NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 166. 



public service. In 1603, they were charged " two- 

 pence balfe-peny the mile" (raised in 1609 to 

 threepence) for the hire of each horse, "besides 

 the guide's groats." The hire was to be paid be- 

 forehand. They were not to ride the horses more 

 than one stage, except with the consent of " the 

 post of the stage" at which they did not change. 

 Nor were they to charge the horse " with any 

 male or burden (besides his rider) that exceedeth 

 the weight of thirtye pounds." Nor to ride more 

 than seven miles an hour in summer or six in 

 •winter. 2. The other sort of post was what was 

 termed the " post for the packet." For this ser- 

 vice every postmaster was bound to keep horses 

 ready ; and on receipt of a " packet" or parcel 

 containing letters, he was to send it on towards 

 the next stage within a quarter of an hour after 

 its arrival, entering the transaction in " a large 

 and faire ledger paper book." Two horses were 

 to be kept constantly ready for this service, " with 

 furniture convenient," and messengers " at hand 

 in areadinesse." The postmaster was also to have 

 ready " two bags of leather, at the least, well lined 

 •with bayes or cotton, to carry the packet in." He 

 •was also to have ready " homes to sound and blow, 

 as oft as the post meets company, or foure times 

 in every mile." 



The "post for the packet" was at first used 

 only for the carriage of despatches for the govern- 

 ment or for ambassadors, but a similar mode of 

 conveyance soon began to be taken advantage of 

 by merchants and private persons. Difficulty in 

 obtaining posts and horses for the conveyance of 

 private packets, led to the interference of " certain 

 persons called hackney-men, tapsters, hostlers, and 

 others, in hiring out their horses, to the hinderance 

 of publique service, danger to our state, and wrong 

 to our standing and settled postes in their several 

 stages." The government of James I. thought, in 

 its blindness, that it could put a stop to the dan- 

 gerous practice of transmitting unofficial letters, 

 by rendering it penal for private persons to carry 

 them ; that of Charles I., wiser, in this respect, in 

 its generation, settled a scheme for their general 

 conveyance through the medium of " a letter 

 office." But the " post for the packet," with his 

 leathern bag and his twanging horn (the origin, of 

 course, of our mail-coach horn), continued down 

 to a late period, and probably still lingers in some 

 parts of the kingdom. Cowper, it will be remem- 

 bered, describes him admirably. John Bruce, 



CUEIOSITIES OF ADVERTISING lilTERATUEE. 



We are all well acquainted with the ingenious 

 artifices by which modern advertisers thrust their 

 wares upon the attention of newspaper readers. We 

 may, perhaps, have been betrayed into the expression 

 of some rude Saxon expletive, when, in the columns 

 devoted to news and general information, we have 



in our innocence been tempted with a paragraph 

 that commenced with " a clever saying of the illus- 

 trious Voltaire's," and dovetailed into a panegyric 

 of Messrs. Aaron and Son's Reversible Paletots ; 

 or we may have applauded the clever logician who 

 so clearly demonstrates, that as Napoleon's bilious 

 affection frequently clouded his judgment in times 

 of greatest need, the events of the present century, 

 and the fate of nations, would have been reversed, 

 had that great man only been, persuaded to take 

 two boxes of Snooks's Aperient Pill, price Is. l^rf.» 

 with the Government stamp on a red ground (see 

 Advt.). All these things we know very well ; but, 

 of the fugitive literature that does not find a place 

 in the advertising columns of The Times, but 

 flashes into Fame only in the pages of some local 

 oracle, or in some obscurer broad-sheet, how often 

 must it remain unappreciated, and doomed to 

 " waste its sweetness on the desert air." That this 

 may not be said of the following burst of advertis- 

 ing eloquence, I trust it may be found worthy a 

 niche in the temple of " N. & Q." In its com- 

 position the author was probably inspired by the 

 grand scenery of the Cheviots, in a village near to 

 which his shop was situate. It was one of those 

 " generally-useful " shops where the grocer and 

 draper held equal reign, and anything could be 

 got, from silks and satins to butter and Bath bricks. 

 The composition was printed and distributed 

 among the neighbouring families ; but shortly after, 

 when the author heard that it had not produced 

 the exact efiect he had wished, he, with the irrita- 

 bility that often accompanies genius, resolved to 

 get back and destroy every copy of his production, 

 and deny to the world that which it could not 

 appreciate. Fortunately for the world's welfare, I 

 preserved a copy of his hand-bill, of which this, in 

 its turn, is a faithful transcript : 



" To the Inhabitants of G. and its rmighhourhood. 



" The present age is teeming with advantages which 

 no preceding Era in the history of mankind has af- 

 forded to the human family. New schemes are pro- 

 jecting to enlighten and extend civilisation, Railways 

 have been projected and carried out by an enterprising 

 and spirited nation, while Science in its gigantic power 

 (simple yet sublime) affords to the humane mind so 

 many facilities to explore Its rich resources, the Seasons 

 roll on in their usual course producing light and heat, 

 the vivifying rays of the Sun, and the fructifying in- 

 fluences of nature producing food and happiness to the 

 Sons of Toil ; while to the people of G. and its neigh- 

 bourhood a rich and extensive variety of Fashionable 

 Goods is to be found in my Warehouse, which have just 

 been selected with the greatest care. The earliest visit 

 is requested to convey to the mind an adequate idea of 

 the great extent of his purchases, comprising as it does 

 all that is elegant and useful, cheap and substantial, to 

 the light-hearted votaries of Matrimony, the Matrons 

 of Reflection, the Man of Industry, and the disconsolate 

 Victims of Bereavement. J — M — ." 



