And, in the second example, “post,” the regular delivery of mail by professionals was a new concept in Austen’s time, as was the use of the mail-carriages as a more “genteel” method of safe, reliable, respectable travel, as opposed to the unreliable, unregulated, and often unsafe public coach services, even the latter of which was unavailable to the great proportion of the populace whose only resort was walking. And, in all of this, what does the Steele’s three-person journey with Doctor Davies by post-chaise mean? [Ans: impropriety, indecorum (two unmarried females traveling alone with a man, unchaperoned), an utter want of understanding that the relation/admission of this fact conveys the same lowness (not only of means and class, but discretion and sense), and an extremely uncomfortable journey, nonetheless, as a post-chaise is a two-person vehicle.]

Eleanor Tilney’s comment to Catherine, “but a journey of seventy miles to be taken post by you, at your age, alone, unattended!” [Ans: That General Tilney was grossly cruel and irresponsible to someone else’s child, a child for whom he had assumed responsibility, in loco parentis (an unconscionable abrogation of parental duty), subjecting not only Catherine’s reputation to irreparable harm (a most ungentleman-like action), and, in the best light, her very personal safety to the evils of an entire day, alone, in a public conveyance (if she had the means to pay), having to find her way home (having never been away from home before), through many changes of coach, and an exhausting journey of seventy miles (a very real, calculable evil); or, in the worst light, never making it home, as he either did not think to give her the money for the trip home (gross insensitivity and negligence), or thoughtfully denied giving her the money for the trip, assuming that, if she did not have the money, she was beneath his concern (grossly heartless and cruel): an abuse of power, privilege, and common decency for his own mistake. These were obviously decisive issues to Edmund Tilney, or the ending of Northanger Abbey makes very little sense.]

Does any modern definition of the word, “post” convey the meanings of these words as Jane Austen used them? [Ans: no.]