Part 1 (2/2)
A robbery from these postboys carrying the mails between London and Bristol was a common occurrence. Two men were executed in April, 1720, for having twice committed that crime, yet the letter bags were again stolen seven times during the following twelve months. The _London Journal_ of August 27th remarked: ”It is computed that the traders of Bristol have received 60,000 damages by the late robberies of the mail.” In 1722 the postboys were robbed twice in a single week, and for the crimes three men were executed in London. Another incident of the kind worthy of mentioning occurred in September, 1738. The bag then carried off by three highwaymen contained a reprieve for a man lying under sentence of death in Newgate, and a second reprieve despatched after the robbery became known would have arrived too late to save the man's life, had not the magistrates postponed the execution for a day or two in order that it might not clash with the festivities of a new Mayor's inauguration.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PRIOR PARK, BATH.
(_Formerly residence of Ralph Allen._)
_By permission of the Proprietor of ”The Bath and County Graphic.”_]
About 1732 the Bristol riding boys were deprived of their perquisite of 1d. a letter for ”dropping of letters” at the towns and villages through which they pa.s.sed. This was done because the postboys not only carried letters which they picked up on the road and did not account for at the next post office of call, but even went to the length of taking out letters from the mail bags when those bags were, as was the case sometimes, not properly chained and sealed. In connection with Ralph Allen's ”By-Posts,” in the year 1735 arrangements were made so that the mails sent from Manchester, Liverpool, or any other place in Lancas.h.i.+re, to Worcesters.h.i.+re, Gloucesters.h.i.+re, Somerset, Devon, etc., might be answered four days sooner than they could possibly have been answered before. In 1740 a new branch by-post was established from Bristol and Bath to Salisbury, through Bradford, Trowbridge, Devizes, Lavington, Tinhead, Westbury, Warminster, Heytesbury, and Wilton. In 1741 the growth of trade and population encouraged the Bristol citizens to appeal to the Ministry for an improvement in the postal communication with London, which was still limited to three days per week. Yielding to this pressure, Allen converted the tri-weekly posts into six-day posts in June, 1741. The post began to run every day of the week, except Sunday, between London and Bristol, and all intervening towns partic.i.p.ated in the benefit. In 1746 a further extension took place, whereby letters were conveyed six days in every week, instead of three days, at Mr. Allen's expense, between London and Wells, Bridgwater, Taunton, Wellington, Tiverton, and Exeter, through Bristol. The mail service is not in further evidence in local history until 1753, when the Bristol merchants again showed themselves tenacious of their rights, and waged a bitter war against the Postmasters-General in respect of the imposition of a double rate of postage on letters which, although under an ounce in weight, contained patterns of silk or cotton or samples of grain. There was a lawsuit, and the Bristol merchants won it.
A Government notification in the local newspapers of the 4th September, 1752, announced an acceleration of the mails between the Southern Counties and Bristol. In future a postboy was to leave Salisbury on Mondays at six o'clock in the morning, to arrive at Bath (a distance of about thirty-nine miles) at eight or nine at night, and to leave Bath for Bristol at six next morning. On Wednesdays and Fridays the departure from Salisbury was in the evening, the journey occupying about nineteen hours. By this arrangement letters from Portsmouth were received in this city two days earlier than before.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RALPH ALLEN'S TOWN HOUSE IN BATH.
_By kind permission of the Proprietor of the ”Bath and County Graphic.”_]
Ralph Allen's improvements had great influence in the Post Office services in this western city. The profits on the contracts enabled Allen to take up his residence at Prior Park, Bath, one of the finest Italian houses in England, in addition to having a grand house in the City. It is said that the profits which accrued to him from his long contracts amounted to about half a million of money.
Mansions so lordly are not for the hardest and best workers in the Post Office field of present times, for the nation does not reward its great men so liberally as then. Nowadays an introducer of the inland parcel post service, the foreign parcel post service, an improver of the telegraph service, and leader in bringing about vastly accelerated mail services throughout the country,--works of great moment, even if not comparable with Ralph Allen, John Palmer, or Rowland Hill's great achievements,--has, after forty years at the Post Office, to be contented on retirement with no more than the modest pension due to him, which will not even be continued to his nearest and dearest relative.
Allen benefited the Bristol postal district in another way than by his improved Post Office services when he built the bridge over the Avon at Newton-St.-Loe at a cost of 4,000. He was buried in Claverton Churchyard, near Bath. The inscription on his tomb runs thus:--”Beneath this Monument lieth entombed the Body of Ralph Allen, Esqr., of Prior Park, who departed this life y^e 29th day of June, 1764, in the 71st year of his Age. In full hope of everlasting happiness in another state thro' the infinite merit and mediation of our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ.”
Ralph Allen did not h.o.a.rd up his money or spend it on riotous living, but bestowed a considerable portion of his income in works of charity, especially in supporting needy men of letters. He was a great friend and benefactor of Fielding, and in _Tom Jones_ the novelist has gratefully drawn Mr. Allen's character in the person of Squire Alworthy. He enjoyed the friends.h.i.+p of Chatham and Pitt; and Pope, Warburton, and other men of literary distinction were his familiar companions. Pope has celebrated one of his princ.i.p.al virtues--una.s.suming benevolence--in the well-known lines:
”Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”
Derrick has thus described Allen's personal appearance shortly before his death: ”He is a very grave, well-looking man, plain in his dress, resembling that of a Quaker, and courteous in his behaviour. I suppose he cannot be much under seventy. His wife is low, with grey hair, and of a very pleasing address.” Kilvert says that he was rather above the middle size and stoutly built, and that he was not altogether averse to a little state, as he often used to drive into Bath in a coach and four.
His handwriting was very curious; he evidently wrote quickly and fluently, but it was so overloaded with curls and flourishes as to be sometimes scarcely legible.
The lack of all show about his garb seems to have somewhat annoyed Philip Thicknesse, the well-known author of one of the Bath Guides, for he speaks of Allen's ”plain linen s.h.i.+rt-sleeves, with only a chitterling up the slit.”
Allen's son Philip became Comptroller of the ”By-Letter” Department in the London Post Office.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RALPH ALLEN'S TOMB IN CLAVERTON CHURCHYARD, NEAR BATH.
_By kind permission of the Proprietor of the ”Bath and County Graphic.”_]
CHAPTER II.
1770-1818.
MAIL COACH ERA.--JOHN PALMER.
Notwithstanding Ralph Allen's innovations, the conveyance of letters between the princ.i.p.al towns was carried on in a more or less desultory fas.h.i.+on. Speaking of the want of improvement in 1770, and the haphazard system under which Post Office business was conducted, a local newspaper gave this instance of unpunctuality: ”The London Mail did not arrive so soon by several hours as usual on Monday, owing to the mailman getting a little intoxicated on his way between Newbury and Marlborough, and falling from his horse into a hedge, where he was found asleep, by means of his dog.” Mr. Weeks, who entered upon ”The Bush,” Bristol, in 1772, after ineffectually urging the proprietors to quicken their speed, started a one day coach to Birmingham himself, and carried it on against a bitter opposition, charging the pa.s.sengers only 10s. 6d. and 8s. 6d.
for inside and outside seats respectively, and giving each one of them a dinner and a pint of wine at Gloucester into the bargain. After two years' struggle his opponents gave in, and one day journeys to Birmingham became the established rule.
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