LONDON'S FIRST POST

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 123, 20 November 1929, Page 20

LONDON'S FIRST POST

HORSES FOR MESSENGERS

THE ROMANCE OF LETTERS

It is uncertain at what period the down undertook be the regular carrier of letters, but the earliest recorded "post" office seenis to liavo been .that of the '"postmaster" to.King Charles 1., who in 1635 had his office in Sherborne lane, ■writes George Dowsett in the "Daily Telegraph."- Successive removals took the chief Post Office to Cloak lane, Dowgateliill; to the Black Swan, Bis jpsgate street; in 1C67 to the Two Black Pillars, Bryilges' street, Covent Garden; and then in 1688 to the mansiou of Sir Kobert yincr, a noted banker in Lombard street. In those early days the term "post" and ''postmaster" had reference, not to the carriage of correspondence, but to the provision of horses for the King's messengers ivho "rode post." Thus the location of the office of the postmaster in an jnn which possessed stabling and the usual open yard for coaches is easily explained. Sir Robert Viner's mansion provided the accommodation for the purpose for 140 years, and -when the great increase in the postal business called i'or the provision of more commodious quarters the area 3cno\vu as St. Martin's le Grand was cleared! for the erection of a great G.P.0., >vkieh itself took the name which is still n synonyu for the chief Post Office. IN CURFEW DAYS. The new building was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, E.A., who also designed jjhe _facade_ of_ King's College, which, recently celebrated its own centeiiary. jjookr ing at its massive solidity, one would have that it would, last for longer than .the four score years it stood, but by' 1902 it had begun to be superseded by the new buildings erected on the neighbouring plot .'.-where Christ's ■ Hospital liad stood. The' site was cleared, and during the war it stood vacant, awaiting the palatial offices just completed. The tablet affixed to the front of the hew building reminds one that the ground .■was occupied until 1548 by the Church and College o£ St. Martin,' erected about ■4W56 on the site of an earlier college said Jto have been founded about 700 A.D. The «*; ''lo Grand" was acquired on account x>£ the privileges bestowed upon it by -successive mouarchs. A view of tho college •>xecuted in 1543 shows a lofty spire and a %reat tower, from which the signal was for all other bells around to sound tfthe curfew, an honourable duty which. Aad been transferred to Bow Church in id3G3. After "the servile injunction laid -on the Londoners," as Stow has termed St, ceased, the bells continued to be rung Pg) -warn the peacefully-minded or timid inhabitants not to wander in the ruffianinfested lanes. WEEKLY DISPATCHES.Jhe early history of the post is somefphat nebulous. It originated, of course, 'in very early times as a courier service proclamations, orders, and the correspondence of the Sovereign, and private letters were conveyed only surreptitiously or on sufferance. In 1481-King SEdward IV. arranged for a string of courgfers doing twenty-mile stages to carry inStelligence as- to the1 progress of the war Jap Scotland, and Richard 111. improved jtD.it service. , There is a good deal of uncertainty about -*»c matter, but the first "Master of the yrosts'" was probably appointed as early Sis 1516, and in 1581 Sir Thomas Eandolph Jje named as the chief postmaster of iQueen JMizabeth. Tho Queen's Regulations of J1603 gave to postmasters the monopoly of providing mounts for the Royal messengers riding "in post"—that is, with horn jand guide, allowing them to make a Jtharge per horse of 2%d per mile, "besides the guide's groat," but leaving them j-|we to make their own terms with pri'JK.ate travellers..... They were required to gp'eep at least two horses and to be prepared to dispatch' the "post boy" in not -)mora than fifteen minutes after his arrival. Private letters were, of course, carried jtecretly by travellers, commercial agents, gamers, or soldiers, and as the number of private letters increased many attempts jwere made to create a monopoly of the service, not at first with 'the idea of obtaining a revenue, but rather for the purpose of establishing the right of surveilJance over the private correspondence of foreigners and subjects alike. In 1643 Parliament sanctioned a plan ..for a General Post Office; devised by Edmund Prideaux, Attorney-General to lithe Commonwealth. He was appointed Chief Postmaster by the ordinance of both Houses, and notable results followed. He iestablished a regular weekly conveyance ; jo£ letters, along eight main- roads with a ■tninimum charge of twopence.. V "HUMBLE RALPH ALLEN." -'il. ?y 1657 the, Commonwealth-Parliament ;«a'd placed the^Post Office on a statutory • joasis. The preamble of the measure is 'furious and runs: "Whereas it is expedi- %?' to establish one general i post office :fe the transmission and receipt of let.jters; for besides being a benefit to commerce, and convenient in conveying public fispatches, it will be the best means of iscovering and preventing many dangerous and wicked designs against the Com- ; monwealtb." 2>, r this Act the monopoly for providing post horses was continued, V Postmaster-General was appointed, and the office was farmed for £10,000, after- :• >yards increased to £40,000. The rates ,•■ Varied from 2d to 8d for a single sheet. '' {There were no cross-road posts, so that : except between towns on the same route 'betters had to pass-through London, and : thus became subject to a fresh charge : In 1720 "humble Ralph Allen," of Bath, .■Whose name deserves to" be remembered, ;; invented a system of cross-road posts—a ■ great advance—and made £12,000 a year :'; from it. He died in 1764, and the Govern:ment took over his work. The post horse monopoly was abolished in 1749, by which itime stage coaches were . running. The mails were still carried on horseback by ; post boys, and this continued until John .Palmer, the lessee and manager of the Bath Theatre, instituted the mail coach, . the first of which ran in 1784 from Bristol 1 to London in seventeen hours. For sixty ! years these coaches were the fastest things : on the road, and the annual procession of ' mail coaches on the King's birthday from ';, the G.P.O. to St. James's Palace was one *>£ the sights of London.