Improved Locomotion. 93 



of Scotland, while foot-runners went on the less im- 

 portant routes. In October, 1755, a regular post was 

 established thrice a week between Aberdeen and Inver- 

 ness, the time consumed in the journey by the post- 

 boys being twenty-four hours. Eight or ten years 

 later the London mail reached Aberdeen on the sixth 

 day after leaving the metropolis. 



The establishment of public conveyances for passen- 

 gers was a separate matter from the carriage of the 

 mails. It was not till 1758, when the population of 

 Glasgow had risen to about thirty-five thousand, that 

 a conveyance drawn by four horses, and accomplishing 

 the journey in twelve hours, including stoppage for 

 dinner, was successfully established between that city 

 and Edinburgh. There was no other stage coach on 

 that important line of road for thirty years thereafter, 

 nor did any acceleration in speed take place during 

 that time. 



At their April meeting of 1789, the Aberdeen county 

 gentlemen had before them a letter from the Post 

 Office, relative to " putting the public roads and bridges 

 thereon, by which the mail coach is to pass, in a proper 

 state of repair." With a view to forward the matter 

 as much as lay in their power, they appointed their 

 Clerk to transmit a copy of the letter to the districts 

 of Aberdeen, Garioch, and Turriff, with an earnest 

 recommendation to attend to the contents of it, and 

 " apply the whole statute labour within their bounds, 

 for this year, towards repairing the public roads 

 through which the mail coach is to pass ; and also to 

 cause erect mile stones on the public road betwixt 

 Aberdeen and Banff." The equestrian posts went 

 along by Oldmeldrum to Banff. Foot-runners carried 

 the bags from Oldmeldrum to Old Rain, and Huntly, 

 and from Fochabers to Keith. At this time it was 

 calculated that there would be 17,912 men in the 

 county liable for statute labour, and 1000 horses and 

 carts that might be called out. 



