32 THE COACHING ERA 



from the obliging manner in which they instantly acceded 

 to the highwaymen's request for the mail to be handed 

 over to them, the post-boys were by no means unjustly 

 suspefted of being actively in league with them, having 

 come to an arrangement for their mutual benefit at the 

 expense of the long suffering British public. Finally, 

 finding that the plea of robbery was accepted as a 

 just and satisfactory excuse, they improved upon the 

 occasion and tampered with the mail-bags themselves. 



Though their official rate of speed was only five miles 

 an hour, the post-boys rarely troubled themselves to 

 keep true time, but dawdled on the road, and imbibed 

 such frequent potations at the various inns that the 

 arrival of the mail was a matter for much speculation. 



The post had, in facfl, attained the distindlion of 

 being the slowest and unsafest conveyance in the 

 country. People obliged to send money by it were so 

 distrustful of the existing arrangements that they cut 

 their bank bills in halves and sent them by different 

 routes. 



Often rather than trust to the post at all, or if they 

 were anxious for a letter to travel expeditiously, they 

 made it up into a parcel and sent it by the stage-coach, 

 being willing to pay the extra carriage for the greater 

 security of the conveyance. "I write by the coach the 

 more speedily and effe6fually to prevent your coming 

 hither," wrote Mrs. Thrale to Dr. Johnson in 1784. 



The ordinary cost of a letter by post was 4d., if sent by 

 coach as a parcel 2s., or in cases of special urgency even 

 more, for it was the custom to write on such packages — 



