ON OLD ROADS AND SLOW COACHES.
If we seem in this chapter to make a divergence from the stream of
postal history, it is only to make passing reference to the tributaries
which helped to feed the main stream. The condition of the roads, and no
less the modes of travelling, bore a most intimate relationship, at all
the points in its history, to the development of the post-office system
and its communications throughout the kingdom. The seventeenth century,
as we have seen, was eventful in important postal improvements; the
period was, comparatively speaking, very fruitful also in great changes
and improvements in the internal character of the country. No question
that the progress of the former depended greatly on the state of the
latter. James the First, whatever might be his character in other
respects, was indefatigable in his exertions to open out the resources
of his kingdom. The fathers of civil engineering, such as Vermuyden and
Sir Hugh Myddleton, lived during his reign, and both these eminent men
were employed under his auspices, either in making roads, draining the
fen country, improving the metropolis, or in some other equally useful
scheme. The troubles of the succeeding reign had the effect of
frustrating the development of various schemes of public utility
proposed and eagerly sanctioned by James. Under the Commonwealth, and at
intervals during the two succeeding reigns, many useful improvements of
no ordinary moment were carried out.
In the provinces, though considerable advances had been made in this
respect during the century, travelling was still exceedingly difficult.
In 1640, perhaps the Dover Road, owing to the great extent of
continental traffic constantly kept up, was the best in England; yet
three or four days were usually taken to travel it. In that year, Queen
Henrietta and household were brought "with expedition" over that short
distance in four long days. Short journeys were accomplished in a
reasonable time, inasmuch as little entertainment was required. It was
different when a long journey was contemplated, seeing how generally
wretched were the hostelries of the period.[26] So bad, again, were some
of the roads, that it was not at all uncommon, when a family intended to
travel, for servants to be sent on beforehand to investigate the country
and report upon the most promising track. Fuller tells us that during
his time he frequently saw as many as six oxen employed in dragging
slowly a single person to church. Waylen says that 800 horses were taken
prisoners at one time during the civil wars by Cromwell's forces, "while
sticking in the mud."
Many improvements were made in modes of conveyance during the century. A
kind of stage-coach was first used in London about 1608; towards the
middle of the century they were gradually adopted in the metropolis, and
on the better highways around London. In no case, however, did they
attempt to travel at a greater speed than three miles an hour. Before
the century closed, stage-coaches were placed on three of the principal
roads in the kingdom, namely those between London and York, Chester, and
Exeter. This was only for the summer season; "during winter," in the
words of Mr. Smiles, "they did not run at all, but were laid up for the
season, like ships during Arctic frosts." Sometimes the roads were so
bad, even in summer, that it was all the horses could do to drag the
coach along, the passengers, _per force_, having to walk for miles
together. With the York coach especially the difficulties were really
formidable. Not only were the roads bad, but the low midland counties
were particularly liable to floods, when, during their prevalence, it
was nothing unusual for passengers to remain at some town _en route_ for
days together, until the roads were dry.
Public opinion was divided as to the merits of stage-coach travelling.
When the new threatened altogether to supersede the old mode of
travelling on horseback, great opposition was manifested to it, and the
organs of public opinion (the pamphlet) began to revile it. In 1673, for
instance, a pamphlet[27] was written which went so far as to denounce
the introduction of stage-coaches as the greatest evil "that had
happened of late years to these kingdoms." Curious to know how these sad
consequences had been brought about, we read on and find it stated that
"those who travel in these coaches contracted an idle habit of body;
became weary and listless when they had rode a few miles, and were then
unable to travel on horseback, and not able to endure frost, snow, or
rain, _or to lodge in the fields_." In the very same year another
writer, descanting on the improvements which had been introduced into
the Post-Office, goes on to say, that "besides the excellent arrangement
of conveying men and letters on horseback, there is of late such an
_admirable commodiousness_, both for men and women to travel from London
to the principal towns in the country, _that the like hath not been
known in the world_, and that is by _stage-coaches_, wherein any one may
be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather and foul ways;
free from endamaging of one's health and one's body by hard jogging or
over violent motion; and this not only at a low price (about a shilling
for every five miles), but with such velocity and speed in one hour as
that the posts in some foreign countreys cannot make in a day."[28] M.
Soubrière, a Frenchman of letters who landed at Dover in the reign of
Charles II., alludes to stage-coaches, but seems to have thought less of
their charms than the author we have just quoted. "That I might not take
post," says he, "or again be obliged to use the stage-coach, I went from
Dover to London in a wagon. I was drawn by six horses placed one after
another, and driven by a wagoner who walked by the side of them. He was
clothed in black and appointed in all things like another St. George. He
had a brave monteror on his head, and was a merry fellow, fancied he
made a figure, and seemed mightily pleased with himself."
The stage-wagon here referred to was almost exclusively used for the
conveyance of merchandise. On the principal roads strings of
stage-wagons travelled together. A string of stage-wagons travelled
between London and Liverpool, starting from the Axe Inn, Aldermanbury,
every Monday and Thursday, and occupying _ten_ days on the road during
summer and generally about _twelve_ in the winter season. Beside these
conveyances, there were "strings of horses," travelling somewhat
quicker, for the carriage of light goods and passengers. The
stage-wagon, as may be supposed, travelled much slower on other roads
than they did between London and Liverpool. On most roads, in fact, the
carriers never changed horses, but employed the same cattle throughout,
however long the journey might be. It was, indeed, so proverbially slow
in the north of England, that the publicans of Furness, in Lancashire,
when they saw the conductors of the travelling merchandise trains appear
in sight on the summit of Wrynose Hill, on their journey between
Whitehaven and Kendal, were jocularly said to begin to brew their beer,
always having a stock of good drink manufactured by the time the
travellers reached the village![29]
Whilst communication between different large towns was comparatively
easy--passengers travelling from London to York in less than a week
before the close of the century--there were towns situated in the same
county, in the year 1700, more widely separated for all practical
purposes than London and Inverness are at the present day. If a stranger
penetrated into some remote districts about this period, his appearance
would call forth, as one writer remarks, as much excitement as would the
arrival of a white man in some unknown African village. So it was with
Camden in his famous seventeenth-century tour. Camden acknowledges that
he approached Lancashire from Yorkshire, "that part of the country lying
beyond the mountains towards the western ocean," with a "_kind of
dread_," but trusted to Divine Providence, which, he said, "had gone
with him hitherto," to help him in the attempt. Country people still
knew little except of their narrow district, all but a small circle of
territory being like a closed book to them. They still received but few
letters. Now and then, a necessity would be laid upon them to write, and
thereupon they would hurry off to secure the services of the country
parson, or some one attached to the great house of the neighbourhood,
who generally took the request kindly.[30] Almost the only intelligence
of general affairs was communicated by pedlars and packmen, who were
accustomed to retail news with their wares. The wandering beggar who
came to the farmer's house craving a supper and bed was the principal
intelligencer of the rural population of Scotland so late as 1780.[31]
The introduction of newspapers formed quite an era in this respect to
the gentlefolk of the country, and to some extent the poorer classes
shared in the benefit. The first English newspaper published bears the
date of 1622. Still earlier than this, the News Letter, copied by the
hand, often found its way into the country, and, when well read at the
great house of the district, would be sent amongst the principal
villagers till its contents became diffused throughout the entire
community. When any intelligence unusually interesting was received
either in the news letter or the more modern newspaper, the principal
proprietor would sometimes cause the villagers and his immediate
dependants to be summoned at once, and would read to them the principal
paragraphs from his porch. The reader of English history will have an
imperfect comprehension of the facts of our past national life if he
does not know, or remember, how very slowly and imperfectly intelligence
of public matters was conveyed during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and what a bearing--very difficult to understand in these
days--such circumstances had upon the facts themselves. Thus, a
rebellion in one part of the country, which was popular throughout the
kingdom, might be quelled before the news of the rising reached another
part of the country. Remote districts waited for weeks and months to
learn the most important intelligence. Lord Macaulay relates that the
news of Queen Elizabeth's death, which was known to King James in three
days, was not heard of in some parts of Devonshire and Cornwall till the
court of her successor had ceased to wear mourning for her. The news of
Cromwell having been made Protector only reached Bridgewater nineteen
days after the event, when the church bells were set a-ringing. In some
parts of Wales the news of the death of King Charles I. was not known
for two months after its occurrence. The churches in the Orkneys
continued to put up the usual prayers for him for months after he was
beheaded; whilst their descendants did the same for King James long
after he had taken up his abode at St. Germains.
In Scotland, all the difficulties in travelling were felt to even a
greater degree than in England. There were no regular posts to the
extreme north of Scotland, letters going as best they could by
occasional travellers and different routes. Nothing could better show
the difficulties attendant on locomotion of any sort in Scotland, than
the fact that an agreement was entered into in 1678 to run a coach
between Edinburgh and Glasgow, to be drawn by six horses, the journey,
there and back, to be performed in six days. The distance was only
forty-four miles, and the coach travelled over the principal post-road
in the country!
The reader has thus some idea of the difficulties which stood in the way
of efficient postal communication during the seventeenth century.
However much the work of the Post-Office, and the slow and unequal
manner in which correspondence was distributed, may excite the scorn of
the present generation, living in the days of cheap and quick postage,
they must nevertheless agree with Lord Macaulay in considering that the
postal system of the Stuarts was such as might have moved the envy and
admiration of the polished nations of antiquity, or even of the
contemporaries of our own Shakespeare or Raleigh. In Cornwall,
Lincolnshire, some parts of Wales, and amongst the hills and dales of
Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Yorkshire, letters, it is true, were only
received once a week, if then; but in numbers of large towns they were
delivered two and three times a week. There was _daily_ communication
between London and the Downs, and the same privileges were extended to
Tunbridge Wells and Bath, at the season when those places were crowded
with pleasure-seekers.[32]
Accounts survive of the Post-Office as it existed towards the close of
the seventeenth century, an outline of which, contributed to the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ by a correspondent in the early part of the
present century, we must be excused for here presenting to the reader.
The Postmaster-General of the period, under the Duke of York, was at
that time the Earl of Arlington. The letters, it would seem, were
forwarded from London to different parts on different days. For
instance: Every Monday and Tuesday the Continental mails were
despatched, part on the former day, the remainder on the latter. Every
Saturday letters were sent to all parts of England, Scotland, and
Ireland. On other days posts were despatched to the Downs, also to one
or two important towns and other smaller places within short distances
of London. The London Post-Office was managed by the Postmaster-General
and a staff of twenty-seven clerks.[33] In the provinces of the three
countries, there were 182 deputy-postmasters. Two packet-boats sailed
between England and France; two were appointed for Flanders, three for
Holland, three for Ireland, and at Deal two were engaged for the Downs.
"As the masterpiece," so our authority winds up, "of all these grand
arrangements, established by the present Postmaster-General, he hath
annexed (_sic_) and appropriated the market-towns of England so well to
the respective postages, that there is no considerable one of them which
hath not an easy and certain conveyance for the letters thereof _once a
week_. Further, though the number of letters missive was not at all
considerable in our ancestors' day, yet it is now so prodigiously great
(_and the meanest of people are so beginning to write in consequence_)
that this office produces in money 60,000_l._ a year. Besides, letters
are forwarded with more expedition, and at less charges, than in any
other foreign country. A whole sheet of paper goes 80 miles for
twopence, two sheets for fourpence, and _an ounce of letter_ for but
eightpence, and that in so short a time, by night as well as day, that
every twenty-four hours the post goes one hundred and twenty miles, and
in _five_ days an answer to a letter may be had from a place distant 200
miles from the writer!"
FOOTNOTES:
[26] There were many exceptions, of course. Numbers of innkeepers were
also the postmasters of the period. Taylor, the water-poet, travelling
from London into Scotland in the early part of the century, has
described one of these men, in his _Penniless Pilgrimage_, as a model
Boniface.
[27] "The Grand Concern of England explained in several Proposals to
Parliament."--Harl. MSS. 1673.
[28] Chamberlayne's Present History of Great Britain. 1673.
[29] Private coaches were started in London at the time when the stage-
or hackney-coaches were introduced, and Mr. Pepys secured one of the
first. Mightily proud was he of it, as any reader of his _Diary_ will
have learnt to his great amusement.
[30] There are few traces in this country, at any time, of _public_
letter-writers. This is somewhat remarkable, inasmuch as then, and still
in some of the southern states of Europe, the profession of public
letter-writer has long been an institution. In England it has never
flourished. Some years ago there might have been seen at Wapping,
Shadwell, and other localities in London where sailors resorted,
announcements in small shop-windows to the effect that letters were
written there "to all parts of the world." In one shop a placard was
exhibited intimating that a "large assortment of letters _on all sorts
of subjects_" were kept on hand. There were never many, and now very
few, traces of the custom.
[31] Chambers' Domestic Annals.
[32] Lord Macaulay. Vol. i. p. 388.
[33] No less interesting are the particulars of one year's postal
revenue and expenditure, extracted from the old account-books of the
department, by the present Receiver and Accountant-General of the
Post-Office. The date given is within a year or two of that referred to
in the text, viz. 1686-7. The net produce of the year was a little over
76,000_l._, and the following is a few of the most important and most
suggestive items:--
£ _s._ _d._
Product of foreign mails for the year 17,805 1 7
The King's Majesty paid for his foreign letters 178 18 4
Product of Harwich packet-boats 950 5 4
The Inland window money amounted to 870 4 2
The letter-receivers' money 313 19 8
The letter-carriers' money 30,497 10 0
The Postmaster's money 37,819 8 11
Officers were _fined_ to the extent of 13 0 0
The profits of the Irish Office were 2,419 14 0
Ditto Penny-Post 800 0 0
The Scotch Office appears not only not to have brought in any profits,
but we find an item of absolute loss on the exchange of money with
Edinburgh to the extent of 210_l._ 10_s._ 10_d._
Amongst the more interesting items of expenditure we notice that--
£ _s._ _d._
The six clerks in the Foreign Office and about
twenty clerks belonging to other departments
received per annum 60 0 0
The salary of the Postmaster-General was 1,500 0 0
Two officers had 200_l._ per annum, a third had
150_l._, and a fourth had 100_l._--all four, doubtless,
heads of departments 450 0 0
There were eight letter-receivers in London, viz.
at Gray's Inn, at Temple Bar, at King Street,
at Westminster, in Holborn, in Covent Garden,
in Pall Mall, and in the Strand two offices,
whose yearly salaries amounted in all to 110 6 8
The yearly salaries of the whole body of letter-carriers 1,338 15 0
The salaries of the deputy-postmasters 5,639 6 0
The entire total expenditure was 13,509_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ "Thus we find,"
adds Mr. Scudamore, "that while the 'whole net produce' of the
establishment for a year was not equal to the sum which we derive from
the commission on money-orders in a year (Mr. Scudamore is writing of
1854), or to the present 'net produce' of the single town of Liverpool,
so also, the whole expenditure of the whole establishment for a year was
but a little larger than the sum which we now pay _once a month_ for
salaries to the clerks of the London Office alone." If we subtract the
total expenditure from the "whole net produce," as it is called, we get
a sum exceeding 62,000_l._ as the entire net _receipts_ of the
Post-Office for the year 1686-7.