ate Mr. Charles Nicholls) are, I believe, still in existence.

Just before the introduction of the Penny Post we find the Post Office
in Melbourn Street (master, Mr. Thomas Daintry) closed at ten o'clock,
but letters were received "between that hour and eleven on payment of
sixpence each"! At that time, however, there was an arrangement known
as the "Royston Penny Post," comprising the parishes of Barrington,
Fowlmere, Foxton, Melbourn, Meldreth, Shepreth and Thriplow.

The posting and delivery of a letter was a different affair then from
now. Envelopes and postage stamps had not been invented. The postage
was paid by the person receiving the letter, and it did not depend upon
the weight of the letter at all, but upon how many sheets it contained.
Two very small sheets or small pieces of paper would count as two
letters and double postage, but an immense sheet of foolscap, or even
folio size, containing many times the writing of the other two, would
only count as one, and letters were as a consequence often curious
looking documents.

As to the cost of postage of a letter the following were the rates
prevailing between Royston and the places named:--Cambridge 4d., London
7d., Norwich 8d., Huntingdon 6d., Newport 10d., Brandon 8d., Cheshunt
7d., Bedford 6d., Buntingford 4d. In the few cases {116} where persons
had friends in America, a letter to them cost 2s. 2d.; to Gibraltar the
cost was 2s. 10d., Malta and the Mediterranean 3s. 2d., postage in
these cases being prepaid. The charge was based upon a scale according
to the distance, commencing with 4d. not exceeding 15 miles. The
transmission of money was "by wagon," and instead of a creditor asking
for a remittance by return of post it was "by return of wagon."

Of the old Inns in Royston it may be of interest to add that the Red
Lion ball-room continued to be a centre of fashionable gatherings
until, with the decay of the posting and coaching business for which
the Red Lion had been chiefly famous, the Bull Hotel (the same owners)
became the leading house. The Red Lion was afterwards given up, the
ball-room, with its associations going back to the Old Royston Club,
was removed and re-erected as the present ball-room or billiard-room of
the Bull Hotel, while its rampant lion which had presented a bold face
to the High Street for more than a century, was removed to a higher
position on the top of Reed Hill, where it now does duty, and has given
a sign to the ho