If Mr. Nobbs had been on the road some twenty or thirty years earlier he might have acquired a larger experience of the manners and customs of highwaymen—or perhaps we should say mail robbers,—for the picturesque highwayman of romance is conspicuously absent from Post Office annals. In this connexion it may be interesting to give the text of two or three Post Office Notices issued early in the century. This one is typical of many others circulated about the same time:—
General Post Office,
Tuesday, 27th October, 1812.
About 7 o’clock on the Evening of Monday the 26th instant, the LEEDS Mail-Coach was robbed of the Bags of Letters for London, described at Foot, between Kettering and Higham Ferrers, and within 3 Miles of Higham Ferrers, by forcing the Lock of the Mail Box.
The Bags stolen are,
| Halifax of the | 25th. | Chesterfield | ditto |
| Bradford | ditto | Mansfield | ditto |
| Leeds | ditto | Nottingham | 26th. |
| Wakefield | ditto | Melton Mowbray | ditto |
| Huddersfield | ditto | Oakham | ditto |
| Barnsley | ditto | Uppingham | ditto |
| Sheffield | ditto | Kettering | ditto |
| Rotherham | ditto | Thrapstone | ditto |
Whoever shall apprehend the Person or Persons who committed the said Robbery, will be entitled to a Reward of
TWO HUNDRED POUNDS,
one Moiety to be paid on Commitment for Trial, and the other Moiety on Conviction. If an Accomplice in the Robbery will surrender himself and make Discovery, whereby one or more of the Persons concerned therein shall be apprehended and brought to Justice, such Discoverer will be entitled to the said Reward, and be admitted an Evidence for the Crown.
By Command of the Postmaster-General,
F. FREELING,
Secretary.
Four months later we have a minute description of the “knight of the road” who was supposed to have committed the robbery:—