FOOT-POSTS.
"I know of no more universally popular personage than this humble
official. Bearer of love-letters, post-office orders, cheques,
little carefully 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.'
Though in former times foot-messengers--or, as they 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superseded by the railway and by horse-posts; and while post-runners are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 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 Edinburgh, 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
cloth, 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 Edinburgh 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 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_, 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 Sittingbourne--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 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 darkness 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 Rieff in Ross-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
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.[2] 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.
[2] Route changed since 1885.
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 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."