Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Martin Pettit, The
Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net
A Hundred Years by Post
A JUBILEE RETROSPECT
BY
J. WILSON HYDE
AUTHOR OF 'THE ROYAL MAIL: ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE'
[Illustration]
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON AND CO., LIM.
St. Dunstan's House
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1891
[_All rights reserved_]
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, at the
Edinburgh University Press.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY CECIL RAIKES, M.P.
HER MAJESTY'S POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE,
BY PERMISSION,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
The following pages give some particulars of the changes that have taken
place in the Post Office service during the past hundred years; and the
matter may prove interesting, not only on account of the changes
themselves, but in respect of the influence which the growing usefulness
of the Postal Service must necessarily have upon almost every relation
of political, educational, social, and commercial life. More especially
may the subject be found attractive at the close of the present year,
when the country has been celebrating the Jubilee of the Penny Post.
EDINBURGH,
_December 1890._
CONTENTS.
PAGE
_Frontispiece_--MAIL-COACH IN THUNDERSTORM.
PAST AND PRESENT CONTRASTED, 1
LIBERTY OF SUBJECT AND PUBLIC OPINION, 5
ABUSES OF POWER, 7
SLOW DIFFUSION OF NEWS, 17
_Illustration_--ANALYSIS OF LONDON TO EDINBURGH
MAIL OF 2D MARCH 1838, _facing_ 22
STATE OF ROADS AND INSECURITY OF TRAVELLING, 27
FOOT AND HORSE POSTS, 33
_Illustration_--THE MAIL, 1803, _facing_ 40
THE MAIL-COACH ERA, 40
_Illustration_--THE MAIL, 1824, _facing_ 46
_Illustration_--MODERN MAIL "APPARATUS" FOR
EXCHANGE OF MAILS, _facing_ 58
_Illustration_--THE MAIL-COACH GUARD, _facing_ 74
DEAR POSTAGE, 80
_Diagrams_--ROUNDABOUT COMMUNICATIONS, 84, 85
STREETS FIRST NUMBERED, 88
POSTMASTERS AS NEWS COLLECTORS, 91
_Illustration_--THE BELLMAN, _facing_ 92
MAIL-PACKET SERVICE, 96
_Illustration_--HOLYHEAD AND KINGSTOWN PACKET
"PRINCE ARTHUR," _facing_ 102
PENNY POSTAGE, 111
_Illustration_--HANDBILL USED IN PENNY POSTAGE
AGITATION, _facing_ 112
VARIOUS BUSINESS OF THE POST OFFICE, 119
STAFF OF THE POST OFFICE, 123
_Illustration_--TONTINE READING-ROOMS
GLASGOW, _facing_ 126
VALUE OF EARLY NEWS BY POST, 130
DIFFUSION OF PARLIAMENTARY NEWS BY THE TELEGRAPH
AND PRESS, 136
RESULTS OF RAPID COMMUNICATIONS, 139
[Illustration: _Frontispiece._ MAIL-COACH IN THUNDERSTORM.
(_From a print, 1827._)]
A HUNDRED YEARS BY POST.
Were a former inhabitant of this country who had quitted the stage of
life towards the close of last century to reappear in our midst, he
could not fail to be struck with the wonderful changes which have taken
place in the aspect of things; in the methods of performing the tasks of
daily life; and in the character of our social system generally. Nor is
it too much to say that he would see himself surrounded by a world full
of enchantment, and that his senses of wonder and admiration would rival
the feelings excited in youthful minds under the spell of books like
Jules Verne's _Journey to the Moon_, or the ever-entertaining stories of
the _Arabian Nights_. It is true that he would find the operations of
nature going on as before. The dewdrop and the blade of grass, sunshine
and shower, the movements of the tides, and the revolutions of the
heavenly bodies; these would still appear to be the same. But almost
everything to which man had been wont to put his hand would appear to
bear the impress of some other hand; and a hundred avenues of thought
opening to his bewildered sense would consign his inward man to the
education of a second childhood.
So fruitful has been the nineteenth century in discovery and invention,
and so astounding the advancement made, that it is only by stopping in
our madding haste and looking back that we can realise how different the
present is from the past. Yet to our imaginary friend's astonished
perception, nothing, we venture to think, would come with greater force
than the contrast between the means available for keeping up
communications in his day and in our own. We are used to see trains
coursing on the iron way at a speed of fifty or sixty miles an hour;
steamships moving on every sea, defiant of tide and wind, at the rate of
fifteen or twenty miles an hour; and the electric telegraph
outstripping all else, and practically annihilating time and space.
But how different was the state of things at the close of the eighteenth
century! The only means then available for home communications--that is
for letters, etc.--were the Foot Messenger, the Horse Express, and the
Mail Coach; and for communication with places beyond the sea,
sailing-ships.
The condition of things as then existing, and as reflected upon society,
is thus summed up by Mackenzie in his _History of the Nineteenth
Century_: "Men had scarcely the means to go from home beyond such
trivial distance as they were able to accomplish on foot. Human society
was composed of a multitude of little communities, dwelling apart,
mutually ignorant, and therefore cherishing mutual antipathies."
And when persons did venture away from home, in the capacity of
travellers, the entertainment they received in the hostelries, even in
some of the larger towns, seems now rather remarkable. If anything
surprises the traveller of these latter days, in regard to hotel
accommodation, when business or pleasure takes him from the bosom of his
family, it is the sumptuous character of the palaces in all the
principal towns of all civilised countries wherein he may be received,
and where he may make his temporary abode. To persons used to such
comforts, the accommodation of the last century would excite surprise in
quite another direction. Here is a description of the inn accommodation
of Edinburgh, furnished by Captain Topham, who visited Edinburgh in
1774: "On my first arrival, my companion and self, after the fatigue of
a long day's journey, were landed at one of these stable-keepers (for
they have modesty enough to give themselves no higher denomination) in a
part of the town called the Pleasance; and, on entering the house, we
were conducted by a poor devil of a girl, without shoes or stockings,
and with only a single linsey-woolsey petticoat which just reached
half-way to her ankles, into a room where about twenty Scotch drovers
had been regaling themselves with whisky and potatoes. You may guess our
amazement when we were informed that this was the best inn in the
metropolis--that we could have no beds unless we had an inclination to
sleep together, and in the same room with the company which a
stage-coach had that moment discharged."
Before proceeding further, let us look at some of the circumstances
which were characteristic of the period with which we are dealing.
Liberty of the subject and public opinion are inseparably wedded
together, and this seems inevitable in every country whose government
partakes largely of the representative system. For in such States,
unlike the conditions which obtain under despotic governments, the laws
are formulated and amended in accordance with the views held for the
time being by _the people_, the Government merely acting as the agency
through which the people's will is declared. And this being so, what is
called the Liberty of the subject must be that limited and circumscribed
freedom allowed by the people collectively, as expressed in the term
"public opinion," to the individual man. In despotic States the
circumstances are necessarily different, and such States may be excluded
from the present consideration.
Wherever there is wanting a quick and universal exchange of thought
there can be no sound public opinion. Where hindrances are placed upon
the free exchange of views, either by heavy duties on newspapers, by
dear postage, or by slow communications, public opinion must be a plant
of low vitality and slow growth. Consequently, in the age preceding that
of steam, so far as applied to locomotion, and to the telegraph, which
age extended well into the present century, there was no rapid exchange
of thought; new ideas were of slow propagation; there was little of that
intellectual friction so productive of intellectual light among the
masses. In these circumstances it is not surprising to read of things
existing within the last hundred years which to-day could have no place
in our national existence. Lord Cockburn, in the _Memorials of his
Time_, gives the following instance. "I knew a case, several years
after 1800," says he, "where the seat-holders of a town church applied
to Government, which was the patron, for the promotion of the second
clergyman, who had been giving great satisfaction for many years, and
now, on the death of the first minister, it was wished that he should
get the vacant place. The answer, written by a Member of the Cabinet,
was that the single fact of the people having interfered so far as to
express a wish was conclusive against what they desired; and another
appointment was instantly made." Going back a little more than a hundred
years, the following are specimens of the abuses then in full vigour.
They are referred to in Trevelyan's _Early History of Charles James
Fox_, the period in question being about 1750-60: "One nobleman had
eight thousand a year in sinecures, and the colonelcies of three
regiments. Another, an Auditor of the Exchequer, inside which he never
looked, had L8000 in years of peace, and L20,000 in years of war. A
third, with nothing to recommend him except his outward graces, bowed
and whispered himself into four great employments, from which thirteen
to fourteen hundred British guineas flowed month by month into the lap
of his Parisian mistress."... "George Selwyn, who returned two members,
and had something to say in the election of a third, was at one and the
same time Surveyor-General of Crown Lands, which he never surveyed,
Registrar in Chancery at Barbadoes, which he never visited, and Surveyor
of the Meltings and Clerk of the Irons in the Mint, where he showed
himself once a week in order to eat a dinner which he ordered, but for
which the nation paid."
The shameful waste of the public money in the shape of hereditary
pensions was still in vigour within the period we are dealing with; one
small party in the State "calling the tune," and the great mass of the
people, practically unrepresented, being left "to pay the piper." During
the reign of George III., who occupied the throne from 1760 to 1820, the
following hereditary pensions were granted:--To Trustees for the use of
William Penn, and his heirs and descendants for ever, in consideration
of his meritorious services and family losses from the American war
L4000. To Lord Rodney, and every the heirs-male to whom the title of
Lord Rodney shall descend, L2000. To Earl Morley and John Campbell,
Esq., and their heirs and assignees for ever, upon trust for the
representatives of Jeffrey Earl Amherst, L3000. To Viscount Exmouth and
the heirs-male to whom the title shall descend L2000. To Earl Nelson and
the heirs-male to whom the title of Earl Nelson shall descend, with
power of settling jointures out of the annuity, at no time exceeding
L3000 a year, L5000. In addition to this pension of L5000, Parliament
also granted to trustees on behalf of Earl Nelson a sum of L90,000 for
the purchase of an estate and mansion-house to be settled and entailed
to the same persons as the annuity of L5000.
Within the Post Office too very strange things happened in connection
with money paid to certain persons supposed to be in its service. Here
is a case, in the form of a remonstrance, referring to the period close
upon the end of last century, which explains itself. "Mr. Bushe observes
that the Government wished to reward his father, Gervas Parker Bushe
(who was one of the Commissioners), for his services, and particularly
for having increased the revenue L20,000 per annum; but that he
preferred a place for his son to any emolument for himself, in
consequence of which he was appointed Resident Surveyor. He expressed
his astonishment to find in the Patent (which he never looked into
before) that it is there mentioned 'during good behaviour,' and not for
life, upon which condition alone his father would have accepted it. He
adds that it was given to him as totally and absolutely a sinecure, and
that his appointment took place at so early a period of life that it
would be impossible for him to do any duty."
Again, the following evidence was given before a Commission on oath in
1791, by Mr. Johnson, a letter-carrier in London: "He receives at
present a salary as a letter-carrier of 14s. per week, making L36, 19s.
per annum; he likewise receives certain perquisites, arising from such
pence as are collected in the evening by letters delivered to him after
the Receiving Houses are shut, amounting in 1784 to L38, 11s., also from
acknowledgments from the public for sending letters by another
letter-carrier not immediately within his walk, amounting in the same
year to L5. He likewise receives in Christmas boxes L20,--the above
sums, making together L100, was the whole of his receipts of every kind
whatever by virtue of his office in 1784 (312 candles and a limited
allowance of stationery excepted), out of which he pays a person for
executing his duty as a letter-carrier, at the rate of 8s. a week, being
L20, 16s. per annum, and retains the remainder for his own use
entirely."
In a report made by a Commission which inquired into the state of the
Post Office in 1788, the following statement appears respecting abuses
existing in the department; and in reflecting upon that period the Post
Office servants of to-day might almost entertain feelings of regret that
they did not live in the happy days of feasts, coals, and candles. Here
is the statement of the Commissioners: "The custom of giving certain
annual feasts to the officers and clerks of this office (London) at the
public expense ought to be abolished; as also what is called the feast
and drink money; and, as the Inland Office now shuts at an early hour,
the allowances of lodging money to some of the officers, and of
apartments to others, ought to be discontinued." But of all allowances,
those of coals and candles are the most enormous; for, besides those
consumed in the official apartments, there are allowed to sundry
officers for their private use in town or country above three hundred
chaldrons of coals, and twenty thousand pounds of candles, which several
of them commute with the tradesmen for money or other articles; the
amount of the sums paid for these two articles in the year 1784 was
L4418, 4s. 1d.
In the year 1792 a payment was being made of L26 a year to a Mrs.
Collier, who was servant to the Bye and Cross Road Office in the London
Post Office; but she did not do the work herself. She employed a servant
to whom she paid L6, putting L20 into her own pocket.
What a splendid field this would have been for the Comptroller and
Auditor General, and for questioners in the Houses of Parliament!
An abuse that had its origin no doubt in the fact that the nation was
not represented at large,[1] but by Members of Parliament who were
returned by a very limited class, and who could not understand or
reflect the views of the masses, was that of the franking privilege.
The privilege of franking letters enjoyed by Members of Parliament was a
sad burden upon the Revenue of the Post Office, and it continued in
vigour down to the establishment of the Penny Post. Some idea of the
magnitude of this arrangement, which would now be called a gross abuse,
will be gathered from the state of things existing in the first quarter
of the present century. Looking at the regulations of 1823, we find that
each Member of Parliament was permitted to receive as many as fifteen
and to send as many as ten letters in each day, such letters not
exceeding one ounce in weight. At the then rates of postage this was a
most handsome privilege. In the year 1827 the Peers enjoying this extent
of free postage numbered over four hundred, and the Commons over six
hundred and fifty. In addition to these, certain Members of the
Government and other high officials had the privilege of sending free
any number of letters without restriction as to weight. These persons
were, in 1828, nearly a hundred in number.
How the privilege was turned to commercial account is explained in
Mackenzie's, _Reminiscences of Glasgow_. Referring to the Ship Bank of
that city, which had its existence in the first quarter of our century,
and to one of the partners, Mr. John Buchanan of Ardoch, who was also
Member of Parliament for Dumbartonshire, the author makes the following
statement: "From his position as Member of Parliament, he enjoyed the
privilege of franking the letters of the bank to the extent of fourteen
per diem. This was a great boon; it saved the bank some hundreds of
pounds per annum for postages. It was, moreover, regarded as a mighty
honour."
Great abuses were perpetrated even upon the abuse itself. Franks were
given away freely to other persons for their use, they were even sold,
and, moreover, they were forged. Senex, in his notes on _Glasgow Past
and Present_, describes how this was managed in Ireland. "I remember,"
says he, "about sixty years ago, an old Irish lady told me that she
seldom paid any postage for letters, and that her correspondence never
cost her friends anything. I inquired how she managed that. 'Oh,' said
she, 'I just wrote "Free, J. Suttie," in the corner of the cover of the
letter, and then, sure, nothing more was charged for it.' I said, 'Were
you not afraid of being hanged for forgery?' 'Oh, dear me, no,' she
replied; 'nobody ever heard of a lady being hanged in Ireland, and
troth, I just did what everybody else did.'" But the spirit of inquiry
was beginning to assert itself in the first half of the century, and the
franking privilege disappeared with the dawn of cheap postage.
Public opinion had as yet no active existence throughout our
Commonwealth, nor had the light spread so as to show up all the abuses.
And how true is Buckle's observation in his _History of Civilisation_
that all recent legislation is the undoing of bad laws made in the
interest of certain classes. How could there be an active public opinion
in the conditions of the times? Everybody was shut off from everybody
else. Hear further what Mackenzie says in his _History of the Nineteenth
Century_, referring to the end of last century: "The seclusion resulting
from the absence of roads rendered it necessary that every little
community, in some measure every family, should produce all that it
required to consume. The peasant raised his own food; he grew his own
flax or wool; his wife or daughter spun it; and a neighbour wove it
into cloth. He learned to extract dyes from plants which grew near his
cottage. He required to be independent of the external world from which
he was effectively shut out. Commerce was impossible until men could
find the means of transferring commodities from the place where they
were produced to the place where there were people willing to make use
of them." So much for the difficulty of exchanging ordinary produce. The
exchange of thought suffered in a like fashion.
In the first half of the present century severe restrictions were placed
upon the spread of news, not only by the heavy postage for letter
correspondence, but by the equally heavy newspaper tax. Referring to
this latter hindrance to the spread of light Mackenzie says: "The
newspaper is the natural enemy of despotic government, and was treated
as such in England. Down to 1765 the duty imposed was only one penny,
but as newspapers grew in influence the restraining tax was increased
from time to time, until in 1815 it reached the maximum of fourpence."
At this figure the tax seems to have continued many years, for under the
year 1836 Mackenzie refers to it as such, and remarks, "that this
rendered the newspaper a very occasional luxury to the working man; that
the annual circulation of newspapers in the United Kingdom was no more
than thirty-six million copies, and that these had only three hundred
thousand readers."
At the present time the combined annual circulation of a couple of the
leading newspapers in Scotland would equal the entire newspaper
circulation of the kingdom little more than fifty years ago. In the year
1799, which is less than a hundred years ago, the _Edinburgh Evening
Courant_ and the _Glasgow Courier_, two very small newspapers, were sold
at sixpence a copy, each bearing a Government stamp of the value of
threehalf-pence. Is it surprising, under these conditions, that few
newspapers should circulate, and that news should travel slowly
throughout the country?
But the growth of newspapers to their present magnificent proportions is
a thing of quite recent times, for even so lately as 1857 the
_Scotsman_, then sold unstamped for a penny, weighed only about
three-quarters of an ounce, while to-day the same paper, which continues
to be sold for a penny, weighs fully four and a half ounces. And other
newspapers throughout the country have no doubt swelled their columns to
a somewhat similar degree.
A very good instance of the small amount of personal travelling indulged
in by the people a century ago is given by Cleland in his _Annals of
Glasgow_. Writing in the year 1816, he says: "It has been calculated
that, previous to the erection of steamboats, not more than fifty
persons passed and repassed from Glasgow to Greenock in one day, whereas
it is now supposed that there are from four to five hundred passes and
repasses in the same period." In the present day a single steamboat
sailing from the Broomielaw, Glasgow, will often carry far more
passengers to Greenock, or beyond Greenock, than the whole passengers
travelling between the towns named in one day in 1816. For example, the
tourist steamer _Columba_ is certificated to carry some 1800 passengers.
In 1792 the principal mails to and from London were carried by
mail-coaches, which were then running between the Metropolis and some
score of the chief towns in the country at the speed of seven or eight
miles an hour; and so far as direct mails were concerned the towns in
question kept up relations with London under the conditions of speed
just described. But the cross post service--that is, the service between
places not lying in the main routes out of London--was not yet
developed, and these cross post towns were beyond the reach of anything
like early information of what was going on, not, let us say, in the
world at large, but in their own country. The people in these towns had
to patiently await the laggard arrival of news from the greater centres
of activity; and when it did arrive it probably came to hand in a very
imperfect form, or so late as to be useless for any purpose of combined
action or criticism.
Dr. James Russell, in his _Reminiscences of Yarrow_, describes how tardy
and uncertain the mail service by post was in the early years of the
present century; and what he says is a severe contrast to the service of
the present time, which provides for the delivery of letters, generally
daily, in every hamlet in the country. Dr. Russell writes:--
"Since I remember (unless there was a chance hand on a Wednesday) our
letters reached us only once a week, along with our bread and butcher
meat, by the weekly carrier, Robbie Hogg. His arrival used to be a great
event, the letter-bag being turned out, and a rummage made for our own.
Afterwards the Moffat carriers gave more frequent opportunities of
getting letters; but they were apt to carry them on to Moffat and bring
them back the following week."
Another instance of the slow communications is given in a letter written
from Brodick Castle, Arran, by Lord Archibald Campbell, on the 25th
September 1820.
The letter was addressed to a correspondent in Glasgow, and proceeds
thus: "Your letter of the 18th did not reach me till this morning, as,
in consequence of the rough state of the weather, there has been no
postal communication with this island for several days." The time
consumed in getting this letter forward from Glasgow to Brodick was
exactly a week, and when so much time was required in the case of an
island lying in the Firth of Clyde, what time would be necessary to make
communication with the Outer Hebrides?
Even between considerable towns, as representing important centres in
the country, the amount of correspondence by letter was small. Thus the
mail from Inverness to Edinburgh of the 5th October 1808 contained no
more than 30 letters. The total postage on these was L2, 9s. 6d., the
charges ranging from 11d. to 14s. 8d. per letter. At the present time
the letters from Inverness to Edinburgh are probably nearly a thousand a
day; but this is no fair comparison, because many letters that would
formerly pass through Edinburgh now reach their destinations in direct
bags--London itself being an instance.
[Illustration: ANALYSIS OF THE LONDON TO EDINBURGH MAIL OF THE 2D MARCH
1838. (_After a print lent by Lady Cole from the collection of the late
Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B._)]
But coming down to a much later date, and looking at what was going on
between London and Edinburgh, the capital towns of Great Britain, what
do we find? An analysis of the London to Edinburgh mail of the 2d March
1838 gives the following figures; and let it not be forgotten that in
these days the Edinburgh mail contained the correspondence for a large
part of Scotland:--
2296 Newspapers, weighing 273 lbs., and going free.
484 Franked Letters, weighing 47 lbs., and going free.
Parcels of stamps going free.
1555 Letters, weighing 34 lbs., and bearing postage to the value of L93.
These figures represent the exchange of thought between the two capitals
fifty years ago. These were truly the days of darkness, when abuses were
kept out of sight and were rampant.
Down to much later times the bonds of privilege remained untied. In the
Civil Service itself what changes have taken place! The doors have been
thrown open to competition and to capacity and worth, and probably they
will never be closed again. The author of these lines had an experience
in 1867--not very long ago--which may be worthy of note. He had been
then several years in the Post Office service, and desired to obtain a
nomination to compete for a higher position--a clerkship in the
Secretary's office. He took the usual step through the good offices of a
Member of Parliament, and the following rebuff emanated from
headquarters. It shall be its own monument, and may form a shot in the
historical web of our time:--
"I wrote to ---- (the Postmaster-General) about the Mr. J. W. Hyde, who
desires to be permitted to compete for a clerkship in the London Post
Office, described as a cousin of ----.
"(The Postmaster-General) has to-day replied that nominations to the
Secretary's office are not now given except to candidates who are
actually gentlemen, that is, sons of officers, clergymen, or the like.
If I cannot satisfy (the Postmaster-General) on this point, I fear Mr.
Hyde's candidature will go to the wall."[2]
Now one of the chief obstacles in the way of rapid communication in our
own country was the very unsatisfactory state of the roads. Down to the
time of the introduction of mail-coaches, just about a hundred years
ago, the roads were in a deplorable state, and travellers have left upon
record some rather strong language on the subject. It was only about
that time that road-making came to be understood; but the obvious need
for smooth roads to increase the speed of the mail gave an impetus to
the subject, and by degrees matters were greatly improved. It is not our
purpose to pursue the inquiry as to roads, though the subject might be
attractive, and we must be content with the general assertion as to
their condition.
But not only were the roads bad, but they were unsafe. Travellers could
hardly trust themselves to go about unarmed, and even the mail-coaches,
in which (besides the driver and guard) some passengers generally
journeyed, had to carry weapons of defence placed in the hands of the
guard. Many instances of highway robbery by highwaymen who made a
profession of robbery might be given; but one or two cases may repay
their perusal. On the 4th March 1793 the Under-Sheriff of Northampton
was robbed at eight o'clock in the evening near Holloway turnpike by two
highwaymen, who carried off a trunk containing the Sheriff's commission
for opening the assizes at Northampton.
In the Autobiography of Mary Hewitt the following encounter is recorded,
referring to the period between 1758-96: "Catherine (Martin), wife of a
purser in the navy, and conspicuous for her beauty and impulsive,
violent temper, having quarrelled with her excellent sister, Dorothea
Fryer, at whose house in Staffordshire she was staying, suddenly set off
to London on a visit to her great-uncle, the Rev. John Plymley, prebend
of the Collegiate Church at Wolverhampton, and Chaplain of Morden
College, Blackheath. She journeyed by the ordinary conveyance, the
Gee-Ho, a large stage-waggon drawn by a team of six horses, and which,
driven merely by day, took a week from Wolverhampton to the Cock and
Bell, Smithfield.
"Arrived in London, Catherine proceeded on foot to Blackheath. There,
night having come on, and losing her way, she was suddenly accosted by a
horseman with, 'Now, my pretty girl, where are you going?' Pleased by
his gallant address, she begged him to direct her to Morden College. He
assured her that she was fortunate in having met with him instead of one
of his company, and inducing her to mount before him, rode across the
heath to the pile of buildings which had been erected by Sir Christopher
Wren for decayed merchants, the recipients of Sir John Morden's bounty.
Assisting her to alight, he rang the bell, then remounted his steed and
galloped away, but not before the alarmed official, who had answered
the summons, had exclaimed, 'Heavens! Dick Turpin on Black Bess!' My
mother always said 'Dick Turpin.' Another version in the family runs
'Captain Smith.'"
The _Annual Register_ of the 3d October 1792 records the following case
of highway robbery:--
"The daily messenger, despatched from the Secretary of State's office
with letters to His Majesty at Windsor, was stopped near Langley Broom
by three footpads, who took from him the box containing the despatches,
and his money, etc. The same men afterwards robbed a gentleman in a
postchaise of a hundred guineas, a gold watch, etc. Some light dragoons,
who received information of the robberies, went in pursuit of the
thieves, but were not successful. They found, however, a quantity of the
papers scattered about the heath."
We will quote one more instance, as showing the frequency of these
robberies on the road. It is mentioned in the _Annual Register_ of the
28th March 1793.
"Martin (the mail robber), condemned at Exeter Assizes, was executed on
Haldown, near the spot where the robbery was committed. He had been well
educated, and had visited most European countries. At the end of the
year 1791 he was at Paris, and continued there till the end of August
1792. He said he was very active in the bloody affair of the 10th
August, at the Palace of the Tuilleries, when the Swiss Guards were
slaughtered, and Louis XVI. and his family fled to the National Assembly
for shelter. He said he did not enter with this bloody contest as a
volunteer, but, happening to be in that part of the city of Paris, he
was hurried on by the mob to take part in that sanguinary business. Not
speaking good French, he said he was suspected to be a Swiss, and on
that account, finding his life often in danger, he left Paris, and,
embarking for England at Havre de Grace, arrived at Weymouth in
September last, and then came to Exeter. He said that being in great
distress in October he committed the mail robbery."
A rather good anecdote is told of an encounter between a poor tailor
and one of these knights of the road. The tailor, on being overtaken by
the highwayman, was at once called upon to stand and deliver, the
salutation being accompanied by the presentation of two pistols at the
pedestrian's head. "I'll do that with pleasure," was the meek reply; and
forthwith the poor victim transferred to the outstretched hands of the
robber all the money he possessed. This done, the tailor proceeded to
ask a favour. "My friends would laugh at me," said he, "were I to go
home and tell them I was robbed with as much patience as a lamb. Suppose
you fire your two bull-dogs right through the crown of my hat; it will
look something like a show of resistance." Taken with the fancy, the
robber good-naturedly complied with the request; but hardly had the
smoke from the weapons cleared away, when the tailor pulled out a rusty
old horse pistol, and in turn politely requested the highwayman to shell
out everything of value about him--his pistols not excepted. So the
highwayman had the worst of the meeting on that occasion. The incident
will perhaps help to dispel the sad reproach of the craft, that a tailor
is but the ninth part of a man.
It should not be forgotten that these perils of the road had their
effect in preventing intercourse between different parts of the country.
In such outlying districts as were blessed with postal communication a
hundred years ago, the service was kept up by foot messengers, who often
travelled long distances in the performance of their duty. Thus in 1799
a post-runner travelled from Inverness to Loch Carron--a distance across
country, as the crow flies, of about fifty miles--making the journey
once a week, for which he was paid 5s. Another messenger at the same
period made the journey from Inverness to Dunvegan in Skye--a much
greater distance--also once a week, and for this service he received 7s.
6d. The rate at which the messengers travelled seems not to have been
very great, if we may judge from the performances of the post from
Dumbarton to Inveraray. In the year 1805 the Surveyor of the district
thus describes it: "I have sometimes observed these mails at leaving
Dumbarton about three stones or 48 lbs. 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 a weight upon him, cannot travel more than two
miles an hour, which greatly retards the general correspondence of this
extensive district of country."
These humble servants of the post office, travelling over considerable
tracts of country, would naturally become the means of conveying local
gossip from stage to stage, and of spreading hearsay news as they went
along. In this way, and as being the bearers of welcome letters, they
were no doubt as gladly received at the doors of our forefathers as are
the postmen at our own doors to-day. Indeed, complaint was made of the
delays that took place on the route, probably from this very cause. Here
is an instance referring to the year 1800. "I found," wrote the
Surveyor, "that 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."
Exposed to the buffetings of the tempest, to the rigours of wintry
weather, and considering the rough unkept roads of the time, it is easy
to imagine how seductive would be the fireside of the country house; and
bearing in mind the desire on the part of the inmates to learn the
latest news, it is not surprising that the poor post-runner occasionally
departed from the strict line of duty.
But immediately prior to the introduction of mail-coaches, and for a
long time before that, the mails over the longer distances were
conveyed on horseback, the riders being known as "post-boys." These were
sometimes boys of fourteen or sixteen years of age, and sometimes old
men. Mr. Palmer, at whose instance mail-coaches were first put upon the
road, writing in 1783, thus describes the post-boy service. The picture
is not a very creditable one to the Post Office. "The post at present,"
says he, "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. The mails are generally
intrusted to some idle boy without character, and 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." There is perhaps
room for suspicion that Mr. Palmer was painting the post-boy service as
black as possible, for he was then advocating another method of
conveying the mails; but he was not alone in his adverse criticism. An
official in Scotland thus described the service in 1799: "It is
impossible to obtain any other contractors to ride the mails at 3d. out,
or 1 1/2d. per mile each way. On this account we are so much distressed
with mail riders that we have often to submit to the mails being
conveyed by mules and such species of horses as are a disgrace to any
service." This is evidence from within the Post Office itself. While
young boys were suited for the work in some respects, they were
thoughtless and unpunctual; yet when older men were employed they
frequently got into liquor, and thus endangered the mails. The records
of the service are full of the troubles arising from the conduct of
these servants. The public were doubtless much to blame for this. For
the post-boys were, as we may suppose, ever welcome at the house and
ball, where refreshment, in the shape of strong drink, would be offered
to them, and they thus fell into trouble through a too common instance
of mistaken kindness.
In the year 1763 the mail leaving London on Tuesday night (in the
winter season) was not in the hands of the people of Edinburgh until the
afternoon of Sunday. This does not betoken a very rapid rate of
progression; but it appears that in many cases the post-boy's speed did
not rise above three or four miles an hour. The Post Office took severe
measures with these messengers, through parliamentary powers granted;
and even the public were called upon to keep an eye upon their
behaviour, and to report any misconduct to the authorities.
Mention has already been made of the unsafety of the roads for ordinary
travellers; but the roads were in no way safer for the post-boys. In
1798 a post-boy carrying certain Selby mails was robbed near that place,
being threatened with his life, and the mail-pouch which he then carried
was recovered under very strange circumstances in 1876.
But to come nearer home. On the early morning of the 1st of August 1802
the mail from Glasgow for Edinburgh was robbed by two men at a place
near Linlithgow, when a sum of L1300 or L1400 was stolen. The robbers
had previously been soldiers. They hurried into Edinburgh with their
booty, got drunk, were discovered, and, when subsequently tried, were
sentenced to be executed. The law was severe in those days; and the Post
Office has the distinction of having obtained judgment against a robber
who was the last criminal hung in chains in Scotland. According to
Rogers, in his _Social Life of Scotland_, this was one Leal, who, in
1773, was found guilty of robbing the mail near Elgin. A curious fact
came out in connection with the trial of this man Leal, showing what may
be termed the momentum of evil. It happened that some time previously
Leal and a companion had been to see the execution of a man for robbing
the mail, and, on returning, they had to pass through a dark and narrow
part of the road. At this point Leal observed to his companion that the
situation was one well suited for a robbery. And it was here that he
afterwards carried the suggestion then made into effect.
When such robberies took place the post-boys sometimes came off without
serious mishap, but at other times they were badly injured. On Wednesday
the 23d October 1816, a post-boy near Exeter was assaulted (as the
report says) in "a most desperate and inhuman manner," when his skull
was fractured, and he shortly afterwards died.
The post-boys were exposed to all the inclemency of the weather both by
day and night. Sometimes they were overtaken by snow-storms, when they
would have to struggle on for their lives. Sometimes, after riding a
stage in severe frost, they would have to be lifted from their saddles
benumbed with cold and unable to dismount. At other times accidents of a
different kind happened to them, and, as has been shown, they sometimes
lost their lives.
Mail-coaches were first put upon the road on the 8th of August 1784. The
term of about sixty years, during which they were the means of conveying
the principal mails throughout the country, must ever seem to us a
period of romantic interest. There is something stirring even in the
picture of a mail-coach bounding along at the heels of four well-bred
horses; and we know by experience how exhilarating it is to be carried
along the highway at a rapid rate in a well-appointed coach.
[Illustration: THE MAIL, 1803. (_From a contemporary print._)]
We cannot well separate the service given to the Post Office by
mail-coaches from the passengers who made use of that means of
conveyance, and we may linger a little to endeavour to realise what a
journey was like from accounts left us by travellers. The charm of day
travelling could no doubt be conjured up even now by any one who would
take time to reflect upon the subject. But other phases of the matter
could hardly be so dealt with.
De Quincey, in his _Confessions of an English Opium Eater_, gives a
pleasing description of the easy motion and soothing influence of a
well-equipped mail-coach running upon an even and kindly road. The
period he refers to was about 1803, and the coach was that carrying the
Bristol mail--which enjoyed unusual advantages owing to the superior
character of the road, and an extra allowance for expenses subscribed by
the Bristol merchants. He thus describes his feelings: "It was past
eight o'clock when I reached the Gloucester Coffee-House, and, the
Bristol mail being on the point of going off, I mounted on the outside.
The fine fluent motion of the mail soon laid me asleep. It is somewhat
remarkable that the first easy or refreshing sleep which I had enjoyed
for some months was on the outside of a mail-coach....
"For the first four or five miles from London I annoyed my
fellow-passenger on the roof by occasionally falling against him when
the coach gave a lurch to his side; and, indeed, if the road had been
less smooth and level than it is I should have fallen off from weakness.
Of this annoyance he complained heavily, as, perhaps, in the same
circumstances, most people would.... When I next woke for a minute from
the noise and lights of Hounslow (for in spite of my wishes and efforts
I had fallen asleep again within two minutes from the time I had spoken
to him), I found that he had put his arm round me to protect me from
falling off; and for the rest of my journey he behaved to me with the
gentleness of a woman, so that, at length, I almost lay in his arms....
So genial and refreshing was my sleep that the next time, after leaving
Hounslow, that I fully awoke was upon the pulling up of the mail
(possibly at a post-office), and, on inquiry, I found that we had
reached Maidenhead--six or seven miles, I think, ahead of Salthill. Here
I alighted, and for the half-minute that the mail stopped I was
entreated by my friendly companion (who, from the transient glimpse I
had had of him in Piccadilly, seemed to me to be a gentleman's butler,
or person of that rank) to go to bed without delay."
Night journeys might be very well, in a way, during the balmy days of
summer, when light airs and sweet exhalations from flower and leaf gave
pleasing features to the scenes, but in the cold nights of winter, in
lashing rain, in storms of wind and snow, the unfortunate passengers
and the guard and coachman must have had terrible times of it. It is
said of the guards and coachmen that they had sometimes, when passing
over the Fells, to be strapped to their seats, in order to keep their
places against the fierce assaults of the mountain blast.
The winter experience of travelling by mail-coach in one of its phases
is thus described by a writer in connection with a severe snow-storm
which occurred in March 1827: "The night mail from Edinburgh to Glasgow
left Edinburgh in the afternoon, but was stopped before reaching
Kirkliston. The guard with the mail-bags set forward on horseback, and
the driver rode back to Edinburgh with a view, it was understood, to get
fresh horses. The passengers, four in number, entreated him to use all
diligence, and meanwhile were compelled to wait in the coach, which had
stuck at a very solitary part of the road. There they remained through a
dark and stormy night, with a broken pane of glass, through which the
wind blew bitterly cold. It was nine o'clock next morning when the
driver came, bringing with him another man and a pair of horses. Having
taken away some articles, he jestingly asked the passengers what they
meant to do, and was leaving them to shift for themselves, but was
persuaded at length to aid one who was faint, and unable to struggle
through the snow. He was allowed to mount behind one of the riders; the
other passengers were left to extricate themselves as best they could."
[Illustration: THE MAIL, 1824. (_From a contemporary print._)]
Many instances might be given of the stoppage of the coaches on account
of snow, and of the efforts made by the guards to push on the mails. In
1836 a memorable snow-storm took place which disorganised the service,
and the occasion is one on which the guards and coachmen distinguished
themselves. The strain thrown upon the horses in a like situation is
well described by Cowper, if we change one word in his lines, which are
as follows:--
"The _coach_ goes heavily, impeded sore
By congregated loads adhering close
To the clogg'd wheels; and in its sluggish pace
Noiseless appears a moving hill of snow.
The toiling steeds expand the nostril wide,
While every breath, by respiration strong
Forced downward, is consolidated soon
Upon their jutting chests."
A melancholy result followed upon a worthy endeavour to carry the mails
through the snow on the 1st February 1831. The Dumfries coach had
reached Moffat, where it became snowed up. The driver and guard procured
saddle-horses, and proceeded; but they had not gone far when they found
the roads impracticable for horses, and these were sent back to Moffat.
The two men then continued on foot; but they did not get beyond a few
miles on the road when they succumbed, and some days afterwards their
dead bodies were found on the high ground near the "Deil's Beef-Tub,"
the bags being found attached to a post at the roadside, and not far
from where the men fell. They perished in a noble attempt to perform
their humble duties. The incident recalls the lines of Thomson:--
"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 friends unseen.
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,
Stretched out, and bleaching in the northern blast."