2 2 STAGE-COACH AND MAIL IN DAYS OF YORE 



there is evidence in the tone of his letters that he 

 was astonished at last to find himself safely come 

 to Holyhead. 



In 1660, on the Restoration, the law of 1657, 

 constituting the Post Ofiice and regulating the 

 letting of post-horses, was re-enacted. By some 

 new provisions and amendments of old ones, 

 travellers might now hire horses wherever they 

 could if the postmasters could not supply them 

 within half an hour. This concession, together 

 with that wdiicli repealed the power given hy the 

 earlier Act for horses to he seized, was evidently 

 made in deference to the indignation of travellers 

 delayed by lack of horses in the hands of the 

 only persons who could legally hire them out, 

 and hy the fury of private individuals who had 

 seen their own choice animals not infrequently 

 requisitioned in the King's name and hack- 

 ridden unconscionable distances by travellers or 

 King's messengers whose first and last thoughts 

 were for speed, and who had not the consideration 

 of an owner for the steeds that carried them. The 

 term " postage," occurring in the Act of 1660, 

 shows that a widely different meaning was then 

 attached to the word : " Each horse's hire or 

 postage " is a phrase that sufiiciently explains 

 itself. 



Such Avere the methods and costs of riding horse- 

 back when stage-coaching began. The Government 

 monopoly, however, was infringed with increasing 

 impunity as time went on, and as the letter- 

 carrying business of the Post Office developed, so 



