Much later, the Normans held sway over the major towns, but many unsubdued Anglo-Saxons in the countryside made it very dangerous for Norman officials to move about from town to town. Carrying the mail was a particularly precarious occupation. Mail carriers were frequently accosted on the roads and by-ways between towns, robbed of their freight, and sometimes even killed.

As with children everywhere, the children in the towns made up street rhymes and games. One game that young boys in particular liked to play was "Who Will Carry the Mail." The rules and actions associated with the game have been lost to history, but the accompanying rhyme is still commonly heard with some more modern adaptions, and suggests it was a game of bravado.

It goes like this:

"Who will carry the Mail?"
"I'll carry the mail."
"Through the woods?"
"Through the woods!"
"But what about the Saxons?"
"Flock the Saxons."
"You'd flock a Saxon?"
"I'd flock a chicken."
"Why, you dirty fowlflocker you.
You ought to be hung upside down from a tree and fed Ex-Lax"
"I'd sh*t!"
"You'die!"
"Then who'd carry the mail?"
(another kid jumps in and it begins again)
"I'll carry the mail"
etc.