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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
303
Lack
of
interest
in
the
mails
did
not,
however,
stand
in
the
way
of
their
turning
the
post
to
account
in
favour
of
their
visitors;
for
in
another
official
report
the
following
observation
is
made
on
the
subject
of
franking:
"The
Post-office
is
not
of
the
consequence
or
recommendation
to
an
inn
which
it
used
to
be
before
the
restriction
in
franking
took
place;
and
a
traveller,
now
finding
that
my
host
at
the
public
office
is
deprived
of
that
privilege,
moves
over
to
the
Red
Lyon."
When
mail-coaches
came
to
be
put
upon
the
road,
the
necessity
for
having
postmasters
other
than
innkeepers
forced
itself
upon
the
authorities,
so
that
there
should
be
an
independent
check
upon
the
contractors,
and
a
better
regulation
of
the
arrival
and
departure
of
the
mails,
with
less
chance
of
excuse
for
delays;
and
thus
a
change
was
brought
about
in
the
status
of
country
postmasters.
But
postmasters
in
the
old
days
do
not
seem
to
have
been
uniformly
happy
in
their
posts.
The
following
from
a
surveyor's
report
of
December
1792,
relating
to
the
postmaster
of
Wetherby,
in
Yorkshire,
shows
this,
and
no
doubt
describes
the
case
accurately.
The
Wetherby
office
had
been
made
more
important
by
some
rearrangement
of
posts,
with
the
result
which
the
surveyor
thus
pathetically
brings
under
notice:
"The
Postmaster-General's
humanity,
I
humbly
apprehend,
would
be
very
much
affected
if
they
knew
exactly
the
situation
of
this
poor
deputy.
He
has
now
experienced
the
difference
between
his
former
snug
duty
and
the
very
great
fatigue
of
a
large
centre
office,
and
labour
throughout
almost
the
whole
of
every
night
since
the
10th
October
1791.
Also
the
very
heavy
expenses
incurred
thereby
for
assistance,
coal,
candles,
paper,
wax,
&c.,
without
any
addition
to
his
salary.
To
add
to
his
distresses--for
he
is
not
rich"
(who
ever
heard
of
a
rich
postmaster?)--"he
has
been
so
closely
pressed
from
the
Bye-letter
Office
for
his
balance
due
there
as
to
have
been
compelled
to
borrow
money
to
discharge
them,
at
the
very
time
that
he
could
not
obtain
any
account
from
the
General
Office,
nor
warrants
for
payment
of
as
large
sums
due
to
him."
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