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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
175
The
following
story
of
the
robbery
of
a
mail
carried
by
a
postboy,
is
taken
from
Chambers's
'Domestic
Annals
of
Scotland,'
under
the
date
16th
August
1690:--
"Andrew
Cockburn,
the
postboy
who
carried
the
packet
or
letter-bag
on
that
part
of
the
great
line
of
communication
which
lies
between
Cockburnspath
and
Haddington,
had
this
day
reached
a
point
in
his
journey
between
the
Alms-house
and
Hedderwick
Muir,
when
he
was
assailed
by
two
gentlemen
in
masks;
one
of
them
mounted
on
a
blue-grey
horse,
wearing
a
stone-grey
coat
with
brown-silk
buttons--the
other
riding
on
a
white
horse,
having
a
white
English
grey
cloak-coat
with
wrought
silver-thread
buttons.
Holding
pistols
to
his
breast,
they
threatened
to
kill
him
if
he
did
not
instantly
deliver
up
the
packet,
black
box,
and
bag
which
he
carried;
and
he
had
no
choice
but
to
yield.
They
then
bound
him,
and
leaving
him
tied
by
the
foot
to
his
horse,
rode
off
with
their
spoil
to
Garlton
House,
near
Haddington.
As
the
packet
contained
Government
communications,
besides
the
correspondence
of
private
individuals,
this
was
a
crime
of
a
very
high
nature,
albeit
we
may
well
believe
it
was
committed
on
political
impulse
only.
Suspicion
seems
immediately
to
have
alighted
on
James
Seton,
youngest
son
of
the
Viscount
Kingston,
and
John
Seton,
brother
of
Sir
George
Seton
of
Garlton;
and
Sir
Robert
Sinclair,
the
sheriff
of
the
county,
immediately
sought
for
these
young
gentlemen
at
their
father's
and
brother's
houses,
but
found
them
not.
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