rooke, Windsor, Calne, and Ramsbury will be
forwarded by this conveyance every day; and for Devizes, Melksham,
Trowbridge, and Bradford on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays,
and Saturdays; and for Henley, Nettlebed, Wallingford, Wells,
Bridgwater, Taunton, Wellington, Tiverton, Frome, and Warminster, on
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

"Letters from all the before-mentioned post-towns and their districts
will be sorted and delivered as soon as possible after their arrival in
London, and are not to wait for the general delivery.

"All carriers, coachmen, higglers, news carriers, and all other persons
are liable to a penalty of L5 for every letter which they shall receive,
take up, order, dispatch, carry, or deliver illegally; and to L100 for
every week that any offender shall continue the practice--one-half to
the informer. And that this revenue may not be injured by unlawful
collections and conveyances, all persons acting contrary to the law
therein will be proceeded against, and punished with the utmost
severity.

"By command of the Postmaster-General,

"ANTHONY TODD, Sec."

The _Bath Chronicle_ versions were as follows, viz.:--"July 29, 1784. On
Monday next the experiment for the more expeditious conveyance of the
mails will be made on the road from London to Bath and Bristol. Letters
are to be put in the London office every evening before 8 o'clock, and
to arrive next morning in Bath before 10 o'clock, and in Bristol by
12 o'clock. The letters for London, or for any place between or beyond,
to be put into the Bath Post Office every evening before 5 o'clock, and
into the Bristol office before 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and they will
be delivered in London the next day."

[Illustration: [_By permission of Kelly's Directories, Lim._

THE OLD GENERAL POST OFFICE IN LOMBARD STREET, LONDON.]

The public were also informed that the mail diligence would commence to
run on Monday, August 2, 1784--and that the proprietors had engaged to
carry the mail to and from London to Bristol in sixteen hours, starting
from the Swan with Two Necks, in Lad Lane, London, at 8 o'clock each
night, and arriving at the Three Tuns, Bath, before 10 o'clock the next
morning, and at the Rummer Tavern, Bristol, by 12 o'clock. "The mail is
to leave Bristol from the Swan Tavern for London every afternoon at 4
o'clock, and to arrive in London before 8 o'clock the next morning."

On August 5, we are told, "the new mail diligence