Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
114
Had
Hogarth's
pencil
transmitted
to
posterity
the
tout
ensemble
of
a
London
procession
of
mail-coaches,
or
of
one
of
them
at
the
door
of
the
customary
halting-place
(what
Herring
has
done
for
the
old
Brighton
coach
the
"Age,"
with
its
fine
stud
of
blood-horses,
and
a
real
baronet
for
driver),
the
subject
could
not
but
have
occasioned
marked
curiosity
and
pleasure.
No
doubt
he
would
have
given
a
distinguished
place
to
the
guard
of
the
mail.
The
mail-guard
was
no
ordinary
character,
being
generally
d'accord
with
those
who
thought
or
expressed
this
opinion.
Regarded
as
quite
a
public
character,
commissions
of
great
importance
were
oftentimes
intrusted
to
him.
The
country
banker,
for
example,
would
trust
him
with
untold
wealth.
Though
he
was
paid
only
a
nominal
sum
by
the
Post-Office
authorities
for
his
official
services,
he
was
yet
enabled
to
make
his
position
and
place
a
lucrative
one,
by
the
help
of
the
regular
perquisites
and
other
accidental
windfalls
which
we
need
not
further
specify.
Gathering
en
route
scraps
of
local
gossip
and
district
intelligence,
he
was
often
"private,"
and
sometimes
"special,"
correspondent
to
scores
of
different
people.
The
Muddleton
Gazette,
perhaps
the
only
newspaper
on
his
line
of
road,
was
submissively
dependent
upon
him.
More
of
him
anon:
here
we
would
only
add
that
he
had
special
duties
on
special
occasions.
The
mail-coach
was
looked
for
most
anxiously
in
times
of
great
excitement.
During
the
trial
of
Queen
Caroline,
says
Miss
Martineau,
"all
along
the
line
of
mails,
crowds
stood
waiting
in
the
burning
sunshine
for
news
of
the
trial,
which
was
shouted
out
to
them
as
the
coach
passed."[68]
Again,
at
the
different
stages
in
the
history
of
the
Reform
Bill,
the
mail-roads
were
sprinkled
over
for
miles
with
people
who
were
on
the
qui
vive
for
any
news
from
London,
and
the
coachman
and
guards
on
the
top
of
the
coaches
shouted
out
the
tidings.[69]
When
the
Ministry
resigned,
many
of
the
guards
distributed
handbills
which
they
had
brought
from
London,
stating
the
facts.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
