Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-OfficeLewins, William
History
Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office
Lewins, William
Postal service -- Great Britain
[40] Mr. Scudamore, of the General Post-Office, to whom we are indebted
for much of the _minutiæ_ in question, has been successful in his
efforts to preserve permanently some of the old records of the
Post-Office; and the result of his labours may be found in the Appendix
to the Postmaster-General's First Report.
[41] Son of the James Craggs who succeeded Addison as Secretary of
State, and who obtained such an unusual portion of the poetical praise
of Pope. The son came in for a share also, as, for example:--
"Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear."
[42] Campbell, in his _Tales of the Highlands_, relates two or three
incidents which show that little improvement had taken place in post
communications in some part of Scotland even a hundred years later. The
English order of posts and express posts seem there to have been
reversed, express work being done the worst. For instance: "Near
Inverary, we regained a spot of comparative civilization, and came up
with the post-boy, whose horse was quietly grazing at some distance,
whilst Red Jacket himself was immersed in play with other lads. 'You
rascal,' I said to him, 'are you the post-boy and thus spending your
time?' 'Nae, nae, sir,' he answered, 'I'm no the post, I'm only an
Express!'"
[43] What the Right Hon. John Methuen wanted with two bales of stockings
is, of course, a mystery, if he was not embarking in the haberdashery
line. It may be he was desirous of regaining the favour of the
Portuguese Court, by supplying the whole with English stockings. This
was the Methuen who gave his name to a well-known treaty, which, by the
way, was found so distasteful to the Portuguese that when, in 1701, he
carried it to Pedro II. for his signature, that monarch gave vent to his
displeasure by kicking it about the room.--_Marlborough Despatches_,
vol. v. p. 625.
[44] At the investigation in 1763 it was related that "one man had, in
the course of five months, counterfeited 1,200 dozens of franks of
different members of Parliament."
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