reached Waltham Cross, a distance of nearly 26 miles, by 9 at night of the 23d, whence, in 3 hours, it seems to have advanced 8 miles to Ware; and within 8 hours more to have reached Croxton, a further distance of 29 miles, having taken nearly 40 hours to travel about 63 miles."

In 1635 a public post between London and Edinburgh was established, the journey being limited to three days. This mail set out as a rule but twice a-week, and sometimes only once a-week. An express messenger conveying news of the death of Charles II., who died on the 6th February 1685, was received in Edinburgh at one o'clock on the morning of the 10th February; and it may also be mentioned here—though the matter hardly reflects upon the speed of postboys, who travel by land and not by water—that in 1688 it required three months to convey the tidings of the abdication of James II. of England and VII. of Scotland to the Orkney Islands.

Down to this period the mails from London to Scotland were carried on horseback with something like tolerable speed, taking previous performances into account, for in 1689 it is noted that parliamentary proceedings of Saturday were in the hands of the Edinburgh public on the ensuing Thursday. This rate of travelling does not appear to have been kept up, for in 1715 the post from London to Edinburgh took six days to perform the journey. When it is considered that nearly a century before, the same distance could be covered in three days, this relapse seems to bespeak a sad want of vitality in the Post-office management of the age. The cause of the slow travelling, which appears to have continued for over forty years, comes out in a memorial of traders to the Convention of Burghs in 1758, wherein dissatisfaction was expressed with the existing arrangements of the post,—the mail for London on reaching Newcastle being there delayed about a day, again detained some time at York, and probably further delayed in the south; so that the double journey to and from London occupied eleven days instead of seven or eight, as the memorial deemed sufficient. To the Post-office mind of the present age, this dilatory method of performing the service of forwarding mails is incomprehensible, and the circumstance reflects discreditably both on the Post-office officials who were cognisant of it, and on the public who submitted to it. It is fair to mention, however, that at this period the mail from London to Edinburgh covered the ground in eighty-seven hours, or in fully three and a half days; and that as a result of the memorial, the time was reduced to eighty-two hours, and the journey from Edinburgh to London reduced to eighty-five hours. In 1763, the London to Edinburgh mail commenced to be despatched five times a-week, instead of only three times; and at this time, during the winter season, the mail leaving London on Tuesday night was generally not in the hands of the people of Edinburgh until the afternoon of Sunday. We are informed, in Lang's 'Historical Summary of the Post-office in Scotland,' that in 1715 there was not a single horse-post in that country. There must, however, have been some earlier attempts to establish horse-posts in the northern kingdom, for Chambers, in his 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,' under the year 1660, refers to the fact of a warrant being granted against interlopers who were carrying letters by foot on the same line on which Mr Mean had set up a horse-post. A traveller in 1688 relates, also, that besides the horse-post from Edinburgh to Berwick, there was a similar post from Edinburgh to Portpatrick in connection with the Irish packet service. Again, Chambers tells us that in 1667 the good people of Aberdeen having had "long experience of the prejudice sustained, not only by the said burgh of Aberdeen, but by the nobility, gentry, and others in the north country, by the miscarrying of missive letters, and by the not timeous delivery and receiving returns of the samen," bestirred themselves to establish a better state of things. It was considered proper that "every man might have their letters delivered and answers returned at certain diets and times;" and it was accordingly arranged, under Post-office sanction, that Lieutenant John Wales should provide a regular horse-service to carry letters to Edinburgh every Wednesday and Friday, returning every Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon.

In 1715 the first horse-post between Edinburgh and Stirling was established, and in March 1717 a similar post between Edinburgh and Glasgow was set up. This latter post went three times a-week, travelled during the night, and performed the distance between the two places in ten hours—being at the rate of about four miles an hour. Were we to give further instances of the slowness of the horse-posts, we should probably prove tedious, and therefore the proofs adduced on this point must suffice. Though the state of the roads may be held to account for some of the delay, the roads must not be charged with everything. In 1799 a surveyor in the north of Scotland wrote as follows: "It is impossible to obtain any other contractors to ride the mails at 3d. out, or 1-1/2d. per mile each way. On this account we have been so much distressed with mail-riders, that we have sometimes to submit to the mails being conveyed by mules and such species of horses as were a disgrace to any public service." The same surveyor reported in 1805, that it would give rise to great inconvenience if no boys under sixteen years were allowed to be employed in riding the posts—many of them ranging down from that age to fourteen. So, what from the condition of the highways, the sorry quality of the horses, and the youthfulness of the riders, it is not surprising that the writers of letters should inscribe on their missives: "Be this letter delivered with haste—haste—haste! Post haste! Ride, villain, ride,—for thy life—for thy life—for thy life!" unnecessary though that injunction be in the present day.

The postboys were a source of great trouble and vexation to the authorities of the Post-office through the whole course of their connection with the department. A surveyor who held office about the commencement of the eighteenth century, found, on the occasion of a visit to Salisbury, something wrong there, which he reported to headquarters in these terms:—

"At this place [Salisbury] found the postboys to have carried on vile practices in taking bye-letters, delivering them in that city, and taking back the answers—and especially the Andover riders. On a certain day he found on Richard Kent, one of the Andover riders, five bye-letters—all for Salisbury. Upon examination of the fellow, he confessed that he had made it a practice, and persisted to continue in it, saying that he had no wages from his master. The surveyor took the fellow before the magistrate, proved the facts, and as the fellow could not get bail, was committed; but pleading to have no friends nor money desired a punishment to be whipped, and accordingly he was to the purpose. The surveyor wrote the case to Andover, and ordered that the fellow should be discharged; but no regard was had thereto. But the next day the same rider came post, run about the cittye for letters, and was insolent. The second time the said Richard Kent came post with two gentlemen, made it his business to take up letters; the fellow, instead of returning to Andover, gets two idle fellows and rides away with three horses, which was a return for his masters not obeying instructions, as he ought not have been suffered to ride after the said facts was proved against him."

The same surveyor complained bitterly, with respect to the postboys, "that the gentry doe give much money to the riders, whereby they be very subject to get in liquor, which stops the males." Indeed the temptation of the