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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
172
In
the
coaching
days
very
frequent
robberies
of
the
mails
took
place,
though
they
were
protected
by
armed
guards,
and
some
of
these
robberies
have
been
described
in
the
chapter
relating
to
mail-coaches.
The
passengers
who
travelled
in
the
mail-coaches,
with
the
knowledge
of
these
molestations
going
on
around
them,
must
have
been
kept
in
a
constant
state
of
alarm;
and
the
circumstance
could
not
fail
materially
to
discourage
travelling
in
days
when
the
facilities
for
exchanging
visits
were
few
compared
with
what
we
now
enjoy.
The
state
of
things
already
described
as
regards
the
mail-coaches,
extended
also
to
the
horse-posts,
the
riders
being
attacked
probably
more
freely
than
the
coaches;
for
while
the
plunder
to
be
had
would
be
less,
the
postboys
were
not
in
a
position
to
make
so
great
a
show
of
defence.
Nor
did
the
severity
of
the
laws
restrain
evil-doers,
either
in
England
or
Scotland,
where
sentences
of
execution
were
from
time
to
time
carried
out
upon
the
delinquents.
On
the
7th
of
July
1685,
the
post-rider
who
was
proceeding
through
the
extreme
north
of
England,
on
his
way
from
London
to
the
Scottish
metropolis,
was
known
to
have
been
twice
stopped,
and
to
have
been
robbed
of
his
mail,
the
scene
of
the
occurrence
being
near
Alnwick,
in
Northumberland.
In
connection
with
this
event,
of
which
an
account
has
been
handed
down
by
Lauder
of
Fountainhall,
a
curious
and
romantic
anecdote
has
been
told
by
Wilson
in
his
'Tales
of
the
Borders,'
and
by
Chambers
as
one
of
his
Scottish
traditional
stories.
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