86 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



But as it is not clear that Julius C?esar had postal 

 communication in hand — though there must have 

 been such, or the reports sent home by him of the 

 progress of the war in Britain would have fared 

 ill — I am content to adopt the historian's latest 

 view that the year 1782 saw the beginning of the 

 regular packet-service across the Straits. That is a 

 comfortable date, which synchronizes nearly with 

 the establishment of mail-coaches and the Norwood 

 postal dynasty at Dover, which lasted far down 

 into my time. In the late fifties, Mr. William 

 Norwood told me in the moonlight, about eleven 

 o'clock one summer's night, as we were watching the 

 embarkation of the overland mail, that the Dover 

 post-office had been in his family for a hundred 

 years, so that they had dealt with Calais mails under 

 the second King George. There have, however, been 

 many changes of postmasters in the last thirty years. 



The Admiralty Pier and the cross-Channel service 

 loom large in the duties of the Postmaster of Dover, 

 but the chief official is a captain of the Eoyal Navy. 

 There were regularly-appointed officers to take charge 

 of the Indian mails through France — Mr. C. W. 

 Wittenoom, whom I never saw, was one ; and Messrs. 

 John Payne and Thomas Fredericks, whom I knew 

 very well, were others. At one time they saw the 

 mails safely to Alexandria, afterwards only as far as 

 Marseilles. 



The latter told me of some early experiences in 

 travelling through France, which were very trying. 



