356 OLD ANI) NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
night. for his journey there and back, the channel
of the Gala, which, for a considerable distance was
parallel with the road, being, when not flooded,
the track chosen as most level and easy for the
traveller. At this period and long before, there
was a set of horse ?cadgers,? who plied regularly
between different places, and in defiance of the
laws, carried more letters than ever passed through
the Edinburgh office in those days.
In 1757 the revenue amounted to A10,623,
accorcling to Arnot ; in that year the mail was upon
the road from London 87 hours, and, oddly enough,
from Edinburgh back 131 hours ; but by the
influence of the Convention of Royal Burghs,
these hours were reduced to Xz and 85 respec-
Postmaster-General, and nine years after, the mails
began to be conveyed from stage to stage byrelays
of fresh horses, and different post-boys, to the
principal places in Scotland; but the greater
pxtion of the bags were conveyed by foot-runners j
far the condition of the roads from Edinburgh
would not admit of anything like rapid travelling.
The most direct, at times, lay actually in the
channels of streams. The common carrier from
Edinburgh to Selkirk, 38 miles, required a fortburgh
staff consisted of ten persons, exclusive of
the letter carriers.
In 1776 the first stagecoach came to Edinburgh
on the 10th April, having performed the journey
from London in sixty hours. In the same year
the penny post was established in Scotland by
Peter Williamson, to whom we have referred elsewhere.
This man was the Rowland Hill of his
day, and the postal authorities seeing the importance
of such a source of revenue, gave him a pension for
the goodwill of the business, and the Scottish
penny posts were afterwards confirmed to the
General Post by an Act of Parliament in 1799.
In 1781 the number of post-towns in Scotland
consisted of 140, and the staff at Edinburgh
tively; and 1763 beheld a further improvement,
when the London mails were increased from three
to five. Previously they had travelled in such a
dilatory manner, that in the winter the letters I
which left London on Tuesday night were not
distributed m Edinburgh till the Sunday following,
between sermons.
In 1765 there was a penny postage for letters
borne one stage; and in 1771, when Oliphant of
Rossie was Deputy Postmaster-General, the Edin
North Bridge.] POSTAL STAFF IN 1781. 357 w -
