Note 5 — I THE RATE FOR LETTERS

Richard III in 1484 "followed the practice which had been recently introduced by King Edward in the time of the last war with Scotland (1482) of appointing a single horseman for every 20 miles, by means of whom travelling with the utmost speed, and not passing their respective limits, news was always able to be carried by letter from hand to hand 200 miles within two days."—Third Continuation of the Chronicle of Croyland, Oxford, 1684, p. 571. The system was identical with that of the posts of antiquity (vide Appendix B, pp. 374-7, infra).