It could scarcely have been, in this particular case at least, that the exigencies of the time required such precautions, as the only rising that took place this year occurred six months afterwards in the county of Chester. The furniture of the nag, it must be confessed, seems remarkably adapted for service, and might, from its colour, have belonged to a veritable Ironside trooper. Another reason, perhaps, of the great value of horses at this period, was the establishment of public conveyances, by which means travellers as well as letters were conveyed from one part of the kingdom to the other. Prior to the year 1636 there was no such thing as a postal service for the use of the people in this country. The court had, it is true, an establishment for the forwarding of despatches, but its efficacy may be judged of from a letter written by one Bryan Tuke, "master of the postes" in Henry VIII.'s time, to Cromwell, who had evidently been sharply reproving him for remissness in forwarding the king's papers:-- "The Kinges Grace hath no mor ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe had, but betweene London and Calais.... For, sir, ye knowe well that, except the hackney-horses betweene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as in the accustomed places of France and other partes; ne men can keepe horses in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges; but when placardes be sent for suche cause (to order the immediate forwarding of some state packet) _the constables many tymes be fayne to take horses oute of ploues and cartes, wherein can be no extreme diligence_." This was in the year 1533. Elizabeth, however, established horse-posts on all the great routes for the transmission of the letters of the court; and this, in 1633, was developed into a public post, which went night and day at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter--not such bad travelling for those days. Still there was no means of forwarding passengers until the time of Cromwell, when we find stagecoaches established on all the great roads throughout the kingdom. We do not know that we have ever seen quoted so early a notice of public stage conveyances. We have evidently not given our ancestors so much credit as they deserved. The following advertisement shows the time taken and the fares of a considerable number of these journeys:-- From the 26 day of April 1658 there will continue to go Stage Coaches from the _George_ Inn, without Aldersgate, _London_, unto the several Cities and Towns, for the Rates and at the times, hereafter mentioned and declared. _Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday._ To _Salisbury_ in two days for xx_s._ To _Blandford_ and _Dorchester_ in two days and half for xxx_s._ To _Burput_ in three days for xxx_s._ To _Exmaster_, _Hunnington_, and _Exeter_ in four days for xl_s._