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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
60
Accounts
survive
of
the
Post-Office
as
it
existed
towards
the
close
of
the
seventeenth
century,
an
outline
of
which,
contributed
to
the
Gentleman's
Magazine
by
a
correspondent
in
the
early
part
of
the
present
century,
we
must
be
excused
for
here
presenting
to
the
reader.
The
Postmaster-General
of
the
period,
under
the
Duke
of
York,
was
at
that
time
the
Earl
of
Arlington.
The
letters,
it
would
seem,
were
forwarded
from
London
to
different
parts
on
different
days.
For
instance:
Every
Monday
and
Tuesday
the
Continental
mails
were
despatched,
part
on
the
former
day,
the
remainder
on
the
latter.
Every
Saturday
letters
were
sent
to
all
parts
of
England,
Scotland,
and
Ireland.
On
other
days
posts
were
despatched
to
the
Downs,
also
to
one
or
two
important
towns
and
other
smaller
places
within
short
distances
of
London.
The
London
Post-Office
was
managed
by
the
Postmaster-General
and
a
staff
of
twenty-seven
clerks.[33]
In
the
provinces
of
the
three
countries,
there
were
182
deputy-postmasters.
Two
packet-boats
sailed
between
England
and
France;
two
were
appointed
for
Flanders,
three
for
Holland,
three
for
Ireland,
and
at
Deal
two
were
engaged
for
the
Downs.
"As
the
masterpiece,"
so
our
authority
winds
up,
"of
all
these
grand
arrangements,
established
by
the
present
Postmaster-General,
he
hath
annexed
(sic)
and
appropriated
the
market-towns
of
England
so
well
to
the
respective
postages,
that
there
is
no
considerable
one
of
them
which
hath
not
an
easy
and
certain
conveyance
for
the
letters
thereof
once
a
week.
Further,
though
the
number
of
letters
missive
was
not
at
all
considerable
in
our
ancestors'
day,
yet
it
is
now
so
prodigiously
great
(and
the
meanest
of
people
are
so
beginning
to
write
in
consequence)
that
this
office
produces
in
money
60,000l.
a
year.
Besides,
letters
are
forwarded
with
more
expedition,
and
at
less
charges,
than
in
any
other
foreign
country.
A
whole
sheet
of
paper
goes
80
miles
for
twopence,
two
sheets
for
fourpence,
and
an
ounce
of
letter
for
but
eightpence,
and
that
in
so
short
a
time,
by
night
as
well
as
day,
that
every
twenty-four
hours
the
post
goes
one
hundred
and
twenty
miles,
and
in
five
days
an
answer
to
a
letter
may
be
had
from
a
place
distant
200
miles
from
the
writer!"
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