Packhorse, Waggon and Post by J. Crofts

Author:J. Crofts [Crofts, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Reference
ISBN: 9781135031817
Google: V9J2GzPykg4C
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-02-01T15:55:13+00:00

XIII

The Through Post and Private Posting

ON the whole a post’s duties in relation to the Packet were straightforward and gave him little trouble, because he was dealing with people he knew. It was in connexion with the Through Post that most of his difficulties arose, because this brought him into contact with all sorts and conditions of men, some of them highly unpleasant.

A ‘through post’ was simply a man who rode ‘through’ with a missive. If it was a proclamation, writ, warrant, or any paper of such a kind that its delivery might have to be attested at law, he was a Pursuivant, Messenger of the Chamber, or other appropriate official. But the ordinary diplomatic correspondence was often carried by young courtiers who had begged the duty as a means of travelling cheap. Thus Robert Carvyle at Berwick begs the Scottish Ambassador in London ‘that if it be needful that a through post should come up, it may be myself, for I would gladly be at Court to follow my suit’; and young Thomas Milles tells his uncle that he is going to make his fortune in Paris, because Randolph has promised ‘to procure the Queen’s packet and despatch me with the first; and when I am there let God and me alone’. A through post might be the son of an Ambassador going on furlough, or an army Captain rejoining his troop, or the future Master of Ceremonies, Lewkenor, going to see French fashions; and the large number of such amateurs to whom payments are recorded in the Chamber Accounts suggests that the duty was regularly sought by young gentlemen who were sick of Court attendance and wanted to stretch their legs.1 As messengers they were, no doubt, active and efficient, but as riders of other men’s horses they must have been on the whole a pest. For it was hardly to be expected that a young man of this type would feel much concern either for his mount, or for the man who supplied it. Why should he? After weary months of being ‘the Picture of Nobody’ at Court he had suddenly been given precedence over every living thing on the Queen’s highway. Even the Lord Chief Justice must get out of his way when his guide’s horn sounded. Why should he consider anything or anybody but the figure he could cut and the speed he could make?

One of these Hotspurs, a certain Captain Winkfield, took up horses at Guildford in 1588, ‘and although’ says the mayor, ‘the said Mr Winkfield was provided of a very good young gelding for his own riding, in such sort as none have or could be better furnished from the Town, yet riding in a very foul and dangerous way about three miles from the town, his gelding by some mishap fell with him, as the guide reporteth. Where-upon he presently, in some fury, thrust his dagger into the said gelding under the small ribs, whereof he died within one half hour,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.