realme as in the accustomed places of France and other partes, ne men can keep horses in readiness without some way to here the charges … the constables many times be faine to take horses out of plowes and cartes, wherein can be no extreme diligence,' etc.
Sir Brian's riders were ordered to accept and carry letters for private persons. But near the beginning of Henry's reign the Flemings, probably for good reasons, established their own post to the Continent, and appointed their own postmaster. We may be sure that this undertaking was managed on 'business principles,' and that its usefulness must speedily have become apparent to Englishmen. But even the Dover road was so bad that King Charles I. and his Consort were four days travelling from the coast to London. (The first stage-coaches, which appeared early in the seventeenth century, could only accomplish two or three miles an hour.) In 1608 the King's messengers paid 2½d. per mile for a horse, 'besides the guide's groats.'
Down to 1638 there was but one mail a week between London and Brussels, and this took from four to five days. Subsequently two mails a week were arranged, and the transit was effected in two days. In 1635 the first British public post was established by Charles I. No journey was to exceed three days, and the postage was 6d« per letter. The roads were left in statu quo, and even in 1732 the mails travelled but sixty miles in twenty-four hours. In 1637 a proclamation forbade all persons other than those employed by the Postmaster-General, to carry letters, unless to places not served by the King's posts, and with the exceptions of common carriers, messengers, or those carrying letters for friends. By 1644 a weekly service was maintained to all parts of England. At each post the time of the courier's arrival was marked on the letter, so that he could not loiter too long at wayside alehouses.
Witherings (whose name I may be allowed to recall with veneration as that of our first postal reformer) was Postmaster-General in 1635. Before his day a letter
