CHAPTEE XIII. 



IMPROVED LOCOMOTION THE EARLY MAILS AND POST- 

 BOYS THE EDINBURGH FLY SCORGIE'S CARAVAN 

 THE ABERDEENSHIRE CANAL. 



ON the 8tli day of May, 1765, when the Magistrates 

 of Aberdeen went forth in state to meet the Justiciary 

 Lords coming to the town on circuit, they, for the 

 first time, rode in chaises in place of riding on horse- 

 back, as they had always been wont to do before. In 

 the previous year a lady had managed to ride in a 

 chaise from Aberdeen to Finzean, over a very indiffer- 

 ent road ; and the fact was reckoned sufficiently not- 

 able to be recorded in her diary. In going over the 

 Cairn o' Mount she took to horseback, and passed along 

 what she describes as a well-made road. Up to the 

 close of the eighteenth century, riding on horseback 

 was the ordinary mode of performing a journey, a lady, 

 when she travelled, frequently sitting behind a gentle- 

 man on the same horse. And the Aberdeen shop- 

 keepers would talk of being treated by the " English 

 riders, " which simply meant the equestrian bagmen, 

 who visited them periodically in the way of business. 

 Up to about the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 the mail occupied three days in its journey from Edin- 

 burgh to Aberdeen. It came through Fife, crossing 

 the ferries on the Forth and Tay; the messenger pass- 

 ing his first night out at Dundee, and his second at 

 Montrose. About 1750 an improved system was 

 adopted, post-boys being provided to carry the mails 

 stage by stage on fresh horses, to all the principal towns 



