24 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



The principal innkeepers in the town con- 

 sidered it a cHstinction to be enabled to place upon 

 their sign-boards the words ' Posting- House,' such as 

 the White Hart Inn and ' Posting-House.' The inti- 

 mation was to the effect that not only horses could 

 be provided to forward travellers onwards, but that 

 acconimodation could be offered for a party of 

 travellers, servants included, for the night. It was, 

 therefore, only the leading inns which could rank as 

 posting-houses. A heavy tax was paid to Govern- 

 ment, called the post-horse duty, and the manner in 

 which it was levied, paid, and collected, was so 

 extraordinary that it can scarcely be credited in the 

 present day. It was impossible that this tax could 

 be properly collected without the assistance of the 

 turnpike gates, and it was not for some years after 

 the duty was repealed that these road obstructions 

 were abolished. Had they been destroyed earlier 

 the post-horse duty must have gone with them. 

 The duty was charged at i^d. per horse per mile, 

 but as in the posting days few people travelled 

 with less than a pair of horses, the one-horse fly 

 not having then been invented, at least four-fifths 

 of the travelling was performed in the owner's 

 private carriage ; a pair or four horses being used, 

 according to the size of the carriage and the 

 number of the passengers, and generally by the 

 social rank of the traveller. When a carriage 

 pulled up at the door of the inn a shout was heard 

 of ' First turn out !' The ostler and all the house- 

 hold, generally with the proprietor at their head. 



