North Bridge.] THE HORSE POSTS. 355
duction for expenses, among which are A60 for the
Irish packet boat.
In 1708 the whole business of the General Postoffice
was managed by seven persons-viz., George
Main, manager for Scotland, who held his commission
from the Postmaster General of Great
Britain, with a salary of A200 per annum; his
accountant, A50 per annum ; one clerk, d s o ; his
assistant, Lzs ; three letter-runners at 5s. each per
week. The place in which it was conducted was
a common shop.
In 1710 an Act of the newly-constituted British
Parliament united the Scottish Post-office with that
of the English and Irish under one Posttnaster-
General, but ordained that a chief letter office
be kept at Edinburgh, and the packet boats
between Donaghadee and Port Patrick be still
maintained.? The postage of a letter to London
was then raised to 6d. sterling.
In 17 15, James Anderson, W.S., the well-known
editor of D$Zowata Scotie, obtained the office of
Deputy Postmaster-General, succession to
Main, the jeweller. When he took office, on the
12th of July, there was not a single horse post in
Scotland, foot-runners being the conveyers of the
mails, even so far north as Thurso, and so far
westward as Inverary.
(( After his appointment,? to quote Lang?s
privately-printed history of the Post-office in
Scotland, (? Mr. Anderson directed his attention to
the establishment of the horse posts on the Western
road from Edinburgh. The first regular horse
post in Scotland appears to have been from Edinburgh
to Stirling; it started for the first time on
the 29th November, 1715. It left Stirling at z
o?clock afternoon, each Tuesday, Thursday, and
Saturday, reaching Edinburgh in time for the night
mail for England. In March, 1717, the first horse
post between Edinburgh and Glasgow was established,
and we have details of the arrangement in a
. memorial addressed to Lord Cornwallis and James
Craggs, who jointly filled the office of Postmaster-
General of Great Britain. The memorial states,
that ?the horse post will set out for Edinburgh
each Tuesday and Thursday at 8 o?clock at night,
and on Sunday about 8 or g in the morning, and
be in Glasgow-a distance of 36 miles (Scots) by
the post road at that time-by 6 in the morning,
on Wednesday and Friday in summer, and by 8 in
winter, and both winter and summer, will be in on
Sunday night.? ?
At this period it took double the time for a mail
to perform the journey between the two capitals
that it did in the middle of the 17th century.
When established by Charles I., three days was the
time allowed for special couriers between Edinburgh
and London.
In 1715 it required six days for the post to
perform the journey. This can easily be seen, says
Mr. Lang, by examining the post-marks on the
letters of that time.
In that year Edinburgh had direct communication
with sixty post-towns in Scotland, and in
August the total sum received for letters passing to
and from these offices and the capital was only
A44 3s. Id. The postage on London letters in
the same morith amounted to A157 3s. zd.
In 1717 Mr. Anderson was superseded d Edinburgh
by Sir John Inglis as Deputy-Postmaster-
General in. Scotland, from whom all appointments
in that country were held direct. The letter-bags,
apart from foot-pads and robbers, were liable to
strange contingencies. Thus, in November, I 725,
the bag which left Edinburgh was never heard of
after it passed Berwick-boy, horse, and bag, alike
vanished, and were supposed to have been swallowed
up in the sands between Coquet-mouth and
Holy Island. A mail due at Edinburgh one evening,
at the close of January, 1734, was found in
the Tyne at Haddington, in which the post-boy had
perished; and another due on the 11th October of
the follow?ing year was long of reaching its destination.
? It seems the post-boy,? according to the
CaZedonian Mercury, ? who made the stage between
Dunbar and Haddington, being in liquor, fell off.
The horse was afterwards found at Linplum, but
without mail, saddle, or bridle.?
The immediate practical business of the Postoffice
of Edinburgh (according to the ?( Domestic
Annals ?), down to the reign of George I., appears to
have been conducted in a shop in the High Street,
by a succession of persons named Main or Mein,
?(the descendants of the lady who threw her stool
at the bishop?s head in St. Giles?s in 1637.? Thence
it was promoted to a flat on the east side of the
Parliament Close ; then again, in the reign of George
III., behind the north side of the Cowgate. The
little staff we have described as existing in 171 j
remained unchanged in number till 1748, when there
were added an ? apprehender of letter-carriers,? and
a (? clerk to the Irish correspondents.? There is
a faithful tradition in the office, which I see no
reason to doubt,? says Dr. Chambers, ?that one
day, not long after the Rebellion of 1745, the bag
came to Edinburgh with but one letter in it, being
one addressed to the British Linen Company.?
In 1730 the yearly revenue of the Edinburgh
Office was A I , I ~ ~ , according to (?The State ofscotland;?
but Arnot puts the sum at Aj,399.
In 1741 Hamilton of Innerwick was Deputy
