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A messenger riding on horseback who carried mails at the fastest speed possible. In England at the end of the seventeenth century the ‘ordinary’ post travelled at an average speed of about four miles an hour, while an express messenger would travel at between five and seven miles an hour depending on his burden and the quality of the fresh horses available at the staging posts on his route. (An express would sometimes consist of one rider carrying the message for the whole journey, sometimes of relays of riders; in either event, he would often be accompanied by a guide and, if necessary, by one or more armed guards.) Nevertheless, the chief advantage of an express lay in its ability – for a price – to depart as soon as letters were ready for despatch. For urgent messages this was essential since ordinary international posts were regulated by schedules with days or even weeks intervening between departures. The slowly increasing frequency of the ordinary posts together with dramatic technical developments (better roads and mail coaches, railways, steamships and finally the telegraph) made expresses outmoded by the first half of the nineteenth century. Until then, however, they were of the greatest value to the diplomatic services of Europe when it was, for example, necessary to issue fresh instructions to envoys and for the latter to return urgent despatches. Machiavelli had much admired their employment by the Duke Valentino at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, their use was restricted not only because they were very expensive but also because, like special envoys, they were inclined to attract attention and excite rumour. Some of the members of the British government\'s own express service, the Queen\'s/King\'s Messengers, became quite well known and their arrivals were announced in the press. At the end of the nineteenth century there was even a cartoon of the senior messenger, Captain Conway F. C. Seymour, published by ‘Spy’ in the popular periodical Vanity Fair. |
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