Royal Mail coach ticket

Royal Mail coaches carried passengers as well as mail, but private stage coaches were only allowed to carry passengers. Both left from hotels such as The Kings Arms Hotel and The George Inn on Dumfries High Street for places like Ayr, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester.   In Scotland mail was carried on foot or by post boys on horseback until 1788, when a mail coach between London and Glasgow was introduced. Additional coaches from Edinburgh and Carlisle to Dumfries, and on to Portpatrick for the sea crossing to Ireland, were soon established.   In the 1830s the mail coach from London, pulled by a series of four horse teams, took a day and a half to reach Dumfries, arriving at quarter to nine in the morning. Other coaches had already arrived - from Portpatrick at five thirty and Edinburgh at six thirty. The mail was then taken on horseback north to Thornhill, Sanquhar and Moniaive, and on foot to New Abbey and Kirkbean.   At first charges were based on the distance involved, and the number of pages in the letter, but a universal penny postage was introduced in 1840. Once the railway line was opened in 1848 the speed and cheapness of postal services led to the rapid growth of the Royal Mail.
Object no :
DMTR015n
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Creator :
NA
Place of Production :
NA
Dimensions :
width 98mm, height 123mm
Materials :
paper
Location :
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