glasgow and Carlisle Sorting Tender (a sorting carriage running between these towns) at 5.50 P.M. ; no circulation at 7.20 P.M. ; to the Bristol and Exeter Travelling Post-office at 9.0 P.M. ; and to London at 10.0 P.M. Then if we take Mitcheldean, at the foot of the sheet, its circulation is this : to Birmingham at 10.0 A.M. ; to Gloucester at 2.40 P.M.; to the Glasgow and Carlisle Sorting Tender at 5.50 P.M. ; to Gloucester at 9.0 P.M. ; and to Manchester at 10.0 P.M. And so on throughout the book, which contains the names of some 1300 places in England. Nor, as regards England, is this all, The sorters have to divide letters into the several London districts by reference to the street addresses which the SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 131 II 8 " a .i:3J i 11 3 I ! l J f II ~ & 1 -i -S o -.s. . o PQ pq H H H H & no oo 02 as od d d d d d =3<3 ^8 e d d d d d H . H H EH' H OQ ^z odoa d .d d d d d d d d > | - - O e! ^3 M 1 1 i 1 1 02 O " * * iji PM ^ 02 ii - SS i I 132 THE ROYAL MAIL. letters bear. Again, these men have to know the circulation for Scotch towns and Irish towns, and many of them have, besides, such a knowledge of the streets of their own city, Edinburgh, as enables them to sort letters for delivery into the several postmen's districts. Thus it will be seen that the sortation of letters is no mere mechanical process, but demands considerable head-work, as well as activity of body. With some men it is impossible for them ever to become good sorters, even with the most earnest desire on their part to do so. There are certain qualities necessary for the purpose, and if they are not united in the person, he will never come to the front as a good sorter. These are : self- command necessary when working against time ; activity in his person so as to meet any sudden strain of work ; a methodical habit ; and, the sine qua non of a sorter, a quick, prehensile, and retentive memory. So much has a sorter to learn, that a man without a head can never dis- tinguish himself; and an educational test, except as a measure of acquirements in a collateral way, is of very little use. A sorter's success rests chiefly upon natural aptitude. In the circulation of letters, we may discover the paradox that " the longest road is often the shortest " ; the explana- tion of which is, that by a round-about way letters may sometimes arrive sooner than by waiting the next chance by a more direct route. Post-office circulation is not tied down by any strait-laced lines of geographical science, nor by any consideration but that of the economy of time. For example, at certain periods letters from Edinburgh for places in Norfolk and Suffolk go on to London, to return north to those counties by the mails out of London ; similarly, letters for places north of Manchester are at certain hours sent on to that city, to be returned part of the way by next opportunity. It will no doubt seem a puzzle SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 133 that letters for Ireland should, at a certain time of day, be forwarded from Edinburgh to Leeds in Yorkshire ! Yet this is so, and with good results, the fact being that, after the more direct despatches for the day, Irish letters are sent by the last evening train to Leeds, whence early next morning they are sent across the country, reaching a travel- ling post-office proceeding from London to Holyhead, and then catching the day-mail packet for Ireland. Thus they arrive in the sister isle by the time they would otherwise be only leaving Scotland. In the travelling post-offices the plan of carrying letters away from their destinations in order that time may be gained for their sortation, and afterwards sending them back by a Post-office carriage proceeding in the reverse direction, is largely practised, and with the greatest advantage. Again, letters from Newcastle- on-Tyne for Glasgow, forwarded by the night-mail, take what might be thought to be a very wide circuit namely, by way of Normanton in Yorkshire, and Manchester and Wigan in Lancashire ; yet that circulation is found to be best at the hour at which the night-mail despatch is made. In one more case that may be cited, letters from Berwick-on- Tweed for Carlisle are, at a certain time of the day, forwarded through Edinburgh as the most expeditious route. There is such a complexity of arrangement in the matter of circu- lation, and so great a dependence of any one part on a great many other surrounding parts, that comparatively few persons ever thoroughly understand it, and only those who can master it should meddle with it. In one aspect the process of sortation bears some resem- blance to digestion. This is observed in connection with the strange courses which letters run if, by a first misreading of the address, they happen to get out of their proper line or direction. A day seldom passes but some letter addressed to Edenbridge in Kent reaches the city of Edinburgh, 134 THE ROYAL MAIL. either from London or some other English town. There is, of course, a strong resemblance between the names of the two places as written, yet the missent letters must have passed through the hands of two or three sorters before reaching Edinburgh. But though this might seem to suggest carelessness, there is this to be said, that whenever a letter for Edenbridge gets out of its own course, and into the stream of letters for Edinburgh, the sorters have a predisposition to assimilate it as an Edinburgh letter, and so it gets forwarded to that city. The same thing applies in regard to letters for Leek, Leith, and Keith, and for Musselburgh and Middlesborough especially when, as is too often the case, the writing is not good; and many other similar instances might be given. Letters for Fiji frequently reach Edinburgh from London and the South, being missent as for Fife in Scotland ; and we have it on the authority of the Colonial Postmaster of Fiji, that numbers of letters, papers, &c., directed to Fife, reach the Fiji Islands. Two letters posted at Hamilton, Bermuda, and addressed to Edinburgh, Saratoga Co., N.Y., were recently observed to perform a curious circuit before reaching their destination. Instead of being sent direct to the United States from Bermuda, they were forwarded to London in England ; and here, getting into the current of inland correspondence, they were sent to Edinburgh in Scotland. At this stage their wild career was stopped, and they were put in proper course to recross the Atlantic. It is near the truth to say, that similarity of names and bad writing are the causes of very many of the irregularities which befall letters in their transit through the post 135 CHAPTER XII. PIGEON-POST. THE intellectual superiority of man has enabled him to bend to his purposes the various physical powers of the lower animals as, for example, the strength of the ox and the fleetness of the horse and his observation has taught him also to turn to his use some of the instincts of the lower creation, though these gifts may lie hidden beyond the reach of his understanding. Thus the keen scent of the bloodhound, and the sense which enables the " ship of the desert" to sniff the distant spring, are equally become subservient to the interests of man; but it is with reference to another instinct not less remarkable that this chapter is written the homing instinct of the carrier-pigeon. This gentle bird has long been known as a messenger capable of conveying news from one place to another over considerable distances. It is asserted that " Hirtius and Brutus, at the siege of Modena, held a correspondence by pigeons ; and Ovid tells us that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice to his father of his victory at the Olympic games, sending it to him at ^Egina." In Persia and Turkey pigeons were trained for this service, and it is stated that every bashaw had some of these birds reared, in order swiftly to convey news to the seraglio on occasions of insurrection or other emergency. In somewhat modern 136 THE ROYAL MAIL. times the best birds were said to be those of Aleppo, which served as couriers at Alexandretta and Bagdad ; but many years ago their services in this line had to be given up, owing to the Kurd robbers killing the pigeons in the course of their journey. It does not appear, however, that, until quite recent times, any great use has been made of these birds by Western nations, at any rate under any extended scheme for commercial or peaceful ends. Yet, by what may seem an incongruity, the dove, which is par excellence the emblem of love and peace, has of late years been trained for purposes of war by the great Continental States ; and it is impossible to predict how far the fate of nations may be determined hereafter by the performances of these naturally harmless creatures. The following particulars from one of the annual reports on the Post-office will show to what extent service was rendered by carrier-pigeons in keeping up postal communication with Paris when that city was invested during the Franco-German war of 1870-71 : " As the war proceeded and the hostile forces approached Paris, the risk of interruption to our Indian mails became more and more imminent, and caused serious uneasiness to the Post-office. This feeling, which was not long in com- municating itself to the public, the subsequent investment of the capital served to enhance. The mails had now to branch off at Amiens, and go round by Kouen and Tours, at a cost, in point of time, of from thirty to forty hours ; but even this circuitous route could not long be depended upon, and nothing remained but to abandon Marseilles altogether as the line of communication for our Indian mails. There was only one alternative to send them through Belgium and Germany by the Brenner Pass to Brindisi, and thence by Italian packets to Alexandria, " But it was in respect to the mails for France herself, and especially for Paris, that the greatest perplexity pre- PIGEON-POST. 137 vailed. As soon as Amiens was threatened Amiens, the very key-stone of our postal communication with the interior and south of France it became evident that the route via Calais would not remain much longer. The alternative routes that presented themselves were via Dieppe, and via Cherbourg or St Malo, and no time was lost in making the necessary arrangements with the Brighton and South- western Railway Companies. By both Companies trains were kept in constant readiness at the terminus in London, and vessels remained under steam at Newhaven and South- ampton, prepared to start at the shortest notice, according to the course events might take. Late in the evening of the 26th of November, intelligence was received in London that the line of communication through Amiens was closed, and the mails were diverted from Calais to Cherbourg ; within the next four days Cherbourg was exchanged for Dieppe, and Dieppe soon afterwards for St Malo. As to the means adopted for maintaining communication with Paris, the pigeon-post has become matter of history. Letters intended for this novel mode of transmission had to be sent to the headquarters of the French Post-office at Tours, where, it is understood, they were all copied in consecutive order, and by a process of photography transferred in a wonderfully reduced form to a diminutive piece of very thin paper, such as a pigeon could carry, the photographic process being repeated on their arrival in Paris, for the purpose of obtaining a larger impression. They were essential condi- tions that these letters should be posted open without cover or envelope, and that they should be registered ; that they should be restricted to twenty words ; that they should be written in French in clear and intelligible language, and that they should relate solely to private affairs, and contain no allusion either to the war or to politics. The charge was fixed at 5d. for each word (the name and address counting 138 THE ROYAL MAIL. as one word), and 6d. for registration. During the invest- ment, from November 1870 to January 1871, the number of letters sent from London to Tours, for despatch by pigeon-post to Paris, was 1234." Profiting by the example furnished during the progress of the Franco-German war, the good people of the Fiji Islands have quite recently established a pigeon-post, to serve them in the peaceful pursuits of trade. The colony of Fiji is a group of 225 islands, between which the com- munications by sailing-vessels or steamers are not very regular, the former being frequently becalmed or retarded by head-winds, while the latter are of small power and low speed. An important part of the trade of the Islands consists in exporting fruit and other produce to Australia and New Zealand, the largest portion consisting of bananas, of which a single steamer will sometimes carry about 12,000 bunches. It is desirable not to cut the bananas till the steamers from Australia and New Zealand arrive at Fiji, and consequently early news of the event is most important to planters in the more remote islands ; for if the small schooners or cutters which carry the fruit between the islands arrive too late for the steamer, the poor planters lose their whole produce, which, being perishable, has to be thrown overboard. In these circumstances a pigeon-post has been called into operation : and should this method of communication be extended to all the important islands, as it has already been to some, many a cargo will be saved to the poor planters which would otherwise be wholly lost. Subjoined is a copy of news by "Pigeon-post," taken from the ' Polynesian Gazette' of the 10th June 1884. It was conveyed by pigeon from Suva to Levuka, a distance as the crow flies of about 40 miles, and the time occupied in transit was 42 minutes, the actual flight to the home of the pigeon taking but 30 minutes: PIGEON-POST. 139 "LATEST NEWS FROM SUVA. p er Pigeon-post. "The following despatch, dated Suva, Sunday, 3 P.M., was received at Nasova at 3.42 same day: "'Hero' arrived midnight, left Melbourne 26th, Newcastle 29th. Passengers Mrs Fowler and child, Mrs Cusack and family, Mrs Ely the and child, Messrs F. Hughes, Fullarton, J. Sims, J. B. Matthews, T. Eose, and A. H. Chambers. "Agents-General of Queensland and Victoria gone to France to interview Ministers in re recidivistes question. Marylebone won match, one innings and 115 runs ; Austra- lians have since defeated Birmingham eleven. ' Gunga/ Capt. Fleetwood, leaves Sydney 24th ult. New Zealand football team beat N.S. Wales, 34 points to nil. ' Cintra ' at Newcastle, loading coal for Melbourne, same time as ' Hero.' A.S.N. Co. bought Adelaide Simpsons Birkgate and Fenter- den. " ' Wairarapa ' and ' Penguin ' just arrived, further news when admitted to pratique. " Moiiday, 5 P.M. " ' Penguin ' may be expected in Levuka mid-day to- morrow, Tuesday. " 'Wairarapa' leaves for Levuka at daylight on Wednesday. ' Hero' leaves at 10.30 on Tuesday, for Deuba, and may be expected to arrive in Levuka on Wednesday night." It is right to add that the "Pigeon-post" of Fiji is not connected with the Postal Department, but is carried on as a private enterprise. 140 CHAPTER XIII. ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, AND OTHER PETTY FRAUDS. Abuse of the Franking Privilege. TTTHEREVER the use of anything of value is given without the check of a money or other equivalent, the use is sure to degenerate into abuse ; and in the experi- ence of the Post-office this has been proved to be the case, both as regards letters and telegrams. In regard to the first, the franking privilege was long found to be a canker eating into the vitals of the Revenue ; and its abolition on the introduction of the penny postage in 1840 came none too soon. Had the privilege been longer continued, it is impossible to conceive to what extent the abuse of it might have grown ; but what might have occurred here has, in some measure, taken place in the United States, as is shown by the following statement made by the Postmaster-General of that country, about twenty years after the abolition of the privilege in this: " Another potent reason for the abolition of the franking privilege, as now exercised, is found in the abuses which seem to be inseparable from its existence. These abuses, though constantly exposed and animadverted upon for a series of years, have as constantly increased. It has been ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 141 often stated by my predecessors, and is a matter of public notoriety, that immense masses of packages are transported under the Government frank which neither the letter nor the spirit of the statute creating the franking privilege would justify; and a large number of letters, documents, and packages are thus conveyed, covered by the frank of officials, written in violation of law, not by themselves, but by some real or pretended agent ; while whole sacks of similar matter, which have never been handled nor even seen by Government functionaries, are transported under franks which have been forged. The extreme difficulty of detecting such forgeries has greatly multiplied this class of offences; whilst their prevalence has so deadened the public sentiment in reference to them, that a conviction, however ample the proof, is scarcely possible to be obtained. The statute of 1825, denouncing the counterfeiting of an official frank under a heavy penalty, is practically inopera- tive. I refer you to the case reported at length by the United States attorney for the district, as strikingly illus- trating this vitiated public opinion, reflected from the jury-box. The proof was complete, and the case unredeemed by a single palliation; and yet the offender was discharged, unrebuked, to resume, if it should please him, his guilty task. This verdict of acquittal is understood to have been rendered on two grounds first, that the accused said he did not commit the offence to avoid the payment of the postages; and second, that the offence has become so prevalent that it is no longer proper to punish it. These are startling propositions, whether regarded in their legal, moral, or logical aspects." The unblushing way in which the British Post-office in its earlier days was called upon to convey not only franked letters, but, under franks, articles of a totally different class, . will be perceived from the following cases. It is not to be 142 THE ROYAL MAIL. understood, however, that the things consigned actually passed through the Post-office, but rather that they were admitted for transport on board the special packet-ships of Government, sailing for the purposes of the Post-office. The cases 'are taken from the first annual report of the Postmaster-General : "Fifteen couples of hounds going to the King of the Romans with a free pass." " Some parcels of cloth for the clothing colonels in my Lord North's and my Lord Grey's regiments." "Two servant-maids going as laundresses to my Lord Ambassador Methuen." " Doctor Crichton, carrying with him a cow and divers other necessaries." " Three suits of cloaths for some nobleman's lady at the Court of Portugal." " A box containing three pounds of tea, sent as a present by my Lady Arlington to the Queen-Dowager of England at Lisbon." " Eleven couples of hounds for Major-General Hompesch." " A case of knives and forks for Mr Stepney, her Majesty's Envoy to the King of Holland." " One little parcell of lace, to be made use of in clothing Duke Schomberg's regiment." " Two bales of stockings for the use of the Ambassador of the Crown of Portugal." "A box of medicines for my Lord Gal way in Portugal." " A deal case with four flitches of bacon for Mr Penning- ton of Rotterdam." The Post-office always had a great deal of trouble in controlling and keeping in check this system of franking ; and withal, the privilege was much abused. Before the year 1764, members of Parliament had merely to write their names on the covers to ensure their correspondence ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 143 free passage through the post ; .and packets of such franks were furnished by the members to their friends, who laid them past for use as occasion required. Nay, more, a trade was carried on in franks by the servants of members, whose practice it was to ask their masters to sign them in great numbers at a time. It was even suspected, and probably with sufficient reason, that franks were forged to a large extent ; and, had postage been paid on all franked correspondence, it is estimated that the Revenue would have been increased by 170,000. In the hope of impos- ing some greater check on the evil, it was enacted in 1763 that the whole superscription must be in the handwriting of the member ; but even this proved inadequate, and further restrictions were imposed in 1784 and 1795. Some very difficult and troublesome questions arose from time to time in dealing with member's letters. For example, when a member of Parliament had no place of residence in London, and was living out of the United Kingdom, if he had his letters addressed to a public office, or to any solicitor, banker, or other agent, he was not entitled to have his letters free of postage, but, if so directed and delivered, the postage had to be paid. Again, when a member kept up a residence in London, but had his letters directed to another place, the member ceased to enjoy the privilege as regards such letters ; as he also did when letters were addressed to his residence in the country, and he happened to be elsewhere at the time of their delivery. Then a Catholic peer dying, who had never taken his seat, and being succeeded by his brother, who was a Protestant, the question is raised whether the latter could claim to use the franking privilege before the issue of the writ calling him to the House of Peers ; and the legal decision is given that he could not so exercise the privilege. Keeping the members within proper bounds must evidently have been a task for the officers of 144 THE ROYAL MAIL. the Post-office requiring both* vigilance and determina- tion. But there was another kind of fraud carried on under the privilege granted to soldiers. A surveyor in Scotland thus referred to the irregularity as observed in Scotland in 1797: "As there is so much smuggling of letters already in Scotland, and reason to suspect it will increase from the additional rates, it is matter of serious concern to the Revenue to obtain a clear legal restriction ; and I wish you to represent it to the Board at London, in case it may not be too late to offer any hints from the distant situation we are in. " I have had occasion formerly to observe to you that a very great evasion of the Post Revenue has taken place particularly in the north of Scotland from the privilege granted to soldiers, under cover of which not only a very general opportunity is taken by the common people there to have their letters carried by soldiers to be freed by their officers, and having them again in return under soldiers' addresses; but even in several instances which I observed and detected, persons in higher ranks have availed them- selves of this circumstance." Nor were people of quality above the habit of committing similar frauds upon the Post-office revenue, as will be observed from the following remarks penned by an official on the 9th April 1812. The statement runs thus: "On the 31st ultimo, having gone into the mail-coach office at Glasgow, soon after the arrival of the coach from Ayr, and observing several parcels which had arrived by it, one in particular took our attention by its appearing to contain a loaf of bread of the supposed value of 6d. or 8d., addressed to the Honble. Mrs , of Glasgow ; and as this parcel was charged 10d., it created the idea of some mistake OTHER KINDS OF FRAUD. 145 having happened in sending it in that way, by which the carriage exceeded the value, besides the original cost of it. " In a few minutes after this, however, two ladies called for the parcel, one of them believed to be Mrs herself, and the other her sister, and inquired for the parcel ; and my curiosity leading me to notice the issue of this supposed hoax, I was not a little surprised to find, after the lady had cut up the cover, that two or three letters were enclosed with the loaf, one of which she gave to the other lady, and sent the loaf home by the porter." The Post-office has also been exposed to frauds in other ways. Thus it was a common device to take a newspaper bearing the newspaper frank, prick out with a pin certain words in the print making up a message to be sent, and the newspaper so prepared served all the purposes of a letter as between the sender and receiver. Or a message would be written on the cover of a newspaper with the first of all fluids known to us milk which, when dry, was not observed, but developed a legible communication subse- quently when held to the fire. The following anecdotes of the evasions of postage are told by the late Sir Kowland Hill : " Some years ago, when it was the practice to write the name of a member of Parliament for the purpose of franking a newspaper, a friend of mine, previous to starting on a tour into Scotland, arranged with his family a plan of informing them of his progress and state of health, without putting them to the expense of postage. It was managed thus : He carried with him a number of old newspapers, one of which he put into the post daily. The postmark, with the date, showed his progress ; and the state of his health was evinced by the selection of the names from a list previously agreed upon, with which the newspaper was franked. Sir Francis Burdett, I recollect, denoted vigorous health." K 146 THE ROYAL MAIL. "Once on the poet's [Coleridge's] visit to the Lake district, he halted at the door of a wayside inn at the moment when the rural postman was delivering a letter to the barmaid of the place. Upon receiving it she turned it over and over in her hand, and then asked the postage of it. The postman demanded a shilling. Sighing deeply, how- ever, the girl handed the letter back, saying she was too poor to pay the required sum. The poet at once offered to pay the postage; and in spite of some resistance on the part of the girl, which he deemed quite natural, did so. The messenger had scarcely left the place when the young barmaid confessed that she had learnt all she was likely to learn from the letter ; that she had only been practising a preconceived trick she and her brother having agreed that a few hieroglyphics on the back of the letter should tell her all she wanted to know, whilst the letter would contain no writing. ' We are so poor,' she added, ' that we have invented this manner of corresponding and franking our letters.'" In asserting its monopoly in the carriage of letters in towns, or wherever the Post-office had established posts, there was always trouble ; and so much attention did the matter require, that special officers for the duty were em- ployed, called " Apprehenders of Private Letter-carriers." The penalties were somewhat severe when infringements were discovered, and the action taken straight and prompt, as will be seen by the following, which is a copy of a letter written in 1817 to a person charging him with breaking the law : " SIR, His Majesty's Postmasters-General have received an information laid against you, that on the 18th ultimo your clerk, Mr , for whom you are answerable, illegally sent three letters in a parcel by a stage-coach to you at OTHER KINDS OF FRAUD. 147 >, ; <^> General Poft-Office, Aug. 10^,1792 A CAUTION. To all Coach-Mafters, Carriers, Higlers, Ship Matters employed Coaftwife, Newfmen, Watermen and Others. T_T A V I N G received repeated Information that Letters are illegally colle&ed, carried and delivered, to the great Injury of the Public Revenue, and it being the wifh of this Office rather to prevent than punifli, and that the unwary may be made acquainted with the Penalties they are fubjecl: to j I am directed to give this Public Notice, that from the Date hereof, every Effort will be ufed to detedl: and punifh all Perfons ib offending The Penalties for which are FIVE POUNDS FOR EVERY LETTER SO COLLECTED, CARRIED, OR DELIVERED, WHETHER FOR HIRE OR NOT, AND ONE HUNDRED POUNDS, FOR EVERY WEEK SUCH PRACTICE IS CONTINUED. By Command of the Poftmafter General, Johnfon Wilkinfon, Surveyor. 148 THE ROYAL MAIL. Broadstairs, Kent, contrary to the statute made to prevent the sending of letters otherwise than by the post. " I am commanded by their lordships to inform you that you have thereby incurred three penalties of 5 each, and that they feel it their duty to proceed against you to recover the same. "Should you have any explanation to give, you will please to address the Postmaster-General. I am," &c. In August 1794, at the Warwick Assizes, a carrier between Warwick and Birmingham was convicted of illegally collecting and carrying letters, when penalties amounting to 1500 were incurred; but the prosecution consented to a verdict being taken for two penalties of .5 each, with costs of the suit. A report of the period observed that " this verdict should be a warning to carriers, coach- men, and other persons, against taking up letters tied round with a string or covered with brown paper, under pretence of being parcels, which, the learned judge observed, was a flimsy evasion of the law." The very cheap postage which we now enjoy has removed the inducement in a large measure to commit petty frauds of this kind on the Post-office Revenue, and the commission of such things may now be said to belong to an age that is past. Frauds on the Public. The Post-office, while it is the willing handmaid to commerce, the vehicle of social intercourse, and the neces- sary helper in almost every enterprise and occupation, becomes at the same time a ready means for the unscrupu- lous to carry on a wonderful variety of frauds on the public, and enables a whole army of needy and designing persons to live upon the generous impulses of society. While these FRAUDS ON THE PUBLIC. 149 things go on, and Post-office officials know they go on, the Department is helpless to prevent them ; for the work of the Post-office is carried on as a secret business, in so far as the communications intrusted to it are concerned, and the contents of the letters conveyed are not its property or interest. There are men and women who go about from town to town writing begging letters to well-to-do persons, appealing for help under all sorts of pretences ; and these persons are as well known, in the sense of being customers to the Department, as a housekeeper is known at her grocer's shop. There are other persons, again, who carry on long- firm swindles through the post, obtaining goods which are never to be paid for ; and as soon as the goods are received at one place, the swindlers move on to another place, assume new names, and repeat the operation. The schemes adopted are often very deeply laid ; and the police, when once set upon the track, have hard work to unravel the wily plans. But tradespeople are not infrequently themselves very much to blame, as they show themselves too confiding, and too ready to do business with unknown persons. The following is an instance of a fraud upon well-to-do persons in this country, attempted by an American in the year 1869 : The Kev. Mr Champneys, of St Pancras, London, re- ceived a letter posted at Florence, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S., which upon being opened seemed to be not intended for him, but was a communication purporting to be written from one sister to another. The letter made it appear that the writer was highly connected, had fallen into the greatest distress owing to the death of her husband, that her feelings of self-respect had restrained her from telling her griefs till she could no longer- withhold them, and making free use of the deepest pathos and high-sounding sentiments, and finally appealing for an immediate remit- 150 THE ROYAL MAIL. tance. Mr Champneys, not suspecting a fraud, and desiring to help forward the letter to the person who, as he supposed, should have received it, inserted the following advertisement in the ' Times' newspaper : "A letter, dated Florence, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S., intended for Mrs Lucy Campbell, Scotland, has been misdirected to Kev. W. Champneys, 31 Gordon Square. Will Mrs Campbell kindly communicate her address immediately ? " In response to this inquiry, what was Mr Champney's surprise but to find that a large number of persons had received letters in identical terms and in precisely the same circumstances ! This of course caused him to reflect, and then the facts became clear to him which were, that under the guise of a trifling mistake, that of placing a letter in the wrong envelope, a set of dire circumstances were placed before persons who were likely to be kind- hearted and generous, in the hope that, though the writer was unknown to them, they might send some money to cheer a poor but respectable family steeped in calamity ! How far the attempt succeeded does not appear, but Mr Champneys very properly at once wrote a letter to the ' Times ' exposing the fraud, and it is to be hoped that some generous souls were in consequence saved from folly. One more instance but one coming within the class of the " confidence trick." In several country newspapers the following advertisement made its appearance: "An elderly bachelor of fortune, wishing to test the credulity of the public, and to benefit and assist others, will send a suitable present of genuine worth, according to the circumstances of the applicant, to all who will send him 17 stamps demanded merely as a token of confidence. Stamps will be returned with the present." And then the FRAUDS ON THE PUBLIC. 151 address followed, which was not always the same in all the advertisements. The advertiser alone would be able to say how far he profited by this little arrangement, but some idea of the simplicity of mankind may be derived from the 'fact that between 300 and 400 letters for this person, each containing 17 stamps, reached the Dead-letter Office owing doubtless to his having " moved on " from the places where he had lived, in consequence of their becoming too warm to hold him. Specimens of the letters written by the dupes are as follows : 1. "The Rev. encloses 17 stamps. He is a clergy- man with very limited means, and the most useful present to him would be five pounds. If his application be not agreeable, he requests that the stamps be returned." 2. " I have enclosed the 1 7 stamps, and shall be very pleased to receive any present you will send me. As I am not very well off, what I would like very much would be a nice black silk dress, which I should consider a rich reward for my credulity." 3. "Mrs presents her compliments to the 'elderly bachelor,' and in order to amuse him by her credulity encloses 17 stamps, and thus claims the promised present. Her position and circumstances are good, she mixes in gay society, and is quite an adept at dancing the polka mazourka. These details may determine the suitability of the present." 4. " Having read your advertisement testing the ' credu- lity of the public,' I feel disposed on my part to test the upright and honourable intentions of a stranger, contrary to the opinion of some, who tell me it is only a hoax, or, worse, a mere take-in. I therefore, with the honesty of an Irishman, beg to say I am a clerygyman's wife, mother of nine children, the six eldest fine enterprising sons ; the 152 THE ROYAL MAIL. three youngest, engaging, intelligent girls. We Irish gene- rally have larger hearts than purses. I therefore lay these facts before you, an Englishman, knowing that a Briton's generosity and capabilities are proverbially equal. Hoping I may be able to prove I have formed a correct opinion of advertiser's truthfulness, I am," &c. After this we may afford to smile, and use the words of a very old author with every confidence of their freshness : U 0h, where shall wisdom be found? where is the place of understanding ? " 153 CHAPTER XIV. STRANGE ADDRESSES. THE addresses of letters passing through the post have often very curious features, arising from various causes : sometimes the whole writing is so bad as to be all but illegible ; sometimes the orthography is extremely at fault; sometimes the writer, having forgotten the precise address, makes use of a periphrase ; sometimes the addresses are insufficient ; and sometimes the addresses are conjoined with sketches on the envelopes showing both artistic taste and comic spirit. Post-office sorters, who constantly have passing through their hands writing of every style and every degree of badness, acquire an aptitude for deciphering manuscript; and writing must be bad indeed, if to be read at all, when it fails to be deciphered in the Post-office. A very large collection might be made of the vagaries of writers in the addresses placed by them on letters ; but the following will give some idea, though not a complete idea, of one of the troubles met with in dealing with post-letters. Some time ago the Danish and Norwegian Consul at Ipswich, being struck by the ever- varying way in which the word " Ipswich " was spelt, in the addresses of letters reaching him from abroad, took the pains to make a record of each new style of spelling, and after a time he was able to collect together fifty-seven incorrect methods of spelling 154 THE ROYAL MAIL. the word " Ipswich," which had been used upon letters addressed to him. They are given as follows, viz. : Elsfleth, Epshvics, Epshvidts, Epsids, Epsig, Epsvet, Epsvidts, Epwich, Evswig, Exwig, Hoispis, Hvisspys, Ibsvi, Ibsvig, Ibsvithse, Ibwich, Ibwigth, Ispsich, le yis wich, Igswield, Igswig, Igswjigh, Ipesviok, Ipiswug, Ipswitis, Ipsiwisch, Ipsovich, Ipsveten, Ipsvick, Ipsvics, Ipsvids, Ipsvidts, Ipsvig, Ipsvikh, Ipsvits, Ipsvitx, Ipsvoigh, Ipsweh, Ipsweich, Ipswgs, Ipswiche, Ipswick, Ipswict, Ipswiceh, Ipswig, Ipswigh, Ipswight, Ipswish, Ipswith, Ipswitz, Ispich, Ispovich, Ispwich, Ixvig, lysuich, Uibsvich, Vittspits. Letters so addressed generally reached the Consul in direct course of post, though some of them were occasionally delayed by being first sent to Wisbeach. In other cases assistance was given in reading the addresses by the northern version of the county ^* &L*^* - and repofing great Truft and Confidence in the Knowledge, Care and Ability of the faid ^%^>a-c^-* ^^^i^y to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Poftmafter, have deputed, conftituted^ authorized and appointed, and by thefe Prefents do depute, conftitutc, authorize and appoint, the faid ^%^-r>vo^s c/&cZ*r^**- v to be our lawful and fufficient Deputy, to execute the Office of Deputy Poftmaflcr of the Stage of /^ in the County of 4&^t^X-^ to have, hold, ufe, exercife and enjoy, the faid Office of Deputy Poftmafter of the Stage aforefaid> xvith all and every the Rights, Privileges, Benefits and Advantages to the lame belonging, from the \St/fit% Day of3>***^s->'-t ? f >**/ for the Term of Three Years, unlefs fooncr removed by Us, under fuch Conditions, Covenants, Provifoes, Payments, Orders and Inflru&ions, to be faithfully obferved, performed and done by the faid Deputy, and Servants, as ^, or they {hall, from Time to Time, receive from Us, or by our Order. In Witncfs whereof, We the faid C H A R L E s Earl of T A N K E R v i L L E, and HENRY FREDERICK- Lord CARTERS T,have hereunto fct our Hands, and caufrd the Seal of the J^d Office, in fuch Cafes ufcd, to be affixed. Dated the zZj&^ffj- Day of5*S^-r*^~^ 178 /> ^"^ * jy s J^ 7^ ^^ in the ^^^^^i. Year of His Majcfly's Reign, ' 303 CHAPTER XXV. RED TAPE. THE Post-office is no stranger to the taunt that it is swathed from head to foot in red tape ; or, at any rate, that its operations are so trammelled with routine that no inquiry into irregularities can be made with anything like 1 due expedition. Such accusations as these often come from unreflecting persons, or from those whose business operations are of a small kind, and who have no idea of the methods necessary for carrying on a huge administration. An ordinary shopkeeper, for example, has under his own eye the whole sphere of his daily business ; he has a personal knowledge of all purchases from the wholesale houses, and knows exactly the particulars of his daily sales ; he has, more- over, the behaviour of his servants constantly under observa- tion with a view to discipline ; in fact, he is ever present in his own business world, the whole scope of which is within his individual purview. If a person of this class were asked a question in regard to his affairs, it would probably be in his power to afford an answer at once; and when he ad- dresses an inquiry to the Post-office he expects a reply with like rapidity. Not receiving an answer with the looked-for despatch, as might very likely happen, the cause would be assumed to be needless routine otherwise red tape. Now it is proper here to observe, that between busin 304 THE ROYAL MAIL. or trade in the ordinary sense, and the administration of a department like the Post-office, there exists a gulf which forbids all comparison, and establishes a contrast of the most striking kind. A stranger, were he taken through the Secretariat of the Post-office at St Martin's-le-Grand, the brain of the whole Department, could not fail to be struck by the method which reigns throughout, and the way in which various subjects coming up for consideration are dis- posed of in different branches. In one quarter he would find inquiry going on into the characters and antecedents of candidates for appointments throughout the country, and preparations being made for their examination by the Civil Service Commissioners. In another room would be found officers exercising judicial functions in regard to cases of misbehaviour reported from the country meting out arrest of pay or dismissal in accordance with the gravity of the offence in each instance. Then in other rooms questions as to new buildings, their fittings and furniture, and the increase of staff when demanded by provincial offices, are undergoing close examination. Inquiries for missing letters take up attention in one branch; various other kinds of irregularities are dealt with in another. The foreign mails branch, the home mails and parcel-post branch, the telegraph branch, with all their subdivisions of work, occupy separate rooms, and claim the attention of officers specially trained to their several duties. And how does all the correspondence for the Secretary at headquarters find its way to its proper quarter for treat- ment 1 There is a branch called the Registry, in which every letter or communication of any importance is registered on receipt that is, it receives a number, the name of the writer is indexed, and the subject of his letter recorded. The number of officers employed in the Registry is 73 ; and the original papers passing through the branch in the way stated RED TAPE. 305 exceed 320,000 annually. From this branch every morning the papers for treatment are distributed over the Secretariat, each officer receiving the papers proper to his duty. Nor does the business of the Registry end here, for every case each separate set of papers on a subject is called a case is recorded again whenever sent elsewhere, so that its destination can be traced. Were this not done, laggard postmasters, or persons acting from base or interested motives, might find it convenient not to return the papers, and so by silence end them. Sometimes a single case will go backwards and forwards thirty or forty times, yet its whole history of travel is recorded. This is the routine which some people call red tape. In dealing in this way with large masses of correspond- ence, each atom of which has to receive its due share of brain-attention, there is necessarily some degree of retard- ation ; and it may be remarked that, between this process and the law in mechanics, under which, other things being equal, a gain of power is accompanied by a loss of speed, there exists a strong analogy. But by this classification and division of labour it is possible to bring about results which could not be achieved by a much larger staff under any plan of desultory working. We will mention one thing which, perhaps more than any other, excites the public to use the taunt of red tape. It is a printed reply to a complaint, commonly spoken of as the ''stereotyped reply." The public do not know how carefully and conscientiously delays and reported losses of letters are investigated in the Post-office. Inquiries are made in every office through which the letters would pass in transit, and records made, lest an explanation should afterwards be forthcoming; but after all, in the eyes of some persons, the printed reply spoils all. These persons forget, however, that the printed letter conveys all that is U 306 THE ROYAL MAIL. to be said on the subject, and that it is used in the interests of economy. It may be admitted of the Post-office, that of all its characteristics, the most prominent is that of its method, routine, or red-tapeism, in the limited sense of what is necessary for the furtherance of the public service ; but there is, perhaps, no concern of like magnitude in the world in which there is less of the musty fusty red tape of antiquity that has outlived its time, and no longer serves any useful purpose. PRINTED BV NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH. THE ROYAL MAIL ITS CUKIOSITIES AND ROMANCE. BY JAMES WILSON HYDE, SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. The Times. "The author of 'The Royal Mail' has served five- and-twenty years in the Post-office, and had it been his fortune to turn novelist, like his confrere Anthony Trollope, he would never have been so lavish of invaluable materials. The merest glance through his pages might suggest subjects or incidents for half a score of sensational romances. But the whole of the volume is so full of fascination that once taken up it is difficult to lay it down." Saturday Review. ' Mr Hyde's work certainly shows that, even at the present time, the business conducted by the Post-office is not unfrequently enlivened by romantic incidents ; while in anti- quarian interest it is rich beyond the average." Pall Mall Gazette. " This volume is a storehouse of amusing anecdotes." The Echo. "The curiosities and romance of the Post-office have furnished Mr J. Wilson Hyde, Superintendent in the General Post- office, Edinburgh, with a subject for one of the most entertaining books of the year. The book is well written, well arranged, and thoroughly deserves success." Graphic. " Contains a vast number of well -arranged facts, some valuable, some curious, about what is pre-eminently ' the people's institution.' " St James's Gazette. "The result is a work that is sure to be widely read. The author treats of the old coaching days in a cheery spirit ; and if some of his excellent, anecdotes lack the gloss of novelty, that was only to be expected. But by far the most interesting pages in his interesting book are those in which he deals with the working of the present system An extremely readable and meritorious book." 2 Whitehall Review." 'The Royal Mail' is not a book to be put down unfinished, for what is told in it is well worth knowing, and the admirable way it is related makes it all the more enjoyable." The Literary World. "This book is free from the least sus- picion of dulness, and is replete with the liveliest anecdotes we have seen for many a day. There is a good story on almost every page." Daily News. "A book which is an interesting addition to Post- office literature, and it will be read with pleasure by thousands who know nothing of the internal working of the postal service." Scotsman. " A book of singular interest, and excellence The carelessness with which in some cases the mails were conveyed, the means taken to preserve them from robbers, the length of time occupied in their transmission from one place to another, the difficulty in dealing with particular portions of them, all these are described in the earlier chapters of Mr Hyde's book, and are described with singular power and ease of narrative. The book, in short, is far more interesting than most of the modern novels, and it will enable the country to understand better tl\an it could otherwise understand the vast and complicated machinery "by which one of the most ordinary and yet imperative requirements of modern life is carried out. Mr Hyde must have hearty commendation for the manner in which he has done his work." Glasgow Weekly Citizen. "Positively the most interesting book I have seen for an age. It is certain to have an immediate and very wide popularity. It reads like a novel, and shows in many cases how true is the old maxim, that 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' To everybody this volume will be of the greatest interest. And many subjects of great and universal interest are treated in the most lively and entertaining manner. The volume abounds in capital stories." North British Daily Mail. "It is brimful of the most curious out-of-the-way facts illustrative of the early struggles of the postal service, and also contains some very amusing and romantic stories of the old stage-coach days. The work is written in such an easy unpretentious chatty style, and is so admirably arranged, that when taken up few will lay it down until they have read it through to the end. It is, moreover, capitally illustrated." Newcastle Daily Journal. "This is a thoroughly instructive and amusing book. Mr Hyde approaches his subject in the character of a chronicler. The book is a most entertaining one." 3 Liverpool Daily Post. " His volume is replete with interest- ing facts, anecdotes, and illustrations, and it is written on a subject which has an interest for every one His pages will repay perusal." Dundee Advertiser. " A perusal of Mr Hyde's clever book will show the difference between the postal service of a century ago and that of the present time. To the credit of the author be it said, that he succeeds in doing this without being tiresome, a consummation not always achieved by those who undertake such a mission." Aberdeen Journal. "Every page is full of interest, and the whole book shows the man accustomed to put the greatest amount of information in the fewest and most appropriate words. From beginning to end of the book the reader finds himself in the company of one that speaks what he knows." Bristol Times and Mirror. " In this work, Mr J. Wilson Hyde has'gathered together a perfect budget of information pertaining to our postal service both in the past and present days. The book is neatly bound, and is decidedly a valuable addition to the literature of the season." Manchester Examiner and Times. " ' The Royal Mail ' is singularly interesting The writer has unearthed from ancient docu- ments, old newspapers, and official reports, a curious collection of incidents and facts which give a vivid idea of the difficulties of the postal service in its youth, and of the immense improvements which have been made in recent years. The book is both entertaining and instructive. The reader will find a good deal that is strange and even romantic in the account." ' Quiz. "A delightful book, by the Superintendent of the Edinburgh General Post-office A book, full of contemporary curiosities and old-world romances, which, while it gives an entertaining account of the inner workings of the Post-office of to-day, transports you to the grand idyllic epoch of sleepy Britain, the times of pack-horses and post-boys, of wayside inns and county hostelries, of masked cavaliers, and great snows and impracticable roads. A glance at the contents of Mr Hyde's volume is sufficient to indicate the extent and variety of the materials he has gathered together. " Birmingham Daily Mail. "A book which may be looked upon in the light of a historical work Its aim, while historic, seems to be to deal with the lighter features of the great depart- ment of the State, the Post-office. ' The Royal Mail ' will be found very entertaining, and sometimes very strange and romantic reading." Practical Teacher. " A book which, albeit not a novel, has all the charm and interest of the most exciting romance. Altogether it would be difficult to speak too highly of Mr Hyde's delightful volume." Yorkshire Post. "Mr J. W. Hyde of Edinburgh has collected and arranged an altogether admirable array of historical and illustra- tive matter bearing on our postal system." Courant. "He has made a wonderfully good book. By some curious instinct he has divined what is most interesting in the subject he writes about, and there is not a dull page from the first to the last. No previous writer on the Post-office has given us so graphic a picture of its daily life, and of the adventures it undergoes from hour to hour. He has in truth written a romance of the Post-office abounding in truths stranger than fiction." BOOK IS DUE c &KKWS _? NTS NOV 1 1998 YB 18762