Post Haste (Annotated)

BIOGRAPHY Robert Michael Ballantyne (24 April 1825 – 8 February 1894) was a Scottish author of juvenile fiction who wrote more than 100 books. He was also an accomplished artist, and exhibited some of his water-colours at the Royal Scottish Academy. EARLY LIFE Ballantyne was born in Edinburgh on 24 April 1825, the ninth of ten children and the youngest son, to Alexander Thomson Ballantyne (1776–1847) and his wife Anne (1786–1855). Alexander was a newspaper editor and printer in the family firm of "Ballantyne & Co" based at Paul's Works on the Canongate, and Robert's uncle James Ballantyne (1772–1833) was the printer for Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. In 1832-33 the family is known to have been living at 20 Fettes Row, in the northern New Town of Edinburgh. A UK-wide banking crisis in 1825 resulted in the collapse of the Ballantyne printing business the following year with debts of £130,000, which led to a decline in the family's fortunes. Ballantyne went to Canada aged 16, and spent five years working for the Hudson's Bay Company. He traded with the local Native Americans for furs, which required him to travel by canoe and sleigh to the areas occupied by the modern-day provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, experiences that formed the basis of his novel Snowflakes and Sunbeams (1856). His longing for family and home during that period impressed him to start writing letters to his mother. Ballantyne recalled in his autobiographical Personal Reminiscences in Book Making (1893) that "To this long-letter writing I attribute whatever small amount of facility in composition I may have acquired." WRITING CAREER In 1847 Ballantyne returned to Scotland to discover that his father had died. He published his first book the following year, Hudson's Bay: or, Life in the Wilds of North America, and for some time was employed by the publishers Messrs Constable. In 1856 he gave up business to focus on his literary career, and began the series of adventure stories for the young with which his name is popularly associated. The Young Fur-Traders (1856), The Coral Island (1857), The World of Ice (1859), Ungava: a Tale of Eskimo Land (1857), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Lighthouse (1865), Fighting the Whales (1866), Deep Down (1868), The Pirate City (1874), Erling the Bold (1869), The Settler and the Savage (1877), and more than 100 other books followed in regular succession, his rule being to write as far as possible from personal knowledge of the scenes he described. The Gorilla Hunters. A tale of the wilds of Africa (1861) shares three characters with The Coral Island: Jack Martin, Ralph Rover and Peterkin Gay. Here Ballantyne relied factually on Paul du Chaillu's Exploration in Equatorial Guinea, which had appeared early in the same year. The Coral Island is the most popular of the Ballantyne novels still read and remembered today, but because of one mistake he made in that book, in which he gave an incorrect thickness of coconut shells, he subsequently attempted to gain first-hand knowledge of his subject matter. For instance, he spent some time living with the lighthouse keepers at the Bell Rock before writing The Lighthouse, and while researching for Deep Down he spent time with the tin miners of Cornwall. In 1866 Ballantyne married Jane Grant (c. 1845 – c. 1924), with whom he had three sons and three daughters. LATER LIFE AND DEATH Ballantyne spent his later years in Harrow, London, before moving to Italy for the sake of his health, possibly suffering from undiagnosed Ménière's disease. He died in Rome on 8 February 1894, and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery there. LEGACY A Greater London Council plaque commemorates Ballantyne at "Duneaves" on Mount Park Road in Harrow. Table of ContentsTitle About Preface. Chapter 1 - A Hero and His Worshipper. Chapter 2 - Tells of Woman’s Work and some of Woman’s Ways. Chapter 3 - Brilliant Prospects. Chapter 4 - The Royal Mail Steamer. Chapter 5 - Wreck and Rescue. Chapter 6 - Treats of Poverty, Pride, and Fidelity. Chapter 7 - Phil Begins Life, and Makes a Friend. Chapter 8 - Downward—Deeper and Deeper. Chapter 9 - Mr Blurt and George Aspel in Peculiar Circumstances. Chapter 10 - A Mystery Cleared Up. Chapter 11 - The Letter-Carrier Goes His Rounds, Aids a Little Girl, and Overwhelms a Lady Statistically. Chapter 12 - In Which a Bosom Friend is Introduced, Rural Felicity is Enlarged on, and Deep Plans are Laid. Chapter 13 - Miss Lillycrop Gets a Series of Surprises. Chapter 14 - Formation of the Pegaway Literary Association and Other Matters. Chapter 15 - George Aspel Receives Various Visitors at the Ornithological Shop, and is Called to Vigorous Action. Chapter 16 - Begins with Juvenile Flirtation, and Ends with Canine Cremation. Chapter 17 - Tottie and Mrs Bones in Difficulty. Chapter 18 - Business Interfered with in a Remarkable Manner. Chapter 19 - Deep-Laid Plans for Checkmating Mr Bones. Chapter 20 - The Post of the Olden Time. Chapter 21 - Tells of a Series of Terrible Surprises. Chapter 22 - Shows How One Thing Leads to Another, and so on. Chapter 23 - The Turning-Point. Chapter 24 - Plans and Counter Plans. Chapter 25 - Light Shining in Dark Places. Chapter 26 - Tells of a Sham Fight and a Real Battle. Chapter 27 - The Greatest Battle of All. Chapter 28 - The Storming of Rocky Cottage and Other Matters. Chapter 29 - Describes an Interview and a Rencontre. Chapter 30 - The Last. Preface.THIS TALE IS FOUNDED chiefly on facts furnished by the Postmaster-General’s Annual Reports, and gathered, during personal intercourse and investigation, at the General Post-Office of London and its Branches. It is intended to illustrate—not by any means to exhaust—the subject of postal work, communication, and incident throughout the Kingdom. I have to render my grateful acknowledgments to Sir Arthur Blackwood; his private secretary, Charles Eden, Esquire; and those other officers of the various Departments who have most kindly afforded me every facility for investigation, and assisted me to much of the information used in the construction of the tale. If it does not greatly enlighten, I hope that it will at all events interest and amuse the reader. R.M. Ballantyne. Chapter 1