On the way home from our two day break to see the family my intention was to take a photo of the "Postie Stone"  north of Moffat on the A 701.  However we didn’t stop because of the pouring rain which had been extremely heavy at times for much of the journey but the memorial can be seen beside the windscreen wiper in the photo.  The inscription states   
Near the head of this burn on 1st Feb; 1831, James McGeorge, guard and John Goodfellow, driver of the Dumfries to Edinburgh mail lost their lives in the snow after carrying the bags thus far. Erected 1931.
During a blizzard in February 1831 a coachman and guard died after their mail coach got stuck in a snowdrift high up on a bleak moorland on what was then the main route from Dumfries to Edinburgh..  At Moffat they had taken on new horses and some passengers but after a mile and a half they had to abandon the stage coach as the snow was too deep.  Two male passengers returned to Moffat on some of the horses to raise the alarm while several female passengers sheltered inside the coach.  Both Goodfellow and McGeorge decided that they had a duty to deliver the mail so carried on horseback climbing high up the steep road for about four more miles but tragically they both died from exposure.  The two horses managed to reach a nearby farm where the alarm was raised.