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

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Hundred Years by Post by James Wilson Hyde
• 2: Facing 58 Illustration THE MAIL COACH GUARD
• 3: In regard to hotel accommodation
• 4: In addition to this pension of L5000
• 5: Putting L20 into her own pocket
• 6: In his notes on Glasgow Past and Present
• 7: Will often carry far more passengers to Greenock
• 8: The total postage on these was L2
• 9: Prebend of the Collegiate Church at Wolverhampton
• 10: On being overtaken by the highwayman
• 11: Losing twelve hours to the Appin
• 12: Was found guilty of robbing the mail near Elgin
• 13: The period he refers to was about 1803
• 14: The Dumfries coach had reached Moffat
• 15: Which reaches Banff in the afternoon
• 16: Robberies were frequent from the mail coaches
• 17: A driver is fined L5 for losing time
• 18: In a stage coach with three male Quakers
• 19: A Frenchman was once a traveller by mail coach
• 20: Stole along the pole of the coach
• 21: The postmaster was assisted by his ostler
• 22: Living in an age of cheap postage as we do
• 23: A letter posted at Ipswich for Bury St
• 24: And as ten years later there were only four postmen employed
• 25: He was making for the outskirts of Kilmarnock
• 26: The postmen receiving a fee of a penny on every letter
• 27: Sailing daily between Holyhead and Dublin
• 28: Whose tonnage was probably about 400
• 29: The packets were at the disposition of General Lord Loudon
• 30: Under the Penny Postage Scheme
• 31: And your Petitioners will ever pray
• 32: It is entitled Hurrah for the Postman
• 33: Nae need noo o' whisp'rin' ayont a wheat stack
• 34: Having his permanent residence in Devonshire
• 35: Illustration THE TONTINE READING ROOMS
• 36: Rennie hurriedly whispered something to him
• 37: The order for insurance written for was then countermanded
• 38: An odd place in this parish known as Nineveh Farm
• 39: In a letter of the 20th September 1799