BY SEVERN, TAFF, AND TOWY l6l 



tative witness on postal matters. Frost was convicted, 

 got his sentence commuted, eventually was pardoned, 

 and died at Stapleton, near Bristol, in 1877, aged 

 ninety-three. No harm had been done to the mail- 

 coach or the lines of communication. The post-office 

 now covers the site of the little inn where this vener- 

 able demagogue was born. 



There is a delightful antiquity about tolls which 

 have been levied as a manorial perquisite from 1267. 

 For repairing Holborn Lane, in London, etc., tolls 

 were collected from 1346. The establishment of turn- 

 pike-gates by statutory enactment dates from 1663. 

 But they were introduced at a very much later date 

 into Wales. W^/^r^^^y y/^^4^^nA Y^^.-M^: 



The Rebecca riots of 1840 had a certain bearing on I^j 

 postal affairs, inasmuch as, directly, they led to the 

 abolition of turnpikes in South Wales, and, indirectly, 

 to the gradual disturnpiking of the roads elsewhere. 

 The Post-Office could then no longer throw in freedom 

 from toll as an inducement to passenger conveyances 

 to carry the mails at low rates or for nothing. 



It seems hard that Sioni Scybor Fawr had to suffer 

 the heavy punishment of transportation for life for his 

 share in breaking up a practice which certainly bore 

 with some severity upon a portion of the population. 

 Unluckily for him, he was held in bad repute, and an 

 example had to be made in vindication of the law. 



But Dai y Cantwr's fate, in 1844, excited the public 

 feeling in his favour; the onerous sentence passed 



11 



