The King's Post Part 2

By 1742 a stage-coach left London at seven every morning, stayed for dinner at noon in Uxbridge, arrived at High Wycombe by four in the afternoon, and rested there all night, proceeding to Oxford the next day. Men were content to get to York in six days, and to Exeter in a fortnight.

In 1760, in consequence of frequent complaints as to the dilatoriness of the postal service, the authorities in London announced that letters or packets would thenceforth be dispatched from the capital to the chief provincial towns "at any hour without loss of time," at certain specified rates. An express to Bristol was to cost 2 3s. 6d.; to Plymouth, 4 8s. 9d. Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, were not even mentioned.

The mail-coach system had its origin in the West of England, and Bristol and Bath in particular are a.s.sociated with all the traditions of the initiatory stages, so that the details on record in ancient newspapers of those cities are copious.

Mr. John Weeks, who entered upon "The Bush," Bristol, in 1772, after ineffectually urging the proprietors to quicken their speed, started a one-day coach to Birmingham himself, and carried it on against a bitter opposition, charging the pa.s.sengers only 10s. 6d. and 8s. 6d. for inside and outside seats respectively, and giving each one of them a dinner and a pint of wine at Gloucester into the bargain. After two years'

struggle, his opponents gave in, and one-day journeys to Birmingham became the established rule.

[Ill.u.s.tration: [_From "Stage Coach and Mail," by permission of Mr. C.G.

Harper._

JOHN PALMER AT THE AGE OF 17.]

Soon after this period, John Palmer, of Bath, came on the scene. He had learnt from the merchants of Bristol what a boon it would be if they could get their letters conveyed to London in fourteen or fifteen hours, instead of three days. John Palmer was lessee and manager of the Bath and Bristol theatres, and went about beating up actors, actresses, and companies in postchaises, and he thought letters should be carried at the same pace at which it was possible to travel in a chaise. He devised a scheme, and Pitt, the Prime Minister of the day, who warmly approved the idea, decided that the plan should have a trial, and that the first mail-coach should run between London and Bristol. On Sat.u.r.day, July 31, 1784, an agreement was signed in connection with Palmer's scheme under which, in consideration of payment of 3d. a mile, five inn-holders--one belonging to London, one to Thatcham, one to Marlborough, and two to Bath--undertook to provide the horses, and on Monday, August 2, 1784, the first "mail-coach" started.

The following was the Post Office announcement respecting the service:--"General Post Office, July 24, 1784. His Majesty's Postmaster-General being inclined to make an experiment for the more expeditious conveyance of the mails of letters by stage-coaches, machines, etc., have (_sic_) been pleased to order that a trial shall be made upon the road between London and Bristol, to commence at each place on Monday, August 2 next, and that the mails should be made up at this office every evening (Sundays excepted) at 7 o'clock, and at Bristol, in return, at 3 in the afternoon (Sat.u.r.days excepted), to contain the bags for the following post towns and their districts--viz.: Hounslow--between 9 and 10 at night from London; between 6 and 7 in the morning from Bristol. Maidenhead--between 11 and 12 at night from London; between 4 and 5 in the morning from Bristol. Reading--about 1 in the morning from London; between 2 and 3 in the morning from Bristol.

Newbury--about 3 in the morning from London; between 12 and 1 at night from Bristol. Hungerford--between 4 and 5 in the morning from London; about 11 at night from Bristol. Marlborough--about 6 in the morning from London; between 9 and 10 at night from Bristol. Chippenham--between 8 and 9 in the morning from London; about 7 in the evening from Bristol.

Bath--between 10 and 11 in the morning from London; between 5 and 6 in the afternoon from Bristol. Bristol--about 12 at noon from London.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LETTER WOMAN.

_(From an old print.)_

THIS SIMPLE BOY HAS LOST HIS PENNY, AND SHE WITHOUT IT WON'T TAKE ANY; WHAT CAN HE DO IN SUCH A PLIGHT?

THIS LETTER CANNOT GO TO-NIGHT.

_Printed by Carrington Bowles, 69, St. Paul's Churchyard, London._]

"All persons are therefore to take notice that the letters put into any receiving house in London before 6 in the evening, or before 7 at this office, will be forwarded by this new conveyance; all others for the said post-towns and their districts put in afterwards, or given to the bell-men, must remain until the following post, at the same hour of 7 o'clock. [At this period there were Post Office bell-women as well as bell-men. See ill.u.s.tration.]

"Letters also for Colnbrooke, Windsor, Calne, and Ramsbury will be forwarded by this conveyance every day; and for Devizes, Melksham, Trowbridge, and Bradford on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sat.u.r.days; and for Henley, Nettlebed, Wallingford, Wells, Bridgwater, Taunton, Wellington, Tiverton, Frome, and Warminster, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

"Letters from all the before-mentioned post-towns and their districts will be sorted and delivered as soon as possible after their arrival in London, and are not to wait for the general delivery.

"All carriers, coachmen, higglers, news carriers, and all other persons are liable to a penalty of 5 for every letter which they shall receive, take up, order, dispatch, carry, or deliver illegally; and to 100 for every week that any offender shall continue the practice--one-half to the informer. And that this revenue may not be injured by unlawful collections and conveyances, all persons acting contrary to the law therein will be proceeded against, and punished with the utmost severity.

"By command of the Postmaster-General,

"ANTHONY TODD, Sec."

The _Bath Chronicle_ versions were as follows, viz.:--"July 29, 1784. On Monday next the experiment for the more expeditious conveyance of the mails will be made on the road from London to Bath and Bristol. Letters are to be put in the London office every evening before 8 o'clock, and to arrive next morning in Bath before 10 o'clock, and in Bristol by 12 o'clock. The letters for London, or for any place between or beyond, to be put into the Bath Post Office every evening before 5 o'clock, and into the Bristol office before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and they will be delivered in London the next day."

[Ill.u.s.tration: [_By permission of Kelly's Directories, Lim._

THE OLD GENERAL POST OFFICE IN LOMBARD STREET, LONDON.]

The public were also informed that the mail diligence would commence to run on Monday, August 2, 1784--and that the proprietors had engaged to carry the mail to and from London to Bristol in sixteen hours, starting from the Swan with Two Necks, in Lad Lane, London, at 8 o'clock each night, and arriving at the Three Tuns, Bath, before 10 o'clock the next morning, and at the Rummer Tavern, Bristol, by 12 o'clock. "The mail is to leave Bristol from the Swan Tavern for London every afternoon at 4 o'clock, and to arrive in London before 8 o'clock the next morning."

On August 5, we are told, "the new mail diligence set off for the first time from Bristol on Monday last, at 4 o'clock, and from Bath at 5.20 p.m. From London it set out at 8 o'clock in the evening, and was in Bath by 9 o'clock the next morning.

"The excellent steps taken to carry out this undertaking leave no doubt of its succeeding, to the great advantage and pleasure to the publick.

The mail from this city is made up at 5 o'clock." This grand achievement of Palmer's was signalised by the following lines:--

"A safe and quick method is found to convey Our bills of exchange, and I promise to pay.

Political news from all parts of the town, The Senate, the play, and each place of renown.

New pamphlets and schemes, or the prices of stocks, That trafficks in ports, and escaped from the rocks.

At Bristol Hotwells or the New Rooms at Bath Arrived Mr. Fancy and Lady Hogarth, Who looked so enchanting last week at the races, And _nemine contra_ p.r.o.nounced by the graces.

Effusions of friends.h.i.+p or letters of love-- All beautiful, candid, as true as a dove.

_J'espere, ma chere ami, qui ce bien avec vous,_ And friendly whip syllabub chat _entre nous_.

The merchant, the lover, the friend, and the sage Will daily applaud Mr. Palmer's New Stage."

No sooner was success apparent than troubles commenced, as may be gathered from the following paragraph, dated September 9, 1784:--"Bath.

We hear that the contractors for carrying the mail to and from this city and London have received the most positive orders to direct their coachmen: on no account whatever to try their speed against other carriages that may be set up in opposition to them, nor to suffer them to discharge firearms in pa.s.sing through any towns, or on the road, except they are attacked."

"They have generally performed their duty with great care and punctuality, within an hour of the contracted time and perfectly to the satisfaction of the Government and the publick, and this before any opposition was commenced against them, and when it was thought impossible to effect it in sixteen hours instead of fifteen hours. Their steady line of conduct will be their best recommendation to this city, which, much to its honour, has supported them with great spirit.

Attempts by other drivers of other coaches, or any other persons whatsoever, to impede the mail diligence on its journey will be certainly attended with the most serious prosecutions to the parties so offending.

"We are desired by the old proprietors of the Bath coaches to insert the following:--

"'Last Sunday evening, as the coachman of the mail diligence was driving furiously down Kennet Hill, between Calne and Marlborough, in order to overtake the two guard coaches, the coach was suddenly thrown against the bank, by which means a lady was much hurt, as was also the driver.

The lady was taken out and safely conveyed in one of the guard coaches to Marlborough.'

"We are informed:--The proprietors of the two coaches, with a guard to each, which travel from Bristol to London in fifteen hours have instructed their servants not to fire their arms wantonly, but to be particularly vigilant in case of attack. The proprietors of these coaches are determined to have the pa.s.sengers and property protected and for the safety of both have ordered their coachmen to keep together to make a.s.surance doubly sure."

[Ill.u.s.tration: [_By permission of S.W. Partridge & Co., Paternoster Row, London._

ANTHONY TODD.]

September 16, 1784:--"Our mail diligence still continues its course with the same steadiness and punctuality. Yesterday its coachman and guard made their first appearance in Royal livery, and cut a most superior figure. It is certainly very proper that the Government carriages should be thus distinguished; such a mark of His Majesty's approbation does the contractors great honour, and it is with much pleasure we see so great a change in the conveyance of our mail--not only in its speed and safety, but in its present respectable appearance, from an old cart and a ragged boy."

December 16, 1784:--"A writer, under the signature of 'An Enemy to Schemers,' having published in the _Gazette_ several letters against the new mode of conveying the mail, another writer, under the signature of 'Lash,' has in a masterly manner replied to all his arguments in that paper of Monday, and has severely censured the conduct of Mr. Todd of the Post Office."

December 16, 1784:--"Dear Sir,--I have just received some newspapers from a friend in Bath containing an abusive letter against my post plan, and two answers to it under the signature of 'Lash.' I rather think that the latter may be yours, and think myself much obliged to you for the warmth with which you have taken the matter up, but could wish you would take no further notice of it. The letter, if I recollect right, merely contains the refuse of the observations, sent from the Post Office to the Treasury, which have been fully refuted to the board.

It might appear these are like doubting the justice of that Court were I to suffer myself to be decoyed or provoked into another. Two years have already been wasted in wrangling, and I am heartily weary of it. Since my return I have the satisfaction to find the public, if possible, still more pleased from the experience they have had of the punctuality as well as the expedition of the post in all possible cases, in every variety of weather our climate gives. And those who express their surprise that the plan is not extended yet to other parts of the kingdom I have taken care to tell the plain truth--that it is entirely Mr.

Todd's fault. I could not express my sense of his exceeding ill conduct at the commencement of the trial (so very different from his profession) in a stronger manner than in my memorial to the Treasury; nor could they do me ampler justice than in the resolutions they pa.s.sed on the occasion and sent to the Post Office. It should not therefore be stated to the public his stopping the Norfolk and Suffolk service by his a.s.sertion of the enormous expenses of the new beyond the old system, and his strange declaration that the number of letters sent by the Bath and Bristol post had decreased and in consequence of its improvement are so ill-supported by the statements sent to the Treasury, and the reverse of these charges so fully established in my answers that I believe there is an end of the controversy, and have very little doubt but that I shall shortly receive the Ministers' commands to carry the plan into execution to the other parts of the kingdom. To do this (and I have not the least fear of accomplis.h.i.+ng it) will be the most decisive answer to abuse, and more satisfactory to the publick. I rather think, too, from the number of memorials sent in favour of my plan, and the general indignation expressed at the mismanagement of the old post, Mr. Todd will find it prudent to desist from further opposition. Nothing possible can be in better train than the plan is or in the hands of persons more anxious for its success. It would be very imprudent, therefore, to run the least hazard of disturbing it. I beg you'll not imagine I am the least displeased at what you have done. On the contrary, I am really much obliged to you; and be a.s.sured I shall never forget the zeal and attention I have experienced from you in the course of this business, and that you will always find me your sincere friend.--JOHN PALMER, Arno's Vale, Bristol, December 2, 1784."

December 16, 1784:--"Our mail carriage has, if possible, added to its reputation from its extraordinary and ready exertions on the bad weather setting in. It arrived here on Sat.u.r.day an hour only after its time, and this morning was within the limited time. The Salisbury mail, which should have come in on Sat.u.r.day by eight in the morning did not arrive till Sunday morning."

January 20, 1785:--"The new regulation of our post turns out a peculiar advantage to this city, in that letters can be sent from here in the evening and answered in London next morning's mails, which enables business people to stay here longer."

On February 22, 1785, the Town Council minutes contain the following:--"Mr. May acquainted the members present that the inhabitants of this city, as well as those of other places, having derived great benefit from Mr. Palmer's plan lately adopted for the improvement of the post, was the occasion of his calling them together to consider such measures as might be thought proper for continuance and extension of the said plan.... It was resolved that a memorial be sent to the Right Hon.

Wm. Pitt, representing the great benefits received from the plan, and requesting a continuance of the same, together with the extension of the same plan to other parts of the kingdom."

February 17, 1785:--"At a meeting of the Bristol Merchants' Society on Sat.u.r.day last, a vote of thanks was pa.s.sed to Mr. John Palmer for the advantages received from his postal plan."

February 24, 1785:--"Memorials appear to the Right Hon. Wm. Pitt for the continuance and extension of Palmer's plan from the merchants, tradesmen, shopkeepers in the city of Bristol, Common Council of the city of Bristol, Mayor, Burgesses and Commonality of the city of Bristol, Mayor, Aldermen and Common Councilmen of the city of Bristol."

On March 24, 1785, appeared the following letter:--"London, February 16, 1785. Sir,--Having both of us been engaged upon Committees of the House of Commons, we have been unable to present the paper you transmitted to us respecting Mr. Palmer's plan to Mr. Pitt till within these few days.