tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[1] Their function was naturally one of importance, and, from early times, large sums were expended in their maintenance. They were employed on the private and confidential business of the Crown and of members of the royal household, and on affairs of State, both in England and abroad, although their function was primarily to serve the convenience of the King.

This was a system for the conveyance of official despatches only.[2] No public provision was made for the conveyance of letters for private individuals. Such letters were conveyed by servants, by special messengers, or by the common carriers,[3] and there is evidence of the existence of a considerable private correspondence in the frequent issue of writs during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ordering supervision of the traffic in private letters, the uninterrupted transmission of

which was a source of much anxiety to the Crown from fear of the fomenting of sinister and treasonable plots against itself.[4]

The establishment of the nuncii or cursores developed into a regular system. On certain lines of road relay stages were set up, at which the messengers might without delay obtain a change of horses, a system first set up by Edward IV in 1482, during the war with Scotland.[5] Such relay messengers were called "posts," a word borrowed from the French.[6] The term was also applied to the line of route, and the expression "post," or "line of posts," was used to denote a route along which, at certain stages, post-horses were kept in readiness for the use of the King's messengers. Travelling in this way the messengers were able to cover a hundred miles a day. The establishment of lines of regular posts became a feature of the administrative system, and a special officer of the royal household was appointed to control them.

The first recorded Master of the Posts was Brian Tuke, who held the office in 1512. The posts, like the establishment of special messengers, were maintained solely at the cost of the King. The master received a salary from the King (which in a patent issued in 1545 is given as £66 13s. 4d. a year), and also the amount of his expenses incurred in providing for the carrying of letters. The regular postmasters

received a daily wage from the King. On lines along which no regular post had been established, but along which it might on occasion be necessary to send special messengers, the townships were obliged to furnish horses for the service of the messengers. Remarks in contemporary papers suggest that no payment was made in such cases, but that horses were supplied gratis for the King's service.[7] There is no record of the early days of Tuke's tenure of the office of Master of the Posts; but in 1533 Thomas Cromwell complained to Tuke concerning the condition of the posts, and the great default in the conveyance of letters.[8]

The posts were in many cases established on account of some special circumstance, and were of a temporary character. The first regular post—that established in 1482 during the war with Scotland—was, of course, temporary; but at much later dates, when "ordinarie," or permanent, posts had been established, such as the post from London to Berwick and that from London to Beaumaris, it was still usual to establish "extra ordinarie" posts "in divers places of the Realme" as occasion might from time to time require, as, for example, during the periods of the sovereign's progresses.[9]

The early posts had a second function, not less in importance than that of providing for the conveyance of the sovereign's despatches, and despatches sent on affairs of State viz. the provision of means by which persons actually travelling on the business of the sovereign, though not bearing despatches,

might do so with facility. This second function, the travelling post, continued until the eighteenth century. It is a function which is essentially akin to the provision of a means of intercommunication by means of letters. In many parts of the United Kingdom, and also in other countries, the means provided for the conveyance of the mail are still largely used by persons desiring to travel.[10]

The use of the post-horses by ordinary travellers commenced at an early period. In 1553, when the posts had been in existence only some fifty or sixty years, a rate of a penny a mile for persons riding post was fixed by statute.[11]

Great abuses grew up round the travelling post, or "thorough post," as it was called.[12] Riders in post frequently failed to pay a reasonable sum for the hire of horses; and since King's

messengers, although paying no fixed rates, obtained better accommodation than others, riders in post travelling on their own affairs made no scruple to represent themselves as travelling on public service. Orders directed against these abuses were issued in 1603. Riders in post on the King's affairs, with a special commission signed either by one of the Principal Secretaries of State, by six at least of the Privy Council, or by the Master of the Posts, were to pay at the rate of 2½d. a mile for a horse. All others riding post about their own affairs were to make their own terms with the postmaster, and to pay in advance.[13] The net result was that for all persons riding with the special commission a fixed rate was payable in place of uncertain rates as hitherto, and the postmasters were protected from being imposed upon by persons riding post on their private business. Without the special commission it was useless to pretend to be