A Hundred Years by Post: A Jubilee Retrospect

by James Wilson Hyde

In such outlying districts as were blessed with postal communication a hundred years ago, the service was kept up by foot messengers, who often travelled long distances in the performance of their duty. Thus in 1799 a post-runner travelled from Inverness to Loch Carron—a distance across country, as the crow flies, of about fifty miles—making the journey once a week, for which he was paid 5s. Another messenger at the same period made the journey from Inverness to Dunvegan in Skye—a much greater distance—also once a week, and for this service he received 7s. 6d. The rate at which the messengers travelled seems not to have been very great, if we may judge from the performances of the post from Dumbarton to Inveraray. In the year 1805 the Surveyor of the district thus describes it: "I have sometimes observed these mails at leaving Dumbarton about three stones or 48 lbs. weight, and they are generally above two stones. During the course of last winter horses were obliged to be occasionally employed; and it is often the case that a strong highlander, with so great a weight upon him, cannot travel more than two miles an hour, which greatly retards the general correspondence of this extensive district of country."

These humble servants of the post office, travelling over considerable tracts of country, would naturally become the means of conveying local gossip from stage to stage, and of spreading hearsay news as they went along. In this way, and as being the bearers of welcome letters, they were no doubt as gladly received at the doors of our forefathers as are the postmen at our own doors to-day. Indeed, complaint was made of the delays that took place on the route, probably from this very cause. Here is an instance referring to the year 1800. "I found," wrote the Surveyor, "that it had been the general practice for the post from Bonaw to Appin to lodge regularly all night at or near the house of Ardchattan, and did not cross Shien till the following morning, losing twelve hours to the Appin, Strontian, and Fort-William districts of country; and I consider it an improvement of itself to remove such private lodgings or accommodations out of the way of posts, which, as I have been informed, is sometimes done for the sake of perusing newspapers as well as answering or writing letters."

Exposed to the buffetings of the tempest, to the rigours of wintry weather, and considering the rough unkept roads of the time, it is easy to imagine how seductive would be the fireside of the country house; and bearing in mind the desire on the part of the inmates to learn the latest news, it is not surprising that the poor post-runner occasionally departed from the strict line of duty.

But immediately prior to the introduction of mail-coaches, and for a long time before that, the mails over the longer distances were conveyed on horseback, the riders being known as "post-boys." These were sometimes boys of fourteen or sixteen years of age, and sometimes old men. Mr. Palmer, at whose instance mail-coaches were first put upon the road, writing in 1783, thus describes the post-boy service. The picture is not a very creditable one to the Post Office. "The post at present," says he, "instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest conveyance in the country; and though, from the great improvement in our roads, other carriers have proportionably mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever. It is likewise very unsafe. The mails are generally intrusted to some idle boy without character, and mounted on a worn-out hack, and who, so far from being able to defend himself or escape from a robber, is much more likely to be in league with him." There is perhaps room for suspicion that Mr. Palmer was painting the post-boy service as black as possible, for he was then advocating another method of conveying the mails; but he was not alone in his adverse criticism. An official in Scotland thus described the service in 1799: "It is impossible to obtain any other contractors to ride the mails at 3d. out, or 1½ d. per mile each way. On this account we are so much distressed with mail riders that we have often to submit to the mails being conveyed by mules and such species of horses as are a disgrace to any service." This is evidence from within the Post Office itself. While young boys were suited for the work in some respects, they were thoughtless and unpunctual; yet when older men were employed they frequently got into liquor, and thus endangered the mails. The records of the service are full of the troubles arising from the conduct of these servants. The public were doubtless much to blame for this. For the post-boys were, as we may suppose, ever welcome at the house and ball, where refreshment, in the shape of strong drink, would be offered to them, and they thus fell into trouble through a too common instance of mistaken kindness.

In the year 1763 the mail leaving London on Tuesday night (in the winter season) was not in the hands of the people of Edinburgh until the afternoon of Sunday. This does not betoken a very rapid rate of progression; but it appears that in many cases the post-boy's speed did not rise above three or four miles an hour. The Post Office took severe measures with these messengers, through parliamentary powers granted; and even the public were called upon to keep an eye upon their behaviour, and to report any misconduct to the authorities.

Mention has already been made of the unsafety of the roads for ordinary travellers; but the roads were in no way safer for the post-boys. In 1798 a post-boy carrying certain Selby mails was robbed near that place, being threatened with his life, and the mail-pouch which he then carried was recovered under very strange circumstances in 1876.

But to come nearer home. On the early morning of the 1st of August 1802 the mail from Glasgow for Edinburgh was robbed by two men at a place near Linlithgow, when a sum of £1300 or £1400 was stolen. The robbers had previously been soldiers. They hurried into Edinburgh with their booty, got drunk, were discovered, and, when subsequently tried, were sentenced to be executed. The law was severe in those days; and the Post Office has the distinction of having obtained judgment against a robber who was the last criminal hung in chains in Scotland. According to Rogers, in his Social Life of Scotland, this was one Leal, who, in 1773, was found guilty of robbing the mail near Elgin. A curious fact came out in connection with the trial of this man Leal, showing what may be termed the momentum of evil. It happened that some time previously Leal and a companion had been to see the execution of a man for robbing the mail, and, on returning, they had to pass through a dark and narrow part of the road. At this point Leal observed to his companion that the situation was one well suited for a robbery. And it was here that he afterwards carried the suggestion then made into effect.

When such robberies took place the post-boys sometimes came off without serious mishap, but at other times they were badly injured. On Wednesday the 23d October 1816, a post-boy near Exeter was assaulted (as the report says) in "a most desperate and inhuman manner," when his skull was fractured, and he shortly afterwards died.

The post-boys were exposed to all the inclemency of the weather both by day and night. Sometimes they were overtaken by snow-storms, when they would have to struggle on for their lives. Sometimes, after riding a stage in severe frost, they would have to be lifted from their saddles benumbed with cold and unable to dismount. At other times accidents of a different kind happened to them, and, as has been shown, they sometimes lost their lives.