THE POST OFFICE. 249 



the time mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, there was 

 such an accumulation of both letters and papers on 

 Saturday and Monday nights, that the Post Office 

 found it extremely difficult to get the Edinburgh mail 

 off at the proper time, and was obliged to take 

 two outside passengers off it for the purpose of 

 devoting the whole roof to the carrying of the bags, 

 and also to pay the proprietors for two places to York 

 every Saturday night. While in order to relieve the 

 Holyhead mail, which in like manner was too 

 heavily loaded on those nights, part. of the Post- 

 Office packages — a very large sack — was sent on 

 early in the evening by the ' Greyhound ' Birmingham 

 night-coach, the proprietors charging the Post Office 

 the fare of one outside passenger for the carriage 

 of it. 



The reason of the extra pressure on the Post Office 

 on the Saturday and Monday nights was that there 

 was not any post out of London on Sunday night, 

 so that all letters which it was desired that country 

 correspondents should receive on the Monday 

 morning were obliged to be posted in time for 

 the mail out of London on Saturday night; while the 

 accumulation on Monday night arose from the letters 

 which had arrived from the country on Sunday 

 morning in London, and had to be passed on together 

 with the ordinary Monday's correspondence, increased 



