Our social bees, or, Pictures of town & country life, and other papers / by Andrew Wynter.

  • Andrew Wynter
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Our social bees, or, Pictures of town & country life, and other papers / by Andrew Wynter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/556 page 4
    ago,—the noble oak of tlie present, with the little acorn of the past. No truer estimate of the national advance can be obtained than by running down the stream of history in relation to any of our great institutions which deal with the needs and wishes of the masses of the people ; and in no one of them is our advance more clearly and correctly shown than in the annals of the Post-office. They form, in fact, a most delicate thermometer, marking the gradual increase of our national vitality, and indicating, with microscopic minuteness, the progress of our civilization. In early times, the post was a pure convenience of the king, instituted for the purpose of forwarding his des- patches, and having no dealings with the public whatsoever. Instead of St. MartinVle-Grand being the point of depar- ture, the court/' wherever it might happen to be, made up the mails/' How these mails were forwarded may be imagined from the following exculpatory letter written by one Brian Tuke, Master of the Postes, in Henry the Eighth's time. It would appear that Cromwell had been pulling him up rather sharply for remissness in the for- warding of despatches. The worthy functionary states that:— The Kinges Grace hath no moo ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe had, but betwene London and Calais. . . For, sir, ye knowe well, that, except the hackney horses betwene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as in the. accustomed places of France and other parties ; ne men can keepe horses in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges; but when placardes be sent for suche cause (to
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