2l6 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



man.^ John Critchley Prince, otherwise known as 

 the Prince of Provincial Poets, who died in Man- 

 chester in the summer of 1866, wrote in June, 1842, 

 as follows from London, whither he had gone from 

 Hyde, near Manchester : 



' You will forgive me not answering your letter earlier, as I 

 have been so -unsettled. I find my earliest friends the most 

 faithful, after all. Is it not lamentable that, after bemg feasted, 

 flattered, lionized, and promise-crammed for twelve months, I 

 am now compelled to sink down to a penny postman, at 15s. a 

 week ? It stings me to the quick. I go to my new appointment 

 (at Southampton) to-morrow. I do not know how I shaU lil^e 

 it — not very well, I am sure — though I shaU be then really and 

 truly a man of letters.'' 



On reaching Southampton he found that he was 

 required to attend at five o'clock in the morning, 

 summer and winter alike, to prepare for the first 

 delivery of letters, and that such preparation w^ould 

 be varied by an occasional pull at a hand-cart, used 

 between the post-office and the railway-station. 



What Mr. Lankester, the postmaster, thought of 

 his new postman is not knowm. But as for the poor 

 poet, he soon found that his new vocation could 

 not be endured. The hand-cart and half a crown a 

 day indifferently replaced feasting" and flattery, poetry 

 and patronage. After a few days' experience his 

 courage failed him ; he retraced his steps to friendly 

 Manchester, and returned to his original craft of 

 reed-making. 



In preparing for the iiiporporation of the telegraphs 



* ' Memorials of Bygone Manchester.' Procter. 



