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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
69
CHAPTER
IV.
FOOT-POSTS.
"I
know
of
no
more
universally
popular
personage
than
this
humble
official.
Bearer
of
love-letters,
post-office
orders,
cheques,
little
carefully
tied
packages,
all
the
more
charming
that
it
is
difficult
to
get
at
their
contents,
it
is
who
shall
be
first
to
open
the
door
to
him.
He
is
welcomed
everywhere;
smiling
faces
greet
him
at
every
door.
In
England,
the
postman
is
the
hero
of
Christmas
time;
so
he
strikes
the
iron
while
it
is
hot,
and
on
Boxing-day
comes
round
to
ask
for
a
reward,
which
all
are
ready
to
give
without
grudging."--Max
O'Rell
in
'John
Bull
and
his
Island.'
Though
in
former
times
foot-messengers--or,
as
they
are
called,
post-runners--were
employed
to
convey
many
of
the
principal
mails
over
long
stretches
of
country,
their
work
in
this
way
has
been
almost
wholly
superseded
by
the
railway
and
by
horse-posts;
and
while
post-runners
are
perhaps
now
numerically
stronger
than
they
ever
were,
their
work
is
principally
confined
nowadays
to
what
may
be
termed
the
capillary
service
of
the
Post-office.
They
are
chiefly
employed
in
conveying
correspondence
between
country
towns
and
the
outlying
points
forming
the
outskirts
or
fringes
of
inhabited
districts.
These
men
have
in
many
cases
very
arduous
work,
being
required
to
walk
from
sixteen
to
twenty-four
miles
a-day;
and
it
is
not
improbable
that
the
circumstances
of
these
later
times
make
the
duties
more
trying
in
some
respects
than
they
were
formerly.
For
the
messengers
are
so
timed
for
arrival
and
departure
that
they
are
prevented
from
taking
shelter
on
occasions
of
storm,
and
are
obliged
to
plod
on
in
spite
of
the
elements;
whereas
in
remote
times,
when
a
runner
took
several
days
to
cover
his
ground,
he
could
rest
and
take
refuge
at
one
stage,
and
make
up
lost
time
at
another.
Be
this,
however,
as
it
may,
it
is
the
fact
that
very
many
post-runners
die
from
that
insidious
disease,
consumption.
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