I’ve read in a number of books about how in England postmasters used to be under contract to the Crown to provide horses for post messengers, or to provide messengers & horses, to move mail along the post roads. They also had a monopoly on the provision of horses for people who wanted to "ride post", ie. journey along the post roads.
How did the postmasters get their horses back if they provided horses ? Who looked after the horses (eg. feed & stabling) when the messenger had finished the stage (normally 15 to 20 miles) and got a fresh horse from the next postmaster ?
What did the messenger do when he’d handed the mail over to the next messenger ? Did he just set off back to where he came from or did he wait for a post coming the other way ? If so where did he stay, who paid for his meal (& his horse’s feed & stabling) ?
Was all of this covered in the contract that the postmaster signed, and if so what were the details ? Have any contracts survived ?
One possibility is that the horses for the post messengers were basically pooled - that the postmasters took a horse in and provided a fresh one, so that they did not keep ownership of specific horses - if so that seems a recipe for the provision of cheap (& not necessarily good) horses.
The provision of horses for people who wanted to ride post would have to have been handled differently. There were standard rates for the provision of such horses, eg. 3d a mile, with mention of a separate rate for a guide (4d per stage). Was a guide obligatory, so that they could be responsible for bringing the horses back after they had been used for a stage and changed at the next post ?
Any answers gratefully received !
No comments:
Post a Comment