Part of a series celebrating the history of the postal service. This image features the post rider, his trusty steed and his rather marvellous post horn.
The post horn was used to mark the arrival or departure of post. It was a cylindrical brass instrument with a cupped mouthpiece. Post horns were pretty ubiquitous in places with a post service; they also became part of the musical repertoire with composers including Mozart, Mahler and the wonderfully named Beer writing pieces for them.
Post riders were, well, riders who brought post. But they were distinguished from your regular courier or messenger service: the term post rider would be used for the official state or regional postal service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_horn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_riders
Stamp of the Day 