* * * * * EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND THE FIRST POST-OFFICE. (Vol. iii., p. 186.) In a recent number of "NOTES AND QUERIES" (which, by the way, I have only recently become acquainted with) I saw the Queries of your correspondent G. P. P. upon the above subject, and having some time ago had occasion to investigate it, I accumulated a mass of notes from various sources,--and these I send you, rough and unpolished as they are, in the hope that in the absence of better information, they may prove to be acceptable. Herodotus (viii. 98.) mentions the existence of a method of communication among the Persians, by means of horsemen placed at certain distances. In the Close and Misae Rolls (_temp. King John et post_) payments are recorded for nuncii who were charged with the carriage of letters. In 1481, Edward IV., during his war with Scotland, established horse riders at _posts_ twenty miles apart, by which letters were conveyed two hundred miles in two days (Gale's _Hist. Croyland_); and the Scottish Parliament issued an ordinance for facilitating the expedition of couriers throughout the kingdom. Carriers of letters also existed in England about this time, for in a letter from Sir J. Paston, written in 1471, we are informed that "Courby, the carrier, hath had 40d. for the third hired horse," for a journey from Norwich to London and back. (Fenn's _Paston Letters_, 4to. vol. v. p. 73.) In 1542, letters reached Edinburgh on the fourth day from their despatch from London. (Sadler's _Letters and Negociations_.) In 1548, the rate to be charged for post-horse hire was fixed by statute (2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. 3.) at one penny per mile. In 1581 (according to Camden), Thomas Randolph was appointed the first Chief Postmaster of all England. James I. established (date unknown) the office of Foreign Postmaster, which was first held by Mathewe le Questor. In 1631, Charles I. appointed William Frizell and Thomas Witherings (in reversion) to the sole management of the foreign post-office. And at this date it seems a regular home post was also carried on, as appears by the following entry from the Corporation Books of Great Yarmouth:--"1631. Agreed, June 6, with the Postmaster of Ipswich to have Quarterly 20s. paid him for carrying and bringing letters to and from London to Yarmouth for the vse of the Towne." In 1635, Charles I. issued a proclamation for the establishment of "a running post or two, to {267} run night and day between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back again in six days:" branch posts were also to be established with all the principal towns on the road: the rates of postage were fixed at 2d. under 80 miles; 4d. for 140 miles; 6d. beyond; and 8d. to Scotland. This is conclusive evidence that a regular post-office establishment existed nearly ten years _before Prideaux had anything to do with the post-office_.