In connection with the Mail Services between the Metropolis and Bristol, the "Gate of the West," it may be appropriate here to mention the recent arbitration case between the Great Western Railway Company and H.M. Postmaster-General in regard to remuneration for conveyance of Mails.
The Company, dissatisfied with the payment of £115,000 a year under their contract of 1885, subsequently raised by small additions, from time to time, to £126,000 a year, brought their case before the Railway Commissioners, who awarded £135,855 a year from the 1st July, 1902. This amount covered the provision of a new postal train in each direction between London and Penzance. It was Sir Frederick Peel who delivered the judgment of the Court.
CHAPTER XII.
PRIMITIVE POST OFFICE.—FIFTH CLAUSE POSTS.—MAIL CART IN A RHINE.—EFFECT OF GALES ON POST AND TELEGRAPH SERVICE.
The Bristol Postal District, stretching from the Severn banks beyond Oldbury-on-Severn to a point near Bath, and thence straight across to the Bristol Channel again, consists of ground within the City and County of Bristol, and the Counties of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire. The border of Wiltshire is touched near Dyrham and Badminton, and the district is separated from Monmouthshire by the estuary of the River Severn.
HORTON THATCHED POST OFFICE AT THE FOOT OF COTSWALD HILLS.
Post Offices showing signs of great antiquity are scarcely in existence now, for at the present day the wide district thus described in the preceding paragraph contains within its boundaries only one post office established under the primitive but comfortable and picturesque thatched roof. This is the Horton Post Office. The picture of this post office is from an excellent photograph taken by Miss Begbie, a daughter of the Rector of Horton. The village lies at the foot of the Cotswolds, and near this spot, in quiet retreat, William Tyndale translated the New Testament. The Duke of Beaufort's hounds meet from time to time in the Horton Post Office yard. This rustic place was originally the village ale house, yclept "The Horse Shoe." It is now devoted to the more useful purpose of the sale of stamps and the posting and distribution of letters, under the able and energetic superintendence of Mrs. Slade.