Note 164 — Chapter II · ON THE CIRCULATION OF LETTERS.
Reading edition
It is generally allowed that the country postmen are, as a rule, such as we have described them. Edward Capern, the Wayside Poet, at the time a rural letter-carrier between Bideford and Buckland Brewer, Devonshire, walking thirteen miles a-day, Sunday included, for 10s. 6d. a-week has described their life in the following poem:—
"O! the postman's is as blessed a life As any one's, I trow, If leaping the stile o'er many a mile Can blessedness bestow. "If tearing your way through a tangled wood, Or dragging your limbs through a lawn; If wading knee-deep through an angry flood, Or a plough'd field newly sown,— "If sweating big drops 'neath a burning sun, And shiv'ring 'mid sleet and snow; If drenched to the skin with rain, be fun, And can a joy bestow! "If toiling away through a weary week (No six days work but seven) Without one holy hour to seek A resting place in heaven. "If hearing the bells ring Sabbath chimes, To bid us all repair To church (as in the olden times) And bend the knee in prayer. "If in these bells he hears a voice 'To thy delivery!' God says to every soul 'rejoice,' But, postman, not to thee. "O, the postman's is a blessed life! And sighing heavily, 'Ha, ha,' he'll say, 'alack a-day! Where's Britain's piety?' "Heigho! I come and go Through the muck and miry slough; Heigho! I come and go Heavy at heart and weary O! "Heigho! Heigho! Does any one pray for the postman? No! No! no! no! no! Or he would not be robbed of his Sabbath so!"
In The Rural Postman's Sabbath, Capern seems to breathe a more contented strain. His poetical remonstrances, probably on account of their originality, were more successful than they might have been if given in prose. The authorities raised his salary, and relieved him of his Sunday labours. Few rural postmen now travel on Sundays. The poet-postman has also had a pension granted him from the Royal Bounty Fund. In Capern's case we find literary abilities of a high order in the very lowest ranks of the Post-Office. When we have mentioned the names of Mr. Anthony Trollope, Mr. Edmund Yates, and Mr. Scudamore, we have said enough to show that they exist also in the highest ranks of the service.