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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
26
The
same
surveyor
complained
bitterly,
with
respect
to
the
postboys,
"that
the
gentry
doe
give
much
money
to
the
riders,
whereby
they
be
very
subject
to
get
in
liquor,
which
stops
the
males."
Indeed
the
temptation
of
the
ale-house
was
no
doubt
another
factor
in
the
slow
journeying
of
the
postboys,
as
it
was
the
source
of
much
trouble
in
the
days
of
mail-coaches.
Mr
Palmer,
through
whose
initiative
and
perseverance
mail-coaches
were
subsequently
established
throughout
the
country,
thus
described
the
post
as
it
existed
in
1783:--
"The
post,
at
present,
instead
of
being
the
swiftest,
is
almost
the
slowest,
conveyance
in
the
country;
and
though,
from
the
great
improvement
in
our
roads,
other
carriers
have
proportionably
mended
their
speed,
the
post
is
as
slow
as
ever.
It
is
likewise
very
unsafe,
as
the
frequent
robberies
of
it
testify;
and
to
avoid
a
loss
of
this
nature,
people
generally
cut
bank
bills,
or
bills
at
sight,
in
two,
and
send
the
bills
by
different
posts.
The
mails
are
generally
intrusted
to
some
idle
boy,
without
character,
mounted
on
a
worn-out
hack,
and
who,
so
far
from
being
able
to
defend
himself
or
escape
from
a
robber,
is
much
more
likely
to
be
in
league
with
him."
Including
stoppages,
this
mode
of
travelling
was,
up
to
1783,
at
the
rate
of
about
three
to
four
miles
an
hour.
We
are
again
indebted
to
Mr
Chambers
for
the
following
statement
of
careless
blunders
made
by
postboys
in
connection
with
the
Edinburgh
mails:--"As
indicating
the
simplicity
of
the
institution
in
those
days,
may
be
noticed
a
mistake
of
February
1720,
when,
instead
of
the
mail
which
should
have
come
in
yesterday
(Sunday),
we
had
our
own
mail
of
Thursday
last
returned--the
presumption
being,
that
the
mail
for
Edinburgh
had
been
in
like
manner
sent
back
from
some
unknown
point
in
the
road
to
London.
And
this
mistake
happened
once
more
in
December
1728,
the
bag
despatched
on
a
Saturday
night
being
returned
the
second
Sunday
morning
after;
'tis
reckoned
this
mistake
happened
about
half-way
on
the
road."
We
hardly
agree,
however,
that
these
mistakes
were
owing
to
the
simplicity
of
the
institution,
but
rather
to
the
routine
nature
of
the
work;
for
it
is
the
fact
that
blunders
equally
flagrant
have
occurred
in
the
Post-office
in
recent
times,
even
under
elaborate
checks,
which,
if
rightly
applied,
would
have
rendered
the
mistakes
impossible.
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