tS STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



was established l)y Act of Parliament, and the 

 oifice of Postmaster-General created, in succession 

 to that of Master of the Posts. His business was 

 defined as " the exclusive right of carrying letters 

 and the furnishing of jDOst-horses," and these 

 two functions — the overlordship of what were 

 officially known for generations afterwards as the 

 " letter 2^ost " and the "travelling post" — the 

 long line of Postmasters- Greneral continued to 

 exercise for a hundred and twenty-three years. 



In IG08 the mileage the country postmasters 

 were entitled to charge was, according to an 

 advertisement of July 1st in that year, increased 

 from twopence-halfpenny to threepence, and on 

 the Chester E<oad, at least, there was no longer 

 any obligation to take a guide : — 



" The postmasters on the Chester Road, petition- 

 ing, have received order, and do accordingly 

 publish the folloAving advertisement : All gentle- 

 men, merchants, and others who have occasion to 

 travel between London and West Chester, Man- 

 chester, and WarringtoD, or any other town upon 

 that road, for the accommodation of trade, dispatch 

 of business, and ease of purse, upon every Monday, 

 Wednesday and Priday morning, between six and 

 ten of the clock, at the house of Mr. Christopher 

 Charteris, at the sign of the Hart's Horns, in West 

 Smithfield, and postmaster there, and at the post- 

 master of Chester, and at the postmaster of 

 Warrington, may have a good and able horse or 

 mare, furnished at threej^ence the mile, Avithout 

 the charge of a guide; and so likewise at the 



