CHAPTER III MAIL-COACHES 



ASTE, post haste, haste with all diligence. 

 For thy life, for thy life," was the urgent 

 superscription on ofHcial letters in Tudor 

 times. This should have spurred the mes- 

 sengers on to great endeavours, but did not, for the 

 post-boys, either on foot or on horseback, lagged and 

 loitered throughout the whole course of their existence. 

 When George III was King the postal arrangements 

 of the country were about as bad as they could be, for 

 the mails were entrusted "to some idle boy, without 

 charadler, mounted on a worn-out hack.''^ 



"He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 



With spattered boots, strapped waist and frozen locks, 



News from all nations lumbering on his back. 



True to his charge, the close packed load behind, 



Yet careless what he brings, his one concern 



Is to condu£l it to the destined inn. 



And having dropped the expefted bag pass on. 



He whistles as he goes, Hght hearted wretch 



Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief 



Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some." 



Cowper, with true poetic licence, decidedly over- 

 estimated the trustworthiness of post-boys. Contem- 

 porary evidence shows they were by no means anxious 

 as to the security of the mail-bags, being in truth far 

 more concerned for the safety of their own skins. Indeed, 



1 "A plan for the Reform and Improvement of the General 

 Post Office." J. Palmer. 



