The Dumfries Post Office, 1642-1910. 61 



fries; the other journeyhig to Bield o' Tweed with the Edinburgh 

 letters and receiving the south country letters in return. ^i 



This interesting picture of early postal methods recalls the 

 well-known lines by the poet Cowper :— 



Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge 



That with its wearisome but needful length 



Bestrides the wintry flood in which the moon 



Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright : 



He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 



With spattered boots, strapped waist, and frozen locks ; 



News from all nations lumbering at his back. 



True to his charge, the close-packed load behind : 



Yet careless what he brings, his one concern 



Is to conduct it to the destined inn ; 



And ha\ing dropt the expected bag, pass on. 



He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch ! 



Cold and yet cheerful ; messenger of grief 



Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some • 



To him indifferent whether grief or joy. 



Houses in ashes and the fall of stocks, 



Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet 



With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks 



Fast as the periods from his fluent quill. 



Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains 



Or nyrnphs responsive, equally affect 



His horse and him, unconscious of them all. 



III.— The Dumfries Post Office — The Period of the Mail 

 Coach. 



The introduction of the mail coach by John Palmer in 1784 

 marks one of the most important events in the history of the Post 

 Office. Until that time the mails had been carried either on foot 

 or by post-boys on horseback, at an average speed, including 

 stoppages, of from three to four miles an hour. Palmer's own 

 description, submitted to Mr Pitt in 1783 when making claim to 

 the advantages of a mail coach system, conveys perhaps the truest 

 conception of the condition of postal facilities at that period. 



21. Paterson's " Wamphray." 



