CHAPTER V. 



POSTAL TRANSMISSION POST-CHAISES AND POST-BOYS. 



Early letter-carriers and postal systems — The first English Post — 

 Further postal organisation — The Penny Post— Post-chaises 

 and post-boys — Postillions — Post-horses — Post-houses, post- 

 masters, and post-boys — Two good Conservatives— Rules of 

 posting-yard. 



Before speaking about post-chaises and post-boys it 

 would be as well to speak not only of the origin of 

 the word post but of the actual transmission of letters 

 by road, since coaches and horses have been largely 

 employed on the road in the transmission of letters 

 and the conveyance of travellers. Although the word 

 post should perhaps be confined to the transmission 

 of letters only, it has somehow extended itself and 

 obtained a wider signification, since it gave a name 

 to a carriage and to the men employed to ride the 

 horses that drew it. 



It is difficult to trace the origin of the word post 

 as applied to travelling. It is defined by some lexi- 

 cographer as being the means by which letters or 

 travellers are transported with rapidity and ease from 

 place to place ; the name is supposed to be derived 

 from the Latin positiis, placed, because horses were 

 placed at certain distances on the routes. Posts seem 

 to have had their origin amongst the Persians. Darius, 

 the first son of Hystaspes, caused couriers, with saddle- 

 horses, to be always ready at different stations through- 

 out the empire at a distance of one day's journey from 



