208 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



practice which struck a writer in Black woocVs Magazine 

 of 1839 as remarkable, viz., that Manchester dined 

 at one o'clock. ' Thus,' wrote he, ' the very heart of 

 the day — when the light is best and the head is 

 clearest — is consumed at Manchester by the Dinnek.' 

 The explanation was simple enough : first, that it 

 was the survival of a habit which dated from a patri- 

 archal time, when, as Dr. Aikin observed, ' the manu- 

 facturer worked hard for a mere livelihood and had 

 accumulated no capital ' ; secondly, that when he had 

 become wealthy and could dine at what time he 

 pleased, the London post came in so late in the after- 

 noon, and went out so early next morning, that there 

 was no alternative but to dine and rest in the middle 

 of the day, and buckle to with correspondence until 

 supper-time. Even at Her Majesty's Accession the 

 down night mail came in at three p.m., and the 

 return mail w^as despatched at ten o'clock next 

 morning, so leisurely was the business of life gone 

 through. 



Postmasters, not at Manchester alone, but generally, 

 seem to be regarded by the inquiring public as the 

 head of a Universal Information or Agency Bureau, 

 and are addressed on many other than postal topics. 

 A former Postmaster of Manchester tells me that an 

 enterprising American once wrote to him explaining 

 how prejudicial he had found to be the alteration of 

 the Customs duties, known as the McKinley tariff. 

 He stated that it was his intention to undertake a 



