i6 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



to " others riding poste with horse and guide about 

 their private business." Those private and un- 

 official travellers could not demand to be supplied 

 with horses at the official rate : what they were to 

 pay was to be a matter between the post-masters 

 and themselves. In practice, however, the tariff 

 for Government riders ruled that for all horsemen, 

 as made clear in Eynes Morison's Itinerary, 1617, 

 where he says that in the south and west of 

 England and on the Great North Road as far as 

 Berwick, post-horses were established at every ten 

 miles or so at a charge of twopence-halfpenny a 

 mile. It was necessary to have a guide to each 

 stage, and it was customary to charge for baiting 

 both the i^uide's and the traveller's horses, and to 

 give the guide himself a few pence — usually a four- 

 penny-piece, called "the guide's groat" — on parting. 

 It was cheaper and safer for several travellers to 

 go together, for one guide Avould serve the whole 

 company on each stage, and it was not prudent to 

 travel alone. Morison says that, although hiring 

 came expensive in one way, yet the sjieed it was 

 possible to maintain saved time and consequent 

 charges at the inns. The chief requisite, however, 

 was strength of body and ability to endure the 

 fatigue. 



As to that, the horsemen of the period were, 

 equally with those of over a hundred years later, 

 mentioned by Pennant, " a hardy race." In 

 March, 1603, for example, Robert Gary, afterwards 

 Earl of Monmouth, eager to be first in acclaiming 

 James VI. of Scotland as James I. of England, 



