VI PREFACE 



In this volume I have hmited myself, for the most 

 part, to the Track of Mail-coaches, making for the 

 chief ports of the United Kingdom, and I have added 

 some anecdotal matter bearing on the telegraph. Also, 

 having long held certain views with reference to 

 postal and telephonic facilities in rural districts, I 

 have taken this opportunity of giving expression to 

 them. 



Here and there I have afforded a glimpse of the 

 complex public work which has been undertaken in 

 the past, and which is still performed with fidelity by 

 provincial postal officials, whose duties do not, as a 

 rule, come under notice, but, as the late Home 

 Secretary is reported to have stated, on the occasion 

 of a Civil Service festivity in June, 1895, are dis- 

 charged ' in the twilight, through the mist of which 

 the fierce glare of public observation and public 

 applause can rarely penetrate.' 



F. E. B. 

 Bournemouth, 

 NoveTiiber, 1895. 



