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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
24
In
1715
the
first
horse-post
between
Edinburgh
and
Stirling
was
established,
and
in
March
1717
a
similar
post
between
Edinburgh
and
Glasgow
was
set
up.
This
latter
post
went
three
times
a-week,
travelled
during
the
night,
and
performed
the
distance
between
the
two
places
in
ten
hours--being
at
the
rate
of
about
four
miles
an
hour.
Were
we
to
give
further
instances
of
the
slowness
of
the
horse-posts,
we
should
probably
prove
tedious,
and
therefore
the
proofs
adduced
on
this
point
must
suffice.
Though
the
state
of
the
roads
may
be
held
to
account
for
some
of
the
delay,
the
roads
must
not
be
charged
with
everything.
In
1799
a
surveyor
in
the
north
of
Scotland
wrote
as
follows:
"It
is
impossible
to
obtain
any
other
contractors
to
ride
the
mails
at
3d.
out,
or
1-1/2d.
per
mile
each
way.
On
this
account
we
have
been
so
much
distressed
with
mail-riders,
that
we
have
sometimes
to
submit
to
the
mails
being
conveyed
by
mules
and
such
species
of
horses
as
were
a
disgrace
to
any
public
service."
The
same
surveyor
reported
in
1805,
that
it
would
give
rise
to
great
inconvenience
if
no
boys
under
sixteen
years
were
allowed
to
be
employed
in
riding
the
posts--many
of
them
ranging
down
from
that
age
to
fourteen.
So,
what
from
the
condition
of
the
highways,
the
sorry
quality
of
the
horses,
and
the
youthfulness
of
the
riders,
it
is
not
surprising
that
the
writers
of
letters
should
inscribe
on
their
missives:
"Be
this
letter
delivered
with
haste--haste--haste!
Post
haste!
Ride,
villain,
ride,--for
thy
life--for
thy
life--for
thy
life!"
unnecessary
though
that
injunction
be
in
the
present
day.
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