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who get the least save the most; and, without affirming that it was so in Hide's case, I may at least say that the thrifty, and otherwise industrious, habits of Edward Hide enabled him to hold this situation of unrequited labour for 9 1/2 years, when he succeeded to a better berth of 14s. per week vacated by an older postman, which he worthily held for an additional 35 years, and afterwards enjoyed, one is happy to know, a small pension.

The Hastings Post Office

On the 22nd of May, 1829, the branch Post-office at Hastings was again removed, and on the 23rd of September following, the new General Post-office was opened in St. Martin's-le-Grand. In the former case the death of Mr. Benjamin Bossom had caused a vacancy which was filled by the appointment of Mr. Robert Weston as Postmaster, who being a stationer and jeweller opposite to the Swan Hotel, necessitated a change of venu; (sic) and the office was accordingly removed from 67 to 55 in the same street. During the next two or three years there were again several changes in the management, and at least one more change of site. The office was removed from 55 High street, to 4 George street, and Col. Bond was appointed Postmaster in the place of Mr. Weston. There was an objection, however, to this appointment, it being urged that a military officer in Government pay ought not to hold office in the Civil Service to the exclusion of a civilian. Thereupon, the appointment was nominally transferred to Miss Bond, whilst her father continued to perform the duties as before. Even this arrangement did not last long; for, about the year 1834, Mr. John Woods - who had been previously a draper and grocer at Winchelsea, a draper at Hastings, and an inkeeper (sic) at St. Leonards - obtained the appointment, and retained it for a longer period than any other man. It was my privilege to be Post-clerk under this attentive and conscientious official during 1837-8-9; and as this was the exact period embraced by Rowand Hill's efforts to get his Penny-post scheme adoped (sic) by Government, my personal experiences of that particular epoch may perhaps be deemed worthy of the reader's attention.

When Mr. Woods first undertook the duties of the Post office as successor to Miss Bond, St. Leonards was not a post-town, but received its letters at the hands of a special messenger from Hastings; and, like other outbound districts, had to pay an extra penny upon each letter and newspaper for delivery. But in 1835 it was declared to be a post-town, and its postal district embraced all the property between Bopeep on the west and White Rock on the east. It did not, however, make up its own cross-post bags, and so that it still remained a penny-post on Hastings in that respect, as well as in the transit of strictly local letters. To be more explicit, all letters addressed to St. Leonards from London were sent direct to St. Leonards, and charged the same price as those which were sent direct to Hastings; but the letters which came from the intermediate towns and villages were first charged by the several Postmasters to the Postmaster of Hastings, and re-charged by the latter to the Postmaster of St. Leonards. A letter posted at Hastings for St. Leonards, or vice versa, was charged one penny only, or the price which is now charged for a letter from one extremity of the kingdom to the other. Newspapers, of course, were post free, the Government having already received a penny each by the compulsory stamp which was affixed to them, whether they passed through the post-office or not. For the purpose of conveying the letters and newspapers from one place to another, the Government had, in 1839, a very large number of coaches and carts, distinguished from ordinary vehicles by the name of Royal mail. These when running were freed from toll, and every moving thing on the ​road​ had to make way for them as soon as the guard or the driver blew his horn. To say nothing of the mail-carts on cross and coast ​road​s there were at that time something like fifty two-horse mails and upwards of one-hundred four-horse mails. History tells us that Mr. Palmer, of Bath, was the first to suggest mail-coaches as long back as 1774, and that Mr. Pitt, who was then Premier, ordered a trial to be made at once. This was done on the 8th of August in the same year the route selected being that between London and Bath. The success of the plan led to their gradual adoption; and, as already stated, two of them were put on between London and Hastings in the year 1827 - about ten months before the town of St. Leonards was commenced. Their complement of horses was four, but I have seen them in the winter time, when traveling was impeded by snow or other causes, come in and go out with six. By the new arrangement the time for travelling the 64 miles was at once reduced from fifteen hours to nine, and in the year 1839 it was still further curtailed by an hour. Thus, instead of the mail going out at three in the afternoon, it took its departure at ten at night; and instead of arriving at nine of the forenoon, it made its appearance - barring unpreventible (sic) impediments - at twenty minutes to five in the morning.

I will now imagine myself back at the old Post-office, 4 George street, and if any of my readers can rise at a quarter-past four in the morning and keep their attention on the stretch until eleven at night, I will show them what the Hastings Post-office was like forty-two years ago. But, mind! Mum's the word; for, as no one who has not taken the oath is allowed to enter the official sanctum, I shall be discharged, or something worse, if it gets known at head-quarters that I have taken strangers into my confidence. Well, now for a beginning! The Postmaster's dormitory is next to mine, and the alarum has run down at 4.15, to the minute. I am already awake, from long habit, but I do not rise until I hear the signal from the next room. Some two or three years ago, when I was new to the work, my master used to bring me a light and desire me to do as he did, namely, half dress and get back to bed again until summoned by the shrill blast of the post-horn. I had a soul above this, and being possessed of a large amount of assurance, which some people call confidence and other, impudence, I received the mail-bags one morning whilst the Postmaster was still sleeping, and did with them what was necessary in less time than it had hitherto taken two to do it. I was very much scolded for my presumption, and was asked to remember the responsibility attached to it. I had seen, however, that my employer was as nervous as he was anxious, and that when a certain duty could not be accomplished in the ten minutes prescribed for it, whilst the mail-guard, with chronometer in hand, shouted Time's up, sir!" the good man's nervousness was increased, and the time was prolonged. I begged therefore, to be allowed to repeat the single-handed process a few times in his presence, and then if it were found that my confidence and self-esteem were justified by results, it would be the means of the Postmaster getting two hours' additional sleep, which I knew he was in need of. The permission was granted, and the experiment was entirely successful; thus proving in this instance at least, the aphorisim (sic) that "too many cooks spoil the broth."

I now start afresh. It is a quarter-past four in the morning as already stated, and by the time I am properly attired another ten minutes have fled, thus leaving me a quarter of an hour to prepare for the reception of the mail-bags. I descend to the breakfast-room, and there from a corner-cupboard I take a phial containing just a gill of what teetotallers call poison, but what we in the post -office have christened "Daniel's Elixir." In plain terms it is a quarter-pint of very old ale, obtained from the Anchor Inn, and by my own choice reserved for a "wake-up" stimulant in the morning, instead of being taken as a "sleep-cordial" with the previous night's supper. I swallow this measured dose without any fear of ill-consequences - the adulteration of 1881 being yet a long distance in the future, - and thus braced up for my work I start out to meet the Mail, at the same time springing the lock of the door behind me.

I usually come up with it at the top of the town just about the time when the skid-pans are being removed from the wheels, but this particular morning happens to be one of those on which the Mail is sometimes overdue in consequence of an unfavourable condition of the ​road​s or of some other cause over which the driver has no control. I therefore get to the "Hare and Hounds" at Ore before the red coach and the red-coated guard begin to "show up." I then ride home to the coach-office at 1 George street, with a freshness which only those can know who "sip the early-morning dew," and I gain two or three minutes by running off with the cross-post bags while the guard is getting out the London sack and his parcels. I have now ten minutes allowed me to unseal and unstrap thirteen bags, take out from each bag such letters and newspapers as are addressed "St. Leonards," add up the several amounts of postage, make out a bill of charges to the Postmaster of St. Leonards, tie up the brass-labelled bag for that town, seal and stamp the same, and date the guard's way-bill, in and out. Having by tact and experience - aided by the internal refresher and the out-door air - grown into a full-blown expert, I am able to get through this first part of the daily routine quite easily within the prescribed ten minutes. And now that I have despatched the Royal Mail to complete the last stage of its down-journey, thence to be placed in the St. Leonards Mews until wanted at night for its return, I will chat a little over the letters which have just passed through my hands. The so-called cross-post bags are from Battle, Robertsbridge, Hurstgreen, Lamberhurst, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Bromley, Hailsham, Eastbourne, Lewes and Brighton. The offices at some of these post-towns are of a central character, where intercommunications are carried on with the surrounding villages, as well as with other post-towns; and as the postage of letters varies with the distance over which the letters are conveyed, there is of course a corresponding variation in the charges even upon letters that are taken from the same bag. Except where a penny rate is established (such as at St. Leonards, which is a penny post on Hastings, or at Winchelsea, which is a penny post on Rye), the minimum charge is 4d. for fifteen miles or under. Beyond the fourpenny rate, the several utmost distances allowed are 20 miles for 5d., 30 miles for 6d., 50 miles for 7d., 80 miles for 8d., 120 for 9d., 170 for 10d, 230 for 11d., 300 for 12d., and an additional 100 miles for each additional penny. These rates, be it remembered, are for "single" letters only, the constitution of which will be elucidated when we come to examine the contents of the London bag. The anomalies of the system are very numerous, and the cases of injustice are almost upon a par. Here is a letter, for example, from Eastbourne, and another from Lewes, both of which places would come under the fivepenny rate by a direct route, yet upon each letter 7d. is charged in consequence of the bags having to be first sent up to one of the offices on the main ​road​ to London, and then brought to Hastings by the London down-mail. Hailsham presents a similar case of anomaly by having to pay 6d. for a letter by a round-about route instead of 4d. by the direct ​road​, whilst some of the villages and hamlets affiliated on Hailsham, though within the fivepenny rate, are charged 8d., and are subjected to what is called a two-day's post. Still worse is the case of Winchelsea, which town being distant from Hastings less than 15 miles should come under the fourpenny rate, - and does so come by the East coast route, of which more anon, - but whose letters if posted after two o'clock in the day, are sent first to Rye by way of Lamberhurst, and charged 6d., and then on to Winchelsea with the additional charge of 1d., thus making the entire postage no less than 7d. to a town that is distant only eleven miles in a direct line. Thus, my friends, - you, I mean, who in the spring of 1837 have been muggled into the Post-office to see one day of its inner life, - thus, I say, must you be already getting an inkling of the necessity for some such change as that which is advocated by Rowland Hill in a pamphlet that has been nearly two years before the public. But you have only seen the first move in the day's proceedings, the next being to open the London sack and examine its contents. You perceive that this capacious receptacle is more than half full, but that the letters (some 350 or thereabouts) form a comparatively small portion of the bulk, the far larger part consisting of newspapers, which having been taxed a penny each at Somerset House contribute nothing to St. Martin's-le-grand. There is a large bundle of morning papers for Mr. Turner, a hard-working newsvendor and wholesale stationer in the Fishmarket, who, some few years ago, relinquished the carpenter's bench to be a purveyor of literature. He will come in before long and take the bundle under his arm, with the express understanding that after he has folded his papers at home, not a single copy is to be handed to his customers until after the general delivery commences at the Post-office. Then there are smaller parcels for the several librarians, among whom are Cooper at Marine Parade, Diplock at Marine Parade, Pearce at Pelham place, and Arundale in Castle street. Also - it being Wednesday - there is a good sized parcel of the Brighton Guardian, directed to Mr. Paine, at 48 George street, he being a local reporter and agent. Of single newspapers, old and new, their name is legion, and these have to be first sorted into three groups for as many letter-carriers to re-sort for delivery in their particular rounds. Ah! but here is one newspaper that is charged for and the price is enormous. The sender of this paper has sought to make it do duty for a letter by writing upon it, and has thereby subjected the receiver to a quadruple postage for every ounce that the paper weighs. It has travelled a distance of over 300 miles, and its weight being four ounces, the cost of transit is 17/4, or sixteen-times the rate of a single letter from such a distance. "Good Gracious!" methinks I hear you exclaim; "And is the person to whom the paper is addressed obliged to pay it?” No! I reply; he can refuse it; although I have known two or three instances in which a similarly "taxed-up" paper has been received and paid for, under the supposition that there was no alternative course. It is not our duty to directly advise people in such cases, but when the intended recipient is really a poor person we endeavour by indirect means to make him or her understand what best to do as many single rates of postage as there are pieces in the letter and its enclosures. I will explain this more fully as soon as I have reckoned up the charges on the letters and compared the total of such charges with the amount levied by the officials in London on the Postmaster at Hastings. Be it remembered that provincial postmasters and their clerks are desired to use all possible diligence (another word for ingenuity) to detect enclosures in letters, even though such letters may have passed the London clerks as single letters, and in all cases where enclosures are detected or even suspected, such postmasters or their clerks are to alter the original charge on the letter and debit themselves with the difference. But whilst thus prating I must not forget another part of my mechanical duty - that of impressing the letters with the office stamp, the date of which was shifted after the previous night's despatch of the mail. This being done, I now proceed to examine the letters almost one by one. The first one, I see, is for a recruiting sergeant and is charged a penny only, all soldiers and sailors in His Majesty's service being privileged to receive single letters at that price. No other letter from London is charged at a less rate than 8d., whilst those coming through London are charged in proportion to distance. Here is one from Scotland, the postage of which is 1s. 4 1/2d., there being always an extra charge of a half-penny on letters which pass between England and Scotland. It is a large letter, however, for the price, the cannie (sic) Scot knowing how to get the most for his money. It consists of a single large sheet of foolscap or brief paper, which having no enclosures is subject to only a single postage. But presently appears a much smaller letter which on being examined at the ends by means of an ivory probe, is found to consist of two separate pieces of paper. It is taxed only as a single letter, but I am officially bound to double that charge and to accept the responsibility of the act by attaching my initials. I may here remark that whilst the provincial postmaster gets no thanks for thus adding to the revenue of the Post-office, he is sharply censured if at any time he unconsciously passes as a single letter that which should be double. Mr. Woods has been so dealt with more than once, and his too sensitive nature makes him sometimes feel that there is more of tyranny than of justice in the rebuke. The St. Leonards Postmaster (Mr. Southall) is much more frequently called to account, but the manner in which he treats the matter will be shown as I proceed. I have said that except the penny letter to a soldier the lowest priced letter from the London bag is 8d., but I should have mentioned that there are several letters for the Rt. Hon. Joseph Planta and a few other persons upon which there is no charge at all - not because they are prepaid, but because they have been "franked," the privilege of franking some ten or twelve letters daily being accorded to Members of Parliament and Government officials. I have now completed the examination of letters by the morning mail, and have laid them with the newspapers in separate heaps to be re-assorted by the letter-carriers for delivery. Certain letters have, however, been put into alphabetically-arranged coves ready to be given out at the little wicket in the wall to such persons as usually call or send for them.

Seven o'clock has arrived, the Postmaster has partaken of his breakfast; has booked the amounts - varying from several shillings to as many pounds - against the postmen, who start out with their loads; and the wicket is opened to the group of people who have collected outside awaiting the striking of the town-clock. Behind this group are the mounted messengers of Mr. Brisco, of Coghurst; his brother of Bohemia; the Rev. Dr. Fearon, of Ore; and the Rev. G. G. Stonestreet, of Halton. The said messengers bring letters in leather pouches to be posted, and take back in the same manner all letters that may have arrived for their masters, mistresses and fellow-servants. The Postmaster keeps a duplicate key with which to unlock and re-lock the said pouches, and from each owner he is allowed to receive a guinea per annum for the service thus rendered. These guineas are regarded as constituting one of his perquisites, said perquisites being reckoned as compensation for the extreme smallness of his salary. It should be stated, however, that in compliance with public demand the so-called perquisites are being gradually abolished without any increase of salary until the Postmaster's income is not nearly sufficient, even with the utmost economy, to meet -