Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/129

 gth S. I. FEB. 12, '98,]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

121

LONDON, SATVBDAY, FEBRUARY IS, 1898.

CONTENTS.-No. 7.

IOTES: The Posts in 1677, 121 Maginn, 122 Remem- brance of Past Joy Conybeare's ' Cambridgeshire,' 123 "A myas of ale " " Plurality "A Roman Road, 124 Dr. P. Templeman Wellington at Waterloo Curiosities of Criticism, 125 "Jiv, jiv, koorilka ! " Lamb and the Sea Homer, 128.

QUERIES: The Charitable Corporation Sundial Inscrip- tion Ocneria dispar W. Bower Short a v. Italian a, 127 "Broaching the admiral" Mrs. Webb " Grouse " Rev. Joel Callis Rev. W. Newman Admiral Phillip ' Little Bnglander " Collect for Advent" Honky-tonk "

Lew kenor French Prisoners of War, 128 General Wade Christ's Half Dole William Duff Authors Wanted, 129.

REPLIES : Pope and Thomson, 129 Shamrock as Food- Cornwall or England ? Registering Births and Deaths Enigma, 131 Curious Medal Translation" Fives " Pronunciation of " Pay " Clough ' The Rodiad,' 132

Defoe English Bobtailed Sheepdog " Lair," 133 " Ranter" Ghosts, 134 " Hoity-toity " Sir Philip Howard Cromwell, 135- Daily Service in Churches- Verbs ending in " -ish " Chalmers Baronetcy 'The Prodigal Son,' 136 Will of E. Akerode Nicknames for Colonies, 137.

NOTES ON BOOKS .Heron-Allen's Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam' Andrews's 'Bygone Norfolk ' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

THE POSTS IN 1677.

THE January number of St. Martiris-le- Grmid, a quarterly magazine dealing chiefly with Post Office affairs, and circulating among officers of the Post Office, contains an article on 'The Post Office in 1677,' some parts of which are of considerable interest. As the magazine is not accessible to the general public, the editor has kindly allowed me to extract details of the posts of 220 years ago for permanent record in ' N. <fe Q.' These details are contained in a manuscript book pre- served among the family papers of Lord Dart- mouth, and they supply a gap hitherto unfilled in works on the history of the Post Office. Lord Dartmouth's book was prepared in 1677 for the information of the Duke of York, upon whom the revenues of the Post Office had been settled in 1663 by Act of Parliament, and was probably given by him to his friend George Legge, the first Lord Dartmouth, the Jothran of l Absalom and Achitophel '

Jothran, always bent To serve the Crown, and loyal by descent,

who died in 1691, during his imprisonment in the Tower for supposed complicity in a Jacobite plot against William III. The book includes some account of the

working of the Post Office in London, and of the duties of country postmasters ; but much of it is too technical to be of general interest. The postmasters were required to provide good horses " for the post of the constant Mayles of letters and his Majesties Expresses," and " to have in readiness a sufficient number of horses for the conveyance of such as Kyde

gost." Mr. Joyce, in his 'History of the ost Office,' has shown that the profits derived from letting post-horses formed part of a postmaster's emoluments, and did not add to the revenues of the Post Office itself, as stated by Macaulay in his 'History of England' (ch. iii.). The postmasters were free from all public offices, from liability to quarter soldiers, and they received gazettes free of postage, " wherewith they advantage themselves in their common trade of selling drink, and they have their single letters free to London."

The rates of postage in 1677 were compara- tively low. A single letter i.e., a letter consisting of one sheet of paper only could be sent for any distance up to eighty miles for twopence, and beyond eighty miles for threepence. A letter weighing an ounce cost eightpence for eighty miles, and one shilling beyond.

The mails were dispatched from London about midnight on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and were due to arrive in London early on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. They were carried on horseback at the rate of five miles an hour, and they were liable to a detention of not more than half an hour at each post office (stage) on the road. England was divided into six runnings, or roads, viz., West, Bristol, Chester, North, Yarmouth, and Kent, starting from Plymouth, Bristol, Chester, Edinburgh, Yarmouth, and Dover respectively.

The following particulars are given in the manuscript as to the stages on the six roads. The figures after the name of a place denote the distance in miles from the previous stage. The original spelling is followed.

Western Road. Plymouth, Ashburton 24, Exeter 20, Honniton 15, Chard, Crookhorn 19, Sherbourn 30, Shasbury 16, Salisbury 19, Andover 16, Basingstoke 18, Hartford Bridge 9, Stanes 16, London 16.

Branch roads ran to Arundel, Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Poole, Weymputh, Lyme, Wells, Bridgewater, Minehead, Tiverton, Dartmouth, Biddeford, Launston, Pad stow, and Markett J ew (through Loo, Fowye, Truro, and Falmouth). The post arrived at Plymouth from London " within 3 dayes."