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 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924080821097 
 
In Compliance with current 
 
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QfarneU UtttncrBtta litbtarg 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1654-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
THE ROYAL MAIL 
 
THE EOYAL MAIL 
 
 ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES WILSON HYDE 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXV 
 
 AH Rights restrved 
 
Note. — It is of melancholy iuj,ercst that Mr Fawcett's death 
 occurred within a month from the date on which he accepted 
 the following Dedication, and before the issue of the Work. 
 
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 HENEY FAWCETT, M.P. 
 
 HEE majesty's postmaster-oeneral, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE, BY PERMISSION, 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 OF all institutions of modern times, there is, 
 perhaps, none so pre - eminently a people's 
 institution as is the Post-office. Not only does it 
 carry letters and newspapers everywhere, both within 
 and without the kingdom, but it is the transmitter 
 of messages by telegraph, a vast banker for the 
 savings of the working classes, an insurer of lives, 
 a carrier of parcels, and a distributor of various 
 kinds of Government licences. Its services are 
 claimed exclusively or mainly by no one class ; the 
 rich, the poor, the educated, and the illiterate, and, 
 indeed, the yoiing as well as the old, — all have 
 dealings with the* Post-office. Yet it may seem 
 strange that an institution which is familiar by its 
 operations to all classes alike, should be so little 
 known by its internal management and organisation. 
 A few persons, no doubt, have been privileged to 
 see the interior working of some important Post- 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 office, but it is the bare truth to say that the people 
 know nothing of what goes on within the doors of 
 that ubiquitous establishment. When it is remem- 
 bered that the metropolitan offices of London, Edin- 
 burgh, and Dublin have to maintain touch with 
 every petty office and every one of their servants 
 scattered throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland ; 
 that discipline has to be exercised everywhere ; that 
 a system of accounting must necessarily be main- 
 tained, reaching to the remotest corners ; and that 
 the whole threads have to be gathered up and 
 made answerable to the great head, which is Lon- 
 don,— some vague idea may be formed of what must 
 come within the view of whoever pretends to a 
 knowledge of Post-office work. But intimately 
 connected with that which was the original work of 
 the Post-office, and is still the main work — the con- 
 veyance of letters — there is the subject of circula- 
 tion, the simple yet complex scheme under which 
 letters flow from each individual centre to every 
 other part of the country. Circulation as a system 
 is the outcome of planning, deviling, and scheming 
 by many heads during a long series of years — its 
 object, of course, being to bring letters to their 
 destinations in the shortest possible time. So intri- 
 cate and delicate is the fabric, that by interference 
 an unskilled hand could not fail to produce an 
 
INTRODUCTION'. IX 
 
 effect upon the structure analogous to that which 
 would certainly follow any rude treatment applied 
 to a house built of cards. 
 
 These various subjects, especially when they have 
 become settled into the routine state, might be con- 
 sidered as affording a poor soil for the growth of 
 anything of interest — that is, of curious interest — 
 apart from that which duty calls upon a man to 
 show in his proper work. Yet the Post-office is not 
 without its veins of humour, though the metal to be 
 extracted may perhaps be scanty as compared with 
 the vast extent of the mine from which it has to 
 be taken. 
 
 The compiler of the following pages has held an 
 appointment in the Post-office for a period of twenty- 
 five years — the best, perhaps, of his life ; and during 
 that term it has been his practice to note and 
 collect facts connected with the Department when- 
 ever they appeared of a curious, interesting, or 
 amusing character. While making use of such 
 notes in connection with this work, he has had 
 recourse to the Post-office Annual Eeports, to old 
 official documents, to books on various subjects, and 
 to newspapers, all of which have been laid under 
 contribution to furnish material for these pages. 
 
 The work is in no sense a historical work : it 
 deals with the lighter features of a plain, matter-of- 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fact department ; and though some of the incidents 
 mentioned may be deemed of trivial account, they 
 will be found, it is thought, to have at least a 
 curious or amusing side. 
 
 The author desires to mention that he has re- 
 ceived valuable help from several of his brother 
 officers, who have supplied him with facts or anec- 
 dotes; and to these, as well as to gentlemen who 
 have lent him books or given him access to files of 
 old newspapers, he expresses his grateful acknow- 
 ledgments. He also tenders his sincere and re- 
 spectful thanks to the Postmaster - General for 
 permission granted to make extracts from official 
 papers. 
 
 The Post-office renders an unpretending yet most 
 important service to commerce and to society; and 
 it will be a source of deep gratification to the author 
 if what he has written should inspire in the reader a 
 new and unexpected interest in " the hundred-handed 
 giant who keeps up the intercourse between the 
 different parts of the country, and wafts a sigh from 
 Indus to the Pole." 
 
 Note. — The Author will he glad to be furnished with any curious 
 facts or anecdotes relating to the Post-office, either from his brother 
 officers or the public, for use in the event of further editions being 
 called for. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. OLD ROADS, . 
 II. POSTBOYS, 
 
 HI. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES, 
 IV. FOOT-POSTS, 
 V. MAIL-PACKETS, 
 VI. SHIPWRECKED MAILS, 
 VII. AMOUNT OF WORK, 
 VIII. GRO'WTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES, 
 IX. CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE, 
 
 X. THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, 
 XI. SORTERS AND CIRCULATION, 
 XII. PIGEON-POST, 
 XIII. ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, AND OTHER 
 PETTY FRAUDS, 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 29 
 
 76 
 
 85 
 
 100 
 
 103 
 
 118 
 
 128 
 
 145 
 
 155 
 
 168 
 
 175 
 
xn 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIV. STEAIJGE ADDRESSES, 
 XV. POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES, 
 XVI. TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDERS, 
 XVII. HOW LETTERS ARE LOST, 
 XVIII. ODD COMPLAINTS, 
 XIX. CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE 
 OFFICE, ..... 
 XX. SINGULAR COINCIDENCES, 
 XXI. SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES, . 
 XXII. REPLIES TO MEDICAL INQUIRIES, . 
 
 XXIII. VARIOUS, 
 
 XXIV. RED TAPE, .... 
 
 POST- 
 
 190 
 210 
 249 
 255 
 303 
 
 312 
 335 
 343 
 351 
 353 
 374 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 MAIL-COACH ACCIDENT AT ELVANFOOT, . . Frontispiece 
 
 HOLYHEAD AND CHESTER MAILS SNOWED 
 
 UP NEAR DUNSTABLE 26TH DEC. 1836. 
 
 (From, an old Print,) .... To face p. 52 
 THE DEVONPORT MAIL-COACH FORCING ITS 
 WAY THROUGH A SNOWDRIFT NEAR AMES- 
 BURY — 27th dec. 1836. (From an old 
 Print,) n „ 54 
 
 TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, .... Page 146 
 DELIVERING ARM, SHOWING HOW THE POUCH 
 
 IS SUSPENDED, , 152 
 
 STRANGE ADDRESSES, ,i 197-209 
 
 LETTER-BOX TAKEN POSSESSION OF BY TOMTITS, ii 265 
 
 THE MULREADY ENVELOPE, . . . i, 364 
 
THE EOYAL MAIL 
 
 CHAP TEE I. 
 
 OLD EOADS. 
 
 THE present generation, who are accustomed to 
 see the streets of our cities paved with wood 
 or stone, or otherwise so laid out as to provide a 
 hard and even surface suited to the locomotion of 
 wheeled vehicles, or who by business or pleasure 
 have been led to journey over the principal high- 
 ways intersecting the kingdom in every direction, 
 can form no idea of the state of the roads in this 
 country during the earlier years of the Post-office 
 — or even in times comparatively recent — unless 
 their reading has led them to the perusal of ac- 
 counts written by travellers of the periods we now 
 refer to. The highways of the present day, radiat- 
 ing from London and the other large centres of in- 
 
 A 
 
2 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 dustry, and extending their arms to every corner of 
 the land, are wellnigh perfect in their kind, and 
 present a picture of careful and efficient mainten- 
 ance. Whether we look, for example, at the great 
 north road leading from London, the Carlisle to 
 Glasgow road, or the Highland road passing through 
 Dunkeld, we find the roads have certain features 
 in common : a broad hard roadway for vehicles ; a 
 neatly kept footpath where required ; limits strictly 
 defined by trim hedges, stone walls, or palings ; and 
 means provided for carrying off surface-water. The 
 picture will, of course, vary as the traveller proceeds, 
 flat country alternating with undulating country, and 
 wood or moorland with cultivated fields ; but the 
 chief characteristics remain the same, constituting 
 the roads as worthy of the age we live in. 
 
 How the people managed to get from place to 
 place before the Post-office had a history, or indeed 
 for long after the birth of that institution, it is hard 
 to conceive. Then, the roads were little better than 
 tracks worn out of the surface of the virgin land, — 
 proceeding in some cases in a manner approaching to a 
 right line, over hiUs, down vaUeys, through forests and 
 the like ; in others following the natural features of 
 the country, but giving evidence that they had never 
 been systematically made, being rather the outcome 
 of a mere habit of travel, just as sheep-tracks are 
 
OLD EOADS. 3 
 
 produced on a mountain-side. Such roads in winter 
 weather, or in rainy seasons, became terrible to the 
 traveller : yet the only repairs that were vouchsafed 
 consisted in filling up some of the larger holes with 
 rude stones; and when this method of keeping up 
 repairs no longer avaUed, another track was formed 
 by bringing under foot a fresh strip of the adjoining 
 land (generally unenclosed), and thus creating a 
 wholly new road in place of the old one. Smiles 
 in his ' Lives of the Engineers ' thus describes certain 
 of the English roads : " In some of the older settled 
 districts of England, the old roads are still to be 
 traced in the hollow ways or lanes, which are met 
 with, in some places, eight and ten feet deep. Horse- 
 tracks in summer and rivulets in winter, the earth 
 became gradually worn into these deep furrows, 
 many of which, in Wilts, Somerset, and Devon, repre- 
 sent the tracks of roads as old as, if not older than, 
 the Conquest." And again : " Similar roads existed 
 until recently in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Birmingham, long the centre of considerable traffic. 
 The sandy soil was sawn through, as it were, by 
 generation after generation of human feet, and by 
 pack-horses, helped by the rains, until in some 
 places the tracks were as much as from twelve to 
 fourteen yards deep." In the year 1690, Chancellor 
 Cowper, who was then a barrister on circuit, thus 
 
4 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 wrote to his wife : " The Sussex ways are bad and 
 ruinous beyond imagination. I vow 'tis melancholy 
 consideration that mankind will inhabit such a heap 
 of dirt for a poor livelihood. The country is a sink 
 of about fourteen mQes broad, which receives all 
 the water that faUs from two long ranges of hills 
 on both sides of it, and not being furnished with 
 convenient draining, is kept moist and soft by the 
 water tUl the middle of a dry summer, which is only 
 able to make it tolerable to ride for a short time." 
 
 In Scotland, about the same time, the roads were 
 no better. The iirst four miles out of Edinburgh, 
 on the road towards London, were described in the 
 Privy Council Eecordof 1680 to have been in so 
 wretched a state that passengers were in danger of 
 their lives, " either by their coaches overturning, 
 their horse falling, their carts breaking, their loads 
 casting and horse stumbling, the poor people with 
 the burdens on their backs sorely grieved and 
 discouraged; moreover, strangers do often exclaim 
 thereat." Nor does there appear to have been any 
 considerable improvement in the state of the roads 
 in the northern kingdom for long afterwards, as we 
 find that in 1750, according to Lang's 'Historical 
 Summary of the Post-office in Scotland,' " the chan- 
 nel of the river Gala, which ran for some distance 
 parallel with the road, was, when not flooded, the 
 
OLD ROADS. 5 
 
 track chosen as the most level and the easiest to 
 travel in." The common carrier from Edinburgh to 
 Selkirk, a distance of thirty-eight miles, required a 
 fortnight for the journey, going and returning ; and 
 the stage-coach from Edinburgh to Glasgow took a 
 day and a half for the journey. A Yorkshire squire, 
 Thomas Kirke, who travelled in Scotland in 1679, 
 gave a better account of the roads ; but his opinion 
 may have been merely relative, for travelling show- 
 men to this day prefer the roads in the south of 
 Scotland to those in the north of England, on ac- 
 count of their greater hardness ; and this derives, no 
 doubt, from the more adamantine material used in 
 the repair of the Scotch roads. This traveller wrote : 
 " The highways in Scotland are tolerably good, 
 which is the greatest comfort a traveller meets with 
 amongst them. The Scotch gentry generally travel 
 from one friend's house to another ; so seldom require 
 a change-house (inn). Their way is to hire a horse 
 and a man for twopence a mile; they ride on the 
 horse thirty or forty miles a-day, and the man 
 who is his guide foots it beside him, and carries 
 his luggage to boot." Another visitor to Scotland in 
 l702, named Morer, thus describes the roads: "The 
 truth is, the roads will hardly allow these conve- 
 niences " (meaning stage-coaches, which did not as 
 yet exist in Scotland), " which is the reason that the 
 
6 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 gentry, men and women, choose rather to use their 
 horses. However, their great men often travel with 
 coach-and-six, but with so little caution, that, besides 
 their other attendance, they have a lusty running- 
 footman on each side of the coach, to manage and 
 keep it up in rough places."^ It might be supposed 
 that the roads leading from Windsor, where one of 
 the royal residences was, would have been kept in a 
 tolerable state, so as to secure the sovereign some 
 comfort in travelling. But their condition seems to 
 have been no better than that of roads elsewhere. 
 An account of a journey made in 1703 by Prince 
 George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, 
 from Windsor to Petworth, runs as follows : — 
 
 " The length of way was only forty miles, but 
 fourteen hours were consumed in traversing it; 
 while almost every mile was signalised by the over- 
 turn of a carriage, or its temporary swamping in 
 the mire. Even the royal chariot would have fared 
 
 ' In the north of Scotland a similar account was given of the 
 roads there ahout the year 1730. The writer of ' Letters from a 
 Gentleman in the North of Scotland' stated that "the Highlands 
 are hut little known even to the inhabitants of the low country of 
 Scotland, for they have ever dreaded the difficulties and dangers of 
 travelling among the mountains ; and when some extraordinary 
 occasion has ohliged any one of them to such a progress, he has, 
 generally speaking, made his testament before he set out, as though 
 he were entering upon a long and dangerous sea-voyage, wherein it 
 was very doubtful if he should ever return. " 
 
OLD EOADS. 7 
 
 no better than the rest had it not been for the relays 
 of peasants who poised and kept it erect by strength 
 of arm, and shouldered it forward the last nine miles, 
 in which tedious operation six good hours were con- 
 sumed." 
 
 Yet later still, and in close proximity to London, 
 a royal party had a most unsatisfactory journey, 
 owing to the miserable state of the roads. It hap- 
 pened that in 1727 George II. and Queen Caroline 
 were proceeding from the palace at Kew to that at 
 St James's, when they had to spend a whole night 
 upon the way ; and between Hammersmith and Ful- 
 ham they were overturned, the royal occupants of 
 the coach being landed in a quagmire. A year or 
 two after this, Lord Hervey wrote that " the road 
 between this place [Kensington] and London is grown 
 so infamously bad, that we live here in the same 
 solitude as we would do if cast on a rock in the 
 middle of the ocean ; and all the Londoners tell us 
 that there is between them and us an impassable 
 gulf of mud." 
 
 No part of the country could boast of a satisfac- 
 tory condition of the roads, these being everywhere 
 in the same neglected and wretched state, and tra- 
 vellers who had the misfortune to use them have 
 recorded their ideas on the subject in no gentle 
 terms. Arthur Young, who travelled much in the 
 
8 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 middle of last century, thus alludes to a road in 
 Essex : " Of all the cursed roads that ever disgraced 
 this kingdom in the very ages of barbarism, none 
 ever equalled that from Billericay to the King's 
 Head at Tilbury. It is for near twelve miles so 
 narrow that a mouse cannot pass by any carriage. 
 I saw a fellow creep under his waggon to assist me 
 to Uft, if possible, my chaise over a hedge. To add 
 to all the infamous circumstances which concur to 
 plague a traveller, I must not forget the eternally 
 meeting with chalk-waggons, themselves frequently 
 stuck fast, till a collection of them are in the same 
 situation, and twenty or thirty horses may be tacked 
 to each to draw them out one by one." In a some- 
 what similar way he describes the road from Bury 
 to Sudbury in Suffolk. Here, he says, " I was 
 forced to move as slow in it as in any unmended 
 lane in Wales. For ponds of liquid dirt, and a 
 scattering of loose flints just sufficient to lame every 
 horse that moves near them, with the addition of 
 cutting vile grips across the road under the pretence 
 of letting the water off, but without effect, altogether 
 render at least twelve out of these sixteen miles as 
 infamous a turnpike as ever was beheld." In one 
 of his journeys. Young proceeded to the north by the 
 great north road, thence making branch trips to the 
 various agricultural districts. Of many of these 
 
OLD EOADS. 9 
 
 roads he gives a sorry account. Thus : " To Wake- 
 , field, indifferent ; through the town of Wakefield so 
 bad that it ought to be indicted. To Castle Howard, 
 infamous ; I was near being swallowed up in a 
 slough. From Newton to Stokesley in Cleveland, 
 execrably bad. You are obliged to cross the moors 
 they call Black Hambledon, over which the road 
 runs in narrow hollows that admit a south-country 
 chaise with such difficulty, that I reckon this part 
 of the journey made at the hazard of my neck. 
 The going down into Cleveland is beyond all descrip- 
 tion terrible ; for you go through such steep, rough, 
 narrow, rocky precipices, that I would sincerely ad- 
 vise any friend to go a hundred miles to escape it. 
 The name of this path is very judicious, Scarthneck 
 — that is, Scare-Hick, or frighten the devil. 
 
 " From Eichmond to Darlington, part of the great 
 north road ; execrably broke into holes lilce an old 
 pavement, sufficient to dislocate one's bones." 
 
 " To Morpeth ; a pavement a mile or two out of 
 Newcastle; all the rest vile. 
 
 " To Carlisle ; cut up by innumerable little paltry 
 one-horse carts." 
 
 One more instance from the pen of Young and we 
 leave him. In the course of one of his journeys, he 
 makes his way into Wales, where he finds his b^te 
 noire in the roads, and freely expresses himself there- 
 
10 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 upon in his usual forcible style : " But, my dear 
 sir, what am I to say of the roads in this country ? 
 the turnpikes, as they have the assurance to call 
 them, and the hardiness to make one pay for ? From 
 Chepstow to the half-way house between Newport 
 and Cardiff they continue mere rocky lanes, full of 
 hugeous stones as big as one's horse, and abominable 
 holes. The first six miles from Newport they were 
 so detestable, and 'without either direction-posts or 
 milestones, that I could not well persuade myself 
 I was on the turnpike, but had mistook the road, 
 and therefore asked every one I met, who answered 
 me to my astonishment, 'Ya-as.' Whatever business 
 carries you into this country, avoid it, at least till 
 they have good roads ; if they were good, travelling 
 would be very pleasant." 
 
 The necessity for a better class of road cannot 
 but have forced itself upon the Government of the 
 country from time to time, if not for the benefit of 
 travellers and to encourage trade, at any rate to 
 secure a rapid movement of troops in times of dis- 
 turbance or rebellion; yet we find the state of streets 
 ■ in the metropolis, and roads in the country, as in 
 1750, thus described in Blackie's 'Comprehensive 
 History of England ' : " When the only public 
 approaches to Parliament were King Street and 
 Union Street, these were so wretchedly paved, that 
 
OLD EOADS. 11 
 
 when the King went in state to the House, the ruts 
 had to be filled up with bundles of fagots to allow 
 the royal coach a safe transit. While the art of 
 street-paving was thus so imperfect, that of road- 
 making was equally defective, so that the country 
 visitor to the metropolis, and its dangers of coach- 
 driving, had generally a sufficient preparative for 
 the worst during his journey to town. This may 
 easily be understood from the fact that, so late as 
 1754, few turnpikes were to be seen, after leaving 
 the vicinity of London, for 200 miles together, 
 although it had been made felony to pull them 
 down. These roads, indeed, were merely the pro- 
 duce of compulsory pauper labour, contributed by 
 the different parishes ; and, like all such work, it 
 was performed in a very perfunctory manner." 
 
 The same authority gives a further picture of the 
 state of the highways some twenty years later, when 
 apparently little improvement had taken place in 
 their condition : " Notwithstanding the numerous 
 Acts of Parliament, of which no less than 452 were 
 emitted between the years 1760 and 1764, for the 
 improvement of the principal highways, they still 
 continued narrow, darkened with trees, and inter- 
 sected with ruts and miry swamps, through which 
 the progress of a waggon was a work of difficulty 
 and danger. One of these — the turnpike road from 
 
12 THE KOTAL MAIL. 
 
 Preston to Wigan — is thus described by an angry 
 tourist in 1770, and the picture seems to have been 
 too generally realised over the whole kingdom : " To 
 look over a map, and perceive that it is a principal 
 one, not only to some towns, but even whole counties, 
 one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent; 
 but let me most seriously caution all travellers who 
 may accidentally purpose to travel this terrible 
 country, to avoid it as they would the devil ; for 
 a thousand to one but they break their necks or 
 their limbs by overthrows or breakings down. They 
 will here meet with ruts, which I actually measured, 
 four feet deep, and floating with mud only from a 
 wet summer; what, therefore, must they be after 
 a winter ? The only mending it receives is the 
 tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other 
 purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable 
 manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts ; 
 for I actually passed three carts broken down in 
 these eighteen miles, of execrable memory." 
 
 Obvious as it must be to every mind capable of 
 apprehending ordinary matters in the present day, 
 that the opening up of the country by the laying 
 down of good roads wOuld encourage trade, promote 
 social intercourse, knit together the whole kingdom, 
 and render its government the more easy and effec- 
 tive; yet it is a fact that the improvement of the 
 
OLD ROADS. 13 
 
 roads in various parts of the country, both in Eng- 
 land and Scotland, was stoutly opposed by the 
 people, even in certain places entailing riot and 
 bloodshed. So strong were the prejudices against 
 the improved roads, that the country people would 
 not use them after being made. This bias may 
 perhaps have partaken largely of that unreasoning 
 conservatism which is always prone to pronounce 
 that that which is is best, and opposes change on 
 principle — an example of which is afforded by the 
 conduct of the driver of the Marlborough coach, 
 who, when the new Bath road was opened, obsti- 
 nately refused to travel by it, and stuck to the old 
 waggon-track. "He was an old man," he said; 
 " his grandfather and father had driven the aforesaid 
 way before him, and he would continue in the 
 old track till death." Other grounds of objection 
 were not wanting, having some show of reason ; but 
 these, like the others, were useless in stemming the 
 tide of improvement which eventually set in, and 
 brought the roads of the nation into their present 
 admirable state. 
 
14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 POSTBOYS. 
 
 " Hark ! 'tis the twanging horn ! . . . 
 He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 
 With spatter'd hoots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks. 
 News from all nations lumhering at his back. 
 True to his charge the close-pack'd load hehind ; 
 Yet careless what he brings, his one concern 
 Is to conduct it to the destined inn, 
 And, having dropp'd the expected bag, pass on. 
 He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, 
 Cold and yet cheerful : messenger of grief 
 Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some, 
 To hira indifferent whether grief or joy." 
 
 — COWPBR. 
 
 AS described in the preceding chapter, these were 
 the roads over which postboys had to travel 
 with their precious charges during a long series of 
 years, and to their wild and disreputable state must 
 to a great extent be attributed the slow rate at 
 which the post was then wont to travel. When it 
 is considered that these men or boys were exposed 
 to all accidents of weather, stoppages by swollen 
 
POSTBOYS. 15 
 
 rivers, delays through the roads being cut up, to 
 their straying from the beaten track during fogs, 
 and to all other chances of the road, including 
 attacks by footpads or highwaymen, their occupation 
 cannot have been a light or agreeable one. It is by 
 no means easy to construct a detailed outline of the 
 duties which postboys had to perform, or to describe 
 under what rules they proceeded from stage to stage ; 
 but we have ample evidence of the rate at which 
 they covered the ground, and how their speed varied 
 at different periods, owing, it must have been in 
 some cases, to the lack of supervision. 
 
 The following evidence of the speed of a post 
 messenger in the latter half of the sixteenth century 
 is furnished by a letter in the correspondence of 
 Archbishop Parker, the times at which the letter 
 reached the various stages on its journey being 
 endorsed upon it. The letter is as follows, 
 viz. : — 
 
 "Archbishop Parker to Sir W. Cecil. 
 
 " Sir, — According to the Queen's Majesty's pleas- 
 ure, and your advertisement, you shall receive a 
 form of prayer, which, after you have perused and 
 judged of it, shall be put in print and published 
 immediately," &c. &c. 
 
16 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 "From my house at Croydon this 22d July 1566, 
 at 4 of the clock afternoon. — Your honour's alway, 
 
 "Matth. Cant. 
 
 " To the Et. Houble. Sir W. Cecil." 
 
 Endorsed by successive postmasters : — 
 
 "Eeceived at Waltham Cross, the 23d of July, 
 about 9 at night." 
 
 "Eeceived at Ware, the 23d July, at 12 o'clock 
 at night." 
 
 "Eeceived at Croxton, the 24th of July, between 
 7 and 8 of the clock in the morning.'' 
 
 " So that his Grace's letter, leaving Croydon at 
 4 in the afternoon of July 2 2d, reached Waltham 
 Cross, a distance of nearly 26 miles, by 9 at night 
 of the 23 d, whence, in 3 hours, it seems to 
 have advanced 8 miles to Ware; and within 8 
 hours more to have reached Croxton, a further 
 distance of 29 miles, having taken nearly 40 hours 
 to travel about 63 mUes." 
 
 In 1635 a public post between London and Edin- 
 burgh was established, the journey being limited to 
 three days. This mail set out as a rule but twice 
 a - week, and sometimes only once a - week. An 
 express messenger conveying news of the death of 
 Charles II., who died on the 6th February 1685, 
 
POSTBOYS. 17 
 
 morning of the 1 0th February ; and it may also be 
 mentioned here — though the matter hardly reflects 
 upon the speed of postboys, who travel by land 
 and not by water — ^that in 1688 it required three 
 months to convey the tidings of the abdication of 
 James II. of England and VII. of Scotland to the 
 Orkney Islands. 
 
 Down to this period the mails from London to 
 Scotland were carried on horseback with something 
 like tolerable speed, taking previous performances 
 into account, for in 1689 it is noted that parlia- 
 mentary proceedings of Saturday were in the hands 
 of the Edinburgh public on the ensuing Thursday. 
 This rate of travelling does not appear to have been 
 kept up, for in 1715 the post from London to Edin- 
 burgh took six days to perform the journey. When 
 it is considered that nearly a century before, the 
 same distance could be covered in three days, this 
 relapse seems to bespeak a sad want of vitality in 
 the Post-ofiGlce management of the age. The cause 
 of the slow travelling, which appears to have con- 
 tinued for over forty years, comes out in a memorial 
 of traders to the Convention of Burghs in 1758, 
 wherein dissatisfaction was expressed with the exist- 
 ing arrangements of the post, — the mail for London 
 on reaching Newcastle being there delayed about a 
 day, again detained some time at York, and probably 
 
18 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 further delayed in the south ; so that the double 
 journey to and from London occupied eleven days 
 instead of seven or eight, as the memorial deemed 
 sufficient. To the Post-office mind of the present 
 age, this dilatory method of performing the service 
 of forwarding mails is incomprehensible, and the 
 circumstance reflects discreditably both on the Post- 
 office officials who were cognisant of it, and on the 
 public who submitted to it. It is fair to mention, 
 however, that at this period the mail from, London to 
 Edinburgh covered the ground in eighty-seven hours, 
 or in fully three and a half days; and that as a result 
 of the memorial, the time was reduced to eighty-two 
 hours, and the journey from Edinburgh to London 
 reduced to eighty-five hours. In 1763, the London 
 to Edinburgh mail commenced to be despatched five 
 times a-week, instead of only three times ; and at 
 this time, during the winter season, the mail leaving 
 London on Tuesday night was generally not in the 
 hands of the people of Edinburgh until the afternoon 
 of Sunday. We are informed, in Lang's ' Historical 
 Summary of the Post-office in Scotland,' that in 
 1715 there was not a single horse -post in that 
 country. There must, however, have been some 
 earlier attempts to establish horse - posts in the 
 northern kingdom, for Chambers in his 'Domestic 
 Annals of Scotland,' under the year 1660, refers 
 
POSTBOYS. 19 
 
 to the fact of a warrant being granted against 
 interlopers who were carrying letters by foot on 
 the same line on which Mr Mean had set up a 
 horse-post. A traveller in 1688 relates, also, that 
 besides the horse-post from Edinburgh to Berwick, 
 there was a similar post from Edinburgh to Port- 
 patrick in connection with the Irish packet service. 
 Again, Chambers tells us that in 1667 the good 
 people of Aberdeen having had "long experience 
 of the prejudice sustained, not only by the said 
 burgh of Aberdeen, but by the nobility, gentry, and 
 others in the north country, by the miscarrying of 
 missive letters, and by the not timeous delivery and 
 receiving returns of the samen," bestirred themselves 
 to establish a better state of things. It was con- 
 sidered proper that "every man might have their 
 letters delivered and answers returned at certain 
 diets and times ; " and it was accordingly arranged, 
 under Post-office sanction, that Lieutenant John Wales 
 should provide a regular horse-service to carry letters 
 to Edinburgh every Wednesday and Friday, returning 
 every Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon. 
 
 In 1715 the first horse-post between Edinburgh 
 and Stirling was established, and in March 1717 a 
 similar post between Edinburgh and Glasgow was 
 set up. This latter post went three times a-week, 
 travelled during the night, and performed the dis- 
 
20 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 tance between the two places in ten hours — being 
 at the rate of about four miles an hour. Were we 
 to give further instances of the slowness of the horse- 
 posts, we should probably prove tedious, and there- 
 fore the proofs adduced on this point must suffice. 
 Though the state of the roads may be held to account 
 for some of the delay, the roads must not be charged 
 with everything. In 1799 a surveyor in the north 
 of Scotland wrote as follows : " It is impossible to 
 obtain any other contractors to ride the maUs at 3d. 
 out, or l|d. per mile each way. On this account 
 we have been so much distressed with mail-riders, 
 that we have sometimes to submit to the mails being 
 conveyed by mules and such species of horses as were 
 a disgrace to any public service." The same sur- 
 veyor reported in 1805, that it would give rise to 
 great inconvenience if no boys under sixteen years 
 were allowed to be employed in riding the posts — 
 many of them ranging down from that age to four- 
 teen. So, what from the condition of the highways, 
 the sorry quality of the horses, and the youthfulness 
 of the riders, it is not surprising that the writers of 
 letters should inscribe on their missives : "Be this 
 letter delivered with haste — haste — haste ! Post 
 haste ! Eide, villain, ride, — for thy life — for thy life 
 — for thy life ! " unnecessary though that injunction 
 be in the present day. 
 
POSTBOYS. 21 
 
 The postboys were a source of great trouble and 
 vexation to the authorities of the Post-office through 
 the whole course of their connection with the depart- 
 ment. A surveyor who held office about the com- 
 mencement of the eighteenth century, found, on the 
 occasion of a visit to Salisbury, something wrong 
 there, which he reported to headquarters in these 
 terms : — 
 
 " At this place [Salisbury] found the postboys to 
 have carried on vile practices in taking bye-letters, 
 delivering them in that city, and taking back the 
 answers — and especially the Andover riders. On 
 a certain day he found on Eichard Kent, one of the 
 Andover riders, five bye-letters — all for Salisbury. 
 Upon examination of the fellow, he confessed that 
 he had made it a practice, and persisted to continue 
 in it, saying that he had no wages from his master. 
 The surveyor took the fellow before the magistrate, 
 proved the facts, and as the fellow could not get bail, 
 was committed ; but pleading to have no friends nor 
 money, desired a punishment to be whipped, and 
 accordingly he was to the purpose. The surveyor 
 wrote the case to Andover, and ordered that the 
 fellow should be discharged ; but no regard was had 
 thereto. But the next day the same rider came 
 post, run about the cittye for letters, and was in- 
 solent. The second time the said Eichard Kent 
 
22 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 came post with two gentlemen, made it his business 
 to take up letters ; the fellow, instead of returning to 
 Andover, gets two idle fellows and rides away with 
 three horses, which was a return for his masters not 
 obeying instructions, as he ought not have been 
 suffered to ride after the said facts was proved 
 against him." 
 
 The same surveyor complained bitterly, with re- 
 spect to the postboys, "that the gentry doe give 
 much money to the riders, whereby they be very 
 subject to get in liquor, which stops the males." 
 Indeed the temptation of the ale-house was no 
 doubt another factor in the slow journeying of the 
 postboys, as it was the source of much trouble in 
 the days of mail-coaches. 
 
 Mr Palmer, through whose initiative and perse- 
 verance mail-coaches were subsequently established 
 throughout the country, thus described the post as 
 it existed in 1783 : — 
 
 " The post, at present, instead of being the 
 swiftest, is almost the slowest, conveyance in the 
 country; and though, from the great improvement 
 in our roads, other carriers have proportionably 
 mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever. 
 It is likewise very unsafe, as the frequent robberies 
 of it testify; and to avoid a loss of this nature, 
 people generally cut bank bills, or bills at sight, in 
 
POSTBOYS. 23 
 
 two, and send the bills by different posts. The 
 mails are generally intrusted to some idle boy, 
 without character, mounted on a worn-out hack, 
 and who, so far from being able to defend himself 
 or escape from a robber, is much more likely to be 
 in league with him." 
 
 Including stoppages, this mode of travelling was, 
 up to 1783, at the rate of about three to four miles 
 an hour. 
 
 We are again indebted to Mr Chambers for the 
 following statement of careless blunders made by 
 postboys in connection with the Edinburgh mails : 
 "As indicating the simplicity of the institution in 
 those days, may be noticed a mistake of February 
 1720, when, instead of the mail which should have 
 come in yesterday (Sunday), we had our ovjn mail of 
 Thursday last returned — the presumption being, that 
 the mail for Edinburgh had been in like manner 
 sent back from some unknown point in the road to 
 London. And this mistake happened once more in 
 December 1728, the bag despatched on a Saturday 
 night being returned the second Sunday morning after; 
 'tis reckoned this mistake happened about half-way 
 on the road." We hardly agree, however, that these 
 mistakes were owing to the simplicity of the institu- 
 tion, but rather to the routine nature of the work ; 
 for it is the fact that blunders equally flagrant have 
 
24 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 occurred in the Post - office in recent times, even 
 under elaborate checks, which, if rightly applied, 
 would have rendered the mistakes impossible. 
 
 Many of the troubles which the Post-office had 
 with its postboys may possibly be ascribed to the 
 low rate of wages paid by the contractors for their 
 services. This matter is referred to by the Solicitor 
 to the Scotch Post-office, who was engaged upon an 
 inquiry into the robbery of the mail on the stage 
 between Dingwall and Tain in the year 1805. The 
 distance between these places is about twenty-five 
 miles, and five hours were occupied in making the 
 journey. One of the postboys concerned stated in 
 his declaration that his whole wages were 5 s. a- 
 week ; and with reference to this, the solicitor in 
 his report observes as follows : " Of course it may 
 fairly be presumed that no respectable man will be 
 got to perform this duty. Dismission to such a man 
 for committing a fault is no punishment ; and the 
 safety of the conveyance of the mail, which the 
 public have a right to require, seems to render some 
 regulation in this respect necessary." 
 
 The following account of the violation of the 
 mails by a postboy may perhaps be aptly introduced 
 here : — 
 
 In the autumn of 1808, a good deal of anxiety 
 was caused to the authorities of the Post-office in 
 
POSTBOYS. 25 
 
 Scotland, in consequence of reports being made to 
 them that many bankers' letters had been tampered 
 •with in course of their transmission by post through 
 certain of the northern counties. To discover who 
 was concerned in the irregularities was rendered the 
 more difficult, owing to the fact that the mail-bags in 
 which the letters had been despatched were reported 
 to have reached their destinations duly sealed. But 
 a thing of this kind could not go on without discovery, 
 and investigation being made, the storm burst over 
 the head of a poor little postboy named William 
 Shearer, a lad of fifteen years of age, who was em- 
 ployed riding the north mail over the stage from 
 Turriff to Banff. From the account we have of the 
 matter, it would seem that in this case, as ia many 
 others, it was opportunity that made the thief ; for 
 the mail-bags had on some occasions been insecurely 
 sealed, the despatching postmasters having failed to 
 place the wax over the knots of the string — and the 
 postboy was thus able to get to the inside of the 
 bags without cutting the string or breaking the seals, 
 by simply undoing the knots. Here the temptation 
 presented itself ; and although some twenty-six letters 
 were found inside his hat when he was searched, it 
 is not unlikely that he commenced by merely peeping 
 into the letters by pulling out their ends, for several 
 bank letters containing notes for considerable sums 
 
26 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 had been so violated, while the contents were found 
 safe. To cover one delinquency the boy had re- 
 course to others. In order to account for his delay 
 on the road, he opened the bag containing his way- 
 bill, borrowed a knife from a shoemaker who kept 
 one of the toll-houses, and altered his hour of de- 
 spatch from his starting-point. The unfortunate 
 youth also gave way to drink, stopping at the toll- 
 houses, and calling sometimes for rum, sometimes 
 for whisky, the keepers sharing in the refreshments, 
 which were purchased with stolen money. On one 
 occasion the boy opened a parcel intrusted to him, 
 and from a letter inside abstracted a twenty-shilling 
 note. Whether to render himself all the more re- 
 doubtable on the road, over a section of which he 
 travelled in the dark, or for some other purpose, is not 
 clear, but with six shillings of the aforesaid sum he 
 bought a sword, and with two shillings a pistol, the 
 balance going in drink. The occupation of riding 
 the mail was not for one so young : yet it was found 
 that full-grown men often gave more trouble than 
 boys ; and it may be here remarked that the adven- 
 ture of Davie Mailsetter in the 'Antiquary' is no 
 great exaggeration of the service of postboys at the 
 period to which it refers. The poor boy Shearer 
 was put upon his trial before the Circuit Court of 
 Justiciary at Aberdeen ; and when called upon to 
 
POSTBOYS. 27 
 
 plead, confessed his guilt. There was every disposi- 
 tion on the part of the public prosecutor, and of the 
 presiding judge, to let the case go as lightly as pos- 
 sible against the prisoner — douhtless on account of 
 his youth ; but the law had to be vindicated, and 
 the sentence passed was that of transportation for a 
 period of seven years. Since then humanity has 
 made progress, and no such punishment would be 
 inflicted in such a case nowadays. 
 
 Exposed to all the inclemency of the seasons, both 
 by night and day; having to weather snowstorms 
 and suffer the drenchings of heavy rain ; to grope a 
 way through the dense fogs of our climate, and en- 
 dure the biting frosts of midwinter ; or yet to face 
 the masked highwayman on the open heath, or the 
 footpad in the deep and narrow road, — these were 
 the unpleasantnesses and the dangers which beset 
 the couriers of the Post-office in past years, ere the 
 department had grown to its present robust manhood. 
 As to the exposure in wintry weather, it is stated 
 that postboys on reaching the end of their stages 
 were sometimes so benumbed with the cold that they 
 had to be lifted out of their saddles. Of the attacks 
 made upon them by highwaymen some instances are 
 given in another chapter. This we will conclude by 
 recording the fate that befell a postboy who was 
 charged with the conveyance of the mail for London 
 
28 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 which left Edinburgh on Saturday, the 20th Novem- 
 ber 1725. This mail, after reaching Berwick in 
 safety and proceeding thence, was never again heard 
 of. A notice issued by the Post-office at the time 
 ran as follows : " A most diligent search has been 
 made ; but neither the boy, the horse, nor the packet 
 has yet been heard of. The boy, after passing Gos- 
 wick, having a part of the sands to ride which divide 
 the Holy Island from the mainland, it is supposed 
 he has missed his way, and rode towards the sea, 
 where he and his horse have both perished." The 
 explanation here suggested is not at all improbable, 
 in view of the fact that November is a month given 
 to fogs, when a rider might readily go astray crossing 
 treacherous sands. 
 
29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 
 
 PEIOR to the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 about which period stage-coaches came into 
 use in England, the only vehicles available to ordinary 
 travellers would seem to have been the carrier's stage- 
 waggon, which, owing to its lumbering build and the 
 deplorable state of the roads, made only from ten to 
 fifteen miles in a long summer's day. The interior 
 of such waggons exhibited none of the refinements of 
 modern means of travel, the only furnishing of the 
 machine being a quantity of straw littered on the 
 floor, on which the passengers could sit or lie during 
 the weary hours of their journey. Though the stage- 
 coaches came into vogue about the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century, as akeady stated, the heavy waggons 
 seem also to have held a place tUl much later — for in 
 one of these Eoderick Eandom performed part of his 
 journey to London in 1739 ; and it was doubtless 
 only the meaner class of people who travelled in that 
 
30 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 way, as the description given by Smollett of his com- 
 panions does not mirror, certainly, people of fashion. 
 M. Sobri^re, a Frenchman, on his way from Dover to 
 London in the reign of Charles II., thus writes of liis 
 experience of the waggon : " That I might not take 
 post, or be obliged to use the stage-coach, I went 
 from Dover to London in a waggon. It was drawn 
 by six horses, one before another, and driven by a 
 waggoner, who walked by the side of it He was 
 clothed in black, and appointed in all things like 
 another St George. He had a brave Montero on his 
 head, and was a merry fellow, fancied he made a 
 figure, and seemed mightUy pleased with himself." 
 Unlike travelling in the present day, when one may 
 go 100 miles in a railway carriage without speaking 
 to a feUow-passenger, the journey in the old-fashioned 
 waggon brought aU the travellers too close and too 
 long together to admit of individual isolation, for the 
 passengers might be associated for days together, as 
 companions, had to have their refreshment together, 
 lived as it were in common, and it was even the 
 custom to elect a chairman at the outset to preside 
 over the company during the journey. But the stage- 
 coach gradually became the established public con- 
 veyance of the country, improving in its construction 
 and its rate of progression as the improved state of 
 the roads admitted of and encouraged such improve- 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 31 
 
 ment. Still, compared with the stage-coaches of the 
 best period, travelling by the earlier stage-coaches 
 was a sorry achievement. Here is an advertisement 
 of stage-coaches of the year 1658 : — 
 
 "From the 26th April there will continue to go 
 stage-coaches from the George Inn, without Alders- 
 gate, London, unto the several cities and towns, for the 
 rates and at the times hereafter mentioned and 
 declared : — 
 
 " Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — To 
 Salisbury, in two days, for xx. s. ; to Blandford and 
 Dorchester, in two days and half, for xxx. s. ; to 
 Burput, in three days, for xxx. s. ; to Exmister, Hun- 
 nington, and Exeter, in four days, for xl. s. ; to Stam- 
 ford, in two days, for xx. s. ; . . . to York, in four 
 days, for xl. s." 
 
 Indeed the charges might have been reckoned by 
 time, the travelling being at the rate of about 10 s. a- 
 day. Another advertisement in 1739 thus sets forth 
 the merits of some of the stage-coaches of the period : 
 
 " Exeter Flying Stage-coach in three days, and 
 Dorchester and Blandford in two days. Go from 
 the Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, 
 every Monday, "Wednesday, and Friday ; and from 
 the New Inn, in Exeter, every Tuesday* and Thurs- 
 day." Then the advertisement makes known the 
 fact, with regard to another coach, that the stage 
 
32 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 begins " Flying on Monday next." They were not 
 satisfied in those days with a coach " going," " run- 
 ning," or " proceeding," but they set them " flying " 
 at the rates of speed which may be gathered from 
 these notices. Nearly thirty years later another 
 advertisement set forth that the Taunton Flying 
 Machine, hung on steel springs, sets out from the 
 Saracen's Head Inn, in Friday Street, London, and 
 Taunton, every Monday, "Wednesday, and Friday, at 
 three o'clock in the morning, the journey taking two 
 days. There were places inside for six passengers, 
 and the fares were as follows, viz. : — 
 
 To Taunton, . 
 
 £1 16 
 
 
 
 „ Ilmmster, 
 
 1 14 
 
 
 
 „ Yeovil, . 
 
 1 8 
 
 
 
 „ Sherborne, 
 
 1 6 
 
 
 
 „ Shaftesbury, 
 
 1 4 
 
 
 
 Outside passengers, and children in the lap, were 
 half these fares. 
 
 To follow out in a historical fashion the develop- 
 ment of the coaching period down to the introduc- 
 tion of railways, would be beyond the purpose of 
 this work, nor will the limits of these pages ad- 
 mit of so great an extension of the subject. The 
 earlier modes of travelling, and the difficulties of the 
 roads, are treated of in several histories of England 
 in a general way, and more fully in such books as 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 33 
 
 the ' Lives of the Engineers,' by Smiles ; ' Old 
 Coaching Days,' by Stanley Harris ; and ' Annals 
 of the Eoad,' by Captain Malet,' — all of which con- 
 tain much that is entertaining and interesting. Here 
 it is proposed merely to recall some of the incidents 
 of the coaching days, so far as they relate to the 
 mail-service, between the time when Palmer's mail- 
 coaches were put on the road in 1784, down to the 
 time when they were shouldered off the road by the 
 more powerful iron horse. 
 
 The dangers to which the mail-coaches were ex- 
 posed were chiefly of three kinds, — the danger of 
 being robbed by footpads or highwaymen ; that of 
 being upset in the road by running foul of some 
 cart, dray, or waggon, or other object in the road ; 
 and the peril of being overtaken in snowstorms, and 
 so rendered helpless and cut off from the usual 
 communications. 
 
 It was an almost everyday occurrence for the 
 mail-bags to be robbed on the night journeys, when 
 the principal mails were carried. We know of these 
 things now through notices which were issued by the 
 Post-office at the time, of which copies are still in 
 existence. Here are the terms of a notice issued to 
 the mail-guards in March 1802 : — 
 
 " Three Irishmen are in custody for highway 
 robbery. One of them has confessed, and declares 
 
 c 
 
34 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 that their purpose in going out was to rob the mail- 
 coach. Their first step was to watch an opportunity 
 and fire at the guard, which it is supposed might 
 have been easily obtained, as they are so frequently 
 off their guard. They had pistols found on them. 
 It is therefore necessary, in addition to your former 
 instructions, to direct that you are particularly vigi- 
 lant and watchful, that you keep a quick eye to every 
 person stirring, and that you see your arms are in the 
 best possible condition, and ready for instant duty." 
 
 On the 21st December 1805, a bag of letters for 
 Stockport was stolen out of the maU-box while the 
 coach was in Macclesfield. It was a Sunday night 
 about ten o'clock when the robbery took place, and the 
 bag was found empty under a haystack near the town. 
 The following notice of another robbery was issued by 
 the Postmaster-General on the 1st March 1810 : — 
 " Whereas the bags of letters from this office 
 (London), of last night, for the following towns — 
 viz., 
 
 Hatfield, St Neots, Spalding, 
 
 Welwyn, Oundle, Lowth, 
 
 Stevenage, Stilton, Homcastle, 
 
 Baldock, Wansford, and 
 
 Biggleswade, Grantham, Boston, 
 
 Kimbolton, Spilsby, 
 
 —were stolen from the mail-box, about ten o'clock 
 on the same night, supposed at Barnet, by forcibly 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 35 
 
 wrenching off the lock whilst the horses were 
 changing ; whoever shall apprehend and convict, 
 or cause to be apprehended and convicted, the 
 person or persons who stole the said bags, shall be 
 entitled to a reward of One Hundred Pounds," &c. 
 On Monday the 1 9th November of the same year, 
 the bags of letters from 
 
 Melton Mowbray, Thrapston, 
 
 Oakham, Higham Ferrers, 
 
 Uppingham, and 
 
 Kettering, Wellingborough, 
 
 were stolen at Bedford at about nine o'clock in the 
 evening. 
 
 Again, in January 1813, a further warning 
 to the guards was issued, showing the necessity 
 for vigUance on the part of these officers, by de- 
 scribing some of the recent robberies which were 
 the occasion for the warning: — 
 
 " The guards are desired by Mr Hasker to be 
 particularly attentive to their mail-box. Depreda- 
 tions are committed every night on some stage- 
 coaches by stealing parcels. I shall relate a few, 
 which I trust will make you circumspect. The 
 Bristol mail-coach has been robbed within a week 
 of the bankers' parcel, value XIOOO or upwards. 
 The Bristol mail-coach was robbed of money the 3d 
 instant to a large amount. The ' Expedition ' coach 
 
36 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 has been twice robbed in the last week — the last 
 time of all the parcels out of the seats. The 
 ' Telegraph ' was robbed last Monday night between 
 Saracen's Head, Aldgate, and Whitechapel Church, 
 of all the parcels out of the dicky. It was broken 
 open while the guard was on it, standing up blowing 
 his horn. The York mail was robbed of parcels out 
 of the seats to a large amount." 
 
 The following account of a stage-coach robbery 
 committed on that, at one time, notoriouslj'' dangerous 
 ground called Hounslow Heath, is taken from the 
 ' Annals of the Road,' already referred to in this 
 work : — 
 
 " In the reign of King George III., a stage-coach, 
 driven by one Williams, and going over Hounslow 
 Heath on the road between Eeading and London, 
 was stopped by a highwayman, who, riding up, de- 
 manded money of the passengers. A lady gave up 
 her watch, a gent his purse, and away goes the high- 
 wayman, followed, however, by Williams (the bold) 
 on one of the leaders, who ' nailed ' and brought him 
 back to the coach, on which he was placed and taken 
 to Staines. This occurred on a Tuesday ; the hear- 
 ing before the magistrates took place on Wednesday ; 
 on Thursday he was in Newgate ; on Friday he was 
 tried, and sentenced to be hung on Monday. Williams 
 then got up a memorial, petitioning for a reprieve ; 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 37 
 
 and on this being presented to his Majesty, the sen- 
 tence was commuted to transportation for life. The 
 King was so pleased with Williams's daring, that he 
 presented him with a key of Windsor Park gates, to 
 be used by him and his descendants so long as they 
 drove a coach from Reading to London. This royal 
 authority allowed them to pass through the park 
 instead of going by the turnpike road." 
 
 Another very interesting account of a mail-coach 
 robbery is given by Mr S. C. Hall in his ' Retrospect 
 of a Long Life,' the object of the outrage being, not 
 apparently plunder for plunder's sake in the ordi- 
 nary sense, but to recover some legal documents and 
 money paid as rent by a man in the neighbourhood 
 who stood high in local favour, but was understood 
 to have been hardly treated by his landlord. The 
 case occurred in Ireland, and is characteristic of the 
 way in which the Irish people give vent to their feel- 
 ings when they are stirred by affection or sentiment. 
 
 " I was travelling in Ireland (it must have been 
 about the year 1818), between Cork and Skibbereen, 
 when I witnessed a stoppage of the mail to rob it. 
 The road was efi'ectually barricaded by a huge tree, 
 passage was impossible, and a dozen men with 
 blackened faces speedily surrounded the coach. To 
 attempt resistance would have been madness : the 
 guard wisely abstained from any, but surrendered his 
 
38 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 arms ; the priming was removed, and they were re- 
 turned to him. The object of the gang was limited 
 to acquiring the mail-bags ; they were known to 
 contain some writs against a gentleman very popular 
 in the district. These being extracted, the coach 
 pursued its way without further interruption. The 
 whole affair did not occupy five minutes. It was 
 subsequently ascertained, however, that there had 
 been a further purpose. The gentleman had that 
 day paid his rent — all in bank-notes ; when the 
 agent desired to mark them, there was neither pen 
 nor ink in the house ; the mail-bag contained these 
 notes. Where they eventually found their way was 
 never proved, but it was certain they did not reach 
 the landlord, whose receipt was in the hands of his 
 tenant, duly signed." 
 
 Interceptions of the mail for the purpose of pre- 
 venting the serving of writs by means of the post 
 are not unknown in Ireland at the present time. In 
 August 1883 a post-runner near Mallow was stopped 
 by two men, dressed in women's clothes and with 
 blackened faces, who seized his mail-bag, and made 
 search for registered letters which might have con- 
 tained ejectment notices. None were found, however, 
 and the men returned the other letters to the runner. 
 A similar outrage was committed in the same neigh- 
 bourhood in 1881. 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 39 
 
 The following exciting and unpleasant adventure 
 happened to the passengers by the Enniskillen mail- 
 coach on its way to Dublin on the morning of the 
 4th January 1813. The coach had safely made its 
 journey to a point within two miles of a place called 
 Dunshaughlin, the time being about 3 a.m:., when the 
 mail-guard, watchful as his duty required, espied a 
 number of men suspiciously lying on each side of the 
 road in advance of him. The night must have been 
 clear, and probably there was bright moonlight ; as 
 otherwise, at that early hour in the month of January, 
 the men lying in wait could not have been observed. 
 There being little doubt that an attack upon the 
 mail was contemplated, the carriage was at once 
 drawn up, and the alarm given. The drowsy or be- 
 numbed travellers, thus rudely aroused and brought 
 to a sense of their danger, hastily jumped to the 
 ground, and demanded the spare arms which were 
 carried for use on like emergencies. These were 
 immediately served out to the passengers, who, if 
 not animated by true Irish spirit at so early an hour, 
 to fight for fighting's sake, were at any rate deter- 
 mined to defend their lives and property. At the 
 head of the coach -party in this lonely and trying 
 situation was a clergyman of the County Cavan 
 named King, who, like Father Tom in the play, had 
 not forgotten the accomplishments of his youth, and 
 
40 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 who was prepared to carry the message of peace and 
 goodwill with the blunderbuss at the ready, this 
 being the weapon with which he had armed himself. 
 The robbers, perceiving that they were to encounter 
 a determined opposition, thought it wise to retreat ; 
 and while the guards stood by their chai-ge — the 
 mail-coach — the men were pursued over a field by 
 Mr King, on whom they fired, without, however, 
 doing any damage. The parson, deeming a return 
 necessary, replied with the gaping blunderbuss — and 
 to some purpose, it was thought, for three of the 
 men were within twenty yards of him when he fired. 
 The would-be robbers being now driven off, the pas- 
 sengers had time to realise their fright; and gather- 
 ing themselves again into the coach, the journey was 
 continued, though it is hardly likely that sleep re- 
 sumed its sway over the terrified passengers for the 
 remaining hours of that particular night. 
 
 These are but a few instances of the robberies 
 against which the guards were constantly warned to 
 be on the alert, and which they were enjoined to 
 prevent. They were provided with a blunderbuss 
 and a brace of pistols, to make a good defence in 
 case of need ; and it may be interesting to recall 
 that the charge for the former was ten or twelve 
 shot the size of a pea, and two-thirds of such charge 
 for the latter — the quantity of lead mentioned being 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 41. 
 
 sufl5cient, one would suppose, if well directed, to 
 give a hot welcome to any one attempting the mail. 
 
 But the guards were very often not so vigilant 
 as they should have been, the ale-houses having then 
 the attractions which to many they still have : some- 
 times they fell asleep on their boxes, and in other 
 respects wofuUy infringed the regulations. The fol- 
 lowing official notice plainly shows this : — 
 
 " I am very sorry to be under the necessity of 
 addressing the mail-guards on such a subject ; but 
 though every direction and inspection are given 
 them, and they are fully informed of the punish- 
 ments that must follow if they do not do their duty, 
 yet, notwithstanding this, and every admonition 
 given in every way that can be devised, four guards 
 that were looked upon as very good ones, have in the 
 course of last week been guilty of such misconduct 
 as obliges their discharge — ^for the public, who trust 
 their lives and property in the conduct of the office, 
 can never be expected to suffer such neglect to pass 
 unnoticed. The four guards discharged are John 
 , for having his mail-box unlocked at Ferry- 
 bridge while the mail was therein ; Wm. , for 
 
 going to the office at York drunk to fetch his mail, 
 
 though barely able to stand ; W. , for bringing 
 
 the mail on the outside of the mail-box and on the 
 roof, and converting the mail-box to another use ; 
 
42 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 W. , for going from London to Newmarket 
 
 without firearms." 
 
 On another occasion a guard was fined five guineas 
 " for suffering a man to ride on the roof of the mail- 
 coach," and at the same time he was told that if he 
 had not owned the truth he would have been dis- 
 missed — this being followed by the quaint observa- 
 tion, looking like a grim official joke, " which he may 
 be now if he had rather than pay the fine to the 
 fund " ! One more notice as to the vice of taking 
 drink on the part of the guards, and as showing the 
 impressive and formal manner of carrying out a dis- 
 missal in the coaching days. The document is of 
 the year 1803, and runs as follows, viz.: — 
 
 " 1 am very sorry to order in all the guards to 
 witness the dismissal of one old in the service ; but 
 so imperious is the duty, that was he my brother he 
 would be dismissed : indeed I do not think there is 
 a guard who hears this but will say, a man who 
 goes into an ale-house, stays to drink (and at Brent- 
 ford) at the dusk of morning, leaving his mail-box 
 unlocked, deserves to lose his situation ; and he is 
 dismissed accordingly. And I am sure I need not 
 stimulate you to avoid fresh misconduct — to read 
 your instructions, and to mind them. I am the 
 more sorry for this, as guards who have been some 
 time in the service are fit for no other duty." 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 43 
 
 Towards the drivers also of the mail-coaches severe 
 measures were taken when they got drunk ; and 
 the penalty sometimes took a peculiar form, as wit- 
 ness the following public act of submission and con- 
 trition : — 
 
 " Whereas I, John , being driver of the mail- 
 coach, on my way from Congleton to Coleshill on 
 Monday, December 25, 1809" (some excuse, per- 
 haps, on account of its being Christmas-day), " did 
 stop at several places on the road to drink, and 
 thereby got intoxicated, — ^from which misconduct, 
 driving furiously, and being from my coach on its 
 returning, suffered the horses to set off and run 
 through the town of Coleshill, at the risk of over- 
 turning the carriage, and thereby endangering the 
 lives of the passengers, and other misfortunes which 
 might otherwise have occurred : for which misdeeds 
 the Postmasters-General were determined to punish 
 me with the utmost rigour, and if it had been prose- 
 cuted, would have made me liable to the penalty 
 incurred by the said offence of imprisonment for six 
 months, and not less than three ; but from my gen- 
 eral good character, and having a large family, have 
 generously forgiven me on my showing contrition 
 for the past offence, as a caution to all mail and 
 other coachmen, and making this public acknow- 
 ledgment." 
 
44 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 lu another case a mail-coach driver was sum- 
 moned before a magistrate for intoxication, and 
 impertinence to passengers, and was thereupon 
 mulcted in a penalty of £10, with costs. 
 
 The accidents that befell the coaches were some- 
 times of a really serious character, and were of very 
 frequent occurrence — some of them, or perhaps many 
 of them, being due wholly to carelessness. A person 
 writing in 1822 remarks as follows: "It is really 
 heartrending to hear of the dreadful accidents that 
 befall his Majesty's subjects now on their travels 
 through the country. In my younger days, when I 
 was on the eve of setting out on a journey, my wife 
 was in the habit of giving me her parting blessing, 
 concluding with the words, ' God bless you, my dear ; 
 I hope you will not be robbed.' But it is now 
 changed to ' God bless you, my dear ; I hope you will 
 not get your neck broke, and that you will bring 
 all your legs safe home again.' " Sometimes the 
 drivers, if it fell in their way to overtake or be over- 
 taken by an opposition coach, would go in for proving 
 who had the best team, and an exciting race would 
 result. Sometimes a horse would fall, and bring the 
 coach to grief; and in the night-time the horses 
 would occasionally tumble over obstacles maliciously 
 placed on the road to bring this about. Whether 
 this was always done to facilitate robbery, or out of 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 45 
 
 sheer wantonness, is not quite clear, but instances of 
 such acts of wickedness were frequent. On the 
 night of the 5th June 1804, some evil-disposed 
 persons placed a gate in the middle of the turnpike 
 road near Welwyn Green, and set up two other gates 
 at the entrance of Welwyn Lane, also across the 
 road, with the view of obstructing the maU-coach 
 and injuring the persons of the passengers. Early 
 on the morning of the 14th April 1806, the mail- 
 coach was obstructed, in coming out of Dumfries, by 
 some evil-disposed persons placing boughs or branches 
 of trees across the turnpike road, by which the lives 
 of the passengers were put in peril and the mail 
 much delayed. A similar outrage was committed 
 on the night of the 27th August 1809, when a 
 large gate was placed in the middle of the road on 
 Ewenny Bridge, near Bridgend, in Glamorganshire. 
 In this instance the horses of the mail-coach took 
 fright, and the lives of all upon the coach were put 
 in danger — perhaps, indeed, narrowly escaping being 
 thrown over the bridge. Again, on the night of the 
 30th April 1812, some persons placed eleven gates 
 at different points across the road two or three miles 
 out of Lancaster, on the way to Burton-in-Kendal, 
 whereby destruction was nearly brought upon the 
 mail-coach and its human freight. Between North- 
 wich and Warrington, early on the morning of the 
 
46 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 19th November 1816, eight or ten gates and a door 
 were placed in the way of the mail-coach, and fur- 
 ther on a broad-wheeled cart, with the view of wreck- 
 ing the mail. On Sunday, the 15 th June 1817, 
 the horses of the maU-coach were thrown down near 
 Newmarket, and much injured, by stumbling over a 
 plough and harrow, wickedly placed in their way by 
 some evil-doers. These are but a few of the cases 
 of such malicious acts, with respect to which rewards 
 were offered by the Postmaster-General at the time, 
 for the discovery of the offenders. 
 
 But there were other ways in which the mail was 
 placed in jeopardy — namely, by waggoners with 
 teams getting in the middle of the highway, and not 
 clearing out smartly to let the mails go by, or by 
 otherwise driving their horses as to foul with the 
 mail-coach. And it is curious to observe how such 
 cases were dealt with by the Post-ofi&ce. The fol- 
 lowing poster, issued publicly, will explain the mat- 
 ter : — 
 
 " Caution to Carters. 
 
 " "Whereas I, Edward Monk, servant to James 
 Smith of Pendlebury, near Manchester, farmer, did, 
 on Tuesday the 24th day of July last, misconduct 
 myself in the driving of my master's cart on the 
 Pendleton road, by not only riding furiously in the 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHKS. 47 
 
 cart, but damaging the York and Liverpool mail- 
 coach, and endangering the lives of the passengers — 
 for w^hich the conductor of the mails has directed a 
 prosecution against me ; but on condition of this my 
 public submission, and paying the expenses attending 
 it, all proceedings have been discontinued. And I 
 thank the conductor, and the gentlemen whose lives 
 I endangered, for their very great lenity shown me ; 
 and I promise not to be guilty of such outrage in 
 future. And I trust this will operate as a caution to 
 all carters or persons who may have the care of carts 
 and other carriages, to behave themselves peaceably 
 and properly on the king's highway. Witness my 
 hand, the 2d Aug. 1804." 
 
 Then there was the danger attending the running 
 away of the horses with the coach, of which the fol- 
 lowing is an instance, the facts being succinctly set 
 forth in a notice of 1810, of which the following is 
 a copy : — 
 
 " Whereas Walter Price, the driver of the Chester 
 and Manchester mail-coach, on Thursday night the 
 2 2d Nov. 1810, on arriving in Chester, incautiously 
 left his horses without any person at their heads, to 
 give out a passenger's luggage (while the guard was 
 gone to the post-office with the mail-bags), when 
 they ran off with the mail-coach through the city of 
 Chester, taking the road to Holywell, but fortunately 
 
48 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 without doing any injury ; in consequence of which 
 neglect, the driver was, on the Saturday following, 
 brought before the magistrates, and fined in the full 
 penalty of Five pounds, according to the late Act of 
 Parliament." And through the city of Chester, with 
 its narrow streets ! It seems a miracle how four 
 runaway horses, with a coach at their heels, could 
 have cleared the town without dire disaster. 
 
 Again, it would come to pass that in dark nights the 
 horses would sometimes stumble over a stray donkey 
 or other animal which had taken up its night- 
 quarters in the middle of the road, and there made 
 its bed. Nor were these the only perils of the road, 
 which were always increased when the nights were 
 thick with fog. On the morning of the 30th Decem- 
 ber 1813, the mail from the South reached Berwick 
 late owing to a fog, the horses being led by the driver, 
 notwithstanding whose care the coach had been over- 
 turned twice. The drivers were called upon on occa- 
 sions to make up their minds in a moment to choose 
 one of two courses, when danger suddenly burst upon 
 them and there was no escape from it. A good 
 instance of such a case happened to the driver of the 
 Edinburgh to Dumfries mail-coach, who proved that 
 he could reason his case quickly and take his resolve. 
 At one of the stages he had changed horses, and was 
 proceeding on his way, the first portion of the road 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 49 
 
 being down a steep hill with an abrupt turn at the 
 foot. He had hardly got his coach faii-ly set in 
 motion, when to his dismay he perceived that the 
 two wheelers, two new horses, had no notion of hold- 
 ing back. The animals became furious, while the 
 passengers became alarmed. It seemed a hopeless 
 task to control the horses under the circumstances, 
 and to attempt to take the turn at the foot of the 
 hill would have assured the upsetting of the coach 
 and all its belongings. At this juncture the passen- 
 gers observed a strange smile creep over the coach- 
 man's face, while he gathered up the reins in the best 
 style of the profession, at the same time lashing his 
 horses into a good gallop. Terror-struck, the passen- 
 gers saw nothing but destruction before them ; yet 
 they had no alternative but to await the issue. Op- 
 posite the foot of the hill was a stout gate leading 
 into a field, and this was the goal the driver had in 
 view. Steadying the coach by keeping its course 
 straight, he gave his horses all the momentum they 
 could gather, and shot them direct at the gate. The 
 gate went into splinters, the horses and coach bounded 
 into the field, and there were immediately drawn up, 
 neither horses, coach, nor passengers being seriously 
 hurt by the adventure. 
 
 Of all the interruptions to the mail-coach service, 
 none were so serious as those which were occasioned 
 
 D 
 
50 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 by snowstorms, nor were the dangers attending them 
 of a light nature to the drivers, guards, or passengers. 
 The work achieved by man, either for good or evil, 
 how insignificant does it not seem when contrasted 
 with the phenomena of nature ! 
 
 In the year 1799 a severe snowstorm occurred 
 in the country, which very much deranged the mail- 
 service, as may be gathered from the following cir- 
 cular issued by the London Post-ofiBice on the 27th 
 April of that year : — 
 
 " Several mail-coaches being still missing that 
 were obstructed in the snow since the 1st February 
 last, this is to desire you will immediately repre- 
 sent to me an account of all spare patent mail-coaches 
 that are in the stage where you travel over, whether 
 they are regular stationed mail-coaches or extra 
 spare coaches, and the exact place where they are, 
 either in barn, field, yard, or coach-house, and the 
 condition they are in, and if they have seats, rugs, 
 and windows complete." So that here, after a lapse 
 of about three months, the Post-office had not re- 
 covered the use of all its mail-coaches, and was 
 beginning to hunt up the missing vehicles. 
 
 Another snowstorm occurred in January 1814, 
 evidence of which, from a passenger's point of view, 
 is furnished by Macready in his ' Eeminiscences.' 
 He wrote as follows : — 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 51 
 
 "The snow was falling fast, and had already 
 drifted so high between the Eoss Inn and Berwick- 
 on - Tweed that it had been necessary to cut a 
 passage for carriages for some miles. We did not 
 reach Newcastle until nearly two hours after mid- 
 night : and fortunate was it for the theatre and our- 
 selves that we had not delayed our journey, for the 
 next day the mails were stopped ; nor for more than 
 six weeks was there any conveyance by carriage be- 
 tween Edinburgh and Newcastle. After some weeks 
 a passage was cut through the snow for the guards to 
 carry the mails on horseback, but for a length of time 
 the communications every way were very irregular." 
 
 But Christmas of 1836 must bear the palm for 
 snowstorms which have succeeded in deranging the 
 mail - service in England, and it may be well to 
 quote here some accounts of the circumstances 
 written at the time: — 
 
 " The guard of the Glasgow mail, which arrived 
 on Sunday morning, said that the roads were in the 
 northern parts heavy with snow, and that at one 
 place the mail was two hours getting over four 
 miles of road. Never before, within recollection, 
 was the London mail stopped for a whole night at a 
 few miles from London ; and never before has the in- 
 tercourse between the southern shires of England and 
 the metropolis been interrupted for two whole days." 
 
52 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 " Fourteen mail- coaches were abandoned on the 
 various roads." 
 
 "The Brighton mail (from London) reached 
 Crawley, but was compelled to return. The Dover 
 mail also returned, not being able to proceed farther 
 than Gravesend. The Hastings mail was also 
 obliged to return. The Brighton up-mail of Sun- 
 day had travelled about eight miles from that town, 
 when it fell into a drift of snow, from which it was 
 impossible to extricate it without further assistance. 
 The guard immediately set off to obtain all necessary 
 aid ; but when he returned, no trace whatever could 
 be found either of the coach, coachman, or passen- 
 gers, three in number. After much difficulty the 
 coach was found, but could not be extricated from 
 the hollow into which it had got. The guard did 
 not reach town until seven o'clock on Tuesday night, 
 having been obliged to travel with the bags on horse- 
 back, and in many instances to leave the main road 
 and proceed across fields, in order to avoid the deep 
 drifts of snow." 
 
 "The Bath and Bristol mails, due on Tuesday 
 morning, were abandoned eighty miles from London, 
 and the mail-bags brought up in a postcbaise-and- 
 four by the two guards, who reached London at six 
 o'clock on Wednesday morning. For seventeen 
 miles of the distance they had to come across fields." 
 

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 e: 
 f- 
 
 Q 
 < 
 
 a 
 
 < 
 
 » 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 53 
 
 " The Manchester down-mail reached Sfc Albans, 
 and getting off the road into a hollow, was upset. 
 The guard returned to London in a post-chaise and 
 four horses with the bags and passengers." 
 
 "About a mile from St Albans, on the London 
 side, a chariot without horses was seen on Tuesday 
 nearly buried in the snow. There were two ladies 
 inside, who made an earnest appeal to the mail- 
 guard, whose coach had got into a drift nearly at 
 the same spot. The ladies said the post-boy had 
 left them to go to St Albans to get fresh cattle, and 
 had been gone two hours. The guard was unable 
 to assist them, and his mail being extracted, he 
 pursued his journey for London, leaving the chariot 
 and ladies in the situation where they were first seen." 
 
 " The Devonport mail arrived at half -past eleven 
 o'clock. The guard, who had travelled with it from 
 Ilminster, a distance of 140 miles, states that 
 journey to have been a most trying one to both 
 men and cattle. The storm commenced when they 
 reached Wincanton, and never afterwards ceased. 
 The wind blew fresh, and the snow and sleet in 
 crossing Salisbury Plain were driving into their 
 faces so as almost to blind them. Between Andover 
 and Whitchurch the mail was stuck fast in a snow- 
 drift, aud the horses, in attempting to get out, were 
 nearly buried. The coachman got down, and al- 
 
54 THE KOTAL MAIL. 
 
 most disappeared in the drift upon which he alight- 
 ed. Fortunately, at this juncture, a waggon with four 
 horses came up, and by unyoking these from the 
 waggon and attaching them to the mail, it was got 
 out of the hollow in which it was sunk." 
 
 These are some of the reports, written at the 
 time, of the disorganisation of the mail-service in 
 consequence of the snowstorm. Some slight idea of 
 the magnitude of the drifts may be obtained from 
 one or two additional particulars. The mail pro- 
 ceeding from Exeter for London was five times buried 
 in the snow, and had to be dug out. A mail-coach 
 got off the road seven miles from Louth, and went 
 over into a gravel-pit, one of the horses being kiUed 
 and the guard severely bruised. So deeply was 
 another coach buried on this line of road that it took 
 300 men, principally sappers and miners, working sev- 
 eral hours, to make a passage to the coach and rescue 
 the mails and passengers. Near Chatham the snow 
 lay to a depth of 30 or 40 feet, and the military were 
 turned out to the number of 600 to clear the roads. 
 
 On the line of road from Chatham to Dover, a 
 sum of £700 was spent by the road-trustees in 
 opening up the road for the resumption of traffic, an 
 official report stating that for 26 miles the road 
 " was blocked up by an impenetrable mass of snow 
 varying from 3 feet to 1 8 feet in depth." 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 55 
 
 Between Leicester and Northampton cuttings were 
 made, just wide enough for a coach to pass, where 
 the snow was heaped up to a height of 30, 40, and 
 in some places 50 feet. About a stage from Cov- 
 entry, near a place called Dunchurch, seventeen 
 coaches were reported to be laid up in the snow ; 
 and in other parts of the country a similar whole- 
 sale derangement or stoppage of road-tra£Eic took 
 place. 
 
 On the 9th January 1837, an official report set 
 forth that " the mail-coach road between Louth and 
 Sheffield had on the 6 th inst. been closed twelve 
 days in consequence of the snow, and it is stated 
 that it will be a week before the mail can run." 
 An attempt was made to get the mail forward 
 from Lewes to London by post-chaise and four horses ; 
 but after proceeding about a mUe from the town, 
 the chaise returned, the driver reporting that it was 
 impossible to proceed; as the main road was quite 
 blocked up with snow to a depth of 10 or 12 feet. 
 
 These were the good old times ; and no doubt to 
 us they have a romance, though to the people who 
 lived in them they had a very practical aspect. 
 
 The general instructions to mail-guards in cases 
 of breakdown were as follows : — 
 
 " "When the coach is so broke down that it cannot 
 proceed as it is on its way to London, if you have not 
 
56 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 above two passengers, and you can procure a post-chaise 
 without loss of time, get them and the mail forward 
 in that way, with the horses that used to draw the 
 mail-coach, that they may be in their places (till you 
 come to where a coach is stationed) ; and if you have 
 lost any time, you must endeavour to fetch it up, 
 which may be easily done, as the chaise is lighter 
 than the coach. 
 
 "If you cannot get a post-chaise, take off one of 
 the coach-horses, and ride with your bags to the 
 next stage; there take another horse, — and so on 
 till you come to the end of your ground, when you 
 must deliver the bags to the next guard, who must 
 proceed in the same manner. If your mail is so 
 large (as the York, Manchester, and two or three 
 others are at some part of the road) that one horse 
 cannot carry it, you may take two ; tie the mail on 
 one horse and ride the other. The person who 
 horses the mail must order his horsekeeper at every 
 stage to furnish you with horses in case of accidents. 
 Change your horses at every post-town, and do all 
 your office-duty the same as if the coach travelled. 
 
 " If in travelling from London an accident happens, 
 use all possible expedition in repairing the coach to 
 proceed ; and if it cannot be repaired in an hour or 
 two, take the mail forward by horse or chaise — if 
 the latter, the passengers will go with you." 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 67 
 
 In pursuance of these instructions, many instances 
 of devotion to duty were given by the mail-guards, 
 in labouring to get the mails forward in the midst 
 of the snowstorm of 1836. 
 
 On the 26 th of December the Birmingham mail- 
 coach, proceeding to London, got rather beyond 
 Aylesbury, wliere it broke down. Some things 
 having been set right, another effort was made, and 
 some little further way made ; but the attempt to 
 go on had to be given up, for the snow was getting 
 deeper at every step. A hurricane was blowing, 
 accompanied with a fall of fine snow, and the horses 
 shook with extreme cold. In these circumstances, 
 Price the mail-guard mounted one of the horses, tied 
 his mail-bags on the back of another, and set out 
 for London. He was joined farther on by two 
 postboys on other horses with the bye-bags, and 
 all three journeyed in company. The road-marks 
 being frequently effaced, they were constantly de- 
 viating from their proper course, clearing gates, 
 hedges, and ditches ; but having a general knowledge 
 of the lie of the country, and Price being possessed 
 of good nerves, they succeeded in reaching the metrop- 
 olis. The guard was in a distressing state of ex- 
 haustion when he reached his destination. This 
 was only one instance of the way in which the 
 guards acquitted themselves during this memorable 
 
58 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 storm, and for their great exertions they received 
 the special thanks of the Postmaster-General. 
 
 At a place called Cavendish Bridge the mails 
 were arrested by the storm, and the exertions of the 
 coachman and guard were thus referred to by a 
 private gentleman of the neighbourhood, who com- 
 municated with the Post - office on the subject : 
 " I take leave to remark that the zeal and industry 
 evinced by the guard and coachman, more especially 
 the former (named Needle), upon the trying occasion 
 to which your communication has reference, was 
 well worthy of imitation, and formed a striking 
 contrast to the reprehensible apathy of two gentle- 
 men who were inside passengers by the mail." 
 
 A notable instance of the devotion to duty of 
 a coachman and mail - guard, and which illustrates 
 the dangers and hardships which Post-office ser- 
 vants of that class had to encounter, occurred in the 
 winter of 1831. On Tuesday the 1st February of 
 that year, James M'George, mail-guard, and John 
 Goodfellow, coachman, set out from Dumfries for 
 Edinburgh at seven o'clock in the morning, and after 
 extraordinary exertions reached Moffat, — beyond 
 which, however, they found it impossible to proceed 
 with the coach, owing to the accumulation of snow. 
 They then procured saddle-horses, and with these, 
 accompanied by a postboy, they went on, intending 
 
STAGE AXD MAIL COACHES. 59 
 
 to continue their journey in this way. They had 
 not proceeded beyond Eriekstane Hill, a rising 
 ground in close proximity to the well-known natural 
 enclosure called the Deil's Beef-Tub, when it became 
 evident that the horses could not make the journey, 
 and these were sent back in charge of the postboy 
 to Moffat. The guard and coachman, unwilling to 
 give in, continued their journey on foot, having in 
 view to reach a roadside inn at Tweedshaws, some 
 two or three miles farther on. The exact particulars 
 of what thereafter happened wiU never be known, 
 beyond this, that the mail-bags were afterwards 
 found tied to one of the road-posts set up in like 
 situations to mark the line of road on occasions of 
 snowstorms, and that the two men perished in the 
 drift The last act performed by them, before being 
 quite overcome by exhaustion and fatigue, was in- 
 spired by a sense of duty, their aim being to leave 
 the bags where they would more readily be found 
 by others, should they themselves not live to re- 
 cover them. Shortly after this the two men appear 
 to have succumbed; for their bodies were found 
 five days afterwards within a hundred yards of the 
 place where they left the bags, and where at the 
 cost of their lives they had rendered their last 
 service to the Post-office and their country. 
 
 We who are accustomed to the comforts of railway 
 
60 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 travelling, are nevertheless, in regard to accidents, 
 very much like the ostrich ; for though we do not 
 purposely close our eyes to danger, we are neverthe- 
 less placed in such a position that we are unable, 
 when shut up in a railway carriage, to see what is 
 before us, or about to happen. 
 
 Far otherwise was the case in the days of coach- 
 in"'. The passengers, as well as the drivers and 
 guards, were not only exposed to the drenchings 
 from long-continued rain, the terrible exposure to the 
 cold night-air in winter travelling, and the danger of 
 attack from highwaymen, but they ran the risks of 
 all the accidents of the road, many of which they 
 could see to be inevitable before they happened. 
 There were occasions when passengers were frozen to 
 death on the coaches, and others when they fell off 
 benumbed with cold. It is said sometimes that first 
 impressions are often correct; but there are, of 
 course, erroneous first impressions as well A story 
 is told of a mail-guard in Scotland who had the 
 misfortune to be on a coach which upset, and from 
 which all the outside people were thrown to the 
 ground. The guard came down upon his head on 
 the top of a stiff hedge, and from this temporary 
 situation rolled into a ditch, where for a moment he 
 lay. Coming to himself from a partial stupor, he 
 imagined there was something wrong with the top of 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. Gl 
 
 his head, and putting up his hand, he felt a flat 
 surface, which, in his dawning perception, he took 
 to be a section of his neck, his impression being 
 that his head had been cut oif. This was, however, 
 nothing but the crown of his hat, which, being forced 
 down over his head and face, had probably saved 
 him from more serious damage. Broken limbs were 
 accidents of common occurrence ; but affairs of much 
 more serious import occasionally took place, of which 
 the following is a good instance : — 
 
 On the night of Tuesday the 25th October 
 1808, the road between Carlisle and Glasgow was 
 the scene of a catastrophe which will serve to illus- 
 trate in a striking degree one of the perils of the 
 postal service in the mail-coach era. The place 
 where the event now to be described occurred, lies 
 between Beattock and Elvanfoot (about five miles 
 from the latter place), where the highway crosses 
 the Evan Water, a stream which takes its rise near 
 the sources of the Clyde, but whose waters are car- 
 ried southward into Dumfriesshire. To be more 
 precise, the situation is between two places called 
 Eaecleuch and Howcleuch, on the Carlisle road; and 
 a bridge which now spans the water, in lieu of a 
 former bridge, retains by association, to this day, 
 the name of the " Broken Bridge." 
 
 It was at the breaking up of a severe storm of 
 
62 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 frost and snow, when the rivers were flooded in such 
 a way as had never been seen by the oldest people 
 in the neighbourhood. The bridge had been but 
 recently built ; and though it was afterwards stated 
 that the materials composing the mortar must have 
 been of bad quality, no suspicion would seem to have 
 been entertained of the security of the bridge. The 
 night was dark, and accompanied by both wind and 
 rain — elements which frequently usher in a state 
 of thaw. The mail-coach having passed the summit, 
 was speeding along at a good round pace, the " out- 
 siders " doubtless making themselves as comfortable 
 as circumstances would aUow, while the "insides," 
 as we might imagine, had composed themselves into 
 some semblance of sleep, the time being between 
 nine and ten o'clock, when, suddenly and without 
 warning, the whole equipage — horses, coach, driver, 
 guard, and passengers — on reaching the middle of 
 the bridge, went headlong precipitate into the swollen 
 stream through a chasm left by the collapse of the 
 arch. It is by no means easy to realise what the 
 thoughts would be of those concerned in this dread- 
 ful experience — pitched into a roaring torrent, in a 
 most lonely place, at a late hour on such a night. 
 The actual results were, however, very serious. The 
 two leading horses were killed outright by the fall, 
 while one of the wheelers was killed by a heavy 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 63 
 
 stone descending upon it from the still impending 
 portions of the wrecked . structure. The coach and 
 harness also were utterly destroyed. But, worse 
 still, two outside passengers, one a Mr Lund, a 
 partner in a London house, and the other named 
 Brand, a merchant in Ecclefechan, were killed on the 
 spot, whUe a lady and three gentlemen who were 
 inside passengers miraculously escaped with their 
 lives, though they were severely bruised. The lady, 
 who had scrambled out of the vehicle, sought 
 refuge on a rock in mid-stream, there remaining 
 prisoner for a time ; and by her means a second 
 catastrophe of a similar kind was happily averted. 
 The mail from Carlisle for Glasgow usually exchanged 
 " Good-night " with the south-going coach, when they 
 were running to time, just about the scene of the 
 accident. Fortunately the coach from Carlisle was 
 rather late ; but when it did arrive, the lady on the 
 rock, seeing the lights approach, screamed aloud, 
 and thus warned the driver to draw up in time. 
 Succour was now at hand. Something ludicrous 
 generally finds itself in company with whatever is 
 of a tragic nature. The guard of the Carlisle coach 
 was let down to the place where the lady was, by 
 means of the reins taken from the horses. Hughie 
 Campbell — that was the guard's name — when de- 
 liberating upon the plan of rescue, had some delicacy 
 
64 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 as to how he should affix the reins to the person of 
 the lady, and called up to those above, " Where will 
 I grip her ? " But before he could be otherwise 
 advised, the lady, long enough already on the rock, 
 broke in, " Grip me where you like, but grip me 
 firm," which observation at once removed Hughie's 
 difficulty, and set his scruples at ease. The 
 driver of the wrecked coach was at first thought 
 to have been carried away ; but he was found caught 
 between two stones in the river. Alexander Cooper 
 by name, he survived the accident only a few weeks 
 — serious injuries to his back proving fatal. As for 
 the guard, Thomas Kinghorn, he was severely cut 
 about the head, but eventually recovered. 
 
 It was usual for the coachman and guard over 
 this wild and exposed road to be strapped to their 
 seats in stormy weather ; but on this occasion King- 
 horn, as it happened, was not strapped, and to this 
 circumstance he attributed his escape from death. 
 When the mail went down, he was sent flying over 
 the bridge, and alighted clear from the wreck of the 
 coach. The dead passengers and the wounded per- 
 sons were taken by the other coach into Moffat. 
 
 It may be added that the fourth horse was got 
 out of its predicament little the worse for the fall, 
 and continued to run for many a day over the same 
 road; but it was always observed to evince great 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 65 
 
 nervousness and excitement whenever it approached 
 the scene of the accident. 
 
 Yet the mail-coach days had charms and attrac- 
 tions for travellers, if they at the same time had 
 their drawbacks : the bustle and excitement of th& 
 start, when the horses were loosed and the driver 
 let them have rein, under the eyes of interested and 
 admiring spectators ; the exhilarating gallop as a 
 good pace was achieved on the open country-road; 
 the keen relish of the meals, more especially of 
 breakfast, at the neatly kept and hospitable inn ; the 
 blithe note of the guard's horn, as a turnpike-gate or 
 the end of a stage was approached ; and the hurried 
 changing of horses from time to time as the journey 
 progressed. Ever-varying scene is the characteristic 
 of the occasion : the village with its rustic quiet, 
 and odd characters, who were sure to present them- 
 selves as the coach flew by ; the fresh and blooming 
 fields; the soft and pastoral downs; the scented 
 hedgerows in May and June ; the stretches of road 
 embowered with wood, affording a grateful shade in 
 warm weather ; the farmer's children swinging on a 
 gate or overtopping a fence, and cheering lustily 
 with their small voices as the coach swept along. 
 And then, the hours of twilight being past, when 
 
 " Day hath put on his jacket, and around 
 His burning bosom buttoned it with stars," 
 E 
 
66 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 the eeriness of a night-journey would be experienced. 
 During hard frost the clear ring of the horses' feet 
 would be heard upon the road ; the discomfort of 
 fellow-passengers rolling about in their places, over- 
 come by sleep, would be felt; while in the solemn 
 dulness of the darker hours of night the monotony 
 of the situation would be relieved at intervals, in 
 the mineral districts, by miniature mountains of 
 blazing coal, shedding their lurid glare upon the 
 coach as it passed, and showing up the figures of 
 soiled and dusky men employed thereat, thus creat- 
 ing a horrible impression upon the passengers, and 
 seeming to afford an effective representation of 
 Dante's shadowy world. 
 
 Or, on occasions of great national triumph — when, 
 for example, some important victory crowned our 
 arms — the coach, decked out with ribbons or green 
 leaves, would be the bearer of the joyful and intoxi- 
 cating news down into the country, — the driver and 
 guard, as the official representatives of the Crown 
 for the moment, being the heroes of the hour. 
 
 But it may be of interest to learn what a mail- 
 coach journey was from one who had just completed 
 such a trip, and who, in the freshness of youth, and 
 with the unreserve which can only subsist in corres- 
 pondence between members of a family or dear friends, 
 immediately commits his impressions to writing. We 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 67 
 
 have a vivid sketch of a journey of this kind from 
 no less a personage than Felix Mendelssohn, the 
 great musical composer. Mendelssohn was at the 
 time a young man of twenty : he had been making 
 a tour in Scotland with his friend Klingemann — 
 the visit being that from which, by the way, Men- 
 delssohn derived inspiration for the composition 
 of his delightful Scotch symphony ; and the means 
 by which he quitted the northern kingdom was by 
 mail-coach from Glasgow to Liverpool The follow- 
 ing letter, descriptive of the journey, and dated 
 August 19, 1829, is copied from an interesting work 
 called ' The Mendelssohn Family ' : — 
 
 "We flew away from Glasgow on the top of the 
 mail, ten miles an hour, past steaming meadows and 
 smoking chimneys, to the Cumberland lakes, to Kes- 
 wick, Kendal, and the prettiest towns and villages. 
 The whole country is like a drawing-room. The 
 rocky walls are papered with bushes, moss, and firs ; 
 the trees are carefully wrapped up in ivy ; there are 
 no walls or fences, only high hedges, and you see 
 them all the way up flat hill-tops. On all sides 
 carriages full of travellers fly along the roads ; the 
 corn stands in sheaves ; slopes, hills, precipices, are 
 all covered with thick, warm foliage. Then again 
 our eyes dwelt on the dark-blue English distance — 
 many a noble castle, and so on, until we reached 
 
68 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 Ambleside. There the sky turned gloomy again, and 
 we had rain and storm. Sitting on the top of the 
 'stage,' and madly careering along ravines, past 
 lakes, np-hill, down-hill, wrapped in cloaks, and um- 
 brellas up, we could see nothing but railings, 
 heaps of stones or ditches, and but rarely catch 
 glimpses of hills and lakes. Sometimes our um- 
 brellas scraped against the roofs of the houses, and 
 then, wet through, we would come to a second-rate 
 inn, with a high blazing fire, and English conversa- 
 tion about walking, coals, supper, the weather, and 
 Bonaparte. Yesterday our seats on the coach were 
 accidentally separated, so that I hardly spoke to 
 Klingemann, for changing horses was done in about 
 forty seconds. I sat on the box next by the coach- 
 man, who asked me whether I flirted much, and 
 made me talk a good deal, and taught me the slang 
 of horsemanship. Klingemann sat next to two old 
 women, with whom he shared his umbrella. Again 
 manufactories, meadows, parks, provincial towns, here 
 a canal, there a railway, then the sea with ships, 
 six full coaches with towering outsiders foUowing 
 each other ; in the evening a thick fog, the stage 
 running madly in the darkness. Through the fog 
 we see lamps gleaming all about the horizon ; the 
 smoke of manufactories envelops us on all sides ; 
 gentlemen on horseback ride past; one coach-horn 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 69 
 
 blows in B flat, another in D, others follow in the 
 distance, and here we are at Liverpool" 
 
 Speed was of the first consideration, and the 
 stoppages at the wayside stages were of very limited 
 duration. At an inn, the travellers would hardly have 
 made a fair start in appeasing their hunger, when 
 the guard would be heard calling upon them to 
 take their seats, which, with mouths full, and still 
 hungry, they would be forced to do, though with a 
 bad grace and a growl — the acknowledged privilege 
 of Englishmen. A story is told of one passenger, 
 however, who was equal to the occasion. Leisurely 
 sipping his tea and eating his toast, this traveller 
 was found by the landlord in the breakfast-room 
 when the other passengers were seated and the 
 coach was on the point of starting. Boniface ap- 
 pealed to him to take his place, or he would be 
 left behind. " But," replied the traveller, " that I will 
 not do till I have a spoon to sup my egg." A glance 
 apprised the landlord that not a spoon adorned the 
 table, and rushing out he detained the coach while 
 all the passengers were searched for the missing 
 articles. Then out came the satisfied traveller, who 
 also submitted to be searched, and afterwards mount- 
 ed the coach ; and as the mail drove off he called 
 to the landlord to look inside the teapot, where the 
 artful traveller had placed the dozen spoons, with 
 
70 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 the double object of cooling the tea for his secoud 
 cup, and detaining the coach till he drank it. 
 
 In the year 1836 the speed of some of the mail- 
 coaches was nearly ten miles an hour, including 
 stoppages, and this was kept up over very long 
 distances. From Edinburgh to London, a distance of 
 400 miles, the time allowed was forty-five and a half 
 hours ; in the opposite direction the time was cur- 
 tailed to forty-two and a half hours. From London 
 to York, 197 miles, twenty hours were allowed; 
 London to Manchester, 185 miles, nineteen hours ; 
 London to Exeter, 176 mUes, nineteen hours; Lon- 
 don to Holyhead, 259 miles, twenty-seven hours; 
 London to Devonport, 216 nules, twenty-one hours. 
 But in the earlier days of the mail-coach, travelling 
 was much less rapid; for we find that in 1804 the 
 mail-coach from Perth to Edinburgh, a distance by 
 way of Fife of 40 miles, took eight hours for the 
 journey, including stoppages and the transit by ferry 
 across the Forth — ^that is, at the rate of five miles an 
 hour. The mail-guards rode about twelve hours at 
 a stretch — quite long enough, in all conscience, on a 
 wet or frosty night. 
 
 An incident of a romantic nature happened about 
 the year 1780 in connection with the stage-coach (not 
 a mail-coach, however, be it noted) running between 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow at that period. The stage- 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 71 
 
 coach, drawn by four horses, had been on the road 
 for many years, having been established about the 
 year 1758. The time occupied in the journey was 
 twelve hours ; nor, down to the period in question, 
 had any acceleration taken place. A young lady of 
 Glasgow, of distinguished beauty, having to travel to 
 Edinburgh, a lover whose suit towards her had not 
 hitherto proved successful, took the remaining tickets 
 for the journey, and so became her sole companion 
 on the way. By assiduous attentions, and all the 
 winsome ways which the tender passion knows to 
 inspire, as well as by earnestness of pursuit, the 
 lover won the lady to his favour, and she soon there- 
 after became his wife. But the full day did not 
 justify the brightness of the morning : the husband 
 failed to prove himself worthy of his good fortune ; 
 "and the lady, in a state worse than widowhood, 
 was, a few years after, the subject of the celebrated 
 Clarinda correspondence of Burns." 
 
 In addition to the obvious duties of the mail- 
 guards — ^to protect the mails and carry out their 
 exchange at the several stations — they were sometimes 
 required to perform special duties unconnected with 
 Post-office work. They were, for example, called 
 upon to keep watch in the early part of the present 
 century upon French prisoners of war who might be 
 breaking their parole, a likely way of escaping being 
 
72 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 by the mail-coaches. The guards were instructed to 
 question any suspicious foreigner travelling by the 
 coach, and to report the matter to the postmaster at 
 the first town at which they arrived. This was doubt- 
 less looked npon as a pleasure rather than as a 
 hardship ; for they were reminded that the usual 
 reward was ten guineas each — not a bad price for a 
 Frenchman under the circumstances. 
 
 No record of the mail-coach days would be complete 
 without a description of the annual procession of 
 mail-coaches which used to be held in the metropolis 
 on the monarch's birthday. As every corporation or 
 society has its saint's day, or yearly festival, so the 
 Jehus of the Post-office were not without theirs ; an 
 occasion on which they showed themselves to advan- 
 tage, and drew admiring crowds to behold them. The 
 following account of one of these displays is from the 
 'Annals of the Eoad,' a work of great interest on sub- 
 jects connected with coaching generally; and as the 
 description is given with spirit and apparent truthful- 
 ness, we cannot do better than give it at length, and 
 in this way bring the present chapter to a close : — 
 
 " The great day of the year was the King's birth- 
 day, when a goodly procession of four - in - hands 
 started from the great coach manufactory of Mr 
 John Vidler, in the neighbourhood of Millbank, and 
 wended its way to St Martin's-le-Grand. Splendid 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 73 
 
 in fresh paint and varnish, gold lettering and Eoyal 
 arms, they were the perfection of neatness and 
 practical utility in build, horsed to perfection, and 
 leathered to match. They were driven by coachmen 
 who, as well as the guards behind, were arrayed in 
 spick-and-span new scarlet and gold. No delicate 
 bouquets, but mighty nosegays of the size of a cab- 
 bage, adorned the breasts of these portly mail coach- 
 men and guards, while bunches of cabbage-roses 
 decorated the heads of the proud steeds. In the 
 cramped interior of the vehicles were closely pack- 
 ed buxom dames and blooming lasses, the wives, 
 daughters, or sweethearts of the coachmen or guards, 
 the fair passengers arrayed in coal-scuttle bonnets 
 and in canary-coloured or scarlet silks. On this 
 great occasion the guard was allowed two seats and 
 the coachman two, no one allowed on the roof. But 
 the great feature, after all, was that stirring note, so 
 clearly blown and well drawn out, and every now 
 and again sounded by the guards, and alternated with 
 such airs as ' The Days when we went Gipsying,' 
 capitally played on a key-bugle. Should a mail 
 come late, the tune from a passing one would be, 
 ' Oh, dear ! what can the matter be ? ' This key- 
 bugle was no part of the mail equipment, but was 
 nevertheless frequently used. 
 
 " Heading the procession was the oldest-established 
 
74 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 mail, which would be the Bristol. On the King's 
 birthday, 1834, there were 27 coaches in the pro- 
 cession. They all wore hammer-cloths, and both 
 guard and coachman were in red liveries, the latter 
 being furnished by the mail contractor. They wore 
 beaver hats with gold lace and cockades. Such 
 a thing as a low biUycock hat was not to be seen on 
 any coach anywhere. Sherman's mails were drawn 
 by black horses, and on these occasions their harness 
 was of red morocco. 
 
 " The coaches were new each year. In these days 
 brass mountings were rarely known ; plated or silver 
 only were in use. On the starting of the procession, 
 the bells of the neighbouring churches rang out 
 merrily, continuing their rejoicing peals till it arrived 
 at the General Post-of&ce. Many country squires, 
 who were always anxious that their best horses 
 should have a few turns in the mail - coaches in 
 travelling, sent up their horses to figure in the 
 procession. 
 
 "From Millbank the procession passed by St 
 James's Palace, at the windows of which, above the 
 porch, stood King WiUiam and his Queen. The 
 Duke of Eichmond (then Postmaster-General) and 
 the Duke of Wellington stood there also. Each 
 coach as it passed saluted the King, the coachman 
 and guard standing up and taking off their hats. 
 
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES. 75 
 
 The appearance of the smart coaches, emhlazoned 
 with the Eoyal arms, orders, &c., coachman and guard 
 got up to every advantage, with their nosegays stuck 
 in their brand-new scarlet liveries, was at this point 
 strikingly grand. The inspectors of mail - coaches 
 rode in front of the procession on horseback." 
 
76 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOOT-POSTS. 
 
 " I know of no more universally popular personage than this humble 
 ofEciaL Bearer of love-letters, post-office orders, cheques, little care- 
 fully tied packages, all the more charming that it is difficult to get at 
 their contents, it is who shall be first to open the door to him. He is 
 welcomed everywhere ; smiling faces greet him at every door. In Eng- 
 land, the postman is the hero of Christmas time ; so he strikes the iron 
 while it is hot, and on Boxing-day comes round to ask for a reward, 
 which all are ready to give without grudging." — Max O'Rell in 'John 
 Bull and his Island.' 
 
 THOUGH in former times foot-messengers — or, as 
 they are called, post-runners — ^were employed 
 to convey many of the principal mails over long 
 stretches of country, their work in this way has 
 been almost whoUy superseded by the railway and 
 by horse-posts ; and while post-runners are perhaps 
 now numerically stronger than they ever were, their 
 work is principally confined nowadays to what may 
 be termed the capillary service of the Post-office. 
 They are chiefly employed in conveying correspond- 
 ence between country towns and the outlying points 
 
FOOT-POSTS. 77 
 
 forming the outskirts or fringes of inhabited districts. 
 These men have in many cases very arduous work, 
 being required to walk from sixteen to twenty-four 
 miles a-day ; and it is not improbable that the cir- 
 cumstances of these later times make the duties 
 more trying in some respects than they were for- 
 merly. For the messengers are so timed for arrival 
 and departure that they are prevented from taking 
 shelter on occasions of storm, and are obliged to plod 
 on in spite of the elements ; whereas in remote times, 
 when a runner took several days to cover his ground, 
 he could rest and take refuge at one stage, and make 
 up lost time at another. Be this, however, as it may, 
 it is the fact that very many post-runners die from 
 that insidious disease, consumption. 
 
 In the year 1590, the magistrates of Aberdeen 
 established a post for conveying their despatches to 
 and from Edinburgh, and other places where the 
 royal residence might for the time be. This insti- 
 tution was called the " Council Post " ; and the mes- 
 senger was dressed in a garment of blue cloth, with 
 the armorial bearings of the town worked in silver 
 on his right sleeve. In the year 1*715, there was 
 not a single horse-post in Scotland, all the mails 
 being conveyed by runners on foot ; and the ground 
 covered by these posts extended from Edinburgh as 
 far north as Thurso, and westward as far as Inverary. 
 
78 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 About the year 1750, an improved plan of forward- 
 ing the mails was introduced in Scotland by the 
 horse-posts proceeding only from stage to stage — the 
 mails being transferred to a fresh postboy at each 
 point ; but in the majority of cases the mails were 
 still carried by foot-runners. Before the change of 
 system the plan of proceeding was this, taking the 
 north road as an example : " A person set out with 
 the mail from Edinburgh to Aberdeen : he did not 
 travel a stage and then deliver the mail to another 
 postboy, but went on to Dundee, where he rested 
 the first night ; to Montrose, where he stayed the 
 second ; and on the third he arrived at Aberdeen ; 
 and as he passed by Kinghorn, it behoved the tide, 
 and sometimes also the weather, to render the time 
 of his arrival more late and uncertain." 
 
 The plan of conveying mails by the same runners 
 over long distances continued much later, however ; 
 for we find that in 1799 a post-runner travelled 
 from Inverness to Lochcarron — a distance across 
 country as the crow flies of about fifty miles — 
 making the journey once a - week, for which he 
 was paid five shillings. Another messenger at the 
 same period made the journey from Inverness to 
 Dunvegan in Skye — a much greater distance — also 
 once a-week, the hebdomadal stipend in this instance 
 being seven shillings and sixpence. 
 
FOOT-POSTS. 79 
 
 As with the postboys, so with the runners ; the 
 surveyors seem to have had some trouble in keeping 
 them to their prescribed duties, as will be gathered 
 from the following report written in the year 1800 : 
 " I found it had been the general practice for the 
 post from Bonaw to Appin to lodge regularly all 
 night at or near the house of Ardchattan, and did 
 not cross Shien till the following morning, losing 
 twelve hours to the Appin, Strontian, and Fort 
 William districts of country ; and I consider it an 
 improvement of itself to remove such private lodg- 
 ings or accommodations out of the way of posts, 
 which, as I have been informed, is sometimes done 
 for the sake of perusing newspapers, as well as 
 answering or writing letters." 
 
 Nor was the speed of the foot-posts — in some 
 cases, at any rate — very much to boast of, these 
 humble messengers being at times heavily weighted 
 with the correspondence they had to carry. In the 
 year 1805, before the Dumbarton to Inverary mail 
 service was raised to the dignity of a horse-post, the 
 surveyor, in referring to the necessity for the em- 
 ployment of horses, thus deplores the situation : " I 
 have sometimes observed these maUs, at leaving 
 Dumbarton, about three stones or forty-eight pounds 
 weight, and they are generally above two stones. 
 During the course of last winter, horses were obliged 
 
80 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 to be occasionally employed ; and it is often the case 
 that a strong Highlander, with so great weight on 
 him, cannot travel more than two miles an hour, 
 which greatly retards the general correspondence of 
 this extensive district of country." 
 
 In winter-time, and on occasions of severe storms, 
 the post -runners have sometimes to endure great 
 fatigue ; and it is then that their loyalty to the service 
 is put to the test. An instance of stern fidelity to 
 duty on the part of one of these men, at the time 
 of the snowstorm of 1836, formed the subject of a 
 petition to the Postmaster-General from the inhabi- 
 tants of Sheemess and the Isle of Sheppy. 
 
 The document recites that a foot-messenger named 
 John Wright continued for nine days, from the 2oth 
 December 1836, to carry the mails between Sheemess 
 and Sittingbourne — a distance for the double journey 
 of about twenty-four miles. At the end of this time 
 he was so completely exhausted and overcome by the 
 effects of cold and exposure, that he had to give up 
 duty for a time. The memorial sets forth that " the 
 road is circuitous and crooked, through marshes, and 
 very exposed, without any protection from the drift 
 (in many places very deep), and with a ditch on 
 either side — the water of which was frozen just 
 sufficient to bear the weight of the snow, thereby 
 rendering the travelling extremely hazardous, inac- 
 
FOOT-POSTS. 81 
 
 much as the dangers were in a great measure 
 unseen ; and had the postman mistaken his road 
 (which from the frequent drifting of the snow and 
 the absence of traffic at that time was often un- 
 tracked), and fallen into one of these ditches, he must 
 no doubt have perished." It appeared further, that 
 between the two places there was a ferry which 
 the postman had to cross, and that in making the 
 passage on the night of the 25 th December, the 
 boat in which he was was nearly swamped, and he 
 " was compelled to escape through mud and water 
 up to his waist." It is not an uncommon thing for 
 messengers to lose their lives in the discharge of 
 their duties, and a severe winter seldom passes with- 
 out some fatality of this kind. In the winter of 
 1876-77, a sad accident befell a messenger employed 
 in Northumberland. On a night of intense darkness 
 and storm, this man turned off the usual road in 
 order to avoid crossing a swollen stream ; and sub- 
 sequently losing his way, he sank down and died, 
 overcome by exposure and fatigue. In another case 
 a messenger at Lochcarron, in Scotland, being unable 
 to pursue his usual route over a mountain 2000 feet 
 high, on account of a heavy fall of snow, proceeded 
 by water to complete his journey ; but the boat 
 which he had engaged capsized, and both the mes- 
 senger and two other persons who accompanied him 
 
 F 
 
82 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ■were drowned. A few years ago, on the evening 
 of Christmas-day, a rural messenger at Bannow, in 
 Ireland, while on his return journey along a narrow 
 path flanked on each side by a deep ditch, is believed 
 to have been tripped by a furze-root, and being pre- 
 cipitated . into one of the ditches, was unfortunately 
 drowned. The rural post-messengers having, more- 
 over, to visit isolated houses along their route, are 
 exposed to the attacks of dogs kept about the pre- 
 mises. A few years ago a rural messenger was 
 delivering letters at a farmhouse, when he was 
 severely bitten by a retriever dog, and he died six 
 weeks afterwards from tetanus. 
 
 It is perhaps in the Western Highlands and 
 Islands of Scotland that the most trying condi- 
 tions for the rural messengers present themselves. 
 From Ullapool to Coigach and Eieff in Eoss-shire, 
 for example, a journey of twenty-six miles, the mes- 
 senger travels out one day, and back again the 
 next Proceeding from Ullapool, the main road is 
 followed for about three nules, when the man strikes 
 off into the hills, and after a time reaches a river. 
 This he is enabled sometimes to cross by means of 
 stepping-stones; but so often does the water cover 
 these, that he is generally obliged to ford it, and in 
 doing so gets himself thoroughly wet. Then he 
 pursues a course along or over one of the most 
 
FOOT-POSTS. 83 
 
 dangerous rocks in Scotland for a distance of three 
 or four nailes, the rock in some places being so 
 precipitous that he is obliged to cling to it for dear 
 life. After passing this rock he continues some 
 distance farther over the hills, and ultimately re- 
 gains the main road, by which he completes his 
 journey. Apart altogether from the dangerous char- 
 acter of the road, the distance which the post-runner 
 has to walk day after day must necessarily be severe 
 and trying work. 
 
 From Lochmaddy to Castlebay there is a chain 
 of posts seventy-five miles long, served partly by 
 foot-messengers, partly by horse-posts, and partly 
 by boats. The line is intersected by dangerous 
 ferries, one between Kilbride and Barra being six 
 miles wide, and exposed to the full force of the 
 waves from the Atlantic. From Garrynahine to 
 Miavaig, in the island of Lewis, there is another 
 dangerous service, partly by foot-post and partly by 
 boat, the distance being seventeen miles. The road 
 lies all through bog — a dreary waste — while the 
 sea portion is on a most exposed part of the coast. 
 
 These are a few instances of the laborious and 
 dangerous services performed by the rural postmen. 
 Their brother officers in the towns, though in many 
 cases having quite hard enough work (Mr Anthony 
 TroUope tells that the hardest day's work he ever 
 
84 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 did in his life was accompanying a Glasgow post- 
 man up and down stairs on his beat), have not the 
 exposure of the men in the country ; and as they 
 are familiar to the eyes of every one, any special 
 notice of them here would be out of place. 
 
 It may, however, be recalled, that the men who 
 formerly delivered letters in small towns were not 
 always in the pay of the Post-office or under its 
 control. This appears by an official report of 1810, 
 relating to the town service of Greenock, which runs 
 as follows : " As the Greenock letter-carrier is not 
 paid by Government, nor their appointment properly 
 in us, they are of course elected by the magistrates 
 or inhabitants of the town, who have the right to 
 choose their own carriers, or call for their letters at 
 the office." 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MAIL-PACKETS. 
 
 THE employment of vessels for the conveyance 
 of mails seems to have passed through three 
 several stages, each no doubt merging into the next, 
 but each retaining, nevertheless, distinct features of 
 its own. First, there was the stage when Govern- 
 ment equipped and manned its own ships for the 
 service ; then there was an age of very heavy sub- 
 sidies to shipping companies who could not under- 
 take regularity of sailing without some such assist- 
 ance ; and now there is the third stage, when, through 
 the great development of international trade and the 
 consequent competition of rival shipowners, regularity 
 of sailing is ensured apart from the post, and the 
 Government is able to make better terms for the 
 conveyance of the mails. 
 
 It is curious to take a glimpse of the conditions 
 under which the early packets sailed, when they 
 were often in danger of having to fight or fly. The 
 
86 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 instructions to the captains were to run whUe they 
 could, fight when they could no longer run, and to 
 throw the mails overboard when fighting would no 
 longer avail. In 1693, such a ship as then per- 
 formed the service was described as one of " eighty- 
 five tons and fourteen guns, with powder, shot, and 
 firearms, and all other munitions of war." A poor 
 captain, whose ship the Grace Dogger was lying in 
 Dublin Bay awaiting the tide, fell into the hands of 
 the enemy, a French privateer having seized his ship 
 and stripped her of rigging, sails, spars, and yards, 
 and of all the furniture "wherewith she had been 
 provided for the due accommodation of passengers, 
 leaving not so much as a spoone or a naile-hooke to 
 hang anything on." The unfortunate ship in its 
 denuded state was ransomed from its captors for 
 fifty guineas. If we may judge from this case, the 
 fighting of the packets does not seem always to have 
 been satisfactory ; and the Postmasters-General of the 
 day, deeming discretion the better part of valour, set 
 about building packets that should escape the enemy. 
 They did build new vessels, but so low did they rest 
 in the water that the Postmasters- General wrote of 
 them thus : " Wee doe find that in blowing weather 
 they take in soe much water that the men are con- 
 stantly wet all through, and can noe ways goe below 
 to change themselves, being obliged to keep the 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 
 
 87 
 
 hatches shut to save the vessel from sinking, which 
 is such a discouragement of the sailors, that it will be 
 of the greatest difficulty to get any to endure such 
 hardshipps in the winter weather." These flying 
 ships not proving a success, the Postmasters-General 
 then detennined to build " boats of force to withstand 
 the enemy," adopting. the bull-dog policy as the only 
 course open in the circumstances. It may be inter- 
 esting to recall how these packets were manned. In 
 May 1695 the crews of the packets between Har- 
 wich and Holland were placed on the following 
 footing : — - 
 
 Master and Commander, 
 
 Mate, 
 
 Surgeon, . 
 
 Boatswain, 
 
 Midshipman, 
 
 Carpenter, 
 
 Boatswain's mate. 
 
 Gunner's mate, 
 
 Quartermaster, 
 
 Captain's servant, 
 
 11 Able seamen at £1, 10s., 
 
 Agent's instrument. 
 
 In all. 
 
 Per mensem 
 
 JIO 
 
 
 
 3 10 
 
 
 
 3 10 
 
 
 
 3 5 
 
 
 
 1 15 
 
 
 
 3 5 
 
 
 
 1 15 
 
 
 
 1 15 
 
 
 
 1 15 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 16 10 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 £50 
 
 These wages may not have been considered too 
 liberal considering the risks the men ran ; and as an 
 encouragement to greater valour in dealing with the 
 
88 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 enemy, and as an additional means of recompense, 
 the crew were allowed to take prizes if they fell in 
 their way. They also " received pensions for wounds, 
 according to a code drawn up with a nice discrimin- 
 ation of the relative value of different parts of the 
 body, and with a most amusing profusion of the 
 technical terms of anatomy. Thus, after a fierce 
 engagement which took place in February 1705, we 
 find that Edward James had a donation of £5 be- 
 cause a musket-shot had grazed on the tibia of his 
 left leg; that Gabriel Treludra had £12 because a 
 shot had divided his frontal muscles and fractured 
 his skull ; that Thomas Williams had the same sum 
 because a Granada shell had stuck fast in his left 
 foot ; that John Cook, who received a shot in the 
 hinder part of his head, whereby a large division of 
 the scalp was made, had a donation of £6, 13s. 4d. 
 for present relief, and a yearly pension of the same 
 amount; and that Benjamin Lillycrop, who lost the 
 fore-finger of his left hand, had £2 for present relief, 
 and a yearly pension of the same amount." Some 
 other classes of wounds were assessed for pensions 
 as follows : " Each arm or leg amputated above the 
 elbow or knee is £8 per annum ; below the knee 
 is 20 nobles. Loss of the sight of one eye is £4, of 
 the pupil of the eye £5, of the sight of both eyes 
 £12, of the pupils of both eyes £14 ; and according 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 89 
 
 to these rules we consider also how much the hurts 
 afifect the body, and make the allowances accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 But between different parts of the United King- 
 dom, not a century ago, it is remarkable how in- 
 frequent the communications sometimes were. Now- 
 adays, there are three or four mails a-week between 
 the mainland and Lerwick, in Shetland, whereas in 
 1802 the mails between these parts were carried 
 only ten times a-year, the trips in December and 
 January being omitted owing to the stormy charac- 
 ter of the weather. The contract provided that there 
 should be used " a sufficiently strong-built packet," 
 and the allowance granted for the service was £120 
 per annum. It may perhaps be worthy of notice 
 that the amount of postage upon letters sent to Shet- 
 land in the year ended the 5th July 1802 was no 
 more than £199, 19s. Id. It was also stipulated, 
 by the terms of the agreement, that the con- 
 tractors should adopt a proper search of their own 
 servants, lest they should privately convey letters to 
 the injury of the revenue ; and they were also re- 
 quired to take measures against passengers by the 
 packet transgressing in the same way. On one occa- 
 sion the good people in these northern islands, when 
 memorialising for more frequent postal service, sug- 
 gested that the packets would be of great use in spy- 
 
90 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ing out and reporting the presence of French priva- 
 teers on the coast ; but the Postmaster-General of the 
 period took the sensible view that the less the packets 
 saw of French privateers the better it would be for 
 the packet service. 
 
 Difficulties are experienced even in the present 
 day in communicating with some of the outlying 
 islands of the north of Scotland, weeks and occa- 
 sionally months passing without the boats carrying 
 the mails being able to make the passage. The fol- 
 lowing is from a report made by the postmaster of 
 Lerwick on the 27th March 1883, with reference to 
 the interruption of the mail-service with Foula, an 
 outlying island of the Shetland group : — 
 
 "A mail was made up on the 8th January, and 
 several attempts made to reach the island, but unsuc- 
 cessfully, until the 10 th March. Fair Isle was in the 
 same predicament as Foula, but the mail-boat was 
 more unfortunate. A trip was effected to Fair Isle 
 about the end of December, but none again until last 
 week. About 9 th March the boat left for Fair Isle, 
 and nothing being heard of her for a fortnight, fears 
 were entertained for her safety. Fortunately the 
 crew turned up on 23d March, but their boat had 
 been wrecked at Fair Isle. During the twenty years 
 I have been in the service, I have never been so put 
 about arranging our mails and posts as since the New 
 
MAIL- PACKETS. 91 
 
 Year ; we have had heavier gales, but I do not think 
 any one remembers such a continuation of storms 
 as from about the first week of January to end of 
 February ; indeed it could hardly be called storms, 
 but rather one continued storm, with an occasional 
 lull of a few hours. I cannot recall any time dur- 
 ing the period having twenty-four hours' calm or even 
 moderate weather. If it was a lull at night, it was 
 on a gale in the morning ; and if a lull in the morning, 
 a gale came on before night. The great difficulty in 
 working Foula and Fair Isle is the want of har- 
 bours ; and often a passage might be made, but the 
 men dare not venture on account of the landing at 
 the islands." This statement gives a fair idea of the 
 difficulties that have to be overcome in keeping up 
 the circulation of letters with the distant fragments 
 of our home country. 
 
 In the packet service deeds of devotion have been 
 done in the way of duty, as has been the case on occa- 
 sions in the land service. At a period probably 
 about 1800, a Mr Eamage, an officer attached to the 
 Dublin Post-office, being charged with a Government 
 despatch, to be placed on board the packet in the 
 Bay of Dublin, found, on arriving there, that the cap- 
 tain, contrary to orders, had put to sea. Mr Eamage, 
 being unable to acquit himself of liis duty in one 
 way, undertook it in another; and hiring an open 
 
92 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 boat, he proceeded to Holyhead, and there safely 
 landed the despatch. Another instance is related 
 in connection with the shipwreck of the Violet mail- 
 packet sailing between Ostend and Dover ; the par- 
 ticulars being given as follows in the Postmaster- 
 General's report for 1856: — 
 
 " Mr Mortleman, the officer in immediate charge of 
 the mail-bags, acted on the occasion with a presence of 
 mind and forethought which reflect honour on his me- 
 mory. On seeing that the vessel could not be saved, he 
 must have removed the cases containing the mail-bags 
 from the hold, and so have placed them that when 
 the ship went down they might float ; a proceeding 
 which ultimately led to the recovery of all the bags, 
 except one containing despatches, of which, from their 
 nature, it was possible to obtain copies." 
 
 It has already been mentioned that at the close 
 of the seventeenth century a mail-packet was a 
 vessel of some 85 tons — a proud thing, no doubt, 
 in the eyes of him who commanded her. The 
 class of ship would seem to have remained very 
 much the same during the next hundred years ; for, 
 in the last years of the eighteenth century, a mail- 
 packet on the Falmouth station, reckoned fit to 
 proceed to any part of the world, was of only about 
 179 tons burthen. Her crew, from commander to 
 cook, comprised only twenty - eight persons when 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 93 
 
 she was on a war footing, and twenty - one on 
 a peace footing ; and her armament was six 
 4-pounder guns. The victualling was at the rate 
 of tenpence per man per day; the whole annual 
 charge for the packet when on the war establish- 
 ment, including interest on cost of ship, wages, wear 
 and tear of fittings, medicine, &c., being £2112, 
 6 s. 8d. ; while on the peace establishment, with 
 diminished wear and tear, and reduced crew, the 
 charge was estimated at £1681, lis. 9d. The 
 packets on the Harwich station, performing the 
 service to and from the Continent, were much less 
 in size, being of about 70 tons burthen. 
 
 During the wars with the French at this period 
 the mail-packets were not infrequently captured by 
 the enemy. From 1793 to 1795 alone four of 
 these ships were thus lost — namely, the King George, 
 the Tankerville, the Prince William Henry, and the 
 Queen Charlotte. The King George, a Lisbon packet, 
 homeward bound with the mails and a considerable 
 quantity of money, was taken and carried into Brest. 
 The Tankerville, on her passage from Falmouth to 
 Halifax, with the mails of November and December 
 1794, was captured by the privateer Lovely Lass, a 
 ship fitted out in an American port, and probably 
 itself a prize, there having been some diplomatic 
 correspondence with the United States shortly befoi e 
 
94 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 on the sutject of a captured vessel bearing that 
 name. Before the Tankerville fell into the hands 
 of the enemy, the mails were thrown overboard, in 
 accordance with the standing orders which have > 
 already been referred to. The officers and crew 
 were carried on board the Lovely Lass, and then 
 the Tankerville was sunk. Soon afterwards the 
 captive crew were released by the commander of the 
 privateer, and sent in a Spanish prize to Barbadoes. 
 
 But though the maU-packets were intended to 
 rely for safety mainly upon their fine lines and 
 spread of canvas, and were expected to show fight 
 only in the last resort, we may be sure that, when 
 the hour of battle came upon them, they were not 
 taken without a struggle. Nor, indeed, did they 
 always get the worst of the fray, as will be seen by 
 the following account of a brilliant affair which took 
 place in the West Indies, copied from the ' Annual 
 Register' of 1794: — 
 
 "The Antelope packet sailed from Port Royal, 
 Jamaica, November 27, 1793. On the 1st of 
 December, on the coast of Cuba, she fell in with 
 two schooners, one of which, the Atalanta, outsailed 
 her consort; and after chasing the Antelope for a 
 considerable time, and exchanging many shots, at 
 five o'clock in the ensuing morning, it being calm, 
 rowed up, grappled with her on the starboard side, 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 95 
 
 poured in a broadside, and made an attempt to 
 board, which was repulsed with great slaughter. 
 By this broadside, Mr Curtis, the master and com- 
 mander of the Antelope, the first mate, ship's steward, 
 and a French gentleman, a passenger, fell. The 
 command then devolved on the boatswain (for the 
 second mate had died of the fever on the passage), 
 who, with the few brave men left, assisted by the 
 passengers, repelled many attempts to board. The 
 boatswain, at last observing that the privateer had 
 cut her grapplings, and was attempting to sheer off, 
 ran aloft, and lashed her squaresaU-yard to the 
 Antelope's fore-shrouds, and immediately pouring in 
 a few vollies of small-arms, which did great execu- 
 tion, the enemy called for quarter, which was in- 
 stantly granted, although the French had the bloody 
 flag hoisted during the whole contest. The prize 
 was carried into Annotta Bay about eleven o'clock 
 the next morning. The Antelope sailed with 27 
 hands, but had lost four before the action by the 
 fever, besides two then unfit for duty : so that the 
 surgeon, being necessarily in the cockpit, they 
 engaged with only 20 men, besides the passengers. 
 " The Atalanta was fitted out at Charlestown, 
 mounted eight 3 -pounders, and carried 65 men, 
 French, Americans, and Irish, of whom 49 were 
 killed or wounded in the action ; the Antelope 
 
96 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 having only two killed and three wounded — one 
 mortally. 
 
 " The House of Assembly at Jamaica, as a reward 
 for this most gallant action, voted 500 guineas — 
 200 to be paid to the master's widow, 100 to the 
 first mate's, 100 to the boatswain, and 100 among 
 the rest of the crew." 
 
 Happily there has not for a long time been any 
 need for using fighting ships to convey the mails of 
 this country over the high seas ; and this is a danger 
 which it has not been needful to provide against in 
 the packet service of the present generation. 
 
 While in the eighteenth century but trifling 
 advancement would seem to have been made in 
 naval matters, what a contrast is presented by the 
 achievements of the last eighty years ! As com- 
 pared with the Etruria and the Umbria, recent ac- 
 quisitions of the Cunard Company, for the convey- 
 ance of the mails between Liverpool and New York, 
 each of 8000 tons burthen and 12,500 horse-power, 
 the pigmy vessels of the past almost sink into 
 nothingness ; and we cannot but acknowledge the 
 rapidity with which such stupendous agencies have 
 come under the control of man for the furtherance 
 of his work in the world. 
 
 We would present a further contrast between the 
 past and the present as regards the packet service. 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 
 
 97 
 
 So late as 1829, and perhaps later still, the voyages 
 out to the under-mentioned places and home again 
 were estimated to take the following number of 
 days — viz. : 
 
 Days. 
 
 To Jamaica, . . . . 112 
 
 America, .... 105 
 
 Leeward Islands, . . . 91 
 
 Malta, 98 
 
 Brazil, 140 
 
 Lisbon, .... 28 
 
 There were then no regular packets to China, New 
 South Wales, Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Goree, 
 Senegal, St Helena, and many parts of South 
 America ; opportunity being taken to send ship 
 letter-bags to these places as occasion offered by 
 trading vessels. 
 
 Nowadays the transit of letters to the places first 
 above-mentioned is estimated to occupy the following 
 number of days : — 
 
 To Jamaica, 
 1 America, 
 1 West Indies, 
 t Malta, . 
 . Brazil, 
 1 Lisbon, 
 
 Days. 
 
 18 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 4i 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 And the return mails would occupy a similar amount 
 of time. 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 In nothing perhaps will the advantages now 
 offered by the Post-office, in connection with the 
 packet service, be more appreciated by the public 
 than in the reduced rates of postage. The following 
 table shows the initial rates for letters to several 
 places abroad in 1829 and in 1884: — 
 
 France, 
 
 Italy, 
 
 Spain, 
 
 Sweden, 
 
 Portugal, 
 
 Gibraltar, 
 
 Malta, 
 
 United States, 
 
 Brazil, 
 
 If we were asked to point out a mail-packet of 
 the present day as fulfilling all modern requirements 
 in regard to the packet service, and showing a model 
 of equipment in the vessels as well as order in their 
 management, we would not hesitate to name the 
 mail-steamers plying between Holyhead and Kings- 
 town. It may not be generally known, but it is the 
 case, that these vessels carry a post-office on board, 
 wherein sorters perform their ordinary duties, by 
 which means much economy of time is effected in 
 the arrangement of the correspondence. In stormy 
 weather, when the packets are tumbling about amid 
 
 1829. 
 
 1884 
 
 2s. Id. 
 
 2jd. 
 
 2s. lOd. 
 
 2^d. 
 
 3s. Id. 
 
 2id. 
 
 2s. 7d. 
 
 Hd. 
 
 2s. 9d. 
 
 2id. 
 
 3s. Id. 
 
 Zid. 
 
 3s. 5d. 
 
 2Jd. 
 
 2s. 5d. 
 
 Hi. 
 
 3s. 9d. 
 
 4d. 
 
MAIL-PACKETS. 99 
 
 the billows of the Channel, the process of sorting 
 cannot be comfortably carried on, and the men have 
 to make free use of their sisa-legs in steadying them- 
 selves, so as to secure fair aim at the pigeon-holes 
 into which they sort the letters. But the departure 
 of one of these ships from Kingstown is a sight to 
 behold. Up to a short time before the hour of 
 departure friends may be seen on the hurricane- 
 deck chatting with the passengers ; but no sooner is 
 the whistle of the mail-train from Dublin heard than 
 all strangers are warned off ; in a few minutes the 
 train comes down the jetty ; the sailors in waiting 
 seize the mail-bags and carry them on board ; and 
 the moment the last of the bags is thus disposed of, 
 the moorings are all promptly cast off, and the signal 
 given to go ahead : and with such an absence of bustle 
 or excitement is all this done, that before the spec- 
 tator can realise what has passed before his eyes, 
 the ship is majestically sailing past the end of the 
 pier, and is already on her way to England. 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SHIPWRECKED MAILS. 
 
 OUTSIDE the Post-office Department it is prob- 
 ably not apprehended 1to what extent care is 
 actually bestowed upon letters and packets — when, in 
 course of transit through the post, their covers are 
 damaged or addresses mutilated — in order to secure 
 their further safe transmission ; many envelopes and 
 wrappers being of such flimsy material that, coming 
 into contact with hard bundles of letters in the mail- 
 bags, they run great risk of being thus injured. But 
 the occasions on which exceptional pains are taken, 
 and on a large scale, to carry out this work, are when 
 mails from abroad have been saved in the case of 
 shipwreck, and the contents are soaked with water. 
 Then it is that patient work has to be done to get 
 the letters, newspapers, &c., into a state for delivery, 
 to preserve the addresses, and to get the articles 
 dried. In certain instances the roof of the chief 
 office in St Martin's-le-Grand has been used as a 
 
SHIPWEECKED MAILS. 101 
 
 drying-green for shipwrecked newspapers, there being 
 no sufficient space indoors to admit of their being 
 spread out. The amount of patching, separating, 
 and deciphering in such circumstances cannot well 
 be conceived. 
 
 But perhaps the most curious difficulty arising out 
 of a shipwrecked mail was that which took place in 
 connection with the loss of the Union Steamship 
 Company's packet European off Ushant, in December 
 1877. After this ship went down the mails were 
 recovered, but not without serious damage, through 
 saturation with sea -water. One of the registered 
 letter-bags from Cape Town, on being opened in the 
 chief office in London, was found to contain several 
 large packets of diamonds, the addresses on which 
 had been destroyed by the action of the water, and 
 some 7 lb. weight of loose diamonds, which had evi- 
 dently formed the contents of a lot of covers lying 
 as pulp at the bottom of the bag, and from which no 
 accurate addresses could be obtained. Every possible 
 endeavour was made to trace the persons to whom 
 the unbroken packets were consigned, and with such 
 success, that after some Little delay they reached 
 the hands of the rightful owners. To discover 
 who were the persons having claims upon the 
 loose diamonds, which could not be individually 
 identified, was a more serious matter, involving much 
 
102 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 trouble and correspondence. At length this was 
 ascertained; and as the only means of satisfying, 
 or attempting to satisfy, the several claims, the 
 diamonds were valued by an experienced broker, 
 and sold for the general behoof, realising £19,000. 
 This means of meeting the several claimants proved 
 so satisfactory, that not a single complaint was 
 forthcoming. 
 
103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AMOUNT OF WOEK. 
 
 Correspondence. 
 
 THE amount of work performed by the Post-office 
 in the transmission of letters and other articles 
 of correspondence within the space of a year, may 
 be gathered from the following figures, taken from 
 the Postmaster-General's annual report issued in 
 1883:— 
 
 The Letters numbered 
 Post-cards, . 
 Books and circulars, . 
 Newspapers, 
 
 Total, 
 
 1,280,636,200 
 144,016,200 
 288,206,400 
 140,682,600 
 
 1,853,541,400 
 
 These figures are, however, of little service in 
 conveying to our minds any due conception of the 
 amount of work which they represent Nor, when 
 the scene of the work is spread and distributed over 
 the whole country, and the labour involved is shared 
 
104 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 in by a host of public servants, would any arrange- 
 ment of figures put the matter intelligibly witlun 
 our grasp. The quantity of paper used ia this 
 annual interchange of thought through the inter- 
 mediary of the British Post - office, may perhaps 
 be measured by the following facts: Supposing 
 each letter to contain a single sheet of ordinary- 
 sized note-paper; the post-cards taken at the size 
 of inland post-cards ; book-packets as containing 
 on an average fifty leaves of novel -paper; and 
 newspapers as being composed of three single leaves 
 18 inches by 24 inches, — the total area of paper 
 used would be nearly 630 millions of square yards. 
 This would be sufficient to pave a way hence to the 
 moon, of a yard and a half in breadth ; or it would 
 give to that orb a girdle round its body 53 yards in 
 width; or again, it would encircle our own globe 
 by a band 14 yards in width. Another way to look 
 at the magnitude of the Post - office work is as 
 follows : Suppose that letters, book-packets, news- 
 papers, and post-cards are taken at their several 
 ascertained averages as to weight, the total amount 
 of the mails for a year passing through the British 
 Post-office, exclusive of the weight of canvas bags 
 and small stores of various kinds, would exceed 
 42,000 tons, which would be sufficient to provide 
 full freight for a fleet of twenty-one ships carrying 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 105 
 
 2000 tons of cargo each. What a burthen of 
 sorrows, joys, scandals, midnight studies, patient 
 labours, business energy, and everything good or bad 
 which proceeds from the human heart and brain, 
 does not this represent ! Yet, after all, what are 
 the figures above given, when put in the balance 
 with the facts of nature ? The whole paper, accord- 
 ing to the foregoing calculations, although it would 
 gird our earth with a band 14 yards wide, could 
 only be made to extend hence to the sun by being 
 attenuated to the dimensions of a tape of sUghtly 
 over one-eighth of an inch in width ! 
 
 Bearing in mind the great quantity of correspond- 
 ence conveyed by the post, as well as the hurry and 
 bustle in which letters are often written, it is not 
 astonishing that writers should sometimes make 
 mistakes in addressing their letters ; but it wUl 
 perhaps create surprise that one year's letters which 
 could neither be delivered as addressed, nor returned 
 to the senders through the Dead-letter Office, were 
 over half a million in number ! It is curious to 
 note some remarks written by the Post-office solicitor 
 in Edinburgh eighty years ago with respect to mis- 
 directed letters. He speaks of " the very gross 
 inattention in putting the proper addresses upon 
 letters — a cause which is more productive of trouble 
 and expense to the Post-office than any other what- 
 
106 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ever. In fact, three out of four complaints respect- 
 ing money and other letters may generally be traced 
 to that source, and of which, from the proceedings 
 of a few weeks past, I have ample evidence in my 
 possession at this moment." Letters posted in 
 covers altogether innocent of addresses, number 
 28,000 in the year; and the value in cash, bank- 
 notes, cheques, &c., found in these derelict missives 
 is usually about £8000. Letters sent off by post 
 without covers, or from which flimsy covers become 
 detached in transit, number about 15,000; while 
 the loose stamps found in post-offices attain the 
 annual total of 68,000. The loose stamps are an 
 evidence of the scrambling way in which letters are 
 often got ready for the post, and probably more so 
 of the earnest intentions of inexperienced persons, 
 who, in preparing stamps for their letters, roll 
 them on the tongue until every trace of adhesive 
 matter is removed, with the result that so soon as 
 the stamps become dry again they fall from the 
 covers. Letters which cannot be delivered in con- 
 sequence of errors in the addresses, or owing to 
 persons removing without giving notice of the fact 
 to the Post-office, are no less than 5,650,000, such 
 being the number that reach the Dead-letter Office. 
 But of these it is found possible to return to the 
 writers about five millions, while the remainder fail 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 107 
 
 to be returned owing to the absence of the writers' 
 addresses from the letters. The other articles sent 
 to the Dead-letter Office in a year are as follows, 
 viz. : — 
 
 Post-cards, nearly . . . 600,000 
 Book-packets, „ . . . 5,000,000 
 Newspapers, „ . . . 478,000 
 
 As regards the book-packets, it is well to know that 
 a large part of the five millions is represented by 
 circulars, which are classed as book-packets, and the 
 addresses on which are not infrequently taken by 
 advertisers from old directories or other unreliable 
 sources. 
 
 There is one trifling item which it may be well 
 to give, showing how the smallest things contribute 
 to build up the great, as drops of water constitute 
 the sea, and grains of sand the earth. Those tiny 
 things called postage - stamps, which are light as 
 feathers, and might be blown about by the slightest 
 breeze, make up in the aggregate very considerable 
 bulk and weight, as will be appreciated when it is 
 mentioned that one year's issue for the United 
 Kingdom amounts in weight to no less than one 
 hundred and fourteen tons. 
 
108 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ST valentine's day. 
 
 " The day's at hand, the young, the gay, 
 The lorer's and the postman's day. 
 The day when, for that only day, 
 February turns to May, 
 And pens delight in secret play, 
 And few may hear what many say." 
 
 — Leigh Hunt. 
 
 The customs of St Valentine's Day have no direct 
 connection with the saint whose name has been 
 borrowed to designate the festival of the 14th of 
 February. It is only by a side-light that any con- 
 nection between the saint and the custom can be 
 traced. 
 
 In ancient Eome certain pagan feasts were held 
 every year, commencing about the middle of Feb- 
 ruary, in honour of Pan and Juno, on which occa- 
 sions, amid other ceremonies, it was the custom for 
 the names of young women to be placed in boxes, 
 and to be drawn for by the men as chance might 
 decide. Long after Christianity had been introduced 
 into Eome, these feasts continued to be observed, the 
 priests of the early Christian Church failing in their 
 attempts to suppress or eradicate them. Adopting 
 a policy which has served missionaries in other quar- 
 ters of the globe, the priests, while unable at once 
 to destroy the pagan superstitions with the obscene 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 109 
 
 observances by wbich they were accompanied, endeav- 
 oured to lessen their vicious character, and to bring 
 them more into harmony with their religion ; and 
 one step in this policy was the substitution of the 
 names of the saints for those of young women pre- 
 viously used in the lotteries. Now it happened that 
 the fourteenth day of February was the day set 
 apart for the commemoration of the saint named 
 Valentine ; and as the feasts referred to commenced, 
 as has been seen, in the middle of February, a con- 
 nection would seem to have been set up between the 
 lotteries of the pagan customs (carried down to the 
 time when Valentines were drawn for) and the saint's 
 festival, merely through a coincidence of days. That 
 St Valentine should have been selected as the patron 
 of the custom known to us nowadays, is too unlikely, 
 knowing as we do from history something of his life 
 and death. He was a priest who assisted the early 
 Christians during the persecutions under Claudius 
 II., and who suffered a cruel martyrdom about the 
 year 270, being first beaten with clubs, and then 
 beheaded. 
 
 The customs of St Valentine's Day have passed 
 through many phases, each age having its own varia- 
 tion, but all having a bearing to one idea. The 
 following is an account of the ceremony in our own 
 country as observed by " Misson," a learned traveller 
 
110 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 of the early part of last century : " On the eve of 
 St Valentine's Day the young folks of England and 
 Scotland, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little 
 festival. An equal number of maids and bachelors 
 get together, each writes their true or some feigned 
 name upon separate billets, which they roll up and 
 draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men's 
 billets, and the men's the maids' ; so that each of 
 the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his 
 Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man 
 whom she calls hers. By this means each has two 
 Valentines, but the man sticks faster to the Valen- 
 tine that has fallen to him than to the Valentine to 
 whom he has fallen. Fortune having thus divided 
 the company into so many couples, the Valentines 
 give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their 
 billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, 
 and this little sport often ends in love." Pennant 
 also, in writing of his tour in Scotland in 1769, 
 refers to the observance of this custom in the north 
 of Scotland in these words : " The young people in 
 February draw Valentines, and from them collect 
 their future fortune in the nuptial state." 
 
 In later times the drawing of a lady's name for a 
 Valentine was made the means of placing the drawer 
 under the obligation to make a present to the lady. 
 The celebrated Miss Stuart, who became the Duchess 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. Ill 
 
 of Eichmond, received from the Duke of York on 
 one occasion a jewel worth £800, in discharge of 
 this obligation ; and Lord MandeviUe, who was her 
 Valentine at another time, presented her with a ring 
 worth some £300. 
 
 The term Valentine is no longer used in its more 
 general application to denote the lady to whom a 
 present is sent on the 14th of February, but the 
 thing sent, which is usually a more or less artistic 
 print or painting, surmounted by an image of Cupid, 
 and to which are annexed some lines of loving 
 import. Thirty years ago Valentines were generally 
 inexpensive articles, printed upon paper with em- 
 bossed margins. Their style gradually improved until 
 hand-painted scenes upon satin grounds became com- 
 mon ; and Valentines might be bought at any price 
 from a halfpenny to five pounds. It should not be 
 omitted to be noted that for many years Valentines 
 have had their burlesques, in those ridiculous pictures 
 which are generally sent anonymously on Valentine's 
 Day, and which were often observed to be decked 
 out in extraordinary guises, and having affixed to 
 them such things as spoons, dolls, toy monkeys, red 
 herrings, rats, mice, and the like. On one occasion 
 a Valentine was seen in the post having a human 
 finger attached to it. 
 
 But as every dog has its day, and each succeeding 
 
112 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 period of life its own interests and allurements, so 
 have customs their appointed seasons, and ideas their 
 set times of holding sway over the popular mind. 
 The wigs and buckled shoes of our forefathers, the 
 ringlets of our grandmothers, which in their day 
 were things of fashion, have lapsed into the category 
 of the curious, and have to us none other than an 
 antiquarian interest. The Liberal in politics of to-day 
 becomes the Conservative of to-morrow; and the 
 custom of sending Valentines, at one time so com- 
 mon, that afforded so great pleasure not only to the 
 young, but sometimes to those of riper years, has 
 already had its death-knell sounded; and at the 
 present rate of decline, it bids fair very soon to be 
 relegated to the shades of the past. 
 
 The rage for sending Valentines probably had its 
 culmination some ten years ago, since when it has 
 steadily gone down ; and now the festival is no 
 longer observed by fashionable people, its lingering 
 votaries being found only among the poorer classes. 
 
 The following facts show how far the Post-office 
 was called upon to do the messenger's part in deliver- 
 ing the love-missives of St Valentine when the 
 business was in full swing. At the chief office in 
 London on Valentine's Eve 1874, some 306 extra 
 mail-bags, each 3 feet long by 2 feet wide, were 
 required for the additional work thrown on the 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 113 
 
 Post-office in connection with Valentines, and at 
 every post - office in the kingdom the staff was 
 wont to regard St Valentine's Eve as the occasion 
 of the year when its utmost energies were laid 
 under requisition for the service of the public. 
 
 But the decay of the ancient custom of sending 
 Valentines has probably not come about from within 
 itself; it may rather be attributed to the progress 
 made in what may be called the rival custom of 
 sending cards of greeting and good wishes at Christ- 
 mas-time. It would almost seem that two such 
 customs, having their times of observance only a few 
 weeks apart, cannot exist together; and it will 
 probably be found that the new has been growing 
 precisely as the old has been dying, the former being 
 much the stronger, choking the latter. Valentines 
 were sent by the young only — or for the most part, 
 at any rate — while Christmas -cards are in favour 
 with almost every age and condition of life. It 
 follows, then, that a custom such as this, having 
 developed great energy, and being patronised by all 
 classes, must throw a larger mass of work upon the 
 Post-office — the channel through which such things 
 naturally flow — than Valentines did. And so it has 
 been found. The pressure on the Post-office in the 
 heyday of 'Valentines was small by comparison with 
 that which is now experienced at Christmas. Dur- 
 
 H 
 
114 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 ing the Christmas season of 1877, the number of 
 letters, &c., which passed through the Inland Branch 
 of the General Post-office in London, in excess of the 
 ordinary correspondence, was estimated at 4,500,000, 
 a large portion of which reached the chief office on 
 Christmas morning ; while in the Christmas week of 
 1882 the extra correspondence similarly dealt with 
 was estimated at 14,000,000, including registered 
 letters (presumably containing presents of value), of 
 which there was a weight of no less than three tons. 
 Everywhere similar pressure has been felt in the 
 post-offices, and it is by no means settled that we 
 have yet reached the climax of this social but 
 rampant custom. 
 
 In the London Metropolitan district there are 
 employed 4030 postmen; and taking their daily 
 amount of walking at 12 miles on the average — a 
 very low estimate — ^this would represent an aggregate 
 daily journeying on foot of 48,360 miles, or equal 
 to twice the circumference of our globe. 
 
 Articles of many curious kinds have been ob- 
 served passing through the post from time to time, 
 some of them dangerous or prohibited articles, which, 
 according to rule, are sent to the Eeturned-letter 
 Office — the fact showing that the Post-office is not 
 only called upon to perform its first duty of expe- 
 ditiously conveying the correspondence intrusted to 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 115 
 
 it, but is made the vehicle for the carriage of small 
 articles of almost endless variety. Some of these 
 are the following, many of them having been in a 
 live state when posted — viz., beetles, blind-worms, 
 bees, caterpillars, crayfish, crabs, dormice, goldfinches, 
 frogs, horned frogs, gentles, kingfishers, leeches, moles, 
 owls, rabbits, rats, squirrels, stoats, snails, snakes, silk- 
 worms, sparrows, stag-beetles, tortoises, white mice ; 
 artificial teeth, artificial eyes, cartridges, china orna- 
 ments, Devonshire cream, eggs, geranium -cuttings, 
 glazier's diamonds, gun-cotton, horse-shoe naUs, mince- 
 pies, musical instruments, ointments, perfumery, pork- 
 pies, revolvers, sausages, tobacco and cigars, &c., &c. 
 
 Occasionally the sending of live reptiles through 
 the Post-office gives rise to interruption to the work, 
 as has occurred when snakes have escaped from the 
 packets in which they had been enclosed. The 
 sorters, not knowing whether the creatures are 
 venomous or not, are naturally chary in the matter 
 of laying hold of them ; and it may readily be con- 
 ceived how the work would be interfered with in the 
 limited space of a Travelling Post-office carriage con- 
 taining half-a-dozen sorters, upon a considerable 
 snake showing his activity among the correspond- 
 ence, as has in reality happened. 
 
 On another occasion a packet containing a small 
 snake and a lizard found its way to the Eeturned- 
 
116 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 letter Office. Upon examining it next day the 
 lizard had disappeared, and from the appearance 
 of the snake it was feared that it had made a meal 
 of its companion. Another live snake which had 
 escaped from a postal packet was discovered in the 
 Holyhead and Kingstown Marine Post-office, and at 
 the expiration of a fortnight, being stiU unclaimed, 
 it was sent to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. In 
 the Eeturned - letter Office in Liverpool, a small 
 box upon being opened was found to contain eight 
 living snakes ; but we are not informed as to the 
 manner in which they were got rid of. 
 
 The strike of the stokers employed by the Gas 
 Companies of the metropolis in 1872 is remembered 
 in the Post-office as an event which gave rise to a 
 considerable amount of inconvenience and anxiety at 
 the time. That the Post-office should be left in 
 darkness was not a thing to be thought possible for 
 a moment; for such a circumstance would almost 
 have looked like the extinction of civilisation. On 
 the afternoon of the 3d December in the year men- 
 tioned, intimation reached the chief office that the 
 Gas Company could not guarantee a supply of gas 
 for more than a few hours, in consequence of their 
 workmen having struck work. The occasion was 
 one demanding instant action in the way of pro- 
 viding other means of lighting, and accordingly an 
 
AMOUNT OF WORK. 117 
 
 order was issued for a ton of candles. These were 
 used at St Martin's-le-Grand and at the branch offices 
 in the East Central district ; while arrangements were 
 made to provide lanterns and torches for the mail- 
 cart drivers, and oil-lamps for lighting the Post-office 
 yard. In the evening the sorting-offices presented 
 the novel spectacle of being lighted up by 2000 
 candles ; and this reign of tallow continued during 
 the next three days. The total cost of this special 
 lighting during the four days' strike was £58 ; but 
 there was a saving of about 160,000 feet of gas, 
 reducing the loss to something like £27. 
 
118 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GEOWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 
 
 WHEN the past history of the Post-office is looked 
 into, at a period which cannot yet be said to 
 be very remote, it is both curious and instructive to 
 observe the contrast which presents itself, as between 
 the unpretending institution of those other days, and 
 the great and ubiquitous machine which is now the 
 indispensable medium for the conveyance of news to 
 every corner of the empire. To imagine what our 
 country would be without the Post-office as it now 
 is, would be attempting something quite beyond our 
 powers ; and if such an institution did not exist, and an 
 endeavour were made to construct one at once by the 
 conceits and imaginings of men's minds, failure would 
 be the inevitable result, for the British Post-office is 
 the child of long experience and never-ending im- 
 provement, having a complexity and yet simplicity in 
 its fabric, which nothing but many years of growth 
 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 119 
 
 and studied application to its aims could have 
 produced. 
 
 But it is not the purpose here to go into the his- 
 tory of its improvements, or of its changes. It is 
 merely proposed to show how rapidly it has grown, 
 and from what small beginnings. 
 
 The staff of the Edinburgh Post-office in 1708 
 was composed of no more than seven persons, de- 
 scribed as follows : — 
 
 
 Salary. 
 
 Manager for Scotland, . 
 
 . £200 
 
 Accountant, 
 
 50 
 
 Clerk, . . . . 
 
 50 
 
 Clerk's Assistant, 
 
 25 
 
 THree Letter-carriers at 5s. a-week each. 
 
 In 1736 the number of persons employed had in- 
 creased to eleven, whose several official positions were 
 as follows : — 
 
 Postmaster-General for Scotland. 
 
 Accomptant. 
 
 Secretary to the Postmaster. 
 
 Principal Clerk. 
 
 Second Clerk. 
 
 Clerk's Assistant. 
 
 Apprehender of Private Letter-carriers. 
 
 Clerk to the Irish Correspondents. 
 
 Three Letter-carriers. 
 
120 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 The apprehender of private letter-carriers, as the 
 name implies, was an officer whose duty it was to 
 take up persons who infringed the Post-office work 
 of carrying letters for money. 
 
 The work continued steadily to grow, for in 1781 
 we find there were 23 persons employed, of whom 
 6 were letter-carriers; and in 1791 the numbers had 
 increased to 31. In 1828 there were 82 ; in 1840, 
 when the penny post was set on foot, there were 136; 
 and in 1860, 244. 
 
 In 1884 the total number of persons employed in 
 all branches of the Post-office service in Edinburgh 
 is 939. 
 
 The Post-office of Glasgow, which claims -to be 
 the second city of the kingdom, shows a similar ra- 
 pidity of growth, if not a greater ; and this growth 
 may be taken as an index of the expansion of the 
 city itself, though the former has to be referred to 
 three several causes — namely, increase of population, 
 spread of education, and development of trade. 
 
 In 1799 the staff of the Glasgow Post-office was 
 as follows- — viz. : 
 
 Salary. 
 
 Postmaster, .... £200 
 
 First Clerk, . . . 30 
 
 Second Clerk, . . . . 25 
 
 Four Letter-carriers at 10s. 6d. a-week each, 109 4 
 
 A Stamper or Sorter at 10s. 6d. a-week, 27 6 
 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 121 
 
 So that the whole expense for staff was no more than 
 £391, 10s. per annum, and this had been the recog- 
 nised establishment for several years. But it appears 
 from official records, that though the postmaster was 
 nominally receiving £200 a-year, he had in 1796 
 given £10 each to the clerks out of his salary, and 
 expended besides, on office-rent, coal, and candles, 
 £30, 2s. 8d. Somewhat similar deductions were 
 made in 1797 and 1798, and thus the postmaster's 
 salary was then less than £150 a-year in reality. 
 It is worthy of note here that letters were at that 
 time delivered in Glasgow only twice a-day. 
 
 Some ten years earlier — that is, in 1789 — the in- 
 door staff consisted of the postmaster and one clerk, 
 the former receiving £140 a-year, and the latter £30. 
 
 A penny post, for local letters in Glasgow, was 
 started in the year 1800, when, as part and parcel 
 of the scheme, three receiving-offices were opened in 
 the city. The revenue derived from the letters so 
 carried for the first year was under £100, showing 
 that there cannot have been so many as eighty letters 
 posted per day for local delivery. After a time the 
 experiment was considered not to have been quite a 
 success, for one of the receiving-offices was closed, 
 and a clerk's pay reduced £10 a-year, in order to 
 bring the expense down to the level of the revenue 
 earned. In 1803 matters improved, however, as in 
 
122 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 the first quarter of that year the revenue from penny 
 letters was greater than the expense incurred. 
 
 At the present time, the staff of the Glasgow Post- 
 office numbers 1267 persons, and the postmaster's 
 salary is over a thousand pounds a-year. 
 
 At the end of last century and beginning of this 
 — and indeed it may be said throughout the whole 
 term of the existence of the Post-office — humble 
 petitions were always coming up from postmasters 
 for increase of pay, and from these we know the 
 position in which postmasters then were. 
 
 The postmaster of Aberdeen showed that in 1763, 
 when the revenue of his office was £717, 19s. 4d., 
 with something for cross post-letters, probably about 
 £400, his salary had been £93, 15s.; while in 
 1793, with a revenue of over £2500, his whole 
 salary was only £89, 15s., and out of this he 
 had to pay office -rent and to provide assistance, 
 fire, wax, candles, books, and cord. 
 
 At Arbroath, now an important town, the revenue 
 was, in 1763, £76, 12s. 8d., and the postmaster's 
 salary, £20. At this figure the salary remained 
 till 1794, though the revenue had increased to 
 £367, 13s. 5d. ; but now the postmaster appealed 
 for higher pay, and brought up his supports of 
 office -rent, coal, candles, wax, &c., to strengthen 
 his case. 
 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 123 
 
 In Dundee, in the year 1800, the postmaster's 
 salary was £50, and the revenue £3165, 9s. 5d. 
 
 At Paisley, the postmaster's salary was fixed at 
 £33 in 1790, and remained at that figure till 
 1800, when a petition was sent forward for what 
 was called in official language an augmentation. 
 In the memorial it is stated that the revenue for 
 1799 was £1997, Is. lid., and that the deductions 
 for rent, coal, candles, wax, paper, pens, and ink, 
 reduced the postmaster's salary to from £15 to 
 £20 a-year ! 
 
 To show how these towns have grown up into 
 importance within a period of little more than the 
 allotted span of man, and as exhibiting perhaps 
 the yet more bounding expansion of the Post-office 
 system, the following particulars are added, and 
 may prove of interest : — 
 
 At Aberdeen, at the present time, the annual 
 value of postage-stamps sold, which may be taken 
 as a rough measure of the revenue from the carriage 
 of correspondence alone, is little short of £30,000 ; 
 the staff of all sorts employed numbers 191; and 
 the postmaster's salary exceeds £600 a-year. 
 Arbroath is less pretentious, being a smaller town ; 
 but the letter revenue is over £4000 a-year; 
 the persons employed, 14 ; and the postmaster's 
 salary nearly £200. Dundee shows a postage 
 
124 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 revenue of over £35,000; 193 persons are em- 
 ployed there ; and the postmaster's salary is little 
 short of £600. While at Paisley the revenue from 
 stamps is nearly £10,000 ; the 'persons employed, 
 43; and the postmaster's salary, £300. Not- 
 withstanding the vast decrease in the rates of 
 postage, these figures show, in three of the cases 
 mentioned, that the revenue from letters is now 
 about twelve times what it was less than a 
 century ago. 
 
 It will probably be found that one of the most 
 mushroom-like towns of the country is Barrow-in- 
 Furness, now a place of considerable commerce, 
 and an extensive shipping- port. The following 
 measurements, according to the Post-office standard, 
 may repay consideration. Prior to 1847 there 
 was nothing but a foot-postman, who served the 
 town by walking thither from Ulverston one day, 
 and back to Ulverston the next. Later on, he 
 made the double journey daily, and delivered the 
 letters on his arrival at Barrow. In 1869 the 
 town had grown to such dimensions that the office 
 was raised to the rank of a head-office, and three 
 postmen were required for delivery. Now, in 
 1884, thirteen postmen are the necessary delivering 
 force for the town. 
 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 125 
 
 About the year 1800 the Post-office had not as 
 yet carried its civilising influence into the districts 
 of Balquhidder, Lochearnhead, Killin, and Tyndrum, 
 there being no regular post-offices within twenty, 
 thirty, or forty miles of certain places in these dis- 
 tricts. The people being desirous of having the 
 Post-office in their borders, the following scheme was 
 proposed to be carried out about the time men- 
 tioned : — 
 
 A nmner to travel from Callander to Lochearn- 
 head — fourteen miles — at 2s. a journey, three 
 times a-week, 
 
 Salary to postmaster of Lochearnhead, . 
 
 A runner from Lochearnhead to Killin — eight 
 miles — at Is. a journey, three times a-week. 
 
 Salary to postmaster of Killin, 
 
 Receiving-house at Wester Lix, .... 
 
 Runner thence to Luib — four or five miles — Is. 6d. 
 per week, 
 
 Office at Luib, 
 
 Total, 
 
 So that here a whole district of country was to be 
 opened up to the beneficent operations of the Post 
 at an annual cost of what would now be no more 
 than sufficient to pay the wages of a single post- 
 runner. It may be proper, however, to remark in 
 this connection, that money then was of greater value 
 
 ^15 12 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 7 16 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3 18 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 £43 6 
 
 
 
126 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 than now ; and since it has been shown that a mes- 
 senger had formerly to travel as much as fourteen 
 double miles for 2s., it is not surprising that Scotch- 
 men, brought up in such a school, should like to 
 cling to a sixpence when they can get it. 
 
 It were remiss to pass over London without re- 
 mark, whose growth is a marvel, and whose Post- 
 ofi&ce has at least kept up in the running, if it has 
 not outstripped, London itself. In 1796 the delivery 
 of London extended from about Grosvenor Square and 
 Mayfair in the west, to Shadwell, Mile End, and 
 Blackwall in the east ; and from Finsbury Square in 
 the north, to the Borough and Eotherhithe in the 
 south ; and the number of postmen then employed for 
 the general post-delivery was 126. London has since 
 taken into its maternal embrace many places which 
 were formerly quite separate from the metropolis, and 
 nowadays the agglomeration is known, postally, as th€ 
 Metropolitan district. In this district the number oi 
 men required to effect the delivery of letters in 1884 
 is no less than 4030. It may be mentioned thai 
 the general post-delivery above mentioned had refer 
 ence to the delivery of ordinary letters coming fron 
 the country. Letters of the penny post — or loca 
 letters — and letters from foreign parts, were deliverei 
 by different sets of men, who all went over the sam 
 
GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. 127 
 
 ground. In 1782 the number of men employed in 
 these different branches of delivery work was as 
 follows — viz. : 
 
 
 Men. 
 
 For Foreign letters, . 
 
 12 
 
 II Inland letters, 
 
 99 
 
 II Penny-post letters, 
 
 44 
 
 Total, . 155 
 
 It was not till many years later that all kinds of 
 letters came to be delivered by one set of postmen, 
 and that thus needless repetition of work was got 
 rid of. 
 
 At the same period — namely, in 1782 — the other 
 officers of all kinds employed in the London Post- 
 office numbered 157. At the present time the 
 officers of all kinds (exclusive of postmen who have 
 been referred to separately) employed in the Metro- 
 politan district are nearly 16,000 in number. 
 
128 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 
 
 IN his Autobiography, Mr Anthony TroUope, many 
 years a Post-office surveyor, records how he was 
 employed in England, for a considerable period about 
 the year 1851, revising and extending the rural-post 
 service ; and he there mentions the frequency with 
 which he found post-runners to be employed upon 
 routes where there were but few letters to deliver — 
 while in other directions, where postal communication 
 would have been of the utmost benefit, there were no 
 post-runners at all. This state of things had no doubt 
 had its origin in the efforts of influential persons, at 
 some previous time, to have the services established 
 for their own personal benefit ; while persons in other 
 districts, having less interest at headquarters, or being 
 less imperious in their demands, were left out in the 
 cold, and so remained beyond the range of the civilising 
 influence. The posts in such cases, once established, 
 went on from year to year ; and though the arrange- 
 
CLAIMS FOE POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 129 
 
 ments were out of harmony with the surroundings, 
 very often nothing was done — for in all likelihood 
 no one complained loud enough, or, at any rate, in a 
 way to prove effective. 
 
 But though the Department did wake up to the 
 need for a better distribution of its favours in the 
 country districts in 1851, there were earlier instances 
 of surveyors attempting to lay down the posts for the 
 general good, instead of for a select few, and in these 
 cases the surveyors had sometimes a hard battle to 
 fight. The following report from a surveyor in Scot- 
 land, written in the year 1800, will illustrate what 
 is here mentioned. It is given at length, and will 
 possibly be found worthy of perusal ; for it not only 
 shows both spirit and independence on the part of 
 the surveyor, who was evidently a man determined 
 to do his duty irrespective of persons, but it sheds 
 some light on the practices of the post-runners of 
 that period, and their relations with their superiors 
 on the one hand, and the public on the other. It 
 affords us, too, a specimen of official writing remark- 
 able for some rather quaint turns and expressions. 
 The report proceeds : — 
 
 " I am much obliged by the perusal of my Lord 
 
 's card to you of the 29th ultimo, with a copy 
 
 of a fresh memorial from his lordship and other gen- 
 tlemen upon the long-argued subject of the alteration 
 
 I 
 
130 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 of the course of the post betwixt Perth and Coupar- 
 Angus. 
 
 " It is certainly one of those cases which hath 
 become of tenfold more importance by the multi- 
 plicity of writing, than from any solid reasoning or 
 essential matter of information to be drawn from it. 
 
 " It having fallen to my official duty to execute 
 the alteration of this post proposed by my late 
 
 colleague Mr , to whose memory I must bear 
 
 testimony, not only of his abilities, but his im- 
 partiality in the duties of his office, and under the 
 authority of the late respectable and worthy Post- 
 master-General Mr , whose memory is far 
 
 above any eulogium of mine, I considered the meas- 
 ure as proper and expedient, equally for the good 
 of the country in general, and the revenue under 
 the department of the Post-office ; and I can with 
 confidence deny that it was 'hastily, inconsider- 
 ately, or partially' gone into, as this memorial 
 would wish to establish. In this capacity, and 
 under these circumstances, it is no wonder I could 
 have wished the epithets used against this official 
 alteration, of ignorance, arbitrary and oppressive pro- 
 ceedings, to have dropped from a person less honour- 
 able, respectable, and conspicuous than I hold the 
 
 Honble. at the head of this memorial. Before 
 
 this last memorial was presented, I understood from 
 
CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 131 
 
 Mr , Secretary, in the presence of Lord 
 
 that any further opposition upon the part of the 
 Blairgowrie gentlemen to a re-alteration was now 
 given Tip ; indeed this cannot he surprising if they 
 had learned, as stated in the memorial, page 9, that 
 they had protested, did now protest, and would 
 never cease to complain loudly of it, until they 
 ohtain redress. Whether this argument is cool or 
 arbitrary I have not time nor inclination to analyse, 
 but having been removed from this ancient district 
 of road, and given my uniform opinion upon the 
 merits of the alteration itself, I have no desire to 
 fight the memorialists to all eternity. Before, how- 
 ever, taking final leave of this contest, and of a 
 memorial said to be unanswerable, I consider myself 
 in duty and honour called upon to vindicate the 
 late Mr , as well as myself, from the vindic- 
 tive terms of ' ignorance, arhUrary, and oppressive ' 
 implied in the memorial, and which, if admitted 
 sub dlentio, might not be confined to the misman- 
 agement of the Post - office, but to every other 
 department of civil government. In order to this, 
 I shall as briefly as I can follow the general track 
 of the memorial, as of a long beaten road in which, 
 if there is not safety, there is no new difficulty to 
 encounter. It is needless to go over the different 
 distances, — I am ready to admit them — they have 
 
132 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 not formed any material part of the question, — 
 and the supposed ignorance of the surveyor here 
 is not to the point. The alteration neither did 
 nor should proceed upon such mathematical nicety. 
 The idea of posts is to embrace the most extensive 
 and most needful accommodation. In establishing 
 a post to Blairgowrie it was neither ignorant nor 
 arbitrary to take the line by Isla Bridge, which 
 was the centre of the country meant to be served 
 by it — that is, the Coupar and the Stormont and 
 Highland district. It is of some consequence to 
 observe here, that with all the great and rapid 
 improvements mentioned in the memorial, of the 
 lower or Coupar district, the upper or Stormont 
 district was, upon the first year's trial, above one- 
 half of its revenue to the Post-office, the second 
 nearly or about three-fourths, and continuing to in- 
 crease in proportion. Coupar- Angus revenue for the 
 year ending 10th October last was £159, 3s. Vd., 
 and Blairgowrie £123, 4s. lOd. Now, if the 
 Coupar district of country, which contains in it a 
 populous market-town, can produce no more than 
 this proportion for the whole district, it is evident 
 that the district of Stormont, with only as yet a 
 little village for its head town, has more correspon- 
 dence in regard to its state of agriculture and im- 
 provement as an infant district, than the parent 
 
CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 133 
 
 district with its antiquity can lay claim to, and 
 equally well entitled at least to be protected and 
 nourished. Much is said of the memorialists' line 
 of road, and of its being one from time immemorial. 
 I have said in a former paper that this may be the 
 case; many of the roads in Scotland, God knows, 
 are old enough. But unless the feudal system 
 should still exist upon any of them, I know of no 
 law, no regulation, no compulsion, that can oblige 
 the post, more than any other traveller, to take these 
 old beaten tracks where they can find any other 
 patent or better road. Nay, more, — as a traveller, 
 I am entitled to take any patent road T choose, 
 good or bad ; and the moment this privilege is 
 doubted in regard to the post, you resign at once 
 the power of all future improvements so far as it 
 belongs to your official situation to judge it, and 
 let or dispose of in lease the use of your posts to 
 particular and local proprietors of lands, who will 
 be right to take every advantage of it in their 
 power, and include it specifically in the rental of 
 their estates, as I have known to be the case with 
 inns in which post-offices had formerly been kept. 
 " There are three great roads to the north of Scot- 
 land from Perth (besides one by Dunkeld) — viz., one 
 by Dundee, &e., one by Coupar, &c., and one by 
 Blairgowrie, which run not at a very great distance 
 
134 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 in general from each other in a parallel line. The 
 great post-line or mail-coach road is by Dundee ; 
 and there is little chance, I believe, of this being de- 
 parted from, as there is no other that can ever be 
 equally certain. The next great road to the west- 
 ward is by Coupar and Forfar, &c., and is supplied 
 by branch-posts from the east or coast line. And 
 the third or upper line is by Blairgowrie and Spittal 
 of Glenshee, which have no post for 50, 60, or 
 70 miles; and if ever that part of the country is to 
 have the blessing of a regular post, it surely ought 
 not to be by branching from the coast-line through 
 all the different centres, but by the more immediate 
 and direct line through Blairgowrie. Every one 
 will call his own line the great line ; but surely, if 
 I am to travel either, I should be allowed to judge 
 for myself; and I believe it would be thought very 
 arUtrary indeed, if, before I set out, a proprietor or 
 advocate for any of these great lines should arrest 
 my carriage or my horse, and say. You shall not pro- 
 ceed but upon my line. I confess myself so stupid 
 that I can see no difference betwixt this and taking 
 it out of the power of the Post-office to judge what 
 line they shall journey mails. If this is not the 
 case, then all the present lines of the post, however 
 absurd and ridiculous they now are or may become, 
 must, as they were at the beginning and now are, 
 
CLAIiVtS FOE POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 135 
 
 remain so for ever. And I would expect next to 
 see legal charters and infeftments taken upon them 
 as post-roads merely, and travellers thirled to them 
 as corn to a mill But in regard to the voluminous 
 writings already had upon this subject, and now 
 renewed in this last memorial, it may be necessary 
 to be a little more particular. 
 
 " Setting the distances aside, which no persons 
 should have a right to complain of except the inhabi- 
 tants of Coupar and beyond it, by any delay occa- 
 sioned on that account, what is the whole argument 
 founded upon ? That, by the alteration, the me- 
 morialists, some of them in the near neighbourhood 
 of Coupar-Angus, but betwixt Perth and it, have 
 had the privilege from time immemorial, as it is 
 said, of receiving their letters by the post from 
 Perth, and sending them back by the same convey- 
 ance to Perth, without benefiting the Eevenue a 
 single sixpence, which would accrue to it by such 
 letters being either received from or put in at the 
 office at Coupar-Angus, as they ought to be. For, 
 so far as I understand the regulations of the office, 
 they are to this purpose, that if any letters • shall 
 be directed for intermediate places, at least three- 
 fourths from any post-office, they shall be put into 
 the bag and conveyed (if conveved at all by post) 
 to the post-office nearest them, or at which they 
 
136 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 shall be written, one-fourth of the distance of the 
 whole stage, and rated and charged accordingly. 
 The Post-office could not be ignorant of this rule not 
 being observed, for it was evident that very few 
 letters for this populous and thriving district were 
 put into the bag, except such as behoved to go 
 beyond Coupar or Perth, and bearing the name of 
 ' short letters.' It was impossible to convict the 
 posts of fraud in carrying them without opening 
 the letters, a privilege which cannot be exercised 
 without much indelicacy as well as danger. But 
 it required no penetration to discover that this was 
 a very commodious and cheap way of corresponding, 
 though it did not augment the revenue. It was 
 an ancient privilege, and in that view it might be 
 considered arbitrary and oppressive to meddle with 
 or interrupt it. It is a little curious that the 
 memorialists are principally gentlemen of property 
 upon the road short of Coupar, and who require to 
 be supplied daily with their small necessary articles 
 from Perth. I have seen no remonstrance or com- 
 plaint from the town of Coupar itself as to this 
 alteraition, nor of the consequent lateness of arrival 
 and danger it is said to have occasioned, nor from 
 a number of gentlemen beyond, whose letters come 
 in the bag for the delivery of Coupar. The noise 
 has chiefly been made by gentlemen who pay nothing 
 
CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 137 
 
 for this post to Coupar- Angus, and it puts me in 
 mind of an anecdote I met with of a gentleman who 
 had influence enough with a postmaster in the coun- 
 try to get the post by his house, and deliver and 
 receive his letters, proceeding by a line of road in 
 which he avoided an intermediate of&ce, and thereby 
 saved an additional postage both ways. 
 
 " This line was also a very ancient one, and from 
 time immemorial a line too upon which our fore- 
 fathers had fought hard and bled ; but their children 
 somehow or other had discovered and adopted what 
 they thought a much better line. I said the delivery 
 of short letters was not all the advantages privately 
 had by the old plan of the post to Coupar- Angus. 
 This post was in the known and constant habit of 
 carrying a great deal more than letters for the inhab- 
 itants short of, as well as for Coupar itself; and in the 
 delivery of various articles upon the road, and receiv- 
 ing reimbursements for his trouble one way or other, 
 he lost one-fourth of his time ; and if, as the memo- 
 rialists assert, there are fewer places to be served on 
 the Isla road, it is a demonstration that the longest 
 way is often all the nearest, and upon this head I have 
 already ventured to assert, and stiU do, that by a 
 regular management which may be easily accom- 
 plished, the post may come sooner by Isla to Coupar 
 than ever it did formerly by the ancient road ; and 
 
138 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 if it was possible to watch and hunt after the 
 irregularity of the post as established upon the old 
 system, the memorialists would find themselves in 
 no better situation than they now are. I beg to 
 mention here a specimen I met of this old system 
 of private accommodation, with the consequence that 
 followed, which may illustrate a little upon which 
 side the imputation of ignorance, arlitrary, and op- 
 pression may lie. Having met this post with a 
 light cart full of parcels, and a woman upon it 
 along with the mail, I charged him with the impro- 
 priety of his conduct as a post, and threatened that 
 he should not be longer in the service. ' Oh,' says 
 he, ' sir, you may do as you please ; I have served 
 the country so long in this way, that if you dismiss 
 me, the principal gentlemen on the road have deter- 
 mined to support me, and I can make more without 
 3'our mail than I do by it.' He was dismissed. 
 He was supported by a number of names which it 
 is not now in my power to recollect, but which are 
 well known in Coupar- Angus, and he issued in con- 
 sequence hand-bills that, being now dismissed as 
 a post, he would continue to carry on as before ; 
 and it was not till the arlitrary hand of the 
 Solicitor of the Post-office fell upon him, that he 
 would either have been convicted or discouraged 
 from his employ. 
 
CLAIMS FOE POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 139 
 
 " In this view, therefore, and not from ignorance, 
 I know it is better for the Kevenue in some instances 
 to pay for 19 miles of a post, than 14 or 15, and to 
 pay for three short runners than one long one. We 
 have no greater faith in Blairgowrie than Coupar posts, 
 and they were both put upon the same footing; and 
 notwithstanding all the arguments stated against 
 the measure, or upon the absurdity, arlitrary, and 
 oppression, so much insisted on, I am still humbly 
 of the opinion, which was maturely weighed and 
 decided, that the system now in practice was best 
 for the Eevenue, whatever it might be to particular 
 individuals ; and in this decision I only followed the 
 coincident opinion of judgments much superior to 
 my own. 
 
 "A great deal is said upon the danger of commit- 
 ting care of bags or letters to two separate runners 
 instead of one. With regard to carrying letters 
 privately, or executing commissions, it may be so. 
 This is the great inconvenience felt from the change. 
 But is there any instance where posts have opened 
 any of the bags containing letters, and thereby com- 
 mitted felony ? Is there any instance where a 
 wilful and felonious delay has happened here more 
 than may be natural to any change of bags anywhere 
 else in the kingdom ? I have heard of their not 
 jiieeting sometimes so regularly in very bad or 
 
140 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 stormy weather. This will happen to the most 
 regular mail-coaches and horse -posts in Britain ; 
 and before such general objections are to be found- 
 ed upon, wilful and corrupt misconduct should be 
 proved, such as I am able to do upon the old sys- 
 tem of one post only. 
 
 " The poor blacksmith is next brought forward. I 
 do not know that a man's character is to be decided 
 by his calling. He was engaged by the Office to 
 keep a receiving-house for the runners. He is paid 
 for his trouble by Government, and is as much under 
 the confidence and trust of the Office, till he proves 
 himself unworthy of it, as the postmasters of Perth, 
 Coupar- Angus, or Blairgowrie. It is not surprising, 
 however, that this poor blacksmith should be in gen- 
 eral terms decided unfit for such duty, when officers 
 who should have been much better acquainted with 
 the hammer and nails of office, do not know how to 
 drive them ! 
 
 " A very short explanation to the idea mentioned 
 by the memorialists that the opposition by the Blair- 
 gowrie gentlemen rose from the supposition that they 
 were to be cut out of their post altogether. I never 
 heard of this before, nor do I know this idea to have 
 existed. The Blairgowrie district did not interfere 
 with the Post-office, nor the Office with them, more 
 than has happened in writing ; nor, so far as consists 
 
CLAIMS FOE POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 141 
 
 with my knowledge, have I heard or understood that 
 the Coupar district wished to deprive Blairgowrie of 
 an office. That Coupar wishes to have Blairgowrie 
 subservient to and passing through it is clear enough. 
 But they do not advert that, as both Coupar and 
 Blairgowrie are within one stage of Perth ; had 
 Coupar gone through Blairgowrie or Blairgowrie 
 through Coupar, the law might say that one of them 
 must pay an additional rate from Perth — that is, 4d. 
 instead of 3d. ; and which both Mr Edwards and I 
 were clearly of opinion would rather have injured 
 than improved the Eevenue, as has been experienced 
 in some similar cases. This legal distinction my 
 
 Lord does not appear to have observed. It is, 
 
 however, stated, that by this plan of going through 
 Coupar to Blairgowrie a very easy and direct com- 
 munication would be established betwixt the two 
 places. This I have no doubt of for private busi- 
 ness-parcels, money, &c., &c. ; because it would be 
 easier for Blairgowrie to communicate in this way 
 by one runner, by one with Coupar and two to 
 Perth, than by two to Coupar and two to Perth, and 
 for Coupar to communicate with Perth by one than 
 two each way. This is harping on the old key. 
 But it is a reduction of service, Uke the shortening 
 of the road here, I do not wish to see. I do not 
 want a reconciliation of this kind; and whatever 
 
14:2 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 obloquy I may endure, with imputation of ignorance 
 and other general epithets of a similar kind, I believe 
 the memorialists, upon cool reflection, may be more 
 inclined to ascribe these observations to proceed from 
 honest zeal rather than wanton opposition. If it 
 should be otherwise, I shall remain very satisfied 
 that I have given my judgment of it according to 
 conscience ; and I cannot be afraid, if it is necessary, 
 that the whole writings upon the subject should be 
 again submitted to the final decision of his Majesty's 
 Postmaster-General. In regard to the power of 
 altering the course of the posts, I am decidedly of 
 opinion the question ought to go to their lordships' 
 judgment ; but as to any personal opposition to the 
 memorialists, I disclaim it ; and as they say they 
 are determined to fight tUl they conquer, I would 
 now retire from the contest, with this observation, 
 that, though such doctrines and resolutions may 
 be very good for the memorialists, they would, in 
 my humble opinion, if generally expressed and fol- 
 lowed, be very bad for the country." 
 
 It is really surprising how some of the ideas and 
 practices of the feudal times still survive, ancient 
 arrangements coming up from time to time for revi- 
 sion, as those who suffer acquire greater independence 
 or a truer conception of their position in the State. 
 Quite recently the Postmaster- General was called 
 
CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE. 143 
 
 upon to settle a dispute between the Senior Magis- 
 trate of Fraserburgh and Lord (the local seig- 
 neur) as to who had the right to receive letters 
 addressed to " The Provost " or " Chief Magistrate " 
 of Fraserburgh, both parties claiming such letters. 
 His lordship had hitherto obtained delivery of the 
 letters, on the ground of his being "heritable pro- 
 vost " or baron-bailie, titles which smell strongly of 
 antiquity ; but the modern Provost and Chief Magis- 
 trate, being no longer disposed to submit to the 
 arrangement, appealed to headquarters, and obtained 
 a decision as follows — viz., that he being Senior 
 Police Magistrate, should receive all communications 
 addressed to " The Provost," " The Chief Magistrate," 
 or "The Acting Chief Magistrate," and that Lord 
 
 should have a right to claim any addressed 
 
 to the " Baron-Bailie." The surprise is, that the 
 ancient method of disposing of the letters should 
 have been endured so long, and that a town's Pro- 
 vost should have been so slighted. 
 
 Personal interest, unfortunately, often steps in to 
 prevent or hinder the carrying out of reforms for the 
 general good ; even the selfishness of mere pleasure 
 placing itself as an obstacle to the accomplishment 
 of things of great consequence in practical life. The 
 Post-office being called upon to consider the question 
 of affording a daily post to a small place in Ireland, 
 
144 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 which until then had had but a tri-weekly post, a 
 gentleman called upon the postmaster to urge that 
 things might be left as they were, stating as his 
 reason that the change of hours, as regards the mail- 
 car, rendered necessary in connection with the pro- 
 posed improvements, would not suit himself and 
 some other gentlemen, who were in the habit of 
 using the car when going to fish on a lake near the 
 mail-car route ! Is not this a case showing a sad 
 lack of public spirit ? 
 
145 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 
 
 TRAVELLERS who are in the habit of journeying 
 over the principal railway lines, must at some 
 time or other have noticed certain carriages in the 
 express trains which had an unusually dull and van- 
 like appearance, though set off with a gilded crown 
 and the well-known letters V.R., and that generally 
 these carriages appeared to have no proper doors, 
 and were possessed of none but very diminutive 
 windows — on one side, at any rate. It wiU have 
 been observed, also, that sometimes two, three, or 
 more of such carriages are placed end to end in 
 certain trains, and that a hooded gangway or pas- 
 sage enables those inside one carriage to visit any or 
 all of the other carriages. When the smaU square 
 holes or dwarf doorways which communicate with 
 the outside are open, a glare of light is seen within, 
 which reveals a variety of human legs and much 
 canvas — the latter in the shape of mail-bags, either 
 
 K 
 
146 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 suspended from the walls of the carriage or lying 
 on the floor. These carriages are what are called 
 in the Post-office the " Travelling Post-office " ; or, 
 when brevity is desirable — as is often the case — 
 
 Travelling Post-office. 
 
 the " T.P.O." There are several travelling post-offices 
 of more or less importance pursuing their rapid flight 
 during the night in diSerent quarters of the country ; 
 but the most important, no doubt, are the " London 
 and North Western and Caledonian," running from 
 London to Aberdeen ; the " Midland," running from 
 Newcastle diagonally across England to Bristol ; and 
 the "London and Holyhead" travelling post-office, 
 by which the Irish mails to Dublin are conveyed as 
 far as Holyhead. 
 
THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 147- 
 
 If a stranger were allowed to travel in one of these 
 carriages, the first thing that would probably take his 
 notice would be the brilliant light which fills the 
 interior ; and the necessity for a good light to enable 
 men, standing on a vibrating and oscillating floor, to 
 read quickly all sorts of manuscript addresses, will 
 be understood by whoever has attempted to peruse 
 writing by the light derived fi-om the ordinary oil- 
 lamps of a railway carriage. Yet for years the light 
 supplied in the Travelling Post-ofiBce has been given 
 by improved oil-lamps, though more recently gas has 
 been introduced in some of the carriages. The next 
 thing he would notice would likely be the long series 
 of pigeon-holes occupying the whole of one side of 
 the vehicle, divided into groups — each box having 
 a name upon it or a number, and a narrow table 
 running along in front of the boxes, bearing a burden 
 of letters which the sorters are busily disposing of 
 by putting each one in its proper place — that is, in 
 the pigeon-hole, from which it will afterwards be 
 despatched. Then hanging on the walls or lying un- 
 der the table will be seen canvas bags and canvas 
 sacks, each having its name stencilled in bold letters 
 on its side ; and somewhere about the floor great 
 roUs of black leather, with enormously strong straps 
 and buckles — the expanse of leather in each roll 
 being almost sufficient to cover an ox. The use 
 
148 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 of these hides of leather will be described further 
 on. 
 
 The raison d'etre of the travelling post-office is to 
 circumvent time, — ^to enable that to be done on the 
 way which, without it, would have to be done before 
 the train started or after it arrived at its destination, 
 at the expense of time in the doing, and to collect 
 and dispose of correspondence at all points along 
 the route of the train — which correspondence would 
 otherwise in many cases have to pass through some 
 intermediate town, to be detained for a subsequent 
 means of conveyance. The T.P.O. is one of the 
 most useful parts of the machinery of the Post-office. 
 Among the smaller things that might be observed in 
 the carriage would be balls of string for tying bags 
 or bundles of letters, cyclopean sticks of sealing-wax, 
 a chronometer to indicate sure time, a lamp used for 
 melting the wax, and various books, report-forms, 
 seals, &c. 
 
 The stranger would be surprised, also, to see with 
 what expedition an experienced sorter can pass the 
 letters through his hands, seldom hesitating at an 
 address, but reading so much of it as is necessary 
 for his purpose, and, without raising his eyes, carry- 
 ing his hand to the proper pigeon-hole, just as a 
 proficient on a musical instrument can strike with 
 certainty the proper note without taking his eye off 
 
THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 149 
 
 his music. In some cases — as in dealing with 
 registered letters — a sorter has much writing to do ; 
 but, standing with his feet well apart, and holding a 
 light board on his left arm on which to write, and 
 further, by accommodating his body to the swinging 
 of the carriages, he is able to use his pen or pencil 
 with considerable freedom and success. 
 
 As the duties in the T.P.O. are for the most part 
 performed during the night, the sorters employed 
 have a great deal of night-work, and in some cases 
 their terms of duty are very broken and irregular. 
 Thus, with the hardships they have to endure in 
 periods of severe frost, when no heating apparatus 
 is supplied except a few warming-pans, they live a 
 life of duty far removed from ease or soft idleness. 
 
 The large pieces of leather with stout straps at- 
 tached, already referred to, called pouches, are used 
 as a protection to mail-bags which have to be de- 
 livered by what is commonly known as the apparatus. 
 The mail-bags to be so disposed of are rolled up in- 
 side one of these pouches ; the ends of the leather 
 are folded in ; the whole is bound round with the 
 strong leather straps ; and, the buckles being fastened, 
 the pouch is ready for delivery. But, first, let the 
 apparatus itself be described. This consists of two 
 parts : an arm or arms of stout iron attached to the 
 carriage, which can be extended outwards from the 
 
150 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 side, and to the end of which the pouch containing 
 the hag is suspended when ready; and a receiving 
 net, also attached to the side of the carriage, 
 which can likewise be extended outwards to catch 
 the mails to be taken up — this portion acting the 
 part of an aerial trawl-net to capture the bags sus- 
 pended from brackets on the roadside. The appa- 
 ratus on the roadside is the counterpart of that 
 on the carriage, the suspending arm in each case 
 fitting itself to the nets on the carriage and road- 
 side respectively. Now the use of this apparatus 
 demands much attention and alacrity on the part of 
 the men who are in charge of it ; for arms and net 
 must not, for fear of accidents, be extended anywhere 
 but at the appointed places, and within 200 or 300 
 yards of where the exchange of mails is to take place. 
 The operators, in timing the delivery, are guided by 
 certain features of the country they are passing 
 through — a bridge, a tree on a rising ground which 
 can be seen against the sky, a cutting along the line 
 through which the train passes with much clatter, 
 a railway station, and so on — as well as by their 
 estimate of the speed at which the train is running. 
 When the nights are clear, a trained operator can 
 easily recognise his marks ; but in a very dark night, 
 or during a fog, his skill and experience are put to 
 the test. On such occasions he seems to be guided 
 
THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 151 
 
 by the promptings of his collective senses. He puts 
 his face close to the window, shutting off the light 
 from the carriage with his hands, and peers into the 
 darkness, trying to recognise some wayside object; 
 he listens to the noise made by the train, estimates 
 its speed of travelling, and by these means he judges 
 of his position, and effects the exchange of the 
 mails. 
 
 It is indeed marvellous that so few failures take 
 place ; but this is an instance of how, by constant 
 application and experience, things are accomplished 
 which might at first sight be considered wellnigh 
 impossible. When the exchange takes place, it is 
 the work of a moment — "thud, thud." The arm 
 which bore the bag springs, disengaged, to the side 
 of the carriage ; the operator takes the inwards bag 
 from the net, draws the net close up to the side of 
 the vehicle, and the whole thing is done, and we 
 are ready for the next exchange. 
 
 The blow sustained by the pouch containing 
 the mail-bag at the moment of delivery, on oc- 
 casions when the train is running at a high speed, 
 is exceedingly severe, and sometimes causes damage 
 to the contents of the bags when of a fragile nature 
 and these are not secured in strong covers. A 
 bracelet sent by post was once damaged in this 
 way, giving rise to the following humorous note : — 
 
152 
 
 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 "Mr 
 
 - is sorry to return the bracelet to 
 It came this morning with the box 
 
 be repaired. 
 
 smashed, the bracelet bent, and one of the cairngorms 
 forced out. Among the modern improvements of 
 the Post-office appears to be the introduction of 
 sledge-hammers to stamp with. It would be advis- 
 able for Mr to remonstrate with the Post- 
 master-General," &c. 
 
 Delivering Arm, showing how the Pouch is suspended. 
 
 The Travelling Post-office apparatus is said to have 
 been originally suggested by Mr Eamsay of the 
 General Post-office ; but his machinery was not very 
 satisfactory when brought into practice. The idea 
 was, however, improved upon by Mr Dicker, who 
 was able to bring it into working condition ; and for 
 his services in this matter he was awarded a sum of 
 £500 by the Lords of the Treasury, and the Post- 
 master-General conferred upon him an appointment 
 as Supervisor of maU-bag apparatus. Some further 
 
THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE. 153 
 
 improvements were carried out by Mr Pearson Hill, 
 as, for example, the double arm, so that two pouches 
 might be discharged at once from the same carriage- 
 door. The apparatus first came to be used about 
 thirty years ago, and there are now in the United 
 Kingdom some 250 points or stations at which this 
 magical game of give and take is carried on daily, 
 and in many cases several times a-day. At certain 
 places not merely one or two pouches are discharged 
 at a time, but a running fire is sometimes kept up 
 to the extent of nine discharges of pouches. By the 
 limited mail proceeding to the North, nine pouches 
 are discharged at Oxenholme from the three Post- 
 office carriages, the method followed being this : 
 Two pouches are suspended from the arms at each 
 carriage-door, and upon these being discharged, three 
 of the arms are immediately reloaded, when the 
 pouches are caught by a second set of roadside nets, 
 distant only about 600 yards from the first. It is 
 necessary that great care should be taken in adjusting 
 the nets, arms, and roadside standards to their proper 
 positions in relation to one another, for any departure 
 from such adjustment sometimes leads to accident. 
 The pouches occasionally are sent bounding over 
 hedges, over the carriages, or under the carriage- 
 wheels, where they and their contents get cut to 
 pieces. Pouches have been found at the end of a 
 
154 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 journey on the carriage -roof, or hanging on to a 
 buffer. In November last, a pouch containing several 
 mail-bags was discharged from the Midland Travel- 
 ling Post-office at Cudworth, near Barnsley; but 
 something going wrong, the pouch got cut up, and 
 the contents were strewn along the line as far as 
 Normanton. Some of these were found to be 
 cheques, a silver watch, a set of artificial teeth, &c. 
 
 The following is a list of the Travelling Post- 
 offices in the United Kingdom, most of which travel 
 by night, distributing their freight of intellectual 
 produce through all parts of the country : — 
 
 North- Western and Caledonian. St Pancras and Derby. 
 
 Birmingham and Stafford. Midland. 
 
 London and Holyhead. Bristol and Newton Abbot. 
 
 Bangor and Crewe, and Nor- South- Western, 
 
 manton and Stalybridge. South-Eastern. 
 
 London and Exeter. Great Northern. 
 
 Bristol and Exeter. London and Bristol 
 
 York and Newcastle. London and Crewe. 
 
 Dublin and Belfast. Midland (Ireland). 
 
 Belfast and Northern Counties. Gt. Southern and Western. 
 Ulster. Dublin to Cork. 
 
 There are, besides, a great many other Travelling 
 Post-offices of minor importance throughout the 
 country, designated Sorting Tenders. 
 
155 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 
 
 POST-OFFICE sorters, unlike men who follow 
 other avocations, are a race unsung, and a 
 people unknown to fame. The soldier of adventure, 
 the mariner on the high seas, the village blacksmith, 
 the tiller of the soil, the woodman in the forest — 
 nay, even the tailor on his bench, — all of these have 
 formed the theme of song, and have claimed the 
 notice of writers of verse. It is otherwise with the 
 men who sort our letters. This may possibly be 
 due to two causes — that sorters are comparatively a 
 modern institution, and that their work is carried on 
 practically under seal. In times which are little 
 beyond the recollection of persons now living, the 
 lines of post were so few, and the division and 
 distribution of letters so simple, that the clerks who 
 examined and taxed the correspondence also sorted 
 it : and the time taken over the work would seem 
 to show much deliberation in the process; for we 
 
156 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 find that in 1796, when correspondence was very 
 limited, it took above an hour at Edinburgh " to 
 tell up, examine, and retax " the letters received by 
 the mail from England for places in the north ; and 
 that, when foreign mails arrived, two hours were 
 required ; and further time was necessary for taxing 
 and sorting letters posted in Edinburgh for the same 
 district of country — the staff employed in the busi- 
 ness being two clerks. In those days there were 
 really no sorters, unless such as were employed in 
 the chief oifice in London. As to the work being 
 carried on under seal, it is not going beyond the 
 truth to say that, to the great majority of persons, 
 the interior of the Post-office is a terra incognita, 
 their sole knowledge of the institution being derived 
 from the pillar and the postman. 
 
 Yet the sorters of the present age, forming a very 
 large body, are ever engaged in doing an important 
 and by no means simple duty. As letters arrive in 
 the morning, and are handed in at the breakfast- 
 table, speculation arises as to their origin ; a well- 
 known hand is recognised, interest is excited by the 
 contents, or the well-springs of emotion are opened — 
 joy is brought with the silvered note, or sorrow with 
 the black insignia of death ; and thus, absorbed in 
 the matter of the letters themselves, no passing 
 thought is spared to the operators whose diligent 
 
SORTEES AND CIKCULATION. 157 
 
 hands have given them wings or directed their line 
 of flight 
 
 When most men are enjoying the refreshment of 
 nature's sweet restorer, which it is the privilege of 
 the night-hours to give, the sorters in a large num- 
 ber of post-offices throughout the country are hard at 
 work, and on nearly all the great lines of railway the 
 travelling post-offices are speeding their wakeful flight 
 in every direction, carrying not only immense quan- 
 tities of correspondence, but a large staff of men who 
 arrange and sort it in transit. Unconsciously though 
 it may be, these men by their work are really a 
 most powerful agency in binding society together, 
 and promoting the commercial enterprise of the 
 country. It lies in the nature of things that sorters' 
 duties should largely fall into the night. Like a 
 skilful mariner who bends to his use every wind 
 that blows, the Post-office avails itself of every op- 
 portunity to send forward its letters. To lay aside 
 tUl morning, correspondence arriving at an inter- 
 mediate stage at night, would not consort with the 
 demands of the age we live in ; despatch is of the 
 first consequence, and hence it is that to deal with 
 through correspondence, many offices are open during 
 the night. Some offices are never closed : at all 
 hours the round of duty goes on without intermis- 
 sion; but in these, as also in many other cases 
 
158 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 where the periods of duty are long, relays of sorters 
 are necessarily employed. Much might be said of 
 the broken hours of attendance, the early risings, the 
 discomforts and cold of the travelling post-offices in 
 winter, and the like, which sorters have to endure ; 
 and something might also be said of their loyalty 
 to duty, punctuality in attendance, and readiness to 
 strain every nerve under the pressure of occasions 
 like Christmas. But these things would not, per- 
 haps, be of general interest, and our object here is 
 rather to show what a sorter's work really is. 
 
 Does it ever occur to an ordinary member of the 
 community how letters are sorted ? And if so, what 
 has the thinking member made of it ? We fear the 
 idea would wear a somewhat hazy complexion. This 
 is how it is done in Edinburgh, for example. The 
 letters when posted are of course found all mixed 
 together, and bearing addresses of every kind. They 
 are first arranged with the postage-stamps all in one 
 direction, then they are stamped (the labels being 
 defaced in the process), and thereafter the letters are 
 ready to be sorted. They are conveyed to sorting 
 frames, where a first division is carried out, the letters 
 being divided into about twenty lots, representing 
 roads or despatching divisions, and a few large towns. 
 Then at these divisions the final sortation takes place, 
 to accord with the bags in which the letters will be 
 
SORTERS AND CIRCXILATION. 159 
 
 enclosed when the proper hour of despatch arrives. 
 This seems a very simple process, does it not ? 
 
 But before a sorter is competent to do this work, 
 he must learn " circulation," which is the technical 
 name for the system under which correspondence 
 flows to its destination, as the blood courses through 
 the body by means of the arteries and veins. By 
 way of contrast to what will be stated hereafter, it 
 may be convenient to see how letters circulated less 
 than a hundred years ago. In 1793 the London 
 mail arrived at Glasgow at 6 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, but the letters for Paisley did not reach the 
 latter place till 11 a.m. — that is, five hours after 
 their arrival in Glasgow, though the distance between 
 the places is only seven miles. A couple of years 
 before that, letters arriving at Edinburgh on Sun- 
 day morning for Stirling, Alloa, and other places 
 north thereof, which went by way of Falkirk, were 
 not despatched till Sunday night ; they reached 
 Falkirk the same night or early on Monday morn- 
 ing, and there they remained till Tuesday morn- 
 ing, when they went on with the North mail — so 
 that between Edinburgh and Falkirk two whole days 
 were consumed. In the year 1794 the London 
 mail reached Edinburgh at 6 A.M., unless when de- 
 tained by bad weather or breakdowns. The letters 
 which it brought for Perth, Aberdeen, and places on 
 
& 
 
 160 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 that line, lay in Edinburgh fourteen hours — viz., till 
 8 P.M. — before being sent on. The people of Aberdeen 
 were not satisfied with the arrangement, and as the 
 result of agitation, the hour was altered to 1 P.M. 
 This placed them, however, in no better position, for 
 the arrival at Aberdeen was so late at night, that the 
 letters could only be dealt with next day. It was 
 not easy to accommodate all parties, and there was a 
 good deal of trouble over this matter. The Edin- 
 burgh newspapers required an interval, after the 
 arrival of the London mail, for the printing of their 
 journals and preparing them for the North de- 
 spatch. The Aberdeen people thought that an inter- 
 val of three hours was sufficient for all purposes 
 and urged that the North mail should start at 9 
 A.M. In one of their memorials they write thus : 
 " They think that the institution of posts was, in the 
 first place, to facilitate commerce by the conveyance 
 of letters with the quickest possible despatch from one 
 end of the kingdom to the other, and, in the next place, 
 to raise a revenue for Government; and they cannot 
 conceive that either of those ends will be promoted 
 by the letters of two-thirds of the kingdom of Scot- 
 land lying dormant for many hours at Edinburgh." 
 
 In another of the petitions from the people of 
 Aberdeen, they strangely introduce their loyalty as 
 a lever in pressing their claims : " Were we of this 
 
SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 161 
 
 city," say they, " to lay claim to auy peculiar 
 merit, it might perhaps be that of a sincere attach- 
 ment to order and good government, which places ns, 
 in this respect at least, equal to the most dignified 
 city in Britain." 
 
 From a Post-office point of view the memorialists 
 appeared to be under some mistake as to the gain to 
 be derived from the change desired, for there was 
 something connected with the return mails which 
 did not fall in with the plan, and the surveyor made 
 some opposition to it. In one of his reports he 
 makes this curious observation : " I am persuaded 
 that some of them, as now appears to be the case, 
 may be very well pleased to get free from the obliga- 
 tion of answering their letters in course — and par- 
 ticularly in money matters " ! 
 
 These facts show what a poor circulation the 
 Post-office had at the period in question, and what 
 splendid intervals there were in which to sort the 
 correspondence. Nowadays, in any office pretend- 
 ing to importance, the letters pour in all day long 
 (and all night too, possibly), and they pour out in a 
 constant stream at the same time — letters being in 
 and out of an office in certain instances within the 
 space of a few minutes. A good sorter will sort 
 letters at the rate of 25 to 40 a minute. But 
 let us look at what a sorter has to learn to do 
 
 L 
 
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SOKTEES AND CIRCULATION. 163 
 
 this. A leaf of the circulation book in use at Edin- 
 burgh for places in England is here inserted (p. 162), 
 which will be of assistance in understanding the 
 matter. It will be observed that there are seven 
 times in the day at which despatches are made to 
 England. Letters for Martock, in Somersetshire, for 
 example, in accordance with the hour at which they 
 may be posted, would be sent thus : to Birming- 
 ham at 10.0 A-M.; to the Midland Travelling Post- 
 office Forward, third division, at 2.40 p.m.; no cir- 
 culation at 4.15 P.M.; to the Glasgow and Carlisle 
 Sorting Tender (a sorting carriage running between 
 these towns) at 5.50 p.m.; no circulation at 7.20 p.m.; 
 to the Bristol and Exeter Travelling Post-office at 
 9.0 P.M.; and to London at 10.0 P.M. Then if we take 
 Mitcheldean, at the foot of the sheet, its circulation 
 is this: to Birmingham at 10.0 A.M.: to Gloucester 
 at 2.40 P.M.; to the Glasgow and Carlisle Sorting 
 Tender at 5.50 p.m.; to Gloucester at 9.0 p.m.; and 
 to Manchester at 10.0 p.m. And so on throughout 
 the book, which contains the names of some 1300 
 places in England. Nor, as regards England, is this all. 
 The sorters have to divide letters into the several 
 London districts by reference to the street addresses 
 which the letters bear. Again, these men have to 
 know the circulation for Scotch towns and Irish 
 towns, and many of them have, besides, such a know- 
 
164 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ledge of the streets of their own city, Edinburgh, as 
 enables them to sort letters for delivery into the 
 several postmen's districts. Thus it will be seen 
 that the sortation of letters is no mere mechanical 
 process, but demands considerable head-work, as well 
 as activity of body. 
 
 With some men it is impossible for them ever to 
 become good sorters, even with the most earnest 
 desire on their part to do so. There are certain 
 qualities necessary for the purpose, and if they are 
 not united in the person, he will never come to the 
 front as a good sorter. These are : self-command — 
 necessary when working against time; activity in 
 his person so as to meet any sudden strain of work ; 
 a methodical habit; and, the sine qud non of a 
 sorter, a quick, prehensile, and retentive memory. 
 So much has a sorter to learn, that a man without a 
 head can never distinguish himself ; and an educa- 
 tional test, except as a measure of acquirements in a 
 collateral way, is of very little use. A sorter's success 
 rests chiefly upon natural aptitude. 
 
 In the circulation of letters, we may discover the 
 paradox that " the longest road is often the shortest ; " 
 the explanation of which is, that by a roundabout way 
 letters may sometimes arrive sooner than by wait- 
 ing the next chance by a more direct route. Post- 
 of&ce circulation is not tied down by any strait-laced 
 
SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 165 
 
 lines of geographical science, nor by any considera- 
 tion but that of the economy of time. 
 
 For example, at certain periods letters from 
 Edinburgh for places in Norfolk and Suffolk go on 
 to London, to return north to those counties by the 
 mails out of London ; similarly, letters for places 
 north of Manchester are at certain hours sent on to 
 that city, to be returned part of the way by next 
 opportunity. It will no doubt seem a puzzle that 
 letters for Ireland should, at a certain time of day, 
 be forwarded from Edinburgh to Leeds in Yorkshire ! 
 Yet this is so, and with good results, — the fact being 
 that, after the more direct despatches for the day, 
 Irish letters are sent by the last evening train to 
 Leeds, whence early next morning they are sent across 
 the country, reaching a travelling post-ofi&ce proceed- 
 ing from London to Holyhead, and then catching the 
 day-mail packet for Ireland. Thus they arrive in 
 the sister isle by the time they would otherwise be 
 only leaving Scotland. In the travelling post-offices 
 the plan of carrying letters away from their desti- 
 nations in order that time may be gained for their 
 sortation, and afterwards sending them back by a 
 Post-office carriage proceeding in the reverse direction, 
 is largely practised, and with the greatest advantage. 
 Again, letters from Newcastle-on-Tyne for Glasgow, 
 forwarded by the night-mail, take what might be 
 
166 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 thought to be a very wide circuit — namely, by way 
 of Normanton in Yorkshire, and Manchester and 
 Wigan in Lancashire ; yet that circulation is found 
 to be best at the hour at which the night - mail 
 despatch is made. In one more case that may be 
 cited, letters from Berwick-on-Tweed for Carlisle are, 
 at a certain time of the day, forwarded through Edin- 
 burgh as the most expeditious route. There is such 
 a complexity of arrangement in the matter of circu- 
 lation, and so great a dependence of any one part on 
 a great many other surrounding parts, that compara- 
 tively few persons ever thoroughly imderstand it, and 
 only those who can master it should meddle with it. 
 In one aspect the process of sortation bears some 
 resemblance to digestion. This is observed in con- 
 nection with the strange courses which letters run if, 
 by a first misreading of the address, they happen to 
 get out of their proper line or direction. A day 
 seldom passes but some letter addressed to Eden- 
 bridge in Kent reaches the city of Edinburgh, either 
 from London or some other English town. There 
 is, of course, a strong resemblance between the names 
 of the two places as written, yet the missent letters 
 must have passed through the hands of two or three 
 sorters before reaching Edinburgh. But though this 
 might seem to suggest carelessness, there is this to 
 be said, that whenever a letter for Edenbridge gets 
 
SORTERS AND CIRCULATION. 167 
 
 out of its own course, and into the stream of letters 
 for Edinburgh, the sorters have a predisposition to 
 assimilate it as an Edinburgh letter, and so it gets 
 forwarded to that city. The same thing applies in 
 regard to letters for Leek, Leith, and Keith, and for 
 Musselburgh and Middlesborough — especially when, 
 as is too often the case, the writing is not good ; and 
 many other similar instances might be given. Let- 
 ters for Fiji frequently reach Edinburgh from Lon- 
 don and the South, being missent as for Fife in 
 Scotland; and we have it on the authority of the 
 Colonial Postmaster of Fiji, that numbers of letters, 
 papers, &c., directed to Fife, reach the Fiji Islands. 
 Two letters posted at Hamilton, Bermuda, and ad- 
 dressed to Edinburgh, Saratoga Co., N.Y., were re- 
 cently observed to perform a curious circuit before 
 reaching their destination. Instead of being sent 
 direct to the United States from Bermuda, they were 
 forwarded to London in England ; and here, getting 
 into the current of inland correspondence, they were 
 sent to Edinburgh in Scotland. At this stage their 
 wild career was stopped, and they were put in 
 proper course to recross the Atlantic. It is near 
 the truth to say, that similarity of names and bad 
 writing are the causes of very many of the irregu- 
 larities which befall letters in their transit through 
 the post. 
 
168 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PIGEON-POST. 
 
 THE intellectual superiority of man has enabled 
 him to bend to his purposes the various physi- 
 cal powers of the lower animals — as, for example, the 
 strength of the ox and the fleetness of the horse — 
 and his observation has taught him also to turn to 
 his use some of the instincts of the lower creation, 
 though these gifts may lie hidden beyond the reach 
 of his understanding. Thus the keen scent of the 
 bloodhound, and the sense which enables the "ship 
 of the desert " to sniff the distant spring, are equally 
 become subservient to the interests of man ; but it 
 is with reference to another instinct not less remark- 
 able that this chapter is written — the homing in- 
 stinct of the carrier-pigeon. This gentle bird has 
 long been known as a messenger capable of con- 
 veying news from one place to another over con- 
 siderable distances. It is asserted that "Hirtius 
 and Brutus, at the siege of Modena, held a corre- 
 
PIGEON-POST. 169 
 
 spondence by pigeons ; and Ovid tells us that Tau- 
 rosthenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave 
 notice to his father of his victory at the Olympic 
 games, sending it to him at ^gina." In Persia 
 and Turkey pigeons were trained for this service, 
 and it is stated that every bashaw had some of 
 these birds reared, in order swiftly to convey news 
 to the seraglio on occasions of insurrection or other 
 emergency. In somewhat modern times the best 
 birds were said to be those of Aleppo, which served 
 as couriers at Alexandretta and Bagdad ; but many 
 years ago their services in this line had to be given 
 up, owing to the Kurd robbers killing the pigeons in 
 the course of their journey. It does not appear, 
 however, that, until quite recent times, any great 
 use has been made of these birds by Western nations, 
 at any rate under any extended scheme for com- 
 mercial or peaceful ends. Yet, by what may seem 
 an incongruity, the dove, which is par excellence the 
 emblem of love and peace, has of late years been 
 trained for purposes of war by the great Continental 
 States ; and it is impossible to predict how far the 
 fate of nations may be determined hereafter by the 
 performances of these naturally harmless creatures. 
 The following particulars from one of the annual 
 reports on the Post-office will show to what extent 
 service was rendered by carrier-pigeons in keeping 
 
170 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 up postal communication with Paris when that city 
 was invested during the Franco - German war of 
 1870-71:— 
 
 "As the war proceeded and the hostile forces 
 approached Paris, the risk of interruption to our 
 Indian mails became more and more imminent, and 
 caused serious uneasiness to the Post-oflSce. This 
 feeling, which was not long in communicating itself 
 to the public, the subsequent investment of the 
 capital served to enhance. The mails had now to 
 branch off at Amiens, and go round by Eouen and 
 Tours, at a cost, in point of time, of from thirty to 
 forty hours ; but even this circuitous route could not 
 long be depended upon, and nothing remained but 
 to abandon Marseilles altogether as the line of com- 
 munication for our Indian mails. There was only 
 one alternative — to send them through Belgium and 
 Germany by the Brenner Pass to Brindisi, and thence 
 by Italian packets to Alexandria. 
 
 "But it was in respect to the mails for France 
 herself, and especially for Paris, that the greatest per- 
 plexity prevailed. As soon as Amiens was threat- 
 ened — Amiens, the very key-stone of our postal 
 communication with the interior and south of France 
 — it became evident that the route vid Calais would 
 not remain much longer. The alternative routes 
 that presented themselves were vid Dieppe, and vid 
 
PIGEON-POST. 171 
 
 Cherbourg or St Malo, and no time was lost in 
 making the necessary arrangements with the Brigh- 
 ton and South -Western Eailway Companies. By 
 both Companies trains were kept in constant readi- 
 ness at the terminus in London, and vessels re- 
 mained under steam at Newhaven and Southampton, 
 prepared to start at the shortest notice, according to 
 the course events might take. Late in the evening 
 of the 26th of November, intelligence was received 
 in London that the line of communication through 
 Amiens was closed, and the mails were diverted 
 from Calais to Cherbourg; within the next four 
 days Cherbourg was exchanged for Dieppe, and 
 Dieppe soon afterwards for St Malo. As to the 
 means adopted for maintaining communication with 
 Paris, the pigeon-post has become matter of history. 
 Letters intended for this novel mode of transmission 
 had to be sent to the headquarters of the French 
 Post-office at Tours, where, it is understood, they 
 were all copied in consecutive order, and by a pro- 
 cess of photography transferred in a wonderfully 
 reduced form to a diminutive piece of very thin 
 paper, such as a pigeon could carry, the photo- 
 graphic process being repeated on their arrival in 
 Paris, for the purpose of obtaining a larger impres- 
 sion. They were essential conditions that these 
 letters should be posted open without cover or 
 
172 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 envelope, and that they should be registered; that 
 they should be restricted to twenty words ; that they 
 should be written in French in clear and intelli- 
 gible language, and that they should relate solely to 
 private affairs, and contain no allusion either to the 
 war or to politics. The charge was fixed at 5d. 
 for each word (the name and address counting as 
 one word), and 6d. for registration. During the 
 investment, from November 1870 to January 1871, 
 the number of letters sent from London to Tours, 
 for despatch by pigeon-post to Paris, was 1234." 
 
 Profiting by the example furnished during the 
 progress of the Franco-German war, the good people 
 of the Fiji Islands have quite recently established 
 a pigeon-post, to serve them in the peaceful pur- 
 suits of trade. The colony of Fiji is a group of 
 225 islands, between which the communications by 
 sailing-vessels or steamers are not very regular, the 
 former being frequently becalmed or retarded by 
 head-winds, while the latter are of small power and 
 low speed. An important part of the trade of the 
 Islands consists in exporting fruit and other produce 
 to Australia and New Zealand, the largest portion 
 consisting of bananas, of which a single steamer will 
 sometimes carry about 12,000 bunches. It is desir- 
 able not to cut the bananas till the steamers from 
 Australia and New Zealand arrive at Fiji, and conse- 
 
PIGEON-POST. 173 
 
 quently early news of the event is most important 
 to planters in the more remote islands ; for if the 
 small schooners or cutters which carry the fruit 
 between the islands arrive too late for the steamer, 
 the poor planters lose their whole produce, which, 
 being perishable, has to be thrown overboard. In 
 these circumstances a pigeon-post has been called 
 into operation ; and should this method of communi- 
 cation be extended to all the important islands, as 
 it has already been to some, many a cargo will be 
 saved to the poor planters which would otherwise 
 be wholly lost. 
 
 Subjoined is a copy of news by " Pigeon-post," 
 taken from the 'Polynesian Gazette' of the lOtli 
 June 1884. It was conveyed by pigeon from Suva 
 to Levuka, a distance as the crow flies of about 40 
 miles, and the time occupied in transit was 42 
 minutes, the actual flight to the home of the pigeon 
 taking but 30 minutes : — 
 
 " LATEST NEWS FROM SUVA. 
 
 " Per Figeon-post. 
 
 'The following despatch, dated Suva, Sunday, 
 3 P.M., was received at Nasova at 3.42 same day: — 
 
 " Hero arrived midnight, left Melbourne 26 th, 
 Xewcastle 29th. Passengers — Mrs Fowler and 
 
174 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 child, Mrs Cusack and family, Mrs Blythe and child, 
 Messrs F. Hughes, Fullarton, J. Sims, J. B. Matthews, 
 T. Eose, and A. H. Chambers. 
 
 " Agents-General of Queensland and Victoria 
 gone to France to interview Ministers in re recidi- 
 vistes question. Marylebone won match, one innings 
 and 115 runs ; Australians have since defeated Bir- 
 mingham eleven. Gunga, Capt. Fleetwood, leaves 
 Sydney 24th ult. New Zealand football team beat 
 NiS. Wales, 34 points to nil. Cintra at Newcastle, 
 loading coal for Melbourne, same time as Hero. 
 A.S.N. Co. bought Adelaide Simpsons Birkgate and 
 Fenterden. 
 
 " Wairarapa and Penguin just arrived, further 
 news when admitted to pratique. 
 
 " Monday, 5 p.m. 
 
 " Penguin may be expected in Levuka mid-day 
 to-morrow, Tuesday. 
 
 " Wairarapa leaves for Levuka at daylight on 
 Wednesday. Hero leaves at 10.30 on Tuesday, for 
 Deuba, and may be expected to arrive in Levuka on 
 Wednesday night." 
 
 It is right to add that the " Pigeon-post " of Fiji 
 is not connected with the Postal Department, but is 
 carried on as a private enterprise. 
 
175 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, AND OTHER 
 PETTY FRAUDS. 
 
 Abuse of the Franking Privilege. 
 
 "TTTHEEEVEE the use of anything of value is 
 ' ' given without the cheek of a money or 
 other equivalent, the use is sure to degenerate into 
 abuse ; and in the experience of the Post-office this 
 has been proved to be the case, both as regards 
 letters and telegrams. In regard to the first, the 
 franking privilege was long found to be a canker 
 eating into the vitals of the Eevenue ; and its aboli- 
 tion on the introduction of the penny postage in 
 1840 came none too soon. Had the privilege been 
 longer continued, it is impossible to conceive to what 
 extent the abuse of it might have grown ; but what 
 might have occurred here has, in some measure, 
 taken place in the United States, as is. shown by the 
 following statement made by the Postmaster-General 
 
176 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 of that country, about twenty years after the aboli- 
 tion of the privilege in this : — 
 
 "Another potent reason for the abolition of the 
 franking privilege, as now exercised, is found in the 
 abuses which seem to be inseparable from its exist- 
 ence. These abuses, though constantly exposed and 
 animadverted upon for a series of years, have as con- 
 stantly increased. It has been often stated by my 
 predecessors, and is a matter of public notoriety, that 
 immense masses of packages are transported under 
 the Government frank which neither the letter nor 
 the spirit of the statute creating the franking privilege 
 would justify ; and a large number of letters, docu- 
 ments, and packages are thus , conveyed, covered by 
 the frank of officials, written in violation of law, not 
 by themselves, but by some real or pretended agent ; 
 whUe whole sacks of similar matter, which have 
 never been handled nor even seen by Government 
 functionaries, are transported under franks which 
 have been forged. The extreme difficulty of detect- 
 ing such forgeries has greatly multiplied this class 
 of offences ; whilst their prevalence has so deadened 
 the public sentiment in reference to them, that a 
 conviction, however ample the proof, is scarcely pos- 
 sible to be obtained. The statute of 1825, denouncing 
 the counterfeiting of an official frank under a heavy 
 penalty, is practically inoperative. I refer you to 
 
ABUSE OF THK FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 177 
 
 the case reported at length by the United States 
 attorney for the district, as strikingly illustrating 
 this vitiated public opinion, reflected from the jury- 
 box. The proof was complete, and the case unre- 
 deemed by a single palliation ; and yet the offender 
 was discharged unrebuked, to resume, if it should 
 please him, his guilty task. This verdict of ac- 
 quittal is understood to have been rendered on two 
 grounds: first, that the accused said he did not 
 commit the offence to avoid the payment of the 
 postages ; and second, that the offence has become 
 so prevalent that it is no longer proper to punish it. 
 These are startling propositions, whether regarded in 
 their legal, moral, or logical aspects." 
 
 The unblushing way in which the British Post- 
 office in its earlier days was called upon to convey 
 not only franked letters, but, under franks, articles 
 of a totally different class, will be perceived from the 
 following cases. It is not to be understood, how- 
 ever, that the things consigned actually passed 
 through the Post-office, but rather that they were 
 admitted for transport on board the special packet- 
 ships of Government, sailing for the purposes of the 
 Post-office. The cases are taken from the first 
 annual report of the Postmaster-General: — 
 
 " Fifteen couples of hounds going to the King of 
 the Romans with a free pass." 
 
 M 
 
178 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 "Some parcels of cloth for the clothing colonels 
 in my Lord North's and my Lord Grey's regiments." 
 
 "Two servant-maids going as laundresses to my 
 Lord Ambassador Methuen." 
 
 " Doctor Crichton, carrying with him a cow and 
 divers other necessaries." 
 
 " Three suits of cloaths for some nobleman's lady 
 at the Court of Portugal." 
 
 " A box containing three pounds of tea, sent as 
 a present by my Lady Arlington to the Queen- 
 Dowager of England at Lisbon." 
 
 "Eleven couples of hounds for Major-General 
 Hompesch." 
 
 " A case of knives and forks for Mr Stepney, her 
 Majesty's Envoy to the King of Holland." 
 
 " One little parcell of lace, to be made use of in 
 clothing Duke Schomberg's regiment." 
 
 " Two bales of stockings for the use of the Ambas- 
 sador of the Crown of Portugal." 
 
 "A box of medicines for my Lord Gal way in 
 Portugal." 
 
 " A deal case with four flitches of bacon for Mr 
 Pennington of Eotterdam." 
 
 The Post-office always had a great deal of trouble 
 in controlling and keeping in check this system of 
 franking ; and withal, the privilege was much abused. 
 Before the year 1764, members of Parliament had 
 
ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE. 179 
 
 merely to write their names on the covers to ensure 
 their correspondence free passage through the post ; 
 and packets of such franks were furnished by the 
 members to their friends, who laid them past for use 
 as occasion required. Nay, more, — a trade was carried 
 on in franks by the servants of members, whose 
 practice it was to ask their masters to sign them in 
 great numbers at a time. It was even suspect€d, 
 and probably with sufficient reason, that franks were 
 forged to a large extent ; and, had postage been paid 
 on all franked correspondence, it is estimated that 
 the Eevenue would have been increased by £1 70,000. 
 In the hope of imposing some greater check on the 
 evil, it was enacted in 1763 that the whole super- 
 scription must be in the handwriting of the member ; 
 but even this proved inadequate, and further restric- 
 tions were imposed in 1784 and 1795. Some very 
 difficult and troublesome questions arose from time 
 to time in dealing with members' letters. For 
 example, when a member of Parliament had no 
 place of residence in London, and was living out 
 of the United Kingdom, if he had his letters ad- 
 dressed to a public office, or to any solicitor, banker, 
 or other agent, he was not entitled to have his letters 
 free of postage, but, if so directed and delivered, the 
 postage had to be paid. Again, when a member 
 kept up a residence in London, but had his letters 
 
180 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 directed to another place, the member ceased to 
 enjoy the privilege as regards such letters; as he 
 also did when letters were addressed to his residence 
 in the country, and he happened to be elsewhere at 
 the time of their deKvery. Then a Catholic peer 
 dying, who had never taken his seat, and being suc- 
 ceeded by his brother, who was a Protestant, the 
 question is raised whether the latter could claim to 
 use the franking privilege before the issue of the 
 writ calling him to the House of Peers ; and the 
 legal decision is given that he could not so exercise 
 the privilege. Keeping the members within proper 
 bounds must evidently have been a task for the 
 officers of the Post-office requiring both vigilance 
 and determination. 
 
 But there was another kind of fraud carried on 
 under the privilege granted to soldiers. A surveyor 
 in Scotland thus referred to the irregularity as ob- 
 served in Scotland in 1797 : — 
 
 " As there is so much smuggling of letters already 
 in Scotland, and reason to suspect it will increase 
 from the additional rates, it is matter of serious con- 
 cern to the Kevenue to obtain a clear legal restric- 
 tion ; and I wish you to represent it to the Board 
 at London, in case it may not be too late to offer 
 any hints from the distant situation we are in. 
 
 " I have had occasion formerly to observe to you 
 
OTHER KINDS OF FRAUD. 181 
 
 that a very great evasion of the Post Revenue has 
 taken place — particularly in the north of Scotland — 
 from the privilege granted to soldiers, under cover 
 of which not only a very general opportunity is 
 taken by the common people there to have their 
 letters carried by soldiers to be freed by their 
 officers, and having them again in return under 
 soldiers' addresses ; but even in several instances 
 which I observed and detected, persons in higher 
 ranks have availed themselves of this circumstance." 
 
 The Post-office has also been exposed to frauds in 
 other ways. Thus it was a common device to take 
 a newspaper bearing the newspaper frank, prick out 
 with a pin certain words in the print making up a 
 message to be sent, and the newspaper so prepared 
 served all the purposes of a letter as between the 
 sender and receiver. Or a message would be written 
 on the cover of a newspaper with the first of aU 
 fluids known to us — milk — which, when dry, was 
 not observed, but developed a legible communication 
 subsequently when held to the fire. 
 
 The following anecdotes of the evasions of postage 
 are told by the late Sir Eowland Hill : — 
 
 "Some years ago, when it was the practice to 
 write the name of a member of Parliament for the 
 purpose of franking a newspaper, a friend of mine, 
 previous to starting on a tour into Scotland, arranged 
 
182 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 with his family a plan of informing them of his pro- 
 gress and state of health, without putting them to 
 the expense of postage. It was managed thus : He 
 carried with him a number of old newspapers, one 
 of which he put into the post daily. The postmark, 
 with the date, showed his progress ; and the state 
 of his health was evinced by the selection of the 
 names from a list previously agreed upon, with which 
 the newspaper was franked. Sir Francis Burdett, I 
 recollect, denoted vigorous health." 
 
 " Once on the poet's [Coleridge's] visit to the Lake 
 district, he halted at the door of a wayside inn at 
 the moment when the rural postman was delivering 
 a letter to the barmaid of the place. Upon receiv- 
 ing it she turned it over and over in her hand, and 
 then asked the postage of it. The postman demanded 
 a shilling. Sighing deeply, however, the girl handed 
 the letter back, saying she was too poor to pay the 
 required sum. The poet at once offered to pay the 
 postage ; and in spite of some resistance on the part 
 of the girl, which he deemed quite natural, did so. 
 The messenger had scarcely left the place when the 
 young barmaid confessed that she had learnt all she 
 was likely to learn from the letter; that she had 
 only been practising a preconceived trick — she and 
 her brother having agreed that a few hieroglyphics 
 on the back of the letter should tell her all she 
 
OTHER KINDS OF FRAUD. 183 
 
 wanted to know, whilst the letter would contain 
 no writing. 'We are so poor,' she added, 'that we 
 have invented this manner of corresponding and 
 franking our letters.' " 
 
 In asserting its monopoly in the carriage of letters 
 in towns, or wherever the Post-office had established 
 posts, there was always trouble ; and so much atten- 
 tion did the matter require, that special ofBcers for 
 the duty were employed, called " Apprehenders of 
 Private Letter-carriers." The penalties were some- 
 what severe when infringements were discovered, 
 and the action taken straight and prompt, as will 
 be seen by the following, which is a copy of a 
 letter written in 1817 to a person charging him 
 with breaking the law :— 
 
 " Sir, — His Majesty's Postmasters-General have re- 
 ceived an information laid against you, that on the 
 
 18th ultimo your clerk, Mr , for whom you are 
 
 answerable, illegally sent three letters in a parcel 
 by a stage-coach to you at Broadstairs, Kent, con- 
 trary to the statute made to prevent the sending of 
 letters otherwise than by the post. 
 
 " I am commanded by their lordships to inform 
 you that you have thereby incurred three penalties 
 of £5 each, and that they feel it their duty to 
 proceed against you to recover the same. 
 
184 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 " Should you have any explanation to give, you 
 will please to address the Postmaster-General. — I 
 am," &c. 
 
 In August 1794, at the Warwick Assizes, a 
 carrier between Warwick and Birmingham was con- 
 victed of illegally collecting and carrying letters, 
 when penalties amounting to £1500 were incurred; 
 but the prosecution consented to a verdict being 
 taken for two penalties of £5 each, with costs of the 
 suit. A report of the period observed that " this 
 verdict should be a warning to carriers, coachmen, 
 and other persons, against taking up letters tied 
 round with a string or covered with brown paper, 
 under pretence of being parcels, which, the learned 
 judge observed, was a flimsy evasion of the law." 
 
 The very cheap postage which we now enjoy has 
 removed the inducement in a large measure to com- 
 mit petty frauds of this kind on the Post-office 
 Revenue, and the commission of such things may 
 now be said to belong to an age that is past. 
 
 Frauds on the Public. 
 
 The Post-office, while it is the willing handmaid 
 to commerce, the vehicle of social intercourse, and 
 the necessary helper in almost every enterprise and 
 occupation, becomes at the same time a ready means 
 
FRAUDS ON THE PUBLIC. 185 
 
 for the unscrupulous to carry on a wonderful variety 
 of frauds on the public, and enables a whole army 
 of needy and designing persons to live upon the gen- 
 erous impulses of society. While these things go on, 
 — and Post-office officials know they go on, — the 
 Department is helpless to prevent them ; for the work 
 of the Post-office is carried on as a secret business, 
 in so far as the communications intrusted to it are 
 concerned, and the contents of the letters conveyed 
 are not its property or interest. There are men and 
 women who go about from town to town writing 
 begging -letters to well-to-do persons, appealing for 
 help under all sorts of pretences ; and these persons 
 are as well known, in the sense of being customers 
 to the Department, as a housekeeper is known at her 
 grocer's shop. There are other persons, again, who 
 carry on long-firm swindles through the post, obtain- 
 ing goods which are never to be paid for ; and as 
 soon as the goods are received at one place, the 
 swindlers move on to another place, assume new 
 names, and repeat the operation. The schemes 
 adopted are often very deeply laid ; and the police, 
 when once set upon the track, have hard work to 
 unravel the wily plans. But tradespeople are not 
 infrequently themselves very much to blame, as they 
 show themselves too confiding, and too ready to do 
 business with unknown persons. 
 
186 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 The following is an instance of a fraud upon well- 
 to-do persons in this country, attempted by an Amer- 
 ican in the year 1869 : — 
 
 The Eev. Mr Champneys, of St Pancras, London, 
 received a letter posted at Plorence, Burlington 
 County, New Jersey, U.S., which upon being opened 
 seemed to be not intended for him, but was a com- 
 munication purporting to be written from one sister 
 to another. The letter made it appear that the 
 writer was highly connected, had fallen into the 
 greatest distress owing to the death of her husband, 
 that her feelings of self-respect had restrained her 
 from telling her griefs till she could no longer with- 
 hold them, and making free use of the deepest 
 pathos and high-sounding sentiments, and finally 
 appealing for an immediate remittance. Mr Champ- 
 neys, not suspecting a fraud, and desiring to help 
 forward the letter to the person who, as he supposed, 
 should have received it, inserted the following adver- 
 tisement in the ' Times ' newspaper : — 
 
 "A letter, dated Florence, Burlington County, 
 New Jersey, U.S., intended for Mrs Lucy Campbell, 
 Scotland, has been misdirected to Eev. W. Champ- 
 neys, 31 Gordon Square. Will Mrs Campbell kindly 
 communicate her address immediately ? " 
 
 In response to this inquiry, what was Mr Champ- 
 ney's surprise but to find that a large number of 
 
FRAUDS ON THE PUBLIC. 187 
 
 persons had received letters in identical terms and 
 in precisely the same circumstances ' This of course 
 caused him to reflect, and then the facts became 
 clear to him — which were, that under the guise of a 
 trifling mistake, that of placing a letter in the wrong 
 envelope, a set of dire circumstances were placed 
 before persons who were likely to be kind-hearted 
 and generous, in the hope that, though the writer 
 was unknown to them, they might send some money 
 to cheer a poor but respectable family steeped in 
 calamity ! 
 
 How far the attempt succeeded does not appear, 
 but Mr Champneys very properly at once wrote a 
 letter to the ' Times ' exposing the fraud, and it is to 
 be hoped that some generous souls were in conse- 
 quence saved from folly. 
 
 One more instance — but one coming within the 
 class of the " confidence trick." In several country 
 newspapers the following advertisement made its 
 appearance : — 
 
 "An elderly bachelor of fortune, wishing to test 
 the credulity of the public, and to benefit and assist 
 others, will send a suitable present of genuine worth, 
 according to the circumstances of the applicant, to 
 all who will send him 1 7 stamps — demanded merely 
 as a token of confidence. Stamps will be returned 
 with the present." And then the address followed. 
 
188 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 which was not always the same in all the adver- 
 tisements. 
 
 The advertiser alone would be able to say how far 
 he profited by this little arrangement, but some idea 
 of the simplicity of mankind may be derived from 
 the fact that between 300 and 400 letters for this 
 person, each containing 1 7 stamps, reached the Dead- 
 letter Office — owing doubtless to his having " moved 
 on" from the places where he had lived, in conse- 
 quence of their becoming too warm to hold him. 
 Specimens of the letters written by the dupes are as 
 follows : — - 
 
 1. "The Eev. encloses 17 stamps. He is 
 
 a clergyman with very limited means, and the most 
 useful present to him would be five pounds. If his 
 application be not agreeable, he . requests that the 
 stamps be returned." 
 
 2. " I have enclosed the 1 7 stamps, and shall be 
 very pleased to receive any present you will send me. 
 As I am not very well off, what I would like very 
 much would be a nice black silk dress, which I should 
 consider a rich reward for my credulity." 
 
 3. "Mrs presents her compliments to the 
 
 'elderly bachelor,' and in order to amuse him 
 by her credulity encloses 17 stamps, and thus 
 claims the promised present. Her position and 
 circumstances are good, she mixes in gay society. 
 
FKAUDS ON THE PUBLIC. 189 
 
 and is quite an adept at dancing the polka ma- 
 zoui-ka. These details may determine the suit- 
 ability of the present." 
 
 4. "Having read your advertisement testing the 
 ' credulity of the public,' I feel disposed on my part 
 to test the upright and honourable intentions of a 
 stranger, contrary to the opinion of some, who tell 
 me it is only a hoax, or, worse, a mere take-in. I 
 therefore, with the honesty of an Irishman, beg to 
 say I am a clergyman's wife, mother of nine chil- 
 dren, — the six eldest fine enterprising sons ; the three 
 youngest, engaging, intelligent girls. We Irish gen- 
 erally have larger hearts than purses. I therefore lay 
 these facts before you, an Englishman, knowing that 
 a Briton's generosity and capabilities are proverbi- 
 ally equal. — Hoping I may be able to prove I have 
 formed a correct opinion of advertiser's truthfulness, 
 I am," &c. 
 
 After this we may afford to smile, and use the 
 words of a very old author with every confidence 
 of their . freshness : " Oh where shall wisdom be 
 found ? where is the place of understanding ? " 
 
190 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 STRANGE ADDEESSES. 
 
 THE addresses of letters passing through the post 
 have often very curious features, arising from 
 various causes : sometimes the whole writing is so 
 bad as to be all but illegible ; sometimes the orthog- 
 raphy is extremely at fault ; sometimes the writer, 
 having forgotten the precise address, makes use of a 
 periphrase ; sometimes the addresses are insufficient ; 
 and sometimes the addresses are conjoined with 
 sketches on the envelopes showing both artistic taste 
 and comic spirit. Post-office sorters, who constantly 
 have passing through their hands writing of every 
 style and every degree of badness, acquire an apti- 
 tude for deciphering manuscript ; and writing must be 
 bad indeed, if to be read at all, when it fails to be de- 
 ciphered in the Post-office. A very large collection 
 might be made of the vagaries of writers in the ad- 
 dresses placed by them on letters ; but the following 
 will give some idea, though not a complete idea, of one 
 of the troubles met with in dealing with post-letters. 
 
STEANGE ADDRESSES. 191 
 
 Some time ago the Danish and Nor'wegian Consul 
 at Ipswich, being struck by the ever-varying way in 
 which the word " Ipswich" was spelt in the addresses 
 of letters reaching him from abroad, took the pains 
 to make a record of each new style of spelling, and 
 after a time he was able to collect together fifty- 
 seven incorrect methods of spelling the word 
 " Ipswich," which had been used upon letters ad- 
 dressed to him. They are given as follows, viz. : — 
 
 Elsfleth, Epshvics, Epshvidts, Epsids, Epsig, Epsvet, Eps- 
 vidts, Epwich, Evswig, Exwig, Hoispis, Hvisspys, Ibsvi, Ibsvig, 
 Ibsvithse,Ibwich,Ibwigth,Ispsich, le yis wich, Igswield, Igswig, 
 Igswjigh, Ipesviok, Ipiswug, Ipswitis, Ipsiwisch, Ipsovich, Ips- 
 veten, Ipsvick, Ipsvics, Ipsvids, Ipsvidts, Ipsvig, Ipsvikh, 
 Ipsvits, Ipsvitx, Ipsvoigh, Ipsweh, Ipsweich, Ipswgs, Ipswiche, 
 Ipswick, Ipswict, Ipswiceh, Ipswig, Ipswigh, Ipswight, Ipswish, 
 Ipswith, Ipswitz, Ispich, Ispovich, Ispwich, Ixvig, lysuich, 
 Uibsvich, Vittspits. 
 
 Letters so addressed generally reached the Consul 
 
 in direct course of post, though some of them were 
 
 occasionally delayed by being first sent to Wisbeach. 
 
 In other cases assistance was given in reading the 
 
 addresses by the northern version of the county 
 
 " Suffolg " following the word intended for Ipswich. 
 
 The address, 
 
 23 Adne Edle Street, London, 
 
 proved to be intended for 
 
 2 Threadneedle Street, Londoiu 
 
192 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 In another case, 
 
 No. 52 Oldham & Bury, London, 
 was written for 
 
 No. 52 Aldermanbiiry, London. 
 
 On another occasion the following address appeared 
 on a letter : — 
 
 too dad Thomas 
 
 hat the ole oke 
 
 Otchut 
 
 10 Bary. Fade. 
 Sur plees to let ole feather have this sefe ; 
 
 the address being intended for 
 
 The Old Oak Orchard, 
 
 Tenbury. 
 
 A further odd address was as follows, written, it is 
 presumed, by a German: — 
 
 Tis is fur old Mr Willy wot brinds de Baber in Lang Kaster 
 ware ti gal is. gist rede him assume as it cums to ti Pushtufous ; 
 
 the English of the address being — ■ 
 
 This is for old Mr Willy what prints the paper in Lancaster 
 where the jail is. Just read him as soon as it comes to the 
 Post-office. 
 
 The next address is one made use of, apparently, 
 owing to the true and particular addresses being lost, 
 but the directions given served their purpose, and the 
 letter was duly delivered : — - 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 193 
 
 For a gentleman residing in a street out of the Road, 
 
 London. 
 
 He is a shopkeeper, sells newspapers and periodicals to the 
 trade, and supplies Hawkers, and others with cheap prints, some 
 of which are sold by men in the street, he has for years bought 
 
 the waste of the Illustrated their prints printed in colours 
 
 particularly, he is well known in the locality, being wholesale. 
 Postman will oblige if he can find this. 
 
 Similar cases are as follows, but we are unable 
 to say whether the addresses given served their 
 intended purpose : — 
 
 Mr . Travelling Band, one of the four playing in the 
 
 street. 
 
 Persha [Pershore], 
 
 Worcestershire. 
 Please to find him if possible. 
 
 To E , a cook as lived tempery with a Mrs L , or 
 
 some such a name, a shoemaker in Castle St. about No. 
 
 Hoburn in 1851 ; try to make this out. She is a Welsh per- 
 son about 5 feet 1 — stoutish. Lives in service some ware in 
 London or naboured. London. 
 
 This is for her that maks dresses for ladies, that livs at 
 tother side of road to James Brocklip. 
 Edensover, 
 
 Chesterfield. 
 
 This is for the young girl that wears spectacles, who minds 
 
 two babies. 
 
 30 Sherriff St., 
 
 Off Prince Edwin St., 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 If 
 
194 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 In two further instances the indications sufficed, 
 and the letters were duly delivered. Thus — 
 
 To my sister Jean, 
 
 Up the Canongate, 
 
 Down a Close, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 She has a wooden leg. 
 
 And— 
 
 My dear Ant Sue as lives in the Cottage by the Wood near 
 the New Forest. 
 
 In this case the letter had to feel its way ahout for 
 a day or two, but Ant Sue was found living in a 
 cottage near Lyndhurst. 
 
 Another lett«r was addressed thus : — 
 
 This letter is for Mrs . She Hves in some part of Liver- 
 pool. From her father John , a tailor from ; he 
 
 would be thankful to some Postmaster in Liverpool if he would 
 find her out. 
 
 Unfortunately, in this instance the directions 
 given failed to trace the person to whom it was 
 sent, and it had to go to that abyss of "rejected 
 addresses," the Dead-letter Office. 
 
 It occasionally happens that when the eye is un- 
 able to make out an address, the ear comes to the 
 rescue. In London a letter came to hand directed 
 
 to 
 
 Mr Owl O'Neil, 
 
 General Post Ofiice. 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 195 
 
 But no one was known there of that name. A 
 
 clerk, looking at the letter, commenced to repeat aloud, 
 
 "Mr Owl O'Neil, Mr Owl O'Neil," when another 
 
 clerk, hearing him, exclaimed, " Why ! that must be 
 
 intended for Mr Eowland Hill," - — which indeed 
 
 proved to be the case. A similar circumstance 
 
 happened in Edinburgh with a letter from Australia, 
 
 addressed to 
 
 Mr 
 
 Johns. 7. 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 It proved to be intended for Johnshaven, a village 
 in the north of Scotland. 
 
 Two odd addresses are as follows, one being from 
 America, the other from Ireland : — 
 
 Little Alice, 
 
 Serio-Comic Singer, 
 
 London, England. 
 
 to Edinburgh City, Scotland, 
 
 For Pat Feeley, Katie Kinnigan's Son, 
 Ould fishmarket close, 
 
 Number 42, send this with speed. 
 
 An American gentleman having arrived in Eng- 
 land, and not knowing where a sister was residing at 
 the time, addressed a letter to her previous residence 
 
 thus — 
 
 Upper Norwood, 
 or Elsewhere. 
 
196 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 The letter having been delivered to the lady, the 
 Visiter intimated to the Post-office that he had 
 received a reply in ordinary course, and explaining 
 that the letter had been delivered to her on the top 
 of a stage-coach in Wales. In admiration of the 
 means taken to follow up his sister, the writer 
 ventured to add, " that no other country can show 
 the parallel, or would take the trouble at any cost." 
 It would be impossible to explain in words the 
 difficulties that are met with, and the successes 
 which are obtained, in deciphering badly written 
 addresses ; and facsimiles of the directions upon 
 some such letters are therefore appended to enable 
 the reader to appreciate the facts. Pq the London 
 Post-office indistinctly addressed letters are at once 
 set aside, so as not to delay the work of sortation, 
 and are carried forthwith to a set of special officers 
 who have an aptitude for deciphering indistinct 
 writing. These officers, by a strange contradiction in 
 the sense of things, are called the "blind officers"; 
 and here the letters are rapidly disposed of, either 
 by having the addresses read and amended, or marked 
 with the name of a post-town for which the letters 
 may be supposed to be intended. To facilitate this 
 special work, the blind officers are furnished with a 
 series of gazetteers and other books containing the 
 names of gentlemen's seats, farms, and the like, 
 throughout the country, and many a letter reaches 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 197 
 
 the hands of the person addressed through a refer- 
 ence to these books. 
 
 In addition to instances of indistinctly addressed 
 letters, a few specimens of addresses of an artistic 
 and humorous character are furnished in this chapter. 
 
 4. ^ 
 
 
 S/ern3 It-i^ite 
 
 Cspe a-'SstCastfe 
 or £/set\/ie/'e 
 
 /^ 
 
 /^ 
 
 
 Jteacb 
 
 SO ^..Unel 
 
 SccUand Ro^d 
 Liverpooi 
 
198 THE KOYAL MAII^ 
 
 Mead, 
 
 Majgiescele 
 Asbijdetaloucfi 
 Warwickshire 
 
 cJ^ 
 
 
 fl-C 
 
 7 CnaHottt J>/acc 
 Goaayr Street »V 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 199 
 
 
 
 JiiZSeetion f^ Oifordshire 
 light Infyntry 
 Convaleceeat .Depot 
 J*fs</ras. £ast indies 
 
 <0^^^^ S^t^ l^'^ 
 
 
 /T^^Jt. 
 
 
 lOS Minones 
 
 M" yildg^U Church 
 London. 
 
200 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ^^^. 
 
 j^Pt^i^^ (yC^ 
 
 //arrow Wes/cf 
 /Aarrow 
 
 
 GuwerJohn^ 
 
 'G'Battery. B Bngad^ 
 fiojat Horse Artillery 
 WooMch 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 201 
 
 iTv^ 
 
 ^- Q^u:a^ fy 
 
 
 Ch^ 
 
 Seaot 
 
 37 Oueen Street 
 
 StrafforJ Nov Town 
 £ 
 
 40 mu. ^^ 
 
 /orest Gate J 
 
202 
 
 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 M^^ Bella Gosung 
 QoomeVjila 
 
 BRIGHTON 
 
 J 
 
STKANGE ADDRESSES. 
 
 203 
 
 , 06. Ay C^9^, 6<} 
 
 7 
 
 
204 
 
 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 
 
 205 
 
 tOST STOLEN OR 
 STRAyCD 
 
 -1^-^ 
 
 
206 
 
 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 Capt Stalker. 
 
 YfoodTiouse Eav«s 
 Tramore 
 
 " Me YraJlD STAU< B)(^ C,\Ht . -=r 
 
STRANGE ADDRESSES. 
 
 207 
 
 The letter, of which the above represents the 
 address, was posted at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and de- 
 livered to the editor of the ' Courant ' in Edin- 
 burgh. A facsimile of a portion of the comnmnica- 
 tion enclosed is given on the following page, which 
 will give an idea of the interest attaching to edi- 
 torial work, and afford some valuable information to 
 the reader ! 
 
208 
 
 THE EOYAIi MAIL. 
 
STRANGE -ADDRESSES. 
 
 209 
 
210 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 POST-OFFICE BOBBERIES. 
 
 IF records are not now forthcoming of all the 
 robberies which have been committed upon the 
 Post-ofiBce from the earliest times, we may be assured 
 that an institution such as it is, maintaining agencies 
 all over the country, and having to keep up commu- 
 nications between those agencies, would be exposed 
 at all times and at all points to the risk of robbery, 
 whether by the dashing boldness of the highwayman, 
 or the less pretentious doings of the town house- 
 breaker. To us who live in an age when the public 
 roads are generally safe to travellers, it is difficult to 
 realise the dangers that lurked in the highways at 
 no more remote a period than last century ; nor can 
 we well realise a state of things under which mail- 
 coaches in this our quiet England had to be protected 
 by guards armed to the teeth. We have it handed 
 down, however, as a historical fact, that when, in 
 1720, Belsize House, Hampstead, was opened as a 
 
POST-OFFICE EOBBERIES. 211 
 
 place of public resort, the programme announcing its 
 attractions contained the following item : " And for 
 the security of its guests, there are twelve stout 
 fellows completely armed, to patrol betwixt London 
 and BelsLze, to prevent the insults of highwaymen or 
 footpads which may infest the road." Yet that 
 statement does not give the whole truth, for the 
 road between these two places became so much more 
 dangerous, that after a time "the patrol had to be 
 increased from twelve to thirty stout fellows com- 
 pletely armed, independently of two tall grenadiers 
 who mounted guard over the gate of the mansion." 
 
 Again, it is recorded that " even the toll-house 
 keepers in London were so liable to be robbed, that 
 they had to be furnished with arms, and enjoined to 
 keep no money in their houses after eight o'clock 
 at night. The boldness with which street robberies 
 still continued to be committed was evinced so late 
 as 1777, when the Neapolitan ambassador was robbed 
 in his coach in Grosvenor Square by four footpads 
 armed with pistols." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the roads leading out of 
 London were infested by disorderly characters ; and 
 robberies of the mails proceeding to and from London 
 were of frequent occurrence, as appears from official 
 records referring to the close of last century and the 
 commencement of this. 
 
212 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 In the coaching days very frequent robberies of 
 the mails took place, though they were protected by 
 armed guards, and some of the.se robberies have been 
 described in the chapter relating to mail-coaches. 
 
 The passengers who travelled in the mail-coaches, 
 with the knowledge of these molestations going on 
 around them, must have been kept in a constant 
 state of alarm ; and the circumstance could not fail 
 materially to discourage travelling in days when the 
 facilities for exchanging visits were few compared 
 with what we now enjoy. 
 
 The state of things already described as regards 
 the mail-coaches, extended also to the horse-posts, the 
 riders being attacked probably more freely than the 
 coaches ; for while the plunder to be had would be 
 less, the postboys were not in a position to make so 
 great a show of defence. Nor did the severity of 
 the laws restrain evil-doers, either in England or 
 Scotland, where sentences of execution were from 
 time to time carried out upon the delinquents. 
 
 On the 7th of July 1685, the post-rider who was 
 proceeding through the extreme north of England, 
 on his way from London to the Scottish metropolis, 
 was known to have been twice stopped, and to have 
 been robbed of his mail, the scene of the occurrence 
 being near Alnwick, in Northumberland. In con- 
 nection with this event, of which an account has 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 213 
 
 been handed down by Lauder of Fountainhall, a curi- 
 ous and romantic anecdote has been told by Wilson 
 in his ' Tales of the Borders,' and by Chambers as one 
 of his Scottish traditional stories. 
 
 Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, in Ayrshire, was 
 one of Argyle's chief associates in that unfortunate 
 and abortive attempt, made by the exiles in the year 
 above named, to compass the overthrow of the reign- 
 ing monarch, James II., so far as Scotland was con- 
 cerned, which attempt was only part of the more 
 general scheme of the exiles abroad — both EngHsh 
 and Scotch — and the disaffected at home, to drive 
 the king from his throne, and to place the Duke of 
 Monmouth thereon in his stead. After a variety of 
 disasters experienced by the limited following which 
 Argyle and his party had been able to bring together, 
 and when hope of a successful issue could no longer 
 secure cohesion, there ensued a general break-up of 
 the party, accompanied by what is to be looked for 
 in similar situations — a general flight and sanve qui 
 peut. Sir John Cochrane sought refuge in the house 
 of a relative in Eenfrewshire, where, however, he 
 was discovered by his pursuers at the end of June ; 
 and on the 3d of July, Sir John, his son, and another 
 traitor were brought into Edinburgh, " bound and 
 barefooted, by the hangman," and cast into the Tol- 
 booth to await their doom. 
 
214 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 What daring enterprises may not flow from a 
 woman's love and devotion, when a parent's liberty- 
 is imperilled or his life is at stake ! Sir John had a 
 daughter called Grizel, who fondly loved him, and 
 who, on visiting him in prison, had not failed to 
 show the intensity of her filial regard ; nor was Sir 
 John slow to reciprocate these feelings on his part. 
 Being then but eighteen years of age, she neverthe- 
 less conceived the daring thought of intercepting the 
 mail-packet coming from the South, which was sup- 
 posed to contain a warrant for the execution of her 
 father ; and with this object in view, she proceeded to 
 Berwick-on-Tweed alone. Here she habited herself 
 in male attire ; and being armed, and mounted on a 
 fleet horse, she set out upon her extraordinary and 
 perilous adventure. 
 
 On Tweedmouth Moor, it is narrated, she fell in 
 with the postboy, who, under threats of immediate 
 death, gave up his charge, Grizel riding off with the 
 mail-packet and the postboy's horse, from which he 
 had been unseated. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the warrant not reach- 
 ing its destination, it could not be put into execution, 
 and the delay which took place before another could 
 be procured was turned to account by Sir John's 
 friends, who exerted themselves on his behalf. Sir 
 John was the younger son of a rich family, from 
 
POST-OFFICE KOBBERIES. 215 
 
 whom a ransom was to be had ; and it is stated that 
 a bribe of £5000 by Lord Dundonald, Cochrane's 
 father, to the priests of the Eoyal household, was the 
 means of securing a pardon. Sir John lived to be- 
 come Earl of Dundonald, while Grizel became the 
 wife of John Kerr of Morriston, in Berwickshire ; 
 and there can be little doubt that she afterwards 
 exhibited as a wife all the amiable and affectionate 
 qualities of which she proved herself possessed as a 
 daughter. 
 
 Unfortunately for the authenticity of the story, so 
 far as Grizel Cochrane's connection with it is con- 
 cerned, the dates hardly bear the matter out ; for if 
 Sir John was lodged in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh 
 on the 3d July, a warrant for his execution could 
 barely have reached Northumberland from London 
 by the 7th : and again, while the story relates that 
 Sir John Cochrane was confined in the Tolbooth, 
 Macaulay states that he " was taken, and sent up to 
 London." 
 
 The following story of the robbery of a mail 
 carried by a postboy, is taken from Chambers's 
 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,' under the date 16th 
 August 1690: — 
 
 " Andrew Cockburn, the postboy who carried the 
 packet or letter-bag on that part of the great line of 
 communication which lies between Cockburnspath 
 
216 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 and Haddington, had this day reached a point in his 
 journey between the Alms-house and Hedderwick 
 Muir, when he was assailed hy two gentlemen in 
 masks ; one of them mounted on a blue-grey horse, 
 wearing a stone-grey coat with brown-sUk buttons — 
 the other riding on a white horse, having a white 
 English grey cloak-coat with wrought silver-thread 
 buttons. Holding pistols to his breast, they threat- 
 ened to kUl him if he did not instantly deliver up 
 the packet, black box, and bag which he carried ; 
 and he had no choice but to yield. They then 
 bound him, and leaving him tied by the foot to his 
 horse, rode off with their spoil to Garlton House, 
 near Haddington. As the packet contained Govern- 
 ment communications, besides the correspondence of 
 private individuals, this was a crime of a very high 
 nature, albeit we may well beUeve it was committed 
 on political impulse only. Suspicion seems imme- 
 diately to have alighted on James Seton, youngest 
 son of the Viscount Kingston, and John Seton, 
 brother of Sir George Seton of Garlton; and Sir 
 Eobert Sinclair, the sheriff of the county, immedi- 
 ately sought for these young gentlemen at their 
 father's and brother's houses, but found them not. 
 With great hardihood, they came to Sir Eobert's 
 house next morning to inquire, as innocent men, 
 why they were searched for ; when Sir Eobert, after 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 217 
 
 a short examination in presence of the postboy, saw 
 fit to have them disarmed and sent off to Hadding- 
 ton. It was Sunday, and BaiHe Lauder, to whose 
 house they came with their escort, was about to go 
 to church. If the worthy bailie is to be believed, 
 he thought their going to the sheriff's a great pre- 
 sumption of their innocence. He admitted, too, that 
 Lord Kingston had come and spoken to him that 
 morning. Anyhow, he concluded that it might be 
 enough in the meantime if he afforded them a room 
 in his house, secured their horses in his stable, and 
 left them under charge of two of the town- officers. 
 Unluckily, however, he required the town-officers, as 
 usual, to walk before him and his brother magistrates 
 to church — which, it is obvious, interfered very con- 
 siderably with their efficiency as a guard over the 
 two gentlemen. While things were in this posture, 
 Messrs Seton took the prudent course of making 
 their escape. As soon as the bailie heard of it he 
 left church, and took after them with some neigh- 
 bours, but he did not succeed in overtaking them. 
 The Privy Council had an extraordinary meeting to 
 take measures regarding this affair, and their first 
 step was to order Bailie Lauder and the two town- 
 officers into the Tolbooth of Edinburgh as close 
 prisoners. A few days afterwards the magistrate 
 was condemned by the Council as guilty of plain 
 
218 THE ROYAX MAIL. 
 
 fraud and connivance, and declared incapable of any 
 public employment. William Kaim, the smith at 
 Lord Kingston's house of Whittinghame, was also 
 in custody on some suspicion of a concern in this 
 business ; but he and the town-officers were quickly 
 liberated. 
 
 " John Seton was soon after seized by Captain 
 James Denholm on board a merchant vessel bound 
 for Holland, and imprisoned in the castle of Edin- 
 burgh. He underwent trial in July 1691, and by 
 some means escaped condemnation. A favourable 
 verdict did not procure his immediate liberation ; but, 
 after three days, he was dismissed on caution, to 
 return into custody if called upon. This final result 
 was the more remarkable, as his father was by that 
 time under charge of having aided in the betrayal 
 of the Bass." 
 
 Other instances of such gentlemanlike perform- 
 ances in waylaying the post were not unknown in 
 the primitive days of the Post-office, for about the 
 year 1658 the following notice was issued for the 
 discovery of a gentleman of the law who had taken 
 to evil ways by intercepting the maU: " Whereas Mr 
 Herbert Jones, attorney-at-law in the town of Mon- 
 mouth, well known by being several years together 
 under-sheriff of the same county, hath of late divers 
 times robbed the mail coming from that town to Lon- 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 219 
 
 don, and taken out divers letters and writs, and is 
 now fled from justice," &c. 
 
 In August 1692, the postboy riding the last stage 
 towards Edinburgh with the mail from England, was 
 robbed on the 13th of that month, at a short distance 
 from Edinburgh. A record of the period relates that 
 the robbery was committed by " a person mounted on 
 horseback with a sword about him, and another person 
 on foot with a pistol ia his hand, upon the highway 
 from Haddington to Edinburgh, near that place 
 thereof called Jock's Lodge (a mile from town) about 
 ten hours of the night." The robbers took " the 
 packet or common mail, with the horse whereon 
 the boy rode." A proclamation was issued by the 
 Scottish Privy Council, ofi'ering a reward of a hun- 
 dred pounds for the apprehension of the offenders, 
 with a free pardon to any one of them who should 
 inform upon the rest; but with what result is not 
 known. 
 
 On the 13th September 1786, the mail-rider from 
 the North charged with the conveyance of mails for 
 Edinburgh, having reached Kinross about midnight, 
 proceeded to change horses as usual in a stable-yard 
 at that place. The mail-bags he deposited on the 
 back of a chaise in the yard until he should be ready 
 to resume his journey. As was his custom, he then 
 went into the stable to give a feed of corn to his 
 
220 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 horse; but while so engaged, the bags were ab- 
 stracted and the contents stolen. Two brothers, 
 who were proved to have been in the neighbourhood 
 at the time, and to whom some of the stolen pro- 
 perty was traced, were arraigned for the crime before 
 the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, and being 
 found guilty, were sentenced to be executed. 
 
 The following is a somewhat fuller account of a 
 post robbery on the public road, which occurred a 
 few years later: — 
 
 In 1802, the mails between Edinburgh and Glas- 
 gow were still conveyed by men travelling on horse- 
 back — the route taken being by way of Falkirk — 
 the hour of despatch from Glasgow being 9 p.m., and 
 the hour of arrival in Edinburgh about 6 a.m. or 7 
 A.M. The riders of this mail seem to have had 
 sections of the road apportioned to them — one 
 rider covering the road from Glasgow to Falkirk, 
 the other taking the stage from Falkirk to Edin- 
 burgh. On the morning of the 1st of August in 
 that year, the rider for the east stage — named 
 William Wilson — received the Glasgow mail-bag 
 entire and duly sealed at Falkirk, and thereafter 
 set out towards Edinburgh. When he approached 
 a rising ground called Sighthill — probably a wooded 
 knoll bearing that name, about three miles from 
 Linlithgow, on the road to Polmont — ^he observed 
 
POST-OFFICE EOBBERIES. 221 
 
 two men coming down towards him, and wlio, so 
 soon as they got near him, placed themselves one 
 on each side of his horse, and immediately seized 
 him. One of the two men held something in his 
 hand, and threatened Wilson that if he offered to 
 speak his brains would be blown out. Then he 
 was led away into a field of corn, where he was 
 blindfolded by one of the men with his own hand- 
 kerchief, and his hands tied behind his back ; there- 
 upon he was thrown down, and his legs bound 
 together to prevent his getting away. Meanwhile 
 the other man led away his horse and rifled the 
 mail The post -rider remained in his unhappy 
 position for about an hour, when he managed to 
 extricate himself, and proceeding to the first house 
 he could reach, implored the inmates "for God's 
 sake " to let him in, as he had been robbed. Having 
 been admitted and obtained assistance, he returned 
 to the scene of his adventure, and found the empty 
 mail-bag at the foot of a haystack, while the horse 
 was recovered a little distance away. The mail con- 
 tained bills, &c., for something like £1300 or £1400. 
 The robbery of the mail caused great excitement 
 in Edinburgh so soon as it became known, and no 
 long time elapsed before the perpetrators were in the 
 hands of the authorities. The two men concerned 
 in it proved to be James Clark, alias Alex. Stewart, 
 
222 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 and Eobert Brown, formerly privates in the Foot 
 Guards. No sooner had they got back to Edin- 
 burgh — where they had previously lodged — than 
 they commenced to change some of the bank-notes 
 taken from the mail -bag, and got the worse of 
 drink ; and being once suspected, the evidence soon 
 accumulated and became strong against them. They 
 were tried for the offence before the High Court of 
 Justiciary in Edinburgh in November following, and 
 being found guilty, were sentenced to be executed. 
 
 This robbery would appear to have had the effect 
 of stirring up the public mind to demand a means 
 of conveying the mails between the two cities afford- 
 ing greater security ; for an agitation immediately 
 followed for the setting up of coaches or diligences 
 to carry the mails between those cities. Owing, 
 however, to difficulties and disagreements between 
 the merchants and traders as to the hours of de- 
 parture and arrival, and to wranglings over the par- 
 ticular route to be journeyed, the idea was aban- 
 doned, and the horse-post as of old was meanwhile 
 continued. The robbery seems not to have been 
 soon forgotten, however; for we find that towards 
 the close of 1802 a proposal was made to enter 
 into an agreement for the service with " an officer 
 of the Mid-Lothian Cavalry, and master of the 
 Eiding Academy in Edinburgh," who offered to con- 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 223 
 
 duct and carry on the service in a masterly and 
 military manner for an allowance of £450 per 
 annum — the riders to be employed being none 
 other than able and active dragoons. But in the 
 nature of things such a mail - service could not 
 continue, and negotiations still proceeded for the 
 employment of diligences — hot resulting in success, 
 however, until the year 1805, when the first mail- 
 coach between Edinburgh and Glasgow was put 
 upon the road. 
 
 A somewhat similar attack upon a postboy was 
 made in Yorkshire in the year 1798, when the 
 rider's life was threatened by a highwayman single- 
 handed, and the mails stolen from him. The case is 
 interesting owing to the fact that traces of the rob- 
 bery were obtained so recently as 1876, though at 
 the period of its occurrence no trace of the highway- 
 man or of his plunder could be discovered. 
 
 The official account of the robbery, when it hap- 
 pened, was as follows : — 
 
 " The postboy coming from Selby to York was 
 robbed of his mail between six and seven o'clock 
 this evening. About three miles on this side of 
 Selby he was accosted by a man on foot, with a gun 
 in his hand, who asked him if he was the postboy, 
 and at the same time seized hold of the bridle. 
 Without waiting for any answer, he told the boy he 
 
224 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 must immediately unstrap the mail and give it him, 
 pointing the muzzle of the gun at him ■whilst he did 
 it. When he had given up the mail, the boy begged 
 he would not hurt him ; to which the man replied he 
 need not be afraid, and at the same time pulled the 
 bridle from the horse's head. The horse immediately 
 galloped off with the boy, who had never dismounted. 
 
 " He was a stout man, dressed in a drab jacket, 
 and had the appearance of being a heckler. The 
 boy was too much frightened to make any other 
 remark on his person, and says he was totally 
 unknown to him. The mail contained the bags 
 for Howden and London, Howden and York, and 
 Selby and York." 
 
 Although a reward of £200 was offered for the 
 discovery of the robber, and a free pardon to any 
 accessory who might turn accuser, nothing was 
 heard of the matter at the time, though suspicion, it 
 is said, pointed to some of the inhabitants of Selby. 
 The robbery might perhaps have remained forgotten, 
 but that, upon a public-house situated on the Church- 
 hill, Selby, being pulled down in 1876, a suit of 
 clothes, a sou'-wester hat, and an old mail-bag marked 
 " Selby " were found in the roof. There is little 
 doubt that these were the clothes worn by the 
 robber on the occasion under notice, and that the 
 bag (which is a sort of waterproof-pouch, furnished 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 225 
 
 with two straps to pass over the shoulders) is the 
 identical bag which contained the mails stolen in 
 1798. When the foundations of this old public- 
 house were turned up, the discovery was made of 
 several coffins containing bodies in a good state of 
 preservation — a circumstance, when taken in con- 
 nection with the traces of the mail-robbery and the 
 public character of the house, ominous in the ex- 
 treme. The case is one which might be taken as 
 somewhat proving the suggestion put forward by 
 Smollett in ' Eoderick Eandom ' as to the intimate 
 relations which existed between the personnel of the 
 innkeepers and the common highwaymen — the former 
 being well aware of the profession followed by the 
 latter, if not actually sharers in their plunder. 
 
 On Wednesday the 23d October 1816, at half- 
 past nine in the evening, the postboy carrying the 
 mail-bags from Teignmouth and neighbouring places 
 to Exeter, was assaulted " in a most desperate and 
 inhuman manner" near the village of Alphington, 
 and plundered of the Teignmouth and Exminster 
 bags. The poor man was attacked with such fury 
 that he was felled from his horse, came to the 
 ground on his head, which was fractured in two 
 places, and in consequence of his injuries, he re- 
 mained insensible for some time. When he regained 
 consciousness in the Exeter Hospital, whither he had 
 
 p 
 
226 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 been conveyed, he was able to explain that, at the 
 tune of the attack, he was walking his horse up a 
 hill, that the assailant was a young man, and that 
 he was mounted on a grey horse. This horse was 
 supposed afterwards to be traced, though the robber 
 failed to be discovered, notwithstanding that a reward 
 of £50 was offered for his discovery and conviction. 
 " A horse exactly answering the description," says an 
 oiScial record, " was taken from a field near Dawlish 
 on the Wednesday night, and turned back to the 
 same place before daybreak on Thursday, having 
 evidently been rode very fast, and gored very much 
 in the sides." The owner of the horse could give no 
 assistance in the matter, nor had he suspicions against 
 any one ; so that it would appear the robber had 
 taken the horse surreptitiously for his purpose. The 
 mail-bags were afterwards recovered, with some few 
 of the letters opened ; but it did not appear that any 
 property was missing. The unfortunate rider, whose 
 name was " Caddy," remained in hospital till the 
 January following, when he was discharged; but in 
 the month of May his wounds broke out afresh, and 
 he had to return to hospital, being now become sub- 
 ject to epileptic fits owing to his injuries. As he 
 was no longer able for service, he was granted a 
 gratuity by the Post-office ; and it is not probable 
 that he survived very long thereafter. With the 
 
POST-OFFICE BOBBERIES. 227 
 
 mere expectation of getting some little gain from the 
 robbery, the marauder had all but killed the poor 
 postboy, who had a wife and two children dependent 
 on him ; and he has in his evil-doing given a good 
 example of what Burns calls " man's inhumanity to 
 man," that " makes countless thousands mourn." 
 
 In the year 1797 the deputy-postmaster of the 
 Orkneys and his son, a lad of about sixteen' years of 
 age, were tried at the High Court of Justiciary, 
 Edinburgh, on a charge of breaking open certain 
 post-letters while in their custody in course of 
 transit, and therefrom abstracting money. The in- 
 dictment contained a further charge of forgery 
 against the elder prisoner, the deputy having en- 
 dorsed another person's name upon a money-order 
 contained in one of the stolen letters. The thefts 
 were committed at different times in 1794 and 
 1796, and the specific cases upon which evidence 
 was led were in respect of the following letters — viz., 
 two letters sent at different times to Orkney by a 
 seaman in the Eoyal Navy, one containing a guinea- 
 note and half a guinea in gold, the other containing 
 either a guinea in gold or a note for that amount ; a 
 letter from London for Orkney, containing a money- 
 order for £5, 5s. I and a letter from Perth for 
 Orkney, enclosing a note for a guinea : the whole 
 amount involved being under £9. 
 
228 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 In the course of the trial it was proved that the 
 deputy was guilty, certain of the missing letters 
 having been found in his house, and the son had 
 already confessed to what was charged against him. 
 The whole cases were clearly made out to the satis- 
 faction of the jury, who returned a verdict accord- 
 ingly against both prisoners, but with a recommen- 
 dation of mercy towards the son of the deputy, on 
 the score of his tender years. Sentence was pro- 
 nounced on the 5th September, and the date of exe- 
 cution fixed for the 18 th October. By the exercise 
 of the Eoyal prerogative, George III. granted a free 
 pardon to the deputy's son, who was forthwith set at 
 liberty ; but it is a melancholy reflection, that for 
 delinquencies involving the loss of so small a sum 
 as £9, the deputy-postmaster should, on the date 
 fixed for his execution, have actually been led forth 
 to his doom. In a report of the circumstance 
 written at the time, it is stated "that he was at- 
 tended by the Eev. Mr Black of Lady Tester's, and 
 Mr Struthers of the Eelief congregation, and be- 
 haved in a manner suitable to his unhappy situa- 
 tion " ! God forbid that there should be a standard 
 of deportment for occasions like this, where, to our 
 more humane notions, the punishment so fearfully 
 outweighs the offence. 
 
 Early in the year 1849 a sad blow fell upon the 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 229 
 
 postmaster of a certain town in Wales, on its being 
 discovered that an assistant in his office, a daughter 
 of his own, had been stealing post-letters. In the 
 course of investigations made into her misdoings, it 
 was discovered that the thefts had been going on for 
 a period of seven years, during which time she had 
 accumulated as much jewellery and haberdashery as 
 would have stocked a small shop — and besides, 
 money to the amount of £95. The letters from 
 which the property had been taken were between 
 two and three hundred, and these she had kept, 
 so that it was possible to restore to the owners, 
 in many cases, the stolen articles. On the 20 th 
 March the unfortunate and misguided creature was 
 tried, on the charge of stealing a particular letter, 
 and was convicted — the sentence passed upon her 
 being transportation for ten years. 
 
 It was afterwards ascertained that the motive 
 underlying this long career of thieving was a de- 
 sire to amass such a dowry as would improve her 
 prospects in the matter of obtaining a husband. 
 
 Haiton Garden Bobbery. 
 
 On Thursday the 16th November 1881, the 
 whole country was made aware, through the daily 
 papers, that a most daring Post-office robbery 
 
230 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 had been committed in London the previous after- 
 noon, the scene of the event being the Hatton 
 Garden Branch Office, situated in the busy district 
 of Holborn. The time and plan of carrying out 
 the undertaking were not such as are usually chosen 
 for attempts of this kind, the hour at which the 
 robbery was effected being 5 p.m., when the office 
 was thronged with the public purchasing stamps, 
 or doing other business in view of the night-mail 
 despatch. Nor was there any furtive mode of pro- 
 ceeding in the ordinary sense, but a bold and dash- 
 ing stroke for the chances of success or failure. 
 
 On the afternoon of the day of the robbery, a 
 murky fog, such as Londoners know so well and 
 heartily dislike, hung over the metropolis. The 
 street lamps afforded but a dull light in the thorough- 
 fares ; shops and offices were lighted up for the 
 evening's business ; and the afternoon's work in the 
 Hatton Garden Post-office was at its height (the 
 registered-letter bag, containing some forty regis- 
 tered letters, having just been deposited in an 
 ordinary bag hanging from a peg in the office), when 
 suddenly, and without apparent cause, the whole 
 of the lights in the office went out, and the place 
 was plunged in almost total darkness. Consterna- 
 tion took possession of the female clerks behind the 
 counter, while young clerks and boys from ware- 
 
POST-OFFICE EOBBFEIES. 231 
 
 houses and offices, conceiving the occasion to be one 
 for noise and merriment, helped to increase the con- 
 fusion by clamour and hubbub outside the counter. 
 No long time elapsed before matches were obtained 
 and tapers lit, when it was immediately discovered 
 that the tap of the gas-meter in the basement had 
 been turned off; but on the tap being turned on 
 again, the jets in the office were relit, and the place 
 resumed its wonted appearance. The young ladies 
 in the office being now able to see around them, 
 soon detected the absence of the bag, which had 
 been left hanging on the peg, and which they knew 
 had not yet been despatched by them. It did not take 
 long to realise that the bag had vanished — in fact, 
 had been stolen ; and to this day the property con- 
 tained in the lost registered letters has not been 
 recovered, nor have the persons concerned in the 
 theft been traced. 
 
 It is believed that two or more individuals were 
 engaged in the robbery, the supposition being that 
 one person got down into the basement without 
 attracting attention, and turned off the gas, while 
 another, so soon as darkness supervened, got by some 
 means within the counter, and, unobserved, took the 
 bag from the peg — all concerned making good their 
 escape in the midst of the stir and noise by which 
 they were surrounded. The whole adventure bears 
 
232 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 the impress of having been carefully planned and 
 cleverly executed, and there is little doubt that the 
 robbery was carried out by men who were experts in 
 their nefarious calling. 
 
 The value of the articles contained in the forty 
 registered letters was about £15,000 ; and as the 
 scene of the robbery lay in the midst of diamond 
 merchants and jewellers, it is not surprising that 
 precious stones and jewellery were the principal con- 
 tents of these letters. Besides watches, bracelets 
 set with pearls and diamonds, ear-rings, rings, &c., the 
 following articles were among the property stolen — 
 viz., eight parcels of rough diamonds, 147 turquoises, 
 a quantity of small emeralds, 6000 drilled sapphires, 
 2000 pairs of garnet bores, 240 pairs of sapphire 
 bores, a quantity of sapphires weighing 695 carats, 
 several rubies and sapphires weighing 546 carats, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 A reward of £200 was offered by the Postmaster- 
 General, and a further reward of £1000 by certain 
 insurance companies who had insured the valuable 
 letters, for the conviction of the delinquents and the 
 recovery of the stolen property ; but the robbery 
 remains to this day one of those which have baffled 
 the skill of the Metropolitan police and the officers 
 of the Post-office to unravel or to bring home to the 
 evil-doers. 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 233 
 
 Cape Diamond Rdbhery. 
 
 The greater portion of tlie diamonds found in 
 Griqualand West, in South Africa, are sent weekly 
 to England through the Post - office, made up in 
 packets, which are forwarded as registered letters — 
 the value of these remittances being collectively from 
 £60,000 to £100,000. In April 1880, the sailing 
 of the mail-steamer from Cape Town having been de- 
 layed until the day after the arrival of the up-country 
 mails, the bag containing the registered correspon- 
 dence was left in the registered-letter office of the 
 Cape Town Post-office ; not, however, locked up in 
 the safe, where it ought to have been, but carelessly 
 left underneath one of the tables. During the night 
 the office was broken into, and the whole of the 
 diamonds stolen, valued at £60,000. Who the 
 robbers were appears never to have been discovered, 
 and they have doubtless since been in the enjoyment 
 of the fruits of their villanous enterprise. As it is 
 the practice of people in the diamond trade to insure 
 packets of diamonds sent by them, the senders did not 
 suffer anything beyond inconvenience by this robbery ; 
 but the insurance companies were involved in the 
 loss, and had to pay claims amounting to £60,000. 
 
 The following is an account of a robbery at- 
 
234 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 tempted upon a postman in London in July 1847, 
 as officially reported at the time: — 
 
 " An attempt was this morning made to murder 
 or seriously to maim Bradley, the Lombard Street 
 letter-carrier, with a view of- obtaining possession of 
 the letters for his district. He was passing through 
 Mitre Court, a narrow passage between Wood Street 
 and Milk Street, when the gate of the Court was 
 closed and locked behind him with a skeleton key 
 by, it is believed, three men, who followed him a 
 few yards farther on in the passage. On Bradley 
 getting to a wider part of the Court, one of them 
 felled him to the ground by a heavy blow from a 
 life-preserver ; he attempted to rise, but was again 
 knocked down in a similar manner. He then felt 
 that they tried to force from him his letter-bags, but 
 fortunately the mouths of them were, for security, 
 twisted round his arm. They contiaued their blows ; 
 but Bradley retained sufficient consciousness to call 
 out ' Murder !' so as to be heard by some of the 
 porters in the adjoining warehouses, who ran to 
 see what was the matter, but unluckily the villains 
 escaped. Poor Bradley is most seriously injured — so 
 much so that he may be considered in some danger." 
 
 An idea of the amount of property the thieves 
 would have obtained had Bradley not held the bags 
 tightly (even under such circumstances), may be 
 
POST-OFFICE EOBBEBIES. 235 
 
 formed from the fact that he had in his possession 
 thirty -seven registered letters containing property, 
 besides all the other letters for Messrs Overend, 
 Gurney, & Co., Eobarts, Curtis, & Co., Glynn & Co., 
 the London and County Bank, as well as those for 
 thirty -four other houses in Lombard Street It 
 was believed at the time that the value of the 
 property in Bradley's possession amounted to hun- 
 dreds of thousands of pounds. 
 
 A daring robbery of a Berlin postman occurred 
 not very long ago, when the outrage was accom- 
 panied by a still more atrocious crime — the murder 
 of the postman. The man was one of a class who 
 deliver money remittances at the addresses of the 
 persons to whom they are sent, under a system 
 which prevails in some countries of the Continent, 
 and he had with him cash and notes to the amount 
 of some £1500. The robber and murderer, a man 
 of great bodily strength, had so arranged that a small 
 remittance would fall to be delivered at his address 
 on Monday morning — an occasion when a large 
 number of remittances are received ; and on the 
 postman reaching the place, and proceeding to pay 
 the requisite sum, the occupier of the premises feUed 
 hiin with a hammer, and with repeated blows killed 
 him outright. It was evident from the circumstances 
 that the murderer had duly planned the outrage, for 
 
236 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 the room rented was near to the starting-point of the 
 postman, so that he should not have paid away any 
 portion of his charge when he reached the room. The 
 body of the poor postman was found afterwards cold 
 and stiff, lying in a pool of blood, with his empty 
 and rifled bag beside him; and the weapon with 
 which the perpetrator had achieved the murder, re- 
 mained there as a witness of the crime. The mur- 
 derer was said to have previously served in a cuiras- 
 sier regiment. Before decamping, he had turned the 
 key in the door of his room ; and the discovery was 
 only made after a search by the Post-ofiBce authori- 
 ties at the addresses at which the postman had to 
 call, on his failing to return later in the day. 
 
 Some years ago the following extensive robbery 
 of letters occurred in London. An unusually large 
 number of complaints were found to be reaching the 
 General Post-office, of the non-receipt by merchants, 
 bankers, and others carrying on business in Lombard 
 Street and its neighbourhood, of letters containing 
 bank-notes, cheques, advices, and important corre- 
 spondence, sent to them from all parts of the king- 
 dom. The circumstance naturally gave rise to 
 careful inquiry on the part of the Post-office author- 
 ities, with the result that suspicion fell upon a 
 young postman of nineteen years of age, through 
 whose hands many of the missing letters would in 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 237 
 
 ordinary course have to pass. Certain Bank of Eng- 
 land notes, which had been contained in some of the 
 letters, were found to have been cashed ; and the 
 names endorsed upon them, though fictitious, were in 
 a handwriting resembling that of the young man 
 suspected. Thereupon he was arrested and searched, 
 when in a pocket-book on his person were found two 
 £5 notes, which had been forwarded from Norfolk to 
 a banking-house in London, but had failed to reach 
 their destination. In a pocket in his official coat were 
 found also some thirty-five letters of various dates, 
 which he had neglected to deliver, to the inconveni- 
 ence or loss no doubt of the persons addressed ; but 
 the most astonishing part of the business is, that 
 when his locker or cupboard at the General Post- 
 office was examined, about 1500 letters were found 
 there which he had stopped, the dates upon the 
 envelopes showing that his delinquencies had ex- 
 tended over several months. This young man, upon 
 being tried for the offences named, was convicted, and 
 with the usual severity observed in similar circum- 
 stances, the judge passed upon the prisoner a sentence 
 of six years' penal servitude. 
 
 The following curious instance of the wholesale 
 misappropriation of post-letters also came under the 
 notice of the Post-office authorities in London a few 
 years ago : — 
 
238 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 A man was observed one day carrying off some 
 boards from a building in course of erection in the 
 Wandsworth Bridge Eoad, Pulham, and being pur- 
 sued by a constable, he dropped the timber and made 
 off. The man was, however, captured and taken 
 to the police-station, whereupon the place where 
 he lived was searched for other stolen property. 
 His habitation was situated upon a waste piece 
 of ground on the banks of the Thames, the erec- 
 tion being of wood built upon piles, and so placed 
 as to be almost entirely surrounded by water. 
 Here this man, who was a barge -owner, and who 
 was passing under an assumed name, had lived in 
 isolation for about a year ; the position selected for 
 his home being one calculated to afford him that 
 complete seclusion from social intercourse which 
 would seem to have been his aim. In the course 
 of their examination of the contents of the hut, the 
 police found not only more stolen timber, but various 
 other articles, the chief of which, in the present con- 
 nection, were a large lot of post-letters, mail-bags, 
 and articles of postmen's clothing, besides mUk-cans 
 and a case of forty rifles. As the inquiry proceeded, 
 it became known that the prisoner was a Post-office 
 pensioner, having been superannuated from his office 
 of postman some three years previously, after having 
 served in that capacity a period of fifteen years. It 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 239 
 
 would seem that his official delinquencies had ex- 
 tended over some six or eight years ; but so far as 
 the letters showed, theft in the ordinary sense could 
 hardly have been the man's purpose, inasmuch as the 
 letters had not been opened, with one exception, and 
 in this instance the person for whom the letter was 
 intended could not be found. The motive under- 
 lying this free departure from the ways of honesty 
 seems to have had its root in simple acquisitiveness ; 
 the hundredweight of letters, book-packets, &c., the 
 old mail-bags, discarded uniforms, and waste official 
 papers (not to mention the thirty mUk-cans, sup- 
 posed to have been picked up when going his rounds 
 as a postman, and the case of rifles), having been 
 turned to no profitable account. Had the super- 
 annuated postman opened the letters found in his 
 premises, the punishment which would have followed 
 would necessarily have been severe. As the case 
 stood, however, he was merely charged under the 
 Post-office Acts with their unlawful detention, and 
 sentence was passed upon him of eighteen months' 
 imprisonment with hard labour. It seems astonish- 
 ing that this postman should have had the folly 
 to retain about him so long the evidences of his 
 errors, which might at any time have been brought 
 up against him ; but perhaps the feeling prompting 
 this may be akin .to that which leads criminals to 
 
240 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 ■visit the scenes of former iniquities, even when in- 
 curring the risk of discovery, and if discovered, of 
 certain punishment. 
 
 The following is a case of robbery which occurred 
 in 1883, as reported by the newspapers of the day, 
 the culprit being quite a young person : — 
 
 "The most destructive and important case of 
 robbery in connection with Mr Fawcett's plan, intro- 
 duced some two or three years ago, for facilitating 
 the -placing of small sums, by means of postage- 
 stamps, in the Post-office Savings Bank, came before 
 the Bristol magistrates to-day, when Ellen Hunt, a 
 domestic servant, about sixteen years of age, was 
 charged with stealing a large number of letters, some 
 of them containing cheques, the property of the 
 Postmaster - General. Mr Clifton, who prosecuted, 
 said the robberies were of a very extensive character, 
 and might have been fraught with the direst con- 
 sequences. They had been discovered in a singular 
 manner, no money having been missed; but. a large 
 number of circular letters, addressed by the Bristol 
 clerk to officials requiring to be sworn in connection 
 with the School Board election this week, miscarried. 
 Inquiries were made by the Postal authorities, when 
 it was found that all these circulars had been posted 
 at the Eedcliffe district office, where the prisoner was 
 the servant of the postmaster, Mr Devine. It was 
 
POST-OFFICE EOBBEEIES. 241 
 
 the custom of Mr Devine to place the key of the 
 letter-hox in a secret place for the use of himself 
 and his assistants ; but the prisoner discovered it, and 
 the circular letters were found in her possession with 
 the postage - stamps off them. They had been re- 
 moved for payment into the Post-office Savings Bank 
 on the forms by which a shilling's worth of postage- 
 stamps saved up by school - children and others is 
 now accepted by the Savings Bank department of 
 the Post-office ; but the most serious part of the case 
 was the fact that in the prisoner's box were dis- 
 covered the bundles of opened letters now produced 
 by Detective Short, and containing cheques already 
 discovered to the amount of £74, 16s., all of which 
 had been sent through the same post-office. The 
 charge was laid imder the 27th section of the Act, 
 but formerly a prisoner would have been liable for 
 such an offence to transportation for life. Some 
 evidence having been given, the girl, who was hys- 
 terical throughout the hearing, was remanded. Ap- 
 parently no effort had been made to deal with the 
 cheques, but the detective stated that the numerous 
 letters had been opened." 
 
242 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 Tale of a Bankers Letter. 
 
 Towards the close of last century, or early in the 
 present century, a tradesman of the better class 
 carrying on business in a certain town of the west 
 
 of England, which we shall here call X , and 
 
 who also added to his ordinary business that of the 
 agency of a bank, posted a bulky letter containing 
 heavy remittances in notes, addressed to the Bank 
 of England. This letter never reached its destina- 
 tion, and the loss, being of a most serious kind, was 
 soon bruited about, and became the theme, locally, 
 of general conversation. As it happened, the sender 
 was a man of strong political opinions, and having 
 courage to express them, there were many persons 
 holding opposite views who not only regarded him 
 with feelings akin to dislike, but were ready to take 
 up any missile which chance might place in their 
 way to damage their adversary's fair name. While, 
 therefore, the bank agent maintained that he had 
 posted the letter in question, insinuations were set 
 afloat to the effect that he had not done so, and 
 that the object of his allegations was to fend off 
 pressing calls in matters of account. He suffered 
 greatly in reputation from these unsupported stories, 
 though there was nothing else in his circumstances 
 to create suspicion. Time, the great anodyne of 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 243 
 
 scandal, had somewhat assuaged the sufferings of 
 the unfortunate banker, and probably softened the 
 unkind feelings of those who had been disposed to 
 think hardly of him; the loss of the letter itself 
 had ceased to attract attention ; and as yet nothing 
 was heard of the letter, or the valuable enclosures 
 which it had contained. 
 
 At length, however, the agent received intima- 
 tion that one of the missing notes — a Bank of 
 England note for £50 — which was stopped at that 
 establishment, had been presented in London. As 
 the result of inquiries which were made, it was 
 now traced to an old-established silversmith some- 
 where in the city of London ; but beyond this point 
 the search failed, for all the account the silversmith 
 could give was, that he had received the note some 
 time previously from a man of respectable appear- 
 ance, who had the exterior and conversation of what 
 might be a well-to-do west-country farmer. This 
 man was accompanied to his shop by a young woman 
 of the flash type, to whom the stranger presented two 
 or three rings ; purchasing for himself some heavy 
 gold seals, such as were in vogue at the period, a 
 silver tankard or two, and several punch-ladles. In 
 payment of these articles the £50 note was passed, 
 but the silversmith could give no further help ; 
 
244 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 though hope was not yet extinct, for he added that 
 he should certainly recognise his customers, were 
 they ever to come under his observation again. 
 
 The man of X was a man of determination, 
 
 and, stUl smarting under the loss of means and 
 honour, he resolved that sooner or later he should 
 discover by whom his letter had been stolen. The 
 silversmith, readily entering into these views, cor- 
 dially offered his personal services, and it was 
 arranged between the banker and himself that they 
 should ransack London, visiting the Eanelahs, the 
 Vauxhalls, the Parks, the theatres — indeed every 
 place where gay women and men of pleasure might 
 be found together. This was an arduous task ; but 
 in the end their perseverance was rewarded by the 
 discovery of the young woman to whom the farmer 
 had presented the rings. On being questioned, this 
 young person, whUe frankly stating what she knew, 
 liad little to tell. She had, she said, been in Snow 
 Hill or Holborn one morning at the hour of the 
 arrival of the west of England mail-coach. Among 
 the passengers who got down was a youngish, fresh- 
 looking farmer, whose acquaintance she then made, 
 and whose constant companion she was for several 
 days thereafter. She still wore the articles of 
 jewellery which had been presented to her; but 
 she declared that she had never seen the man since, 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 245 
 
 nor did she know his name. And here the inquiry 
 again seemed to exhaust itself, in the vague dis- 
 covery of a west-country farmer. 
 
 The acquaintance between the banker and the 
 silversmith, which had come about in the way 
 already stated, soon ripened into friendship. They 
 had, in a greater or less degree, a common interest 
 in the matter of the stolen note, but they soon 
 found out that there was other common ground for 
 the growth of amity between them — they were both 
 disciples of Izaak Walton. It became the custom 
 of the silversmith to visit at the house of his friend 
 in the west every season, when the two men would 
 go out fishing together in the neighbouring streams, 
 enjoying each other's society, and frequently, no 
 doubt, going over again the old story of the lost 
 letter. One day, during such a visit, the silver- 
 smith went out alone to try a stream not many 
 miles distant from his friend's residence, and while 
 so engaged a heavy shower swept across the scene. 
 The angler sought shelter in a roadside inn, from 
 which, as it happened, he was not far distant. The 
 house was well known, and the proprietor was of the 
 half-farmer, half-publican type, the business of inn- 
 keeper in such a situation not affording a sufficient 
 living by itselL Feeling somewhat peckish, the 
 
246 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 visitor called for lunch. He was waited upon 
 by the landlord in person. While the bread and 
 cheese and cider were being carried in, the landlord 
 apologised for the absence of the female folks, who 
 were for the moment engaged elsewhere ; and during 
 this brief conversation, the silversmith (still instinct 
 with professional taste) studied a bunch of heavy 
 seals hanging from a watch, in the landlord's fob. 
 The landlord perceived that these articles had at- 
 tracted the stranger's notice, and when he again 
 came into the room the fact was observed by the 
 other that they had been left aside or placed out of 
 sight. 
 
 This incident set the stranger thinking ; and while 
 so engaged, his eye fell upon an old-fashioned glass- 
 fronted cupboard occupying a corner of the room, 
 in which were exhibited the inn treasures — old 
 crystal vessels, china bowls, and the like — together 
 with the plate of the establishment. A sudden 
 thought struck him. He proceeded to examine the 
 contents of the repository; and, standing upon a 
 chair to explore the upper shelves, what was his 
 amazement when he there recognised the silver 
 tankards and the silver punch -ladles which he 
 had sold to the west-country farmer many years 
 before ! Then, eagerly turning over the whole 
 matter in his mind, the features of the landlord 
 
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES. 247 
 
 came back upon him, and in this man he recognised 
 the person who in London had purchased these 
 articles and paid to him the stolen £50 Bank of 
 England note. The silversmith lost no time in 
 communicating the facts to the banker, who at once 
 obtained a warrant, and, with two constables, pro- 
 ceeded the same evening to the inn to put it into 
 execution. The landlord was called into a room, 
 there and then he was charged with having stolen 
 
 the note, and was forthwith conveyed into X 
 
 a prisoner. 
 
 It transpired in the course of inquiries that in his 
 early days — before the period of the robbery — this 
 man had been employed as a servant or assistant by 
 
 the postmaster at X . He left that situation, 
 
 however, and became coachman to one of the neigh- 
 bouring gentry. While in this service it was very 
 frequently his duty to drive the family into town, 
 where they would rest some portion of the day in 
 their town house, and return to the country seat 
 in the evening. In these intervals it sometimes 
 happened that the coachman would go to the post- 
 office, and there chat and gossip with his old feUow- 
 servants. He visited the post-office on the day when 
 the stolen letter was posted ; he and his former com- 
 rades smoked and drank together ; and in the end he 
 
248 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 volunteered to assist with the letters. He did so ; 
 and while thus engaged he managed to abstract the 
 banker's letter, which, owing to its bulky nature and 
 the address which it bore, he suspected to contain 
 value. His visit on that particular day was verified 
 by circumstances in the recollection of the persons at 
 the post-office, and other evidence of his guilt ac- 
 cumulated against him; but this testimony was not 
 really necessary, for the farmer-publican himself con- 
 fessed to the theft of the letter, and explained' how 
 he had obtained possession of it. 
 
 The course usual in such circumstances followed. 
 The offence was visited with the severity which 
 characterised the period — the man suffered the 
 extreme penalty of the law. 
 
249 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TELEGEAPHIC BLUNDERS. 
 
 ALTHOUGH the work of sending and receiving 
 telegraphic messages may be regarded in a 
 general way as partaking largely of a merely me- 
 chanical nature, yet it is work to which the operator 
 who is to achieve credit in his sphere must bring 
 much tact, good sense, intelligence, a knowledge of 
 the world, and a considerable amount of patience. 
 Not only are the terms in which telegrams are fre- 
 quently written so far devoid of context in them- 
 selves, owing to the curt way in which they are 
 worded, as to render the sense of little assistance in 
 estimating the correctness of a message received, but 
 the letters of the telegraphic alphabet, being nothing 
 more than little groups of dots and dashes variously 
 arranged, are extremely susceptible of mutilation, 
 owing to any lack of exact spacing on the part of 
 the sending operator. Nor does the liability to error 
 
250 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 lie only in these directions. The dots and dashes 
 frequently fail or run together, owing either to feeble 
 signals, contact of the wires with one another, with 
 trees, or other objects, or to the instruments not 
 being in perfect adjustment. A grain of grit or of 
 dust getting between the points of contact in a deli- 
 cate instrument wUl sometimes do much mischief in 
 the way indicated. There is liability to mistakes, 
 too, in consequence of the handwriting of the senders, 
 or of the operators at a transmitting point where 
 messages have to be again taken down, not being 
 very plain. Yet over and above these tendencies to 
 error, there is the fallibility of human nature, which 
 wUl sometimes lead a person to write " no " where 
 " yes " is intended, or " black " where " white " is 
 meant ; and of such mistakes probably no explana- 
 tion can be given. So that the work of a telegraph- 
 ist is beset with pitfalls, and he requires all his wits 
 and a fair share of intelligence to keep him right in 
 his work. It may further be remarked that many 
 errors in telegrams, which might be supposed by the 
 public to be gross or inexcusable, have occurred in 
 the most simple way, or have been shown to be due 
 to failures of the most trifling kind. 
 
 The following are illustrations of such mis- 
 takes : — 
 
 A pleasure -party, telegraphing to some friends. 
 
TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDERS. 251 
 
 stated that they had "arrived all right," but the 
 message was rendered, " We have arrived all tight." 
 The words " right " and " tight " in the Morse code 
 are as follows : — 
 
 rig h t 
 
 tig h t 
 
 In another case, a poor person, desiring to state 
 that her daughter was ill, wrote in her message 
 " Mary is bad." This was rendered, " Mary is dead," 
 the sense being changed by a slight imperfection of 
 spacing, thus — 
 
 d e a d 
 
 instead of — 
 
 b ad 
 
 In a third case, owing to failing signals, possibly 
 from so simple a cause as the intermittent contact 
 of the wire with a wet branch of a tree, or a par- 
 ticle of grit or dust finding its way between the 
 points of the instrument, the import of the message 
 was altogether changed. Thus, " Alfred doing well, 
 enjoyed egg to-day," was received, "Alfred dying, 
 enjoyed GG to-day." 
 
 A gentleman telegraphed from London to his bro- 
 
252 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ther in the country to send a hack to meet him at 
 the station ; but when the gentleman arrived at the 
 station he found a sack waiting for him. A firm in 
 London telegraphed, " Send rails ten foot lengths ; " 
 but the message was delivered, "Send rails in foot 
 lengths." 
 
 A person telegraphed to a friend to "take two 
 stalls at the Haymarket," but the message conveyed 
 directions to secure " two stables at the Haymarket." 
 In another telegram, the intimation, "mother is no 
 worse," was changed to " mother is no more." Again, 
 '' You will be glad to hear that your sister has ac- 
 cepted an engagement with your father's approval," 
 was rendered, "that your sister has accepted an en- 
 gagement with your father's apostle." In another 
 case a plain business message, thus — " Come to me 
 as early as you can, that we may arrange Wednes- 
 day," was given a matrimonial turn by being deliv- 
 ered as, " that we may arrange wedding." The next 
 case is one in which a hungry man would doubtless 
 be made an angry man in consequence of the mis- 
 take which occurred. His message, which was writ- 
 ten thus, — " Shall arrive by train to-morrow morning; 
 provide a good supply of bread, butter, eggs, milk, 
 and potatoes," — was delivered as "provide a good 
 Slipper of bread," &c. In another instance the no- 
 
TELEGRAPHIC BLUITOERS. 253 
 
 tice that " Mr -will come to-night with me at 
 
 7 to tea," was rendered, "Mr will come to- 
 night with me, get 7 to tea ; " the only argument in 
 favour of the mistake being " the more the merrier." 
 Then, on another occasion, a telegram sent hy a per- 
 son in the country to " Madame , Costumier," 
 
 at an address in London, conveying an order for a 
 fancy dress, was presented to the maker of costumes 
 
 as " Madame , Costermonger." In a telegram 
 
 directed to " , M.P., House of Commons," 
 
 the address somehow got changed to " , M.P., 
 
 House of Correction ; " but the member not being 
 found there, the clerks at the delivering office sug- 
 gested that it should be tried at the "House of 
 Detention," — a not unlikely place for successful 
 delivery of such a message as things were at the 
 time. 
 
 It has been left to America to produce a mistake 
 in telegraphing which, while it is very amusing, 
 could not result in hurt or disappointment to any 
 one. Here it is, just as received from the other side 
 of the " ferry": — 
 
 A St Louis merchant, while in New York, re- 
 ceived a telegram notifying that his wife was ill. 
 He sent a message to his family doctor asking the 
 nature of the sickness, and if there was any danger. 
 
254 THE KOYAL HAIL. 
 
 and promptly received the answer — "iVo danger; 
 your wife has had a child ; if we can keep her from 
 having another to-night she will do well." The mys- 
 tification of the agitated husband was not removed 
 until a second inquiry revealed the fact that his 
 indisposed lady had had a chill. 
 
255 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 
 
 r dealing with the vast numbers of letters and 
 other post articles which daily flow through the 
 capacious veins of the British Post-office, the officials 
 of the department come to learn many strange things 
 connected with the wanderings of letters from their 
 proper courses ; they learn much in regard to the 
 blunders made by the senders of letters in writing 
 their addresses, and of the supreme folly frequently 
 shown by individuals in transmitting valuables in 
 carelessly-made-up packets : and this experience not 
 only has the effect of causing complaints made by 
 the public to be sometimes met by doubts and mis- 
 givings on the part of the Post-office, but is of great 
 use in tracing home the blame to the right quarter, 
 which is found to be, not infrequently, where the 
 complainer had least reason to suspect it. The fol- 
 lowing facts will probably establish what is here 
 advanced, besides proving of interest to the reader. 
 
256 THE EOTAL MAIL. 
 
 It is quite a common occurrence for letters — 
 especially letters of a small size — which are dropped 
 into a letter-box, to slip inside newspapers or book- 
 packets, and to be carried, not only out of their 
 proper course, but to places abroad, thus getting 
 into the hands of the wrong persons. Such letters 
 are returned from time to time from every quarter 
 of the globe, but what proportion of those which go 
 astray are duly returned it is impossible to say; 
 for there are persons who, on receiving letters in 
 this way not intended for them, proceed to open the 
 envelopes through sheer curiosity, and having thus 
 violated the letters, do not hesitate to destroy them. 
 Others again, through dishonest motives, open letters 
 of this class in the hope of gain. But there are 
 others who, through no such interest, but merely 
 from the want of a neighbourly spirit, refuse to take 
 any trouble to put an errant letter in its proper 
 course. This spirit was displayed in the case of a 
 letter which had been misdeUvered by the postman 
 at a given address on the first floor of a tenement (it 
 being intended for a person occupying the groimd 
 floor), the person who had received it stating, when 
 questioned, that he had torn up the letter because he 
 would not be troubled to send it down-stairs ! Letters 
 are sometimes, too, carried away to wrong addresses 
 by sticking to the backs of other letters. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 257 
 
 Again, through a great want of sense, or perhaps 
 a redundancy of stupidity, letters are deposited occa- 
 sionally in the most extraordinary places, in the idea 
 that they are being posted. A servant -girl being 
 sent out to post a letter, drops it into the letter-box 
 of an empty shop, where it is found when an in- 
 tending tenant goes to look at the premises. In a 
 town in the north of Scotland a person was observed 
 to deposit a letter in a disused street hydrant, and 
 on the cover of the box being removed, three other 
 letters were found, the senders of which had similarly 
 mistaken the water -pillar for a letter-box. The 
 letters had been passed into the box through the 
 space formerly occupied by the tap-lever. A some- 
 what similarly absurd thing happened some time 
 ago in Liverpool, where two letters were observed to 
 have been forced behind the plate indicating the 
 hours of collection on a pillar letter-box — the per- 
 son who had placed them there no doubt thinking 
 he was doing the correct thing. 
 
 It must be that many individuals entertain the 
 greatest confidence in the servants of the Post-office, 
 or they would not send money and valuables as they 
 do. They also perhaps regard the Department as 
 a fit subject on which to perpetrate petty frauds, by 
 sending things of intrinsic value enclosed in books and 
 newspapers. Instances of this kind are frequent. 
 
 R 
 
258 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 Within the folds of a newspaper addressed to a 
 person in Ireland were found two sovereigns, yet 
 there was no writing to show who the sender was. 
 
 A brown-paper parcel, merely tied with string, 
 unsealed, and not even registered, was found to con- 
 tain six sovereigns, one half-crown, two sixpences, 
 and three halfpenny - pieces, wrapped up in small 
 articles of ladies' dress. 
 
 In the chief of&ce in London, two gold watches 
 were found inside an unregistered book-packet ad- 
 dressed to New Zealand, the middle portions of the 
 leaves having been cut out so as to admit of the 
 watches being concealed within. On another occa- 
 sion, but in a Scotch post-office, a packet containing 
 a book bound in morocco, was on examination dis- 
 covered to have the inner portion of the leaves 
 hollowed out, while still retaining the appearance 
 of an ordinary book, and inside this hollow were 
 found secreted a gold watch and a silver locket. 
 At another time, a £20 Bank of England note was 
 observed pinned to one of the pages of a book 
 addressed to the initials of a lady at a receiving- 
 house in the London Metropolitan District. 
 
 A packet done up in a piece of brown paper, un- 
 sealed but tied with string, was found to contain a 
 small quantity of trimming, a collar-box with a few 
 paper-collars, and inside the box were two £1 notes 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 259 
 
 and 10s. in silver. A halfpenny wrapper was used 
 to serve as a covering for the transmission of a letter, 
 a bill of sale, and four £5 Bank of England notes. 
 In a newspaper which reached the Dead - letter 
 Office were found four sovereigns, and in another a 
 gold locket. A packet carelessly rolled up was seen 
 to contain a sovereign, two half-sovereigns, and a 
 savings-bank book. In several instances coins have 
 been found imbedded in cake and pieces of toast ; and 
 on one occasion gold coins of the value of £1, 10s. 
 were discovered in a large seal at the back of a 
 letter, the gold pieces having come to light through 
 the wax getting slightly chipped. But the most 
 flattering act of confidence in the probity of the 
 Post-office fell to be performed by a person at Leeds, 
 who, desiring to send a remittance to a friend, 
 folded a five-pound note in two, wrote the address 
 on the back of it, and, without cover or registration, 
 consigned it to the letter-box. Petty frauds are com- 
 mitted on the Post-office to a large extent by the send- 
 ers of newspapers, who infringe the rules by enclos- 
 ing all sorts of things between the leaves — such as 
 cigars and tobacco, collars, sea- weed, ferns and flowers, 
 gloves, handkerchiefs, music, patterns, sermons, stock- 
 ings, postage - stamps, and so on. People in the 
 United States and Canada are much given to these 
 practices, as shown by the fact that in one-half of 
 
260 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 the year 1874, more than 14,000 newspapers were 
 detected with such articles secreted in them. 
 
 Occasionally letters of great value are very care- 
 lessly treated after delivery, through misconception 
 as to what they really are. A person alleging that 
 a registered letter containing a number of Suez Canal 
 coupons had not reached him, the Post-office was 
 ahle to prove its delivery ; and on search being then 
 made in the premises of the addressee, the coupons 
 were found in the waste-paper basket, where they 
 had been thrown under the idea that they were 
 circulars. In another instance a registered letter, 
 containing Turkish bonds with coupons payable to 
 bearer, was misdirected to and delivered at an ad- 
 dress in the west end of London, though it was 
 really intended for a firm in the city. The value 
 of the enclosures was more than £400 0. When 
 inquiry came to be made at the place of delivery, 
 it was found that the bonds had been mistaken for 
 foreign lottery-tickets of no value, and were put 
 aside for the children of the family to play with. 
 
 Cases come to light, too, involving a history — or 
 at least suggesting a history without affording par- 
 ticulars — or leaving us entirely in the dark as to 
 the circumstances of the matter. Thus, two packets 
 which had been addressed to Australia, and had been 
 forwarded thither, were returned to England with the 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 261 
 
 mark upon them, " unclaimed." On being opened, 
 one of them was found to contain 100 sovereigns, 
 and the other 50 sovereigns; yet there was no com- 
 munication whatever in either to show who had 
 sent them. It was supposed, by way of explana- 
 tion, that a person proceeding to Australia had direc- 
 ted the packets to himself, intending to reach the 
 colony by means of another ship ; and that, having 
 died upon the passage, or his ship having been 
 lost, no application was ever made for them at the 
 office to which they had been directed. 
 
 On one occasion a cheque for £9, 15s. was found 
 loose in a pillar letter-box in Birmingham. The 
 owner was traced through the bank upon which the 
 cheque was drawn, but he was unable to give any 
 explanation of the circumstances under which it had 
 passed from his possession. 
 
 The following are a series of instances in which 
 letters have got out of their proper bearings, — 
 chiefly in the hands of the senders or the persons 
 addressed, or through the carelessness of the servants 
 of those persons ; and the cases show how prone 
 the public are to lay blame upon the Post-office 
 when anything goes wrong with their letters, before 
 making proper search in their own premises. A 
 number of cases are added, in which the servants 
 of the senders or of the persons addressed have been 
 
262 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 proved dishonest, when the blame had first been laid 
 upon post-office servants ; and one or two cases are 
 given where the Department has been held up as 
 the delinquent, merely to afford certain individuals 
 an excuse for not paying money due by them, or 
 otherwise to shirk their obligations. 
 
 "A person applied at the Leeds post-office and 
 stated that two letters (one of which contained the 
 half of a bank-note) which he had himself posted at 
 that office had not reached their destination — men- 
 tioning at the same time some circumstances asso- 
 ciated with the alleged posting of the letters. After 
 some conversation, he was requested to produce the 
 letter which had informed him of the non-receipt of 
 the letters in question ; but instead of producing it, 
 he, to his own great astonishment, took from his pocket 
 the very letters which he believed he had himself 
 posted." 
 
 " Inquiry having been made respecting a letter 
 sent to a person residing at Kirkcudbright, it ap- 
 peared that it had been duly delivered, but that the 
 addressee having left the letter on a table during 
 the night, it had been devoured by rats." Another 
 case of the depredations of rats upon letters is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Certain letters which ought to have reached a 
 bookseller in a country town not having been re- 
 
HOW LETTEliS ARE LOST. 263 
 
 ceived, it was concluded, after inquiry, that they 
 had been duly delivered, but had subsequently been 
 withdrawn from under the street door, which was 
 furnished with a slit to receive letters, but without 
 a box to retain them. During subsequent alter- 
 ations in the shop, however, when it was necessary 
 to remove the flooring under the window, the dis- 
 covery was made of thirty-one letters, six post-cards, 
 and three newspapers, which had been carried thither 
 by rats ! The corners of the letters, &c., bearing the 
 stamps, were nibbled away, leaving no doubt that 
 the gum upon the labels was the inducement to the 
 theft. Several of the letters contained cheques and 
 money-orders. 
 
 But rats are old enemies to letters, as is known 
 in the Post-of&ce ; for in the olden times, when 
 sailing-ships were in use as maU-packets, sad com- 
 plaints were made of the havoc caused by " ratts " 
 to the maUs conveyed in these ships. 
 
 Nor are rats the only dumb creatures which have 
 shown a " literary " turn, in getting possession of 
 post-letters. Some years ago a postman was going 
 his rounds delivering letters in Kelvedon, in Essex, 
 carrying a registered letter in his hand ready to 
 deliver it at the next house, when a tame raven — a 
 worthy compeer, if not a contemporary, of the Jack- 
 daw of Eheims — suddenly darted down, snatched it 
 
264 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 from his grasp, and flew ofif with it. The bewildered 
 postman could only watch the bird while it made 
 a circuit over the town, which it did before alight- 
 ing ; and so soon as it got to a suitable place, it 
 set to work to analyse the composition of the mis- 
 sive by tearing the letter to pieces. The fragments 
 were shortly afterwards collected and put together, 
 when it was found that part of them were the 
 remains of a cheque for £30, wliich was afterwards 
 renewed when the singular affair was made 
 known. 
 
 Another curious incident in which birds are con- 
 cerned occurred in the spring of 1884 at Shew- 
 bridge Hall, near Nantwich, in Cheshire. For the 
 convenience of the people at the Hall, a letter-box 
 is placed by the gate at the roadside, into which 
 the post-runner places the correspondence addressed 
 to Shewbridge Hall. Mr Lockett, the occupier of 
 the house, expecting a letter from Liverpool con- 
 taining a cheque for £10, went to the box, where, 
 as it happened, he found the letter, but in a muti- 
 lated state, and the cheque gone. Believing that 
 a robbery of his box had been committed, or that 
 the letter had been violated before being deposited 
 therein, he forthwith rode into Nantwich to report 
 the matter at the post-office and to the police. Ee- 
 turning later on, he examined the box more closely. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 
 
 265 
 
 and discovered tomtits inside; and further investi- 
 gation led to the discovery of the cheque lying 
 twenty yards away on the turnpike road, "whither 
 it had evidently been carried for examination. The 
 
 cheque was folded small, and 
 could therefore be easily car- 
 ried by these small birds. 
 The tomtits had taken pos- 
 session of the box for nest- 
 ing purposes, and perhaps 
 they found the letter to be in the way, and ac- 
 cordingly made an effort to remove it. In the 
 spring of the previous year a pair of tomtits built 
 
 LetUr-box taken possession of 
 by Tomtits. 
 
266 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 their nest in this letter-box (possibly the same pair), 
 and reared a brood of young, though letters were 
 being dropped into the box every day. 
 
 A very similar circumstance occurred in the same 
 season at a place near Lockerbie, where a letter-box 
 is affixed to the trunk of a tree bordering on the 
 main road, for the convenience of the people living 
 at Daltonhook farm, which occupies a site some 
 distance from the highway. The letter-box is 
 about fifteen inches square, with the usual slit to 
 admit of letters being dropped in, and a door to the 
 front the full size of the box, to allow the postman 
 to clear it or to place larger packets within. A pair 
 of tomtits, considering the box an eligible place for 
 bringing up a family, built their nest in it, obtaining 
 ingress and egress by the letter-slit, and choosing 
 that portion of the interior farthest from the door 
 for -their purpose. In contrast to the ruthlessness 
 and cruelty of many who show no love to God's 
 creatures unless they contribute in some way to their 
 comfort or profit, the post-runner and the family 
 who use the box, in a kind-hearted way took every 
 care to disturb these objects of interest as little as 
 possible, and in due time the nest was complete, and 
 eight tiny eggs were deposited therein. While the 
 female was sitting on the eggs during the term of 
 incubation, she did not rise from the nest when the 
 
HOW LETTEES AKE LOST. 267 
 
 post-runner opened the door, but would make a 
 peculiar noise and peck at his hand as he put it 
 forward to take out or deposit letters. But after a 
 time the two became more friendly, and kindness on 
 the one side begetting confidence on the other, the 
 bird at length became so familiar, that while it con- 
 tinued to sit on the nest it would peck crumbs from 
 the man's hand, instead of showing displeasure, as it 
 formerly had done. At length seven young birds 
 became the joy of the parents. These, however, did 
 not find the box altogether free from drawbacks ; for 
 letters, in being deposited through the slit, some- 
 times fell on the top of the youngsters, and so ex- 
 cited the wrath of the old birds. This was proved 
 on one occasion when a servant dropped a letter 
 into the box, for when the post-runner next visited 
 the receptacle, he found the letter so mutilated, either 
 through sheer rage on the part of the tomtits, or in 
 their endeavours to eject it by the slit, that he took 
 it back to the farmhouse rather than send it for- 
 ward in its badly damaged state. However, the 
 brood at length got through the troubles of their 
 infantile days ; and we may indulge the hope that 
 they have since lived to join in the antiphonies of 
 the grove, or to adorn the roadside spray with their 
 neat figures and glowing colours. 
 
 It may be added that these little birds are very 
 
268 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 eccentric in the choice of their nesting-places. In 
 one case they selected the inside of a weathercock 
 on the top of a steeple for their breeding-place, and 
 in another the interior of a beehive in full work. 
 Here they set up house and reared their young, 
 neither injuring the bees, nor being molested by them 
 in return. 
 
 " A gentleman at Archerstown, county Westmeath, 
 complained of a letter, containing half bank-notes 
 and post-bills amounting to £400, addressed to 
 Dublin, not having come to hand ; but when the 
 matter came to be fully examined, it was ascertained 
 that the letter was in a drawer in the house of the 
 very person to whom it had been directed, but by 
 whom it had been entirely overlooked." 
 
 A banker residing in a country town in Scotland 
 reported that a letter containing two £20 notes and 
 two £1 notes, addressed to him by another banker, and 
 posted at a town ten miles distant, had not come to 
 hand. On inquiry, the sender could not state either 
 the numbers or the dates of the notes. He had, 
 moreover, allowed upwards of two months to elapse 
 before taking any steps to ascertain whether his 
 letter had reached its destination. "As this valuable 
 letter had been posted without the precaution of 
 registration, and had the words ' county rates ' on 
 
HOW LETTEES AKE LOST. 2G9 
 
 the envelope, it was supposed to have excited the 
 cupidity of some one connected with one or other 
 of the two post - offices concerned, and an officer 
 was immediately despatched to investigate the case. 
 The complainant reiterated the statement that the 
 letter had not reached him ; but within half an hour 
 of the officer's departure, an inmate of the house 
 having made a fresh search, found the letter among 
 some papers in a press, where it had apparently been 
 placed unopened when received." 
 
 " A bank agent sent a letter containing valuable 
 enclosures to another bank agent. The letter was 
 presumed to have been lost by the Post-office; but 
 no trace of it could be obtained there, and the ap- 
 plicant was informed accordingly. It subsequently 
 appeared that the son of the person to whom the 
 letter had been addressed had called at the Post- 
 office and received the letter, and that he had after- 
 wards left the town for the holidays, carrying the 
 letter away with him in his pocket, where it had 
 remained." 
 
 "A letter supposed to contain a £10 note was 
 registered at Moffat, and in due course delivered 
 to the addressee, who, however, declined to sign a 
 receipt for it, as the £10 note was missing. The 
 sender was written to, but he asserted that the note 
 
270 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 had been enclosed. The postmaster chiefly con- 
 cerned (who had been more than fifty years in the 
 service) was greatly distressed at the doubt thus cast 
 upon his honesty ; but on further inquiry, the sender 
 admitted that he had obtained a trace of the £10 
 note, and stated that the fault had not been with 
 the Post-office. On being pressed for fuller informa- 
 tion, he stated that when writing his letter he had 
 placed the £10 note in an envelope and affixed a post- 
 age-stamp thereon, when a lady came hurriedly into 
 his shop, also to write a letter, and he had assisted 
 her by getting an envelope and placing a postage- 
 stamp on it ; that he had placed this envelope be- 
 side that which contained the bank-note ; and that 
 when the lady had finished her letter, he gave her 
 by mistake the envelope with the £10 note in it, 
 and put his own letter into the empty envelope. 
 He had carried the two letters to the Post-office; 
 and his own, which he supposed contained the £10, 
 he had registered. Both letters were safely de- 
 livered; and the £10 having been returned as 
 evidently sent in error, the lady who had forwarded 
 it brought it to the complainant, and thus the mystery 
 was cleared up." 
 
 During a snowstorm which occurred a year or 
 two ago, a London firm put up for posting, among 
 others, a letter to a Glasgow firm containing a 
 
HOW LETTERS ABE LOST. 271 
 
 cheque for a sum little short of £1000. The 
 cheque not reaching its destination in due course, 
 payment was stopped at the bank, and notwithstand- 
 ing that every inquiry was made, nothing was heard 
 of the letter at the time. Eventually, however, 
 the cheque was brought to the firm who had drawn 
 it, together with the letter, by a police inspector, 
 who had found the letter adhering to a block of ice 
 floating in the Thames off Deptford. The supposition 
 is, that when the letters of the day were beiug car- 
 ried to the Lombard Street Post-office, this letter 
 was dropped in the street, that it was carted off in 
 the snow to the Thames, and there, after a week's 
 immersion in the river, got af&xed to the block of 
 ice, as already stated. 
 
 A firm of solicitors in Leith wrote a letter to a 
 client in the same town, enclosing a cheque for £102 ; 
 and this letter, although it was alleged to have been 
 duly posted, failed to reach the person for whom it 
 was intended. The usual inquiries were made, but 
 unsuccessfully, no trace beiug discovered of the letter. 
 Some days afterwards the firm received the letter 
 and cheque, minus the envelope, from a farmer near 
 Tranent, in one of whose fields a ploughman had 
 picked them up. This man was engaged spread- 
 ing town-refuse upon the field when he found the 
 letter, which he opened, and thereupon threw away 
 
272 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 the cover. For the purposes of investigation, it 
 was very essential that this should be produced ; 
 but it happened that meanwhile the field had been 
 gone over with a grubbing machine, and the chances 
 of the recovery of the discarded envelope were thereby 
 greatly lessened. The ploughman's son was set to 
 work, however, to make a search, and after toiling a 
 whole day, he found the envelope. On examination, 
 it was seen that the postage-stamp affixed was still 
 undefaced, and the envelope bore nothing to show 
 that it had ever been in the Post-office. The whole 
 circumstances left no doubt that the letter had either 
 got into the waste-paper basket of the senders, or had 
 been dropped on the way to the Post-office, and that 
 it had been carried ten miles into the country amongst 
 street rubbish, with which, as manure, the farm in 
 question was supplied from the town of Leith. 
 
 A registered letter posted at Newcastle, and ad- 
 dressed to a banker in Edinburgh, not having reached 
 the addressee's hands, a telegram was forwarded to 
 the sender intimating the fact, and requesting ex- 
 planation of the failure. The banker supposed that 
 the letter had been lost or purloined in the Post- 
 office ; but it was afterwards proved to have been 
 duly delivered to the bank porter, who, having locked 
 it up in his desk, had quite forgotten it. 
 
 A lady residing in Jersey applied to the Post- 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 273 
 
 office respecting a letter which had been sent by her 
 to a clergyman at Oxford. Inquiry was made for 
 it at all the offices through which it would pass, but 
 unsuccessfully, no trace whatever of it being found. 
 Subsequently the clergyman informed the secretary 
 of the Post-office that he had found the letter be- 
 tween the cushions of his own arm-chair, where it 
 had been placed, no doubt, at the time of delivery. 
 
 " A person complained of delay in the receipt of 
 a letter which appeared to have passed through the 
 Post-office twice. It transpired that the letter had, 
 in the first instance, been duly delivered at a shop, 
 where it was to remain till called for, but that it 
 had accidentally been taken away with some music 
 by a customer, who had afterwards dropped it in the 
 street. Subsequently the letter must have been 
 picked up and again posted, and hence its double 
 passage through the Post-office." 
 
 "A barrister complained of the non-delivery of a 
 letter containing the halves of two £10 Bank of 
 England notes, stating that he had posted the letter 
 himself; but he shortly afterwards wrote to say 
 that the letter had reached its destination. It ap- 
 peared that instead of putting it into the letter-box, 
 he had dropped the letter in the street, where, for- 
 tunately, it was picked up by some honest person, 
 who posted it." 
 
 s 
 
274 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 A business firm having frequently failed to receive 
 letters which had been addressed to them, made 
 complaint on the subject from time to time; but 
 the inquiries which were instituted resulted in 
 nothing. After much trouble, however, it was at 
 length discovered that a defect existed in the letter- 
 box in the firm's office-door, and fifteen letters were 
 found lodged between the box and the door, some of 
 which had been in that situation more than nine 
 years. 
 
 A letter said to contain a cheque for £12, 4s., 
 addressed to a London firm, not having reached its 
 destination, inquiries were made with respect to it. 
 At the end of three months it turned up at a pajpier- 
 mdcM factory, whither it had, no doubt, been carried 
 among waste-paper from the office at which it had 
 been delivered. 
 
 In 1883, a registered letter sent from Dunkeld 
 on a given date was duly received in Edinburgh, 
 and delivered at its address, which was a bank, the 
 postman obtaining a signature to the receipt-form in 
 the usual way. Some little time afterwards com- 
 plaint was made by the manager of the bank that the 
 letter had not been received ; but the Post-office was 
 able to prove the contrary by the receipt, the signa- 
 ture to which, on being submitted to the manager, 
 was acknowledged to be that of the wife of the house- 
 
HOW LETTERS AEE LOST. 275 
 
 keeper of tlie estabKshment. Yet this person could 
 give no account of the letter, nor had any one else 
 seen it; and as the letter was stated to have con- 
 tained four £1 notes and a bank deposit-book, the fact 
 of its disappearance gave rise to a state of things which 
 can be better imagined than described. The Post- 
 office, in the circumstances, offered the suggestion 
 that the bank's waste - paper should be carefully 
 examined. As it happened, however, a quantity 
 of this material had just been cleared out, having 
 been purchased by a waste-paper dealer; and the 
 fact made the chances of recovery in that direction 
 all the more remote. Yet the housekeeper was set 
 to work : he traced the bags first to the store of 
 the dealer, then to the premises of a waste-paper 
 merchant in another part of the city. With assist- 
 ance he carefully examined the contents of the 
 bags filled at the bank, and his efforts were re- 
 warded by the discovery of the registered letter, 
 which was in precisely the same state as when 
 delivered, never having been opened. It had very 
 likely fallen from a desk in the bank on to the 
 floor, and by a careless person been brushed aside 
 with used envelopes and scraps of paper, thus 
 finding its way into the waste-paper basket. 
 
 In AprQ 1873, a letter was posted in a certain 
 village in Ayrshire, addressed by a wife to her 
 
276 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 husband, who was in command of a vessel bound 
 for New York. The letter was properly directed 
 to the captain by name, it bore the name of his 
 ship, and was addressed to the care of the British 
 Consul, New York. The captain never received 
 the letter, and this circumstance gave rise, upon 
 his return from sea, to what is described as a 
 " feud " between him and his wife, — he, reposing 
 perhaps greater faith in the Post-office than in 
 the dutiful attentions of his wife, believing that 
 his better-half had not written to him, since he 
 failed to receive the letter on application at its 
 place of address in New York. Time, with its 
 incessant changes, hopes, fears, joys, and disap- 
 pointments, winged its hurried flight for a period 
 of eleven years ere the matter which had caused 
 the feud came to be fully understood. At the end 
 of that time the same letter was returned to the 
 writer through the Dead - letter Office, having (ac- 
 cording to the stamp upon it) been unclaimed at 
 New York. It was stated that the return of the 
 letter had " put all to rights " between the couple 
 concerned, though it is to be hoped that the healing 
 hand of Time had already done much in this direc- 
 tion, and that the return of the long-lost letter did 
 nothing more than put the finishing touch to re- 
 stored confidence. In connection with this matter. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 277 
 
 it was afterwards ascertained that the letter was 
 one of over 4000 similar letters returned to the 
 New York Post-office from the offices of the British 
 Consul in that city, upon a new appointment being 
 made to the Consulate, — the " new broom," as one of 
 his first acts, having made a clean sweep of this 
 accumulation of letters, some of which had been 
 lying there no less than seventeen years. How 
 far the failure of these letters to reach the persons 
 addressed was due to their not having been called 
 for, or to the negligence of clerks at the Consulate, 
 is not known, nor will it ever be ascertained 
 what heart-burnings and misery may have been 
 occasioned by this wholesale miscarriage of cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 In March 1880, a letter plainly addressed to an 
 individual by name, and bearing the name and 
 number of a street in a certain district of London, 
 reached the Dead-letter Office, whither it had been 
 sent by the postman of the district, owing to the 
 person to whom it was directed not being known 
 at the address given. When opened, with a view 
 to its return to the writer, the letter was discovered 
 to contain a Bank of England note for £100, to- 
 gether with a short memorandum suggesting the 
 return of the note to some person, but in such 
 vague and general terms that no one who had not 
 
278 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 had previous information on the subject could have 
 fully understood the purport of the message. 
 
 The memorandum was, moreover, without head 
 or tail — it had no superscription to indicate whence 
 it had come, nor had it a signature to show by 
 whom it had been written. The circumstance being 
 one of an exceptional character, special steps were 
 taken with a view to trace the owner, and an adver- 
 tisement was inserted in several of the metropoKtan 
 newspapers — ^bringing up, it is true, a responsive 
 crop of claimants for lost notes, but without elicit- 
 ing any such claims as would warrant the surrender 
 of the note in question. From the terms of the 
 memorandum in the letter, and the fact that it 
 was anonymous, the suggestion readily arose that 
 whoever had had the note last had not come by 
 it in tbe regular way of business ; and this idea was 
 strengthened by the discovery that the note had 
 been paid over by a bank about eight years pre- 
 viously to a person whose name and address were 
 endorsed upon it; and from that period the note 
 had evidently not been in circulation. It was 
 thought probable that the endorser had lost the 
 note in some way shortly after receiving it, and 
 that coming into the hands of some individual who 
 feared to put it in circulation, it had been kept up 
 during these eight years. ^Meanwhile the right to 
 
HOW LETTEBS ARK LOST. 279 
 
 receive the note not having been established by any 
 one, the amount was paid ia to the Eevenue. 
 
 In the Postmaster - Greneral's report for 1881, 
 further mention was made of the finrliTig of the note 
 ia the Dead-letter Office, and several claims again 
 reached headquarters, one of which proved to be 
 so far good, that, when the facts had been fully 
 investigated, the amount was paid over to the 
 claimant. 
 
 It appeared that the person whose name was 
 endorsed on the note received it in part payment of 
 a cheque cashed by him lq 1872, when he was 
 bought out of the business in which he had till 
 then been a partner. Two years afterwards — viz., 
 in 1874 — ^he died, and his widow was unaware at 
 the time that the note had been lost From cir- 
 cumstances which this lady was able to prove, how- 
 ever, there seemed to be every reason to believe 
 that her husband (whose practice it was to endorse 
 notes when he received them) had by some means 
 lost the note, or that it had been carelessly left by 
 him in some old book or other papers which were 
 sold as waste-paper after her husband's death ; and 
 thus the Post-office was made the means of restor- 
 ing a considerable sum of money to the rightful 
 owner, while the person who had without title pos- 
 sessed it in the interval dared not claim it. 
 
280 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 " A letter said to have been posted by a person 
 at Fochabers, enclosing a letter of credit for £50, 
 was supposed to have been appropriated by an 
 officer of the Post-office; but on inquiry, it was 
 ascertained that, instead of posting the letter him- 
 self, as he asserted, the writer had intrusted it to a 
 servant, who had destroyed the letter, and had at- 
 tempted to negotiate the order." 
 
 " A person complained repeatedly of letters ad- 
 dressed to him having been intercepted and tampered 
 with, and of drafts having been stolen from them 
 and negotiated. There being ground to suspect that 
 the thief was in the complainant's own office, he 
 reluctantly consented to test the honesty of his 
 clerks ; and the result showed that one of them was 
 the guilty party, the man being subsequently tried 
 and convicted. The thefts had been committed by 
 means of a duplicate key, which gave the clerk 
 access to the letter-box." 
 
 Several complaints were made of the non-delivery 
 of letters addressed to the editor of a newspaper ; 
 but this gentleman afterwards intimated that he 
 had discovered that the delinquent was his own 
 errand-boy, who confessed to having pilfered his 
 letter-box." 
 
 " A similar case occurred at Komsey, where, on an 
 investigation by the surveyor, it was discovered that 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 281 
 
 the applicant's errand-boy had abstracted the letters 
 from his private bag, which it was found could be 
 done even when the bag was locked." 
 
 " Application was made respecting a letter contain- 
 ing a cheque for £79, 12s. lid., which had been 
 presented and cashed. The letter had not been 
 registered, and no trace of it could be discovered. 
 The applicants, however, ultimately withdrew their 
 complaint against the Post-office, stating their belief 
 that the missing letter had not been posted, but had 
 been stolen by one of their clerks, who had absconded." 
 
 " A merchant sent his errand-boy to post a letter, 
 and to purchase a stamp to put upon it. The letter 
 contained negotiable bills amounting to £1200 ; 
 and as the merchant did not receive an acknowledg- 
 ment from his correspondent, he cast the blame on 
 the Post-office. An inquiry followed, which resulted 
 in showing that the errand-boy had met another boy 
 on a similar mission, who undertook to post the 
 letter in question. On further reflection, however, 
 the latter resolved to convert the penny intended for 
 a postage-stamp into sweetmeats, which he did, and 
 then destroyed the letter with its contents, carrying 
 the fragments into a field near the Post-office, where 
 they were found hidden." 
 
 A sailor applied for a missing letter containing a 
 money-order for 30 s., which he said had been sent. 
 
282 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 but had not reached him ; but when he found that 
 the matter was under strict investigation, he con- 
 fessed that the money had been paid to him, and 
 that he had denied having received it, in order to 
 excuse himself from not paying a debt to the person 
 with whom he lodged. 
 
 " A person having applied for a missing letter, said 
 to contain two £10 and one £5 Bank of England 
 notes, and which he stated had been sent to him hy 
 his father, it appeared on inquiry that no such let- 
 ter had been written ; and he afterwards confessed 
 that his object ih asking for the letter was a device 
 to keep in abeyance a pecuniary demand upon him 
 by his landlady." 
 
 Some years ago a person complained that twelve 
 sovereigns had been abstracted from a letter received 
 by him while it was in transit through the post, but 
 he was told in reply that the envelope bore evidence 
 that it had not contained coin to that amount. 
 This person then communicated with the sender of 
 the letter, who persisted in declaring that she had 
 put therein the amount stated. At this stage of the 
 inquiry an officer was despatched to investigate the 
 matter ; and upon his requiring the woman who had 
 sent the envelope to accompany him before a magis- 
 trate to attest the truth of her statement upon oath, 
 she confessed that the statement was false, and ex- 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 283 
 
 plained her conduct by saying that she had promised 
 to lend the person to whom the envelope had been 
 addressed £12, but that she had been unwilling to 
 do so, as she felt sure that she should never get 
 her money back again ; and that she determined, 
 therefore, to keep her money, and throw the blame 
 on the Post-office. 
 
 "A bank in Glasgow some years ago complained 
 that a letter had been delivered there without its 
 contents — halves of bank-notes for £75 ; and on a 
 strict investigation, it appeared that the letter had 
 been intrusted to a boy to post, who confessed that, 
 being aware the letter contained money, and finding 
 that the wafer with which it was fastened was wet, 
 he had been tempted to steal the contents, which at 
 the time he believed to be whole notes ; but who 
 added that when, on afterwards examining them, he 
 found them to be halves only, he enclosed them in 
 an unfastened sheet of paper, which he directed ac- 
 cording, as he believed, to the address of the letter 
 from which he had taken them. The halves of the 
 notes and sheet of paper were subsequently dis- 
 covered in the Glasgow Post-office, the address on 
 the paper being, however, very different from that of 
 the letter in which the notes had been enclosed." 
 
 " Complaint was made that a letter containing the 
 halves of Bank of England notes for £65, sent to a 
 
284 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 firm in Liverpool, had failed to reach its destination. 
 On inquiry, it appeared that the letter had been duly 
 delivered, and subsequently stolen by a well-known 
 thief, who had the audacity to go and claim the cor- 
 responding half -notes from another firm in Liverpool, 
 to whose care the stolen letter showed they had been 
 sent by the same post; and in this object the 
 scoundrel succeeded." 
 
 An unregistered letter containing a £10 Bank of 
 England note, posted at Macclesfield and addressed 
 to Manchester, was stated not to have reached its 
 destination. Full inquiry was made, but the letter 
 could not be found. Subsequently, however, the 
 note was presented at the Bank of England, and on 
 being traced, it was discovered that the letter had 
 been stolen after its delivery. 
 
 " A letter containing two £5 Bank of England notes 
 was stated to have been posted at Leeds, addressed to 
 a lady at Leamington, without reaching its destina- 
 tion; but the inquiry that was instituted by the 
 Post-ofi&ce caused the sender to withdraw his com- 
 plaint, and to prefer against the clerk whom he had 
 intrusted with the letter, a charge of having purloined 
 it before it reached the Post-office." 
 
 " The secretary of a charitable institution in London 
 gave directions for posting a large number of ' elec- 
 tion papers,' and supposed that these directions had 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 285 
 
 been duly acted upon. Shortly, however, he re- 
 ceived complaints of the non-receipt of many of the 
 papers, and in other cases of delay. He at once 
 made a complaint at the Post-office; but, on examin- 
 ation, circumstances soon came to light which cast 
 suspicion on the person employed to post the notices, 
 although this man had been many years in the ser- 
 vice of the society, and was supposed to be of strict 
 integrity. Ultimately, the man confessed that he 
 had embezzled the postage, amounting to £3, 15s. 6d., 
 and had endeavoured to deliver the election papers 
 himself." 
 
 " Complaint having been made by a dealer in for- 
 eign postage -stamps that several letters containing 
 such stamps had not reached him, a careful investi- 
 gation was made, but for some time without any re- 
 sult. The letters should have been dropped by the 
 letter-carrier into the addressee's letter-box ; but to 
 this box no one, the dealer asserted, had access but 
 himself. Some time afterwards, however, a cover 
 addressed to the complainant was picked up in the 
 street, and on inquiry being made whether the letter 
 to which it belonged had been delivered, the com- 
 plainant stated that it had not. But it so happened 
 that the letter - carrier had a clear recollection of 
 dropping this letter into the letter-box, and, moreover, 
 remembered to have observed a young girl who was 
 
286 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 at the window move, as he thought, towards the box. 
 This led to the girl being closely questioned, when 
 she admitted the theft, confessing also that she had 
 committed other similar thefts previously. Thus, by 
 a mere chance, a suspicion which had been cast on 
 the Post-ofiBce was dispelled." 
 
 " The publisher of one of the London papers com- 
 plained of the repeated loss in the Post-of&ce of 
 copies of his journal addressed to persons abroad. 
 An investigation showed that the abstraction was 
 made by the publisher's clerk, his object apparently 
 being to appropriate the stamps required to defray 
 the foreign postage. In another case a general com- 
 plaint having arisen as to the loss of newspapers sent 
 to the chief office in St Martin's-le-Grand, inquiry 
 led- to the discovery of a regular mart held near the 
 office, and supplied with newspapers by the private 
 messengers employed to convey them to the post. 
 On another occasion a man was detected in the act 
 of robbing a news-vendor's cart, by volunteering on 
 its arrival at the General Post-office to assist the 
 driver in posting the newspapers : instead of doing 
 so, he walked through the hall with those intrusted 
 to him, and, upon his being stopped, three quires of 
 a weekly paper were found in his possession." 
 
 In the spring of 1855, a young lady, fifteen years 
 of age, whose parents resided in a small English 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 287 
 
 town, which shall be nameless, was sent to a board- 
 ing-school at some distance therefrom to pursue her 
 education. The mother of the young lady was in a 
 delicate state of health, and, as was most proper in 
 the circumstances, letters were written from time to 
 time and forwarded to the daughter at school, giving 
 particulars of her mother's progress. So far this is 
 all plain and straightforward. The young lady, how- 
 ever, one day declared that though on a particular 
 date mentioned by her she had written home to 
 inquire how her mother was, that letter had not been 
 delivered ; and that on the second day thereafter a 
 brown-paper parcel was placed in a very mysterious 
 manner in the hall of the house where she was at 
 school In this parcel was found a letter for the 
 young lady intimating her mother's death, and ex- 
 plaining that the parcel had been brought by a 
 friend — thus accounting for the absence from it of 
 all post-marks. Other circumstances were related 
 by the girl — that she had seen a man galloping along 
 the road, and that he had left the parcel in question. 
 Two days after this event, a letter was posted from 
 her parents' residence to inform the young lady that 
 her mother was much better ; but when the letter 
 arrived and was opened, she produced another letter 
 requiring her immediate return, in order to attend 
 her mother's funeral The case was very puzzling. 
 
288 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 and naturally excited great interest, — the more so, as 
 some suspicion arose that a conspiracy existed to 
 carry off the young lady, in which some person in 
 the Post-office was aiding and abetting. The matter 
 formed the subject of two separate investigations, 
 ending in failure, and the mystery still remained. It 
 was only after a third attempt at elucidation — when 
 an officer specially skilled in prosecuting inquiries of a 
 difficult kind had visited the school — that the truth 
 began to appear. This officer reported that, in his 
 opinion, the whole proceedings were but a plot of a 
 schoolgirl to get home ; and the young lady after- 
 wards confessed this to be the case. 
 
 It is not probable that the petty fraud of again 
 using stamps which have already passed through the 
 post is perpetrated with any great frequency upon 
 the Post-office. StUl, cases no doubt do occur, and 
 may at any time lead to criminal proceedings, like 
 those which took place at Hull some years ago. A 
 person in that town having posted a letter with an 
 old stamp affixed, the stamper who had to deface 
 the stamp in the usual way, detected the irregu- 
 larity, and brought the matter under notice. Pro- 
 ceedings were taken against the offender, and the 
 case being established against him, and the fact 
 being stated that this person had previously been 
 wal-ned by the Post-office against committing like 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 289 
 
 frauds, he was mulcted in a fine of £5 and costs, 
 with the alternative punishment of three months' 
 imprisonment. 
 
 The accidents and misfortunes which are the lot 
 of letters in this country, seem also to attend post- 
 letters in their progress through the Post-ofiSces of 
 other countries. A curious case was noticed some 
 years ago in the French capital. Some alterations 
 were being carried out in the General Post-office in 
 Paris, when there was found, in a panel situated 
 near a letter-box, a letter which had been posted 
 just fifty years before. There it had remained con- 
 cealed half a century. The letter was forwarded to 
 the person whose address it bore, and who, strange 
 to say, was still alive ; but the writer, it transpired, 
 had been dead many years. 
 
 On one occasion notice was given to the Post- 
 office by a clergyman residing in a country town in 
 the south of England, that a packet sent by him 
 containing a watch had been tampered with in the 
 post, the packet having reached the person ad- 
 dressed, not with the watch that had been de- 
 spatched, but containing a stone, which, it was 
 alleged, must have been substituted in course of 
 transit. As is usual in cases of this kind, very 
 particular inquiries were necessary to establish 
 whether the Post-office was really in fault, because 
 
 T 
 
290 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 experience has sliowii that very often obloquy is 
 laid upon the Department which ought to rest else- 
 where; and accordingly, a shrewd and practised officer 
 in such matters was sent to the town in question to 
 make investigations. Arrived at the clerg)Tnan's 
 residence, the officer found that that gentleman was 
 from home ; but introducing himself to the sender's 
 wife, he explained his mission, and in a general way 
 learned from her what she was able to communicate 
 with regard to the violated packet. "While the in- 
 terview was thus proceeding, the officer, with profes- 
 sional habit, made the best use of his eyes, which, 
 lighting upon a rough causeway of small stones 
 somewhere on the premises, afforded him a hint, 
 if not as yet a suspicion, as to the locality of the 
 fraud. In fact, he remarked a striking resemblance 
 between the stone which had been received in the 
 packet and the stones forming the causeway. In 
 the most delicate way he insinuated the inquiry 
 whether the lady might not possibly entertain some 
 shadow of a suspicion of her own servants. 
 
 " Oh dear, no," was the reply ; " they are all most 
 respectable, and have the highest characters.'' 
 
 The lady had the utmost confidence in them, and 
 to admit such a thought was to do them grave in- 
 justice. The officer was not to be satisfied with 
 such an assurance, however, and by using tact and 
 
HOW LETTEES ARE LOST. 291 
 
 patience he brought the lady to see that, if there 
 was no dishonesty with her own servants, they 
 would come safely out of the inquiry, and it might 
 be well to allow him to question them. It was 
 further permitted, after some objection on the 
 lady's part and persuasion on that of the officer, 
 that the latter should ask each of the servants 
 separately whether they would allow their boxes to 
 be examined. If they had nothing to conceal, the 
 ordeal could not, of course, hurt them. The female 
 servants were called up one by one and closely 
 questioned, and on the proposed examination of the 
 boxes being suggested, the girls at once assented. 
 This was so far satisfactory, but there was still the 
 butler to deal with. In due turn the presence of 
 this household ornament was summoned to the 
 room, when, up to a certain point, everything went 
 well; but it being put to him to have his boxes 
 searched, injured virtue cried out, and indignation 
 and scorn were vented upon the obtrusive inquirer. 
 The officer had, however, gained a point, for he was 
 now in a position to say that if the butler con- 
 tinued to object, the suspicion would arise that he 
 might possibly be the culprit, and it might even be 
 concluded that he and not the Post-office ought to 
 account for the watch. At length the man-servant 
 gave way, and he and the officer proceeded to the 
 
292 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 butler's quarters. Upon the trunk being opened, the 
 first thing to attract notice was three bottles of wine. 
 
 " Holloa ! " says the officer, " what have we here ? 
 A strange wine-cellar this ! " 
 
 " Oh," observed the butler, " these are three bottles 
 of ginger-wine which were given me by my father, a 
 grocer in the town." 
 
 " Indeed ! " says the officer, who had meanwhile 
 been noting the colour as he held a bottle between 
 himself and the light ; " it looks a queer colour for 
 ginger - wine. You won't mind letting me taste 
 your wine, will you ? " 
 
 Overborne by the assurance of the officer perhaps, 
 or thinking him quite chatty and chummy, a cork 
 was withdrawn, and the officer was sipping capital 
 old crusted port. The wine was pronounced very 
 good, but the missing watch was not forthcoming. 
 
 The scene of inquiry was now changed. The 
 officer proceeded to the shop of the grocer, made 
 some trifling purchase, put on his most affable 
 ways, and he soon had the grocer talking, first on 
 general topics, then on personal matters, and at 
 last on the theme of his own family. 
 
 " How many have you ? " says the officer. 
 
 " So-and-so," responds the grocer. 
 
 "All doing for themselves by this time, I sup- 
 pose ? " continues the officer. 
 
HOW LETTERS AEE LOST. 293 
 
 This flung the door open for a full statement of 
 the position of the family, which was given without 
 reserve, as if to an old friend, until the hutler with 
 the clergyman was mentioned, when the officer inter- 
 rupted him with the remark — 
 
 "Ah, to be sure ; I know something of him. That 
 was capital ginger-wine you gave him lately." 
 
 " Ginger-wine ! " quoth the grocer ; " I never had 
 wine in my house in my life, and I certainly never 
 gave my son any." 
 
 This was enough for the officer, who remarked 
 that there might be a mistake ; and soon thereafter 
 he found means to bring the conversation to a close. 
 
 Eeturning immediately to the clergyman's house, 
 he again saw the lady, and told her what had occur- 
 red. He made bold to say, moreover, that her butler 
 was a thief, that he was stealing her husband's 
 wine, that he in all probability had made away with 
 the watch, and that she ought to give him into 
 custody, and to prosecute him. At this point the 
 butler was called in, and in presence of his mistress 
 plainly taxed with the theft of the wine. Finding it 
 useless to stand out, he confessed that he had taken 
 it, but protested that he had not stolen the watch. 
 
 The lady, however, had no longer any doubt in 
 the matter; and deeply distressed at finding how 
 greatly she had been deceived in her estimate of 
 
294 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 his character for integrity, exclaimed — " Oh John ! 
 to think that after all the pains your master and I 
 have taken to make you a good man, you should 
 have done this wicked thing ! Oh John, John ! " 
 
 The officer saw that in the lady's view all sus- 
 picion was removed from the Post-office, and pre- 
 pared to leave ; but feeling anxious about the lady 
 in the absence of her husband, said he should go 
 to the police station and fetch a couple of constables 
 to attend to the matter. On this hint the butler 
 became greatly excited and alarmed, and earnestly 
 begged that only one policeman might be sent. 
 
 " Oh no," said the officer, " you are a big man, 
 
 and we must have two ; '' and beckoning Mrs 
 
 to leave the room, he turned the key in the door, 
 and went for the police. 
 
 During his absence, the household was in a state 
 of wild excitement, the lady of the house being in 
 a high state of nervousness, while below-stairs the 
 servants were in no better condition. Meanwhile 
 one of the females, either through sympathy for 
 the idol of the kitchen, or in pursuance of womanly 
 curiosity, which is not less likely, sought the vantage- 
 ground of a water-butt at the rear of the premises, in 
 order to make a reconnaissance through the window, 
 and ascertain how the butler was comporting himself 
 in the new and extraordinary situation where he was. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 295 
 
 But one glance into the room was enough ; she sprang 
 to the ground, and ran to her mistress screaming 
 that John was cutting his throat. Sure enough he 
 had been engaged in this operation, using a pocket- 
 knife for the purpose ; and the officers of justice, on 
 opening the door, found him streaming with blood 
 from the self-inflicted wound. 
 
 At this juncture the Post-office official left the 
 matter to be dealt with by the clergyman as he 
 might see fit. He felt sufficient interest in the case, 
 however, to make inquiry subsequently as to the fate 
 of the culprit, and learnt that he had recovered from 
 his injury; that his kind master and mistress had 
 forgiven him; and although they did not receive 
 him back into their service, they helped him in 
 other ways, and were assiduous in their endeavours 
 to keep him in the paths of rectitude and honesty. 
 
 The following anecdote, borrowed from a French 
 source,^ will illustrate how serious the consequences 
 may be when letters are not clearly and intelligibly 
 addressed, and by what slight accidents such missives 
 sometimes go far from their right course. 
 
 About the year 1837 there was garrisoned at a 
 small town in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais 
 an honest soldier named Goraud, who had served 
 with the colours a term of seven years. Though he 
 
 ' La Poste Anecdotique et Pittoresque. Par Pierre Zaccone. 
 
296 THE EOYAL UMh. 
 
 had conducted himself well, and was favourably 
 thought of by his superiors, he had never been able 
 to rise above the grade of full private. He liked 
 his profession, but being unable either to read or 
 write, the avenues to promotion remained closed 
 against him. 
 
 Goraud came from an obscure village in Prov- 
 ence, where his poor old mother, a woman of over 
 sixty, lived, and where also resided a married 
 brother, younger than hunself, who was surrounded 
 by a rising family of children. The soldier re- 
 ceived from time to time letters from his mother, 
 which, on being read to him, affected him deeply, 
 sometimes even to tears. There were, besides, other 
 friends in his native place of whom he entertained 
 kindly recollections, and with whom he kept up inter- 
 course through his family ; especially a young woman 
 towards whom he had formerly had very tender feel- 
 ings, which, though not now so strong, time and 
 distance had not as yet effaced. 
 
 Becoming home-sick, and having no bright pros- 
 pect before him in the army, Goraud yearned to 
 be set free, so that he might spend the rest of his 
 days " in the midst of those he so much loved," as 
 is expressed on the tomb of the great Napoleon. 
 He had already, as has been before stated, served 
 seven years ; he had been of good conduct ; and now 
 
HOW LETTERS AEE LOST. 297 
 
 he had but to demand his discharge in order. tO" 
 accomplish his fondest wish. 
 
 But just as he was about to make the necessary 
 request, and to realise the dream which he had been 
 cherishing, a letter from his brother changed all his 
 plans. His joy was turned to sorrow. This letter 
 informed him that his mother was seriously ill, and; 
 moreover, that some distemper had assailed his 
 brother's stock, carrying many of them off; in 
 fact, misery stared in the face those among whom 
 he had hoped to live happily, and to eke out 
 the remainder of his days in comfort. The 
 poor fellow was sadly cast down ; the phantom of 
 pleasure had passed from his view ; he shed bitter 
 tears of disappointment, and was at his wits' end. 
 Dejection and irresolution did not, however, last. 
 He soon regained command of himself, and filial 
 affection suggested to him the course which he 
 should pursue. 
 
 Next day he proceeded to the office of an agent 
 whose business it was to procure substitutes for 
 individuals desirous of avoiding service in the army ; 
 and in a few days thereafter he engaged to serve his 
 country for seven years more, receiving in return a 
 payment down of 1500 francs. It may be guessed 
 what was the next step taken by the worthy soldier. 
 He remitted the 1500 francs to his mother, in a 
 
298 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 letter directed to the care of his brother ; and at the 
 same time he intimated that he was to start at once 
 for Algeria, there to join the new regiment to which 
 he had been posted. 
 
 Three months passed, and as yet no acknowledg- 
 ment for the money came to hand. This to Goraud, 
 after the sacrifice he had made, was sadly disap- 
 pointing ; but he did not at first feel alarmed. 
 The idea occurred to him that his mother might be 
 a trifle worse, or that something might have delayed 
 the reply. He decided to write again. He re- 
 lated what he had done, explained the cause he had 
 for uneasiness, and begged that an early answer 
 might be sent to him. This was not long in com- 
 ing. It stated that the old mother was again well, 
 that the brother had had a hard struggle, and 
 that though he hoped to pull through, it might 
 prove necessary for him to quit the place. In re- 
 gard to the alleged remittance, it was briefly added 
 that no money had been received. 
 
 This latter statement created a most painful im- 
 pression upon the soldier. His brother's letter ap- 
 peared to breathe a tone which was not usual ; he 
 imagined that, under the guise of calculated frigidity, 
 was to be perceived an insinuation that no money had 
 been sent : and, smarting under the Sting of such re- 
 flections, the blush of offended virtue rose to his cheek. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 299 
 
 His feelings ran over the whole gamut of wounded 
 sentiment. He saw himself an injured man, and 
 felt deeply hurt; his money had gone unacknow- 
 ledged, and he became roused to anger; and then, 
 revolving the whole circumstances in his mind, 
 suspicion took possession of him. EecoUecting that 
 the money-letter had been sent as an ordinary letter 
 by post, and that the reply had not seemed quite 
 right, he now suspected that his brother had re- 
 ceived the remittance, appropriated it to his own use, 
 and denied the receipt of his letter. In this frame of 
 mind, he had a communication penned to his brother 
 full of denunciations and reproaches, and couched in 
 such terms of violence, that he would not allow the 
 epistle when written to be read over to him. Next 
 day he started with a distant expedition on active 
 service. 
 
 Gloomy, cast down, and above all irate, he was 
 ready to fight with the wind or his own shadow. 
 In the first brush with the enemy he threw himself 
 into their midst with fury, and fought desperately for 
 several hours, as if to provoke the end which he 
 now longed for. Instead of meeting his death, how- 
 ever, he gained the hero's prize — the cross of honour. 
 One month previously he would have hailed this dis- 
 tinction with delight ; now everything was dull and 
 indifferent to him — even glory ! 
 
300 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 About a year after this event Goraud accompanied 
 his regiment to Paris. As he was leaving the bar- 
 racks one day a voice hailed him with the question, 
 " Is not your name Goraud ? " " Yes, major," was 
 the soldier's reply. "Very good," says the other, 
 "here is a letter for you. There are several Gor- 
 auds in the regiment, and the letter has already 
 been opened. I see you are wanted at the Dead- 
 letter Office of the Post-office about some business 
 which concerns you." 
 
 He took the letter, and at once hastened to the 
 Post-office. There an explanation awaited him of 
 the miscarriage of his remittance, and the mystery 
 which had clouded his spirits and embittered his 
 life for a whole year. The same letter that he had 
 despatched lay before him with its contents intact. 
 It had been written and addressed for him by a 
 comrade in the regiment, the superscription, turned 
 into English, being something in this form — 
 
 " To M. Jacques Goraud, 
 for Widow Goraud, 
 at La Bastide, 
 Canton 
 of Marseilles." 
 
 As it happened, the obliging comrade was a poor 
 scribe, and was without any great experience in 
 letter-writing, or in the art of addressing letters. 
 
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST. 301 
 
 The only word in the direction which had been 
 plainly written, and stood out in a way to catch the 
 eye, was the word " Canton." This was the key to 
 the mystery ; the letter had been sent to China ! 
 
 At the period in question the sailing-ships con- 
 veying the mails took about six months to reach that 
 distant country, and the same time for the return 
 voyage. The soldier's letter had made the double 
 journey ; and the blunder being discovered when the 
 letter came back to France, it was sent to the village 
 in Provence to which it was really addressed. But 
 alas ! adversity had overtaken the family in the 
 old home. They had left the place, and gone no 
 one knew whither; and, so far as the Post-office 
 was concerned, it only remained to return the letter 
 to the writer through the Dead-letter Office. 
 
 The moral of this anecdote is, that letters ought 
 to be plainly addressed. Some examples of the 
 rambling style in which addresses are often written 
 are given in another chapter. It would be a useful 
 work were the school boards to give some instruc- 
 tion in this matter to the children under their care. 
 The copy-books might be headed with specimen 
 addresses for the purpose, and the teachers could 
 point out how desirable it is, in addition to plain 
 writing, that the addresses should be well arranged 
 
302 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 — the name of the person occupying one line, the 
 street and number another, and the name of the town 
 a conspicuous place to the right, in a line by itself. 
 In this particular " they do things better in France," 
 for in that country instruction of the kind in ques- 
 tion was introduced into the primary schools more 
 than twenty years ago. 
 
303 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ODD COMPLAINTS. 
 
 rpHE Post-office, in its extensive correspondence 
 -L with the public, has often great difficulty in 
 satisfying what are deemed to be the reasonable 
 claims and representations of reasonable people ; but 
 it has also to endeavour to satisfy and persuade 
 persons who, as shown by the demands made by 
 them, are not altogether within the category above 
 mentioned. What would be thought of the follow- 
 ing appeals made to the Secretary on the subject of 
 the injury supposed to be done by electricity thrown 
 off from telegraph wires ? — 
 
 " Sir, — I have been rejoicing in the hope that 
 when the last telegraph wire was removed I should 
 be at peace ; but alas for human hopes ! Last 
 Sunday and Saturday nights, I suppose all the 
 wires must have been working simultaneously, for 
 
304 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 about 2.0 A.M. I was awakened by the most intense 
 pains in my eyes, and for the two nights I do not 
 think I had more than six hours sleep — that is, 
 none after 2.0 in the morning. Since then I have 
 slept from home, and must continue to do so until 
 either the wires are removed or I leave the house, 
 which I shall be obliged to do, even though it 
 remain unoccupied. The wires are carried in a tube 
 to a pole about 30 yards from my house on the 
 angle, and I imagine that when they are all working, 
 and emerge from the tube, that the electrical matter 
 thrown off must be very great. Pipes have now 
 
 been run up Eoad, where a pillar or pole 
 
 might very easily be fixed, and the present one 
 might be removed 100 yards further off, where it 
 would electrify nothing but fields. — With many 
 apologies for troubling you again, for, I hope, the 
 last time, and with many thanks for your kindness 
 hitherto, I am," &c. 
 
 " Sir, — I am sorry to be obliged to trouble you 
 again respecting the wires opposite my house at 
 
 . You promised in your favour of that 
 
 the wires should be removed within a month from 
 that date, a great amount of labour having to be 
 gone througL I was not surprised that six months 
 were required for their removal instead of one, and 
 
ODD COMPLAINTS. 305 
 
 therefore bore patiently with the delay, although 
 my eyesight, and indeed every one's in the house, 
 suffered most severely ; but why, when at last eight 
 were removed, should one be allowed to remain ? 
 Since the eight have gone, I have been able to sit in 
 my own house without being in as excruciating pain 
 as formerly ; but still I am pained, and particularly 
 between the hours of four and seven in the morning. 
 If one wire affects me so much, imagine my suffer- 
 ings when nine were working ! Such being the case, 
 will you kindly cause the remaining wire either to 
 be removed or encased in the vulcanised tube, so as 
 to contract the current. — Thanking you for your 
 kindness hitherto, and hoping you will add this 
 favour to the rest, I am," &c. 
 
 There are some persons who suffer from the delu- 
 sion that their landladies and the sorters in the Post- 
 office habitually conspire to keep up, or rob them of, 
 their letters — ^letters generally which they look for 
 to bring them money or the right to property. These 
 people are always giving trouble, and are difficult to 
 shake off. On one occasion a lady, who was pos- 
 sessed of a set idea of this kind, called at the General 
 Post-office in London to state her grievance, which 
 she did in most fluent terms. Her complaint was 
 noted for inquiry, and then she went away. An 
 
 u 
 
306 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 hour or two after, she returned to ascertain whether 
 she had left a packet of papers which she had mean- 
 while missed; but they could not be found. This 
 circumstance, she stated, convinced her that she had 
 been robbed ; and an incident that happened when 
 she quitted the building in the morning confirmed 
 her, she stated, in her idea. A man came up to her 
 and asked if he could show her the way to the Dead- 
 letter Office. " No, thank you," was the reply ; " I 
 can find the way myself." She said she knew him 
 to be a magistrate or a judge : " He had a thick 
 neck and flat nose, and the bull-dog type of coun- 
 tenance, and was altogether repulsive-looking." She 
 felt assured he was watching her, &c. 
 
 An aged couple in the south of England moved 
 about from place to place in order to escape from 
 persons who were supposed by them to open their 
 letters. Persecuted, as they imagined, in one town, 
 they would take lodgings in another town, and very 
 soon they would suspect the servants of the house 
 and the officers of the Post-office of obtaining a 
 knowledge of the nature of their correspondence. 
 Then they would wait on the postmaster, and 
 generally go through their chronic grievance. The 
 postmaster, in turn, would assure them that their 
 letters were fairly dealt with ; but this did not 
 satisfy them, and very soon they were off to an- 
 
ODD COMPLAINTS. 307 
 
 other town, in the hope of evading their torment- 
 ors, but in reality to go through the same course 
 as before. 
 
 Mr Anthony Trollope has left us, in the account 
 of his life, a capital specimen of the frivolous and 
 groundless complaints with which the Post - office 
 has frequently to deal. His account is as follows : 
 " A gentleman in county Cavan had complained most 
 bitterly of the injury done to him by some arrange- 
 ment of the Post-office. The nature of his grievance 
 has no present significance ; but it was so unendur- 
 able that he had written many letters, couched in 
 the strongest language. He was most irate, and 
 indulged himself in that scorn which is so easy to 
 an angry mind. The place was not in my district ; 
 but I was borrowed, being young and strong, that I 
 might remember the edge of his personal wrath. It 
 was mid-winter, and I drove up to his house, a 
 squire's country seat, in the middle of a snowstorm, 
 just as it was becoming dark. I was on an open 
 jaunting-car, and was on my way from one little 
 town to another, the cause of his complaint having 
 reference to some mail-conveyance between the two. 
 I was certainly very cold, and very wet, and very 
 uncomfortable when I entered his house. I was 
 admitted by a butler, but the gentleman himself 
 hurried into the hall. I at once began to explain 
 
308 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 my business. ' God bless me ! ' he said, ' you are 
 wet through. John, get Mr TroUope some brandy- 
 and-water, — very hot.' I was beginning my story 
 about the post again, when he himself took off my 
 greatcoat, and suggested that I should go up to my 
 bedroom before I troubled myself with business. 
 ' Bedroom ! ' I exclaimed. Then he assured me 
 that he would not turn a dog out on such a night 
 as that, and into a bedroom I was shown, having 
 first drunk the brandy-and-water standing at the 
 drawing-room fire. When I came down I was in- 
 troduced to his daughter, and the three of us went 
 in to dinner. I shall never forget his righteous 
 indignation when I again brought up the postal 
 question, on the departure of the young lady. Was 
 I such a Goth as to contaminate wine with busi- 
 ness ? So I drank my wine, and then heard the 
 young lady sing, while her father slept in his arm- 
 chair. I spent a very pleasant evening, but my host 
 was too sleepy to hear anything about the Post- 
 office that night. It was absolutely necessary that 
 I should go away the next morning after breakfast, 
 and I explained that the matter must be discussed 
 then. He shook his head and wrung his hands in 
 unmistakable disgust, — almost in despair. 'But 
 what am I to say in my report ? ' I asked. 'Any- 
 thing you please,' he said. ' Don't spare me, if you 
 
ODD COMPLAINTS. 309 
 
 want an excuse for yourself. Here I sit all the day, 
 — with nothing to do ; and I like writing letters.' I 
 
 did report that Mr was now quite satisfied 
 
 with the postal arrangement of his district ; and I 
 felt a soft regret that I should have robbed my 
 friend of his occupation. Perhaps he was able to 
 take up the Poor - law Board, or to attack the 
 Excise. At the Post-ofi&ce nothing more was heard 
 from him." 
 
 The Department not only takes much trouble to 
 investigate cases of irregularity of which definite 
 particulars can be given, but it has frequently to 
 enter into correspondence with persons who seem to 
 have no clear idea of the grounds upon which they 
 make their complaints. A person having stated 
 that his newspapers were not delivered regularly, 
 was requested to answer certain questions on the 
 subject, and the following is the result: — 
 
 Questions. Answers. 
 
 Title and date of newspaper 1 . . Don't know. 
 
 Whether posted within eight days from date 
 
 of publication ? .... Don't know. 
 
 How many papers were there in the packet 1 One. 
 
 Was each newspaper under 4 oz. in weight ? Don't know. 
 
 Where posted, when, and at what hour ? . Don't know. 
 
 By whom posted 1 . . . . Don't know. 
 
 Amount of postage paid, and in what man- 
 ner paid ? . . . . . Don't know. 
 
310 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 The want of information on the part of the 
 public in regard to postal matters of the most 
 ordinary kind cannot at times but give rise to 
 wonder. A person in a fair position of life, re- 
 siding in one of the eastern counties of England, 
 having obtained a money-order from his postmaster, 
 payable at a neighbouring town, called again a few 
 days afterwards and complained that his correspon- 
 dent could not obtain payment in consequence of 
 some irregularity in the advice. Thereupon a second 
 advice was sent; but a few days later the sender 
 called again, stating that the payee was still unable 
 to obtain payment. The sender added that he was 
 quite sure that he had sent the money, as he had 
 the receipt in his pocket. On being asked to 
 show it, he produced the original order, which 
 should, of course, have been forwarded to the payee, 
 and without which the money could not be obtained. 
 
 A similar instance of ignorance of the method 
 of business as carried on by the Post-office was 
 exhibited by a poor Irishman in London, and is 
 thus described in the ' Life of Sir Eowland Hill ' : 
 
 " The belief has more than once been manifested 
 at a money-order-ofi&ce window that the mere pay- 
 ment of the commission would be sufficient to 
 procure an order for £5, — the form of paying in 
 the £5 being deemed purely optional. An Irish 
 
ODD COMPLAINTS. 311 
 
 gentleman (who had left his hod at the door) 
 recently applied in Aldersgate Street for an order 
 for £5 on a Tipperary post-office, for which he 
 tendered (probably congratulating himself on having 
 hit upon so good an investment) sixpence. It re- 
 quired a lengthened argument to prove to him that 
 he would have to pay the £5 into the office before 
 his friend could receive that small amount in Tip- 
 perary ; and he went away, after all, evidently con—, 
 vinced that his not having this order was one of 
 the personal wrongs of Ireland, and one of the 
 particular injustices done to hereditary bondsmen 
 only." 
 
312 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 
 
 THE fountain-head of the Post-office establishment 
 of this country, whose personal embodiment is 
 the Postmaster-General, possesses very ample means 
 for the collection of information of various kinds 
 through its' willing and trusty agents, to be found 
 in every corner of the empire ; and this idea seems 
 to be entertained as well by individuals abroad as 
 by our neighbours at home, who, when they fail to 
 ascertain what they want by other means, frequently 
 fall back upon the Postmaster-General for assistance 
 and guidance — the Post-office being pre-enoinently 
 a people's institution, whose head even no poor 
 man need fear to approach — at any rate by letter. 
 It is a common expression to say that a thing can- 
 not be done for love or money ; but while the 
 Postmaster -General is addressed by inquirers on 
 every variety of subject, it will be found that love 
 and money are at the bottom of many of the com- 
 
CUEIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 313 
 
 munications addressed to him not strictly upon the 
 business of his Department. In the following para- 
 graphs will be found specimens of such letters — 
 some entreating him to render assistance in tracing 
 missing relatives, some asking help in the recovery 
 of fortunes supposed to have been left to the writers, 
 others begging him to obtain situations for them, and 
 the like ; but the letters generally explain themselves. 
 
 The Dead-letter Office must occasionally be sup- 
 posed to be a repository for the human dead, as 
 inquiries for deceased persons are sometimes ad- 
 dressed to the " Dead Office." Thus : — 
 
 "We heard in the paper about 12 or 14 months 
 
 back Mary Ann the servant girl at London 
 
 was dead. Please send it to the Printer's office by 
 return of post whether their was a small fortune 
 left for ." 
 
 " i Beg of you to let me if you do no something 
 
 about a young sailor, his name Hugh . he is 
 
 away now since 4 or 5 years, i hope gentlemen 
 you will let me no if he is dead or alive as i am 
 anxious to no as it is a deal of trouble on my mind 
 as he is a Boy that i have reared up without father 
 an mother an he a deal of trouble on my mind, he 
 has a dark eyes an Brown hair, looking pael. please 
 gentlemen to let me no if you can by return." 
 
314 THE KOTAL MAIL. 
 
 " i rite a Line two see if you hard Enny thing 
 
 of my husband that was left at ill. 
 
 pleese will you rite back by return of post as we 
 are in great trobble." 
 
 " I have just been hearing of 3 men that was 
 drowned about 9 months ago. i hear there was one 
 
 of the men • went under the name of John . 
 
 Could the manager of the office give any particulars 
 about that man, — ^what he was like, or if there was 
 such a name, or if he had any friend. He just went 
 amissing about that time. I here enclose a stamp, 
 and address to " &c. 
 
 Again, the Post-office is asked to hunt up missing 
 relatives : — 
 
 " I write to ask you for some information about 
 finding out persons who are missing. I want to 
 find out my mother and sisters who are in Melbourne 
 in Australia i believe — if you would find them out 
 for me please let me know by return of post and 
 also your charge at the lowest." 
 
 " i right to you and request of you sinsearly for 
 to help me to find out fay husband, i ham quite a 
 stranger in London, only two months left Ireland, 
 i can find know trace of my husband. Your the 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 315 
 
 only gentlemaii that I know that can help me to 
 
 find him. thears is letters goes to him to in 
 
 his name and thears is letters comes to him to 
 
 the Post-office for him. Sir you may be sure 
 
 that i ham low in spirit in a strange contry without 
 a friend. I hope you will be so kind as not to forget 
 
 me. Sir, I would never find for i would go 
 
 astray, besides I have no money." 
 
 " I right these fue lines to you to ask you if you 
 would be so kind as to teel me if there his such a 
 person living in england. She was living at Bir- 
 mingham last Etimmas* — this his mi sister and 
 brother-in-law — they hant in Birmingham now — let 
 this letter go to every general post office there is." 
 
 Then come requests for information about pro- 
 perty that may be supposed to have been left by 
 relatives in this country to persons abroad — generally 
 in America — in which the Postmaster-General is usu- 
 ally treated to an insight, more or less deep, into the 
 family affairs or history of the writers, the rich relatives 
 being as a rule faithfully remembered by the poor, 
 while the recollections in the opposite direction 
 would seem to exhibit features of a less enduring 
 nature. Here are a few specimens : — 
 
 " Kansas. 
 
 " My grandfather Mr John made a wiU on 
 
316 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 or about 22 Oct. 18 — dated at leaving to his 
 
 son, my father, £1000, the interest to be paid to 
 him half yearly, the prinsaple to be divided among 
 his children at his death. My father died on the 
 
 last leaving myself and one brother who wishes 
 
 you to look up and collect the money for us." 
 
 " California. 
 
 " I take the plesure in writing a few lines to you 
 wishing you to ask some old friend of yours to find my 
 father wether he is ded or gone to some other place, 
 his trade was when I left a artist and a panter. I 
 left London when I was four years old. I came to 
 California, my mother and him had some fuss, the 
 street where we lived is on oxford street. You will 
 find my name on the regester in the blumsbery 
 church. My father is german and my mother she 
 is frencL I wish you would try and find him for 
 me i woud be so glad if you find him. I wUl pay 
 you for your truble. 
 
 " I was born in 18 — . if you go to that 
 
 church you wiU find my age if the church is there 
 or the book, pleas let me know as soon as you 
 can." 
 
 " Missouri. 
 
 " You must excuse me for writing to you for I 
 dent know any one in England. I know the names 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 317 
 
 of no lawyers, and thought I would write to yoii. 
 We have seen it in our paper several times of money 
 
 being left to the heirs, and heard that a 
 
 Lawyer of London made a flying visit to St Louis to 
 find the heirs, but failed. My father was born and 
 
 raised in England. His name was the 
 
 oldest son of three. My parents died shortly after 
 we came to America, and I was quite small. I 
 know but little about any of them. I remember 
 hearing my Father say that he had rich relatives 
 who intended to make him their heir. I am very 
 poor ; lost everything during the war. If you know 
 of some lawyer who will see to it without money as 
 I have none to invest. Please answer to tell me 
 what you think you can do for me." 
 
 " As I have' no correspondent in London at pres- 
 ent I adopt this plan of procuring one that I can 
 transact business through — ^the matter I wish to call 
 
 your attention to is this — To the estate of and 
 
 the heirs. The papers were sent here once but have 
 
 been lost. died in London about 45 years 
 
 ago and left a large estate of which my client's 
 interest would be about seventy-five thousand dollars 
 at the time of his death — ^Will you please inform 
 me what it is necessary for us to do in the matter 
 in full." 
 
318 THE EOTAL MAIL. 
 
 "United States. 
 
 " Will you do me the kind favour, as you are the 
 Postmaster and able to know, as I judge of. It is 
 this, give to me the full name and address of any 
 
 'Mac ' that you know of in England, or in 
 
 Scotland, or Ireland, or Wales, or in India, or at or 
 in any other country that you may know of, with 
 their fuU names and correct address, so that I can 
 write to them myself. 
 
 " If you have any list, or book, or pamphlet, with 
 the names of parties who have died, and left money 
 or land to their heirs at law, as I want such in- 
 formation," &c. 
 
 A farmer in the country wants a postmaster to 
 act as go-between in a little business matter, and 
 pens him a few Mnes to the following effect : — 
 
 "John acting as Parmer here would be 
 
 very much obliged to the postmaster if he would be 
 
 so good as to name a suitable party at to 
 
 whom he might sell a 30 stone pig of good quality 
 well — for he understands it is the best place to sell. 
 The pig is now quite ready for killing." 
 
 A sharp fellow in Tennessee, anxious to become 
 rich by a short cut, wants an instrument to hunt gold 
 and silver, and forthwith applies to the Post-office : — 
 
Curious letters addressed to the post-office. 319 
 
 " I want you to do me a kines, to hand this 
 (letter) to some good watch maker and tell him to 
 see if I can by a instrument to tell where gold or 
 silver is in the ground or if there is a instrument 
 maid to find mettel — gold or silver — that are in the 
 ground. If it will attrack it. A instrument for 
 that perpos. I understand there are sutch a thing 
 made. If so, be pleas tell me where I can by one 
 and what it will cost me. It can be sent to New 
 
 York to where I can get it. I want to get a 
 
 instrument to hunt gold & silver. You will pleas 
 write to me as I think if there are sutch a thing 
 maid I could get one in your country. I send you 
 a stamp." 
 
 A stranger in the country expresses his readiness 
 to reward the Postmaster-General with some par- 
 tridges if he will get some one to send him a parcel 
 of mithridate mustard : — 
 
 "Will you do me the favour of dropping me a 
 line to say if you know of an herbalist or greengrocer 
 that could send me a parcel of Mithridate Mustard. 
 It grows at Hatfield by the river side, and in the 
 streets of Peckham on the Surrey side. As I am a 
 stranger, if .you will kindly see if you can get any 
 one to send it me I will send a Post-office order or 
 stamps for what it wiU cost before they start it by 
 
320 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 train ; or if you will get it I will send it to you. I 
 will send you some partridges for your trouble if 
 you will kindly let me know. It dont grow in any 
 
 part of shire that I am aware of. We have 
 
 the common hedge mustard growing here, but that 
 wont do what the gentleman wants it for." 
 
 A Massachusetts owner of an old clock begs for 
 antiquarian search into the history of an ancient 
 timepiece which has come into his possession : — 
 
 " I have tuke the liberty to address you, wishing 
 to know if I could ask the favour by paying you for 
 the trouble I ask to know. 
 
 " I have an old clock in my collection made by 
 Hen ton Brown, London, in the first part of 1700. 
 I would like to know where he was in business and 
 when he died, if it could be ascertained. Please 
 inform me if you could find out by any record in 
 London. I would pay you for all trouble. 
 
 " This darling is one of the loveliest places 
 
 in Massachusetts." 
 
 Now a brother, being doubtful of a love business 
 in which his sister is concerned, claims the help of 
 the Post-office in clearing matters up : — 
 
 " Will you, if you please, let me know if there is 
 such a gentleman as Mr in . i beleave 
 
CUKIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 321 
 
 he is a Chirch Clurdgman. There is a young man 
 
 in who has been engaged to my sister, and he 
 
 says Mrs at is his sister, i should very 
 
 much like to know, if you will oblige me by send- 
 ing, i thought if Mrs was his sister i would 
 
 rite and ask for his charetar, because he is a stranger 
 to us all." 
 
 A Frenchman, with hat in hand, and all ready to 
 propose, merely wants to know, as a preliminary, 
 whether the lady he has in view is stiU alive ! — 
 
 " A Monsieur le 
 
 " Directeur de la Poste de Londres. 
 
 " J'ai cinquinte trois ans. VeuiUez gtre assez bon 
 de me faire r^ponse pour me donner des r^sultats sur 
 
 I'existence de Madame ? Si parfois eUe ^tait 
 
 toujours veuve je voudrais lui faire la proposition de 
 lui demander sa main d'aprfes que j'en aurais des 
 nouvelles. En attendant. Monsieur, votre reponse." 
 
 A couple, having got over the proposal and accept- 
 ance stage, write for a special licence to get married 
 forthwith : — 
 
 " Will you please oblige Susannah and 
 
 Walter with the particulars of an aspecial 
 
 licence to get married — ^is it possible for you to 
 forward one to us without either of us coming to 
 
 X 
 
322 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 you — if you enclose the charge and have it re- 
 turned, would we get one before next Monday week 
 
 to get married at If you wUl kindly send 
 
 by return to the address enclosed the particulars, we 
 should feel greatly obliged." 
 
 And matters being advanced one stage further in 
 another case, the following inquiry is sent to the 
 Postal headquarters: — 
 
 " Will you please inform me if there is to be a 
 baby show this year at Woolwich ; if so, where it 
 is to be holden, and what day." 
 
 Nor is the purely social element lost sight of in 
 the letters reaching St Martin's-le-Grand, uncon- 
 nected with Post-office business, as the two speci- 
 mens hereafter show: — 
 
 " United States. 
 
 " I have always had a great desire to visit your 
 country, but as I probly never shall, I thought I 
 would write. 
 
 " I am a young lady attending the High School 
 
 at , a pictorest town bordering on the 
 
 river. Our country seat is four miles and a half west 
 of . My father is a rich gentleman farmer. 
 
 "We have four horses, 30 or 35 head of cattle, 
 15 or 20 pigs, and a large henery. We have about 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 323 
 
 250 acres of land, so of course we have to keep a 
 house full of servants. 
 
 "We are quite well off in worldly goods, but 
 should be better off if you could inform me about that 
 fortune I expect from a great-uncle, great-aunt, or 
 somebody. It is about half a million either on my 
 father's or mother's side. If you would be so kind 
 as to write and inform me, I would be a thousand 
 times obliged. If you would assist me in getting it 
 
 I will reward you handsomely. Their name is . 
 
 They used to be very fond of me when I was a 
 crowing infant in my mother's arms. It is a very 
 pretty country out hear, wide rolling prairies enter 
 spersed with fine forests. There is a stream of 
 water running through our land, a stream so softly 
 and peasfuUy wild that it looks as if nature had 
 onely just made it and laid down her pencil and 
 smiled. 
 
 " The schoolroom is just a little ways from , 
 
 the name of our farm. It is the schoolroom where 
 I learnt my A B, abs, but I probly never shall go 
 there to school again. It is vacation now and I 
 have come out on to the farm to stay till school 
 commences again. It seems so nice to be where I 
 can have new milk to drink and nice fresh eggs 
 again. I intend to -enjoy myself tiU school com- 
 mences again. Father has sold off most all of our 
 
324 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 horses, but he saved my riding horse, so I intend to 
 have rides and drives without number. 
 
 "Well, as I have said as much as you will care 
 to read, I will stop. I hope you will excuse all 
 mistakes as I am not a very old young lady — only 
 13 years old." 
 
 "Indiana, U.S. 
 
 " Enclosed you will please find a letter which I 
 would like for you to give some young lady or gent 
 — lady preferred — who you think would like a 
 correspondent in this country. Will correspond on 
 topics of general interest. Tor further particulars 
 glance at enclosed letter as it is not sealed. 
 
 " To the person in whose hands this message may 
 fall, I would like a correspondent in your city which 
 I think would be of interest to each of us in the 
 way of information. 
 
 " My house is in the central part of the United 
 States, my age is 18. I am a partner in the manu- 
 facturing of . We are also dealers in 
 
 work. I have travelled all over the United States 
 and Canada. I can give you any information you 
 may desire in reference to this country — this must 
 necessarily be brief. Would like to discuss the 
 habits and nature of our people. To-day is Thanks- 
 giving Day set apart by our president as a day of 
 thanksgiving for our prosperity, &c. ; it is observed 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 325 
 
 annually all over the U.S. It is principally ob- 
 served by giving receptions, dinners, &c. It is 
 snowing to-day ; it is the first day of winter we 
 have had. The thermometer is ten above zero. 
 All business is suspended to-day. Please state 
 what day you receive this, as I would like to know 
 how long a letter is on the road — if you do not 
 wish to answer this, please give to some of your 
 friends who will — my address you will find on the 
 enclosed card." 
 
 An individual who had apparently, Uke Eip Van 
 Winkle, been asleep for a number of years, suddenly 
 starts up, and imagines that he has committed a 
 petty fraud upon the Post-office, and so, to ease his 
 conscience, pens the following confession : — 
 
 " I enclose you 7 sixpenny stamps, and ask you 
 to credit 2 shillings to revenue as conscience money, 
 as I consider that I owe your Department that 
 amount, having enclosed some weeks ago 3 letters 
 to India within a cover to a friend. At the time 
 of my doing so I thought I was doing no wrong, as 
 the three letters enclosed were merely messages 
 which I did not like to trouble my friend with ; but 
 lately I have thought differently, and to quiet my 
 conscience I send you the enclosed stamps, and beg 
 of you to be good enough to acknowledge the re- 
 
326 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 ceipt of 2s. in the columns of the ' Daily Telegraph ' 
 
 as conscience money from . I send Is. 6d 
 
 extra as cost of insertion of the acknowledgment." 
 
 The question even of " who shall be the hang- 
 man" is thought to be a fit subject for elucida- 
 tion at the Post-office. 
 
 " I hope you wUl pardon me for asking of you 
 the favour of satisfying a curiosity which cannot, 
 without distortion, be called a morbid one. The 
 question I am about to put is prompted by the 
 statement in the London papers that Marwood is 
 to be the executioner of Peace. 
 
 " Now, being fully cognizant, from my readings of 
 journals more than 50 years back, that York has 
 always retained its own executioners (Askern hav- 
 ing succeeded Howard), I am sceptical as to the 
 correctness of the above statement. But, assuming 
 it to be correct, I should like to be informed why 
 Peace's particular case should cause a deviation from 
 the old bylaws of your county (York), which gives 
 name to an archiepiscopal province. — Hoping to be 
 pardoned for thus troubling you, I am," &c. 
 
 And again, the Postmaster-General is begged to 
 step in and prevent people being called hard names. 
 " I humbly beg your consideration if there is no 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 327 
 
 law to stop persons from calling all manner of bad 
 names day after day as it is annoying me very 
 much in my calling as a Gardener and Seedsman ; 
 as I have applyed to the ofi&ce at for a sum- 
 mons for a little protection and they tell not, so i 
 think it rather too hard for me as i have done all 
 the good I have had the means to do with to the 
 Hospitals and Institutions and all charityable pur- 
 poses both in and elsewhere if needed ; but i 
 
 suffer from lameness with a ulcerated leg not being 
 able for laborious hard work, although i wish to do 
 as i would be done by. Please to answer this at 
 your leisure." 
 
 The next specimens are from persons out of 
 employment: — 
 
 " I am taking the liberty of writeing you those 
 few lines, as I am given to understand that you do 
 want men in New South Wales, and I am a Smith 
 by Trade, a single man. My age is 24 next birth- 
 day. I shood be verry thankfuU if you wood be so 
 kind and send all the particulars by return." 
 
 " Having lost my parents, I am desirous of taking 
 a housekeeper's situation where a domestic is kept. 
 Must be a dissenting family, Baptist'preferred. Think- 
 ing that such a case might come under your notice, 
 I have therefore taken the liberty of sending to you." 
 
328 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 " Illinois, U.S. 
 " Mr Postmaster if you would be so kind as to 
 seek for us work as we are two colored young men 
 
 of Illinois, and would like to come to England 
 
 and get work as Coachmen or race horse trainers, 
 as we have been experance for twelve years prac- 
 ticesing training — ^if any further information about 
 it we can be reckemend to any one that wish to hire 
 us, pleas to advertise it in the papers for us." 
 
 The two letters of inquiry for situations which 
 follow, are rather amusing owing to their mode of 
 expression, being written by foreigners not having a 
 command of the English idiom ; and they will mirror 
 to our own countrymen what sort of figures they 
 must sometimes cut in the eyes of our neighbours 
 across the Channel, when airing their "dictionary 
 French " in the metropolis of fashion : — 
 
 " SiK, — I have the honour of coming to solicit of 
 your goodwill of telling me if I could not to pass 
 into the English Telegraphic Administration, and, in 
 the affirmative, what I would must make for that. 
 I have undergone here all the examens demanded by 
 the French Administration ; I am now sumumerary, 
 and in a few months I shall be named clerck. I 
 know completely the two Breguet's and Morse ma- 
 chines, and I have begun the ' Hughes.' But, as I 
 
CUKIOtrS LETTERS ADDEESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 329 
 
 am now in a little office where that last is not em- 
 ployed, I cannot improve me actually. I have also 
 some knowledge of the English language. I have 
 
 kept the last year the post of during several 
 
 months. 
 
 " As for my family, my father died from two years, 
 
 was advocate and sus-prefect during thirty 
 
 years. Myself, at Paris, I have had for scholl-fellow, 
 
 several young gentlemen, among others, Master , 
 
 the son of the great English perfumery, and others 
 notable manufacturers of London, where I should 
 desire ardently to be clerck, if, by effect of your 
 good-will, you give satisfaction to my claim. I am 
 old of twenty five years, and I have satisfied to the 
 military law. 
 
 " I dare to hope. Master the Director, that, be it as 
 it may, you will make to me the honour of answer- 
 ing what I must expect of your resolution, and in 
 the same time yours conditions. 
 
 " I am. Master, in expecting, with the most pro- 
 foimd respect, your very humble servant." 
 
 " SwrrzEELAND. 
 
 " You will excuse me of the liberty which I take 
 
 to write to you, but as I know nobody in your town, 
 
 I have not found an other way for find relations with 
 
 some body honourable. I will ask you if you can 
 
330 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 procure me a place in the English Colonies or planta- 
 tions as teacher in an institution or tutor in a good 
 family. I am old of 22 years. I have gone a good 
 
 course of study in the college and gymnasium in , 
 
 and I have held during a IJ year in the pensionnat 
 
 an place as teacher of French language and 
 
 Mathematics. I can give you some good Certifi- 
 cates ; I speak French, German, and a little English. 
 I should wish for be entirely defrayed of the charges 
 of lodging, nourishment, &c., to have a good salary 
 and the voyage paid. These are my conditions ; 
 perhaps will you found something for satisfy them. 
 I will give you a commission proportionably to the 
 importance of the place. I hope Sir a favorible 
 answer, and it is in this expectation that I am," &c. 
 
 The next letter is of another kind, and is not 
 a bad effort for a schoolboy: — 
 
 "Not having received the live bullfinch men- 
 tioned by you as having arrived at the Eetumed- 
 letter Office two days ago, having been posted as a 
 letter contrary to the regulations of the postal sys- 
 tem, I now write to ask you to have the bird fed 
 
 and forwarded at once to ; and to apply for 
 
 aU fines and expenses to . If this is not done 
 
 and I do not receive the bird before the end of the 
 week, I shall write to the Postmaster-General, who 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 331 
 
 is a very intimate friend of my father's, and ask 
 him to see that measures are taken against you for 
 neglect. This is not an idle threat, so you will 
 oblige by following the above instructions." 
 
 In the rules laid down by the Post-office for the 
 guidance of its officers and the information of the 
 public, an endeavour is made to use plain language ; 
 but in any case of doubtful meaning, the Post-office, 
 having framed the rules, claims the right of inter- 
 preting them. At one time an element in the defini- 
 tion of a newspaper, under the newspaper post, was 
 that it should consist of a sheet or sheets unstitched. 
 A newspaper having been taxed a penny, owing to 
 the sheets being tied together with thread, the person 
 who sent the newspaper made the following sharp 
 remonstrance : — 
 
 " Sir, — I had hoped that the utterly indefensible 
 regulation in reference to which I send a wrapper 
 had been silently abolished. The public is quite 
 unable to understand why stitching is made the 
 differentia of a newspaper and a pamphlet, and I 
 can hardly suppose that the occasional penalty of 
 Id. can be the motive. If in the printed regula- 
 tions you would assign a sufficient motive, no one 
 would of course object. Allow me to ask, if a 
 piece of string is passed through two holes and the 
 
332 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 ends not tied in a knot, if that is considered stitch- 
 ing ? According to Johnson's definition of stitching 
 my newspaper was not stitched, but tied, for I used 
 no needle." 
 
 Again, a person having suffered the loss of a 
 letter, containing something of value perhaps, 
 launched a bolt from Scripture at the Depart- 
 ment : — 
 
 " I got no redress before, but I trust I shaU on 
 this occasion ; or else there must be something 
 rotten in the State of Denmark. Judas Iscariot was 
 a thief, and carried the bag, and it will be a pity 
 and a great scandal if he has found a successor in 
 some branch of the Post-office." 
 
 A fond parent, finding that some white mice sent 
 by his little boy were detained in the Post-office, 
 owing to the transmission of live animals being con- 
 trary to regulations, writes very indignantly to the 
 Department, overlooking its impersonal nature, and 
 singles out the officer whose performance of duty 
 provoked him for such castigation as his pen was 
 capable of inflicting. Here is his letter, and it is 
 mild compared with some of the comminatory effu- 
 sions which occasionally reach the Post-office : — 
 
 " SiE, — Tuesday last week my little son sent 
 
CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE POST-OFFICE. 333 
 
 three white mice to a friend at , in a wooden 
 
 revolving cage, done up strongly in brown paper, 
 with such sufficient biscuit to serve them for the 
 day ; but to-day we have heard that your officious 
 manager at our district office delayed sending it, and 
 wrote instead to ask the address of the sender, and 
 called to-day to say he would not forward the cage. 
 Now allow me to ask by what law has he dared to 
 delay the delivery, and by that means no doubt 
 killed the little animals ? They were in a wooden 
 cage, carefuUy packed, and could not in any way have 
 been an annoyance ; they were not explosive, they 
 were not loose; and I know of no notice in your 
 regulations whereby he dare to delay the delivery 
 and starve the little creatures to death. I woiild 
 also ask by what law did he open the package ? 
 The full postage was on the parcel, and no doubt 
 the stamp (4d.) has been obliterated, which he 
 will of course have to refund, as also the cost of 
 the white mice ; he cannot, of course, pay the dis- 
 appointment. Why did the office at take it 
 
 if wrong ? But it is not, because he has sent 
 several such little creatures to others, and they 
 have always reached safely. He likewise had the 
 impudence to say I was to send to the office for the 
 cage, &c. I feel assured you wiU be equally aston- 
 ished with me at his assurance. The package was 
 
334 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 booked from here over eight days ago, and it was 
 his duty to have delivered it. Please see to it ; the 
 address on the parcel was ." ^ 
 
 A young man, conceiving that he had a call to the 
 ministry, quitted the Post-office service to qualify for 
 that vocation. After a time the following letter, 
 which fully explains its own purpose, reached head- 
 quarters : — 
 
 "Enclosed is from a young man in my parish, 
 whose sister is a permanent invalid, and his father a 
 retired Church officer, so that he must have a dry 
 crust. 
 
 " I suppose his style does not take amongst the 
 Independent congregations wanting pastors, so he 
 is sent back to business (a great mistake, I told 
 him, he ever left it). 
 
 "He says something about being over twenty- 
 four years of age ; but I think it hard he should go 
 to coUege for three years, and then be sent adrift 
 without a plank. Is it possible to reinstate him at 
 the Post-ofi&ce ? He goes to chapel in my parish, 
 and his family are all deserving and needy. Excuse 
 this effort to help a respectable though needy fellow." 
 
 ' The mice were duly fed during their detention, and were 
 eventually sent for by the applicant. 
 
335 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SINGULAR COINCIDENCES. 
 
 EXTEAOEDINAEY coincidences have been chron- 
 icled in connection with almost every situation 
 in life, some fortunate and attended with profit to 
 those involved, others unfortunate or disastrous ; and 
 the Post-office is no exception to the rule as being a 
 field for the observation of such occurrences. The 
 peculiar nature of the coincidences to be observed 
 in the following examples may be worthy of note, or 
 at any rate the cases may repay their perusal with 
 some small degree of interest: — 
 
 "Among the workmen employed in some altera- 
 tions at a nobleman's country seat were two bearing 
 exactly the same Christian name and surname, but 
 unconnected and unacquainted with each other, one 
 being a joiner, the other a mason. The joiner, who 
 was a depositor in the Post-oifice Savings Bank, 
 having received no acknowledgment of a deposit of 
 
336 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 £3, obtained a duplicate. The mason, who was not 
 a depositor, became insane and was removed to a 
 lunatic asylum about the same time ; and the orig- 
 inal acknowledgment, intended for the joiner, having 
 fallen into the hands of the mason's mother, she con- 
 cluded that the account was his, and made a claim 
 for the' money towards defraying the expenses of his 
 maintenance, and was with difficulty undeceived." 
 
 A registered packet containing a valuable gold 
 seal was sent to a firm of fancy stationers in New- 
 castle-on-Tyne, and delivered at its address in due 
 course. Complaint was shortly afterwards made, 
 however, that the young person who opened the 
 packet found the seal was not enclosed, and in- 
 quiries were at once set on foot in the Post-office 
 to discover how and where it could have been 
 abstracted. A week or two after, and while these 
 inquiries were stUl proceeding, the firm in question 
 reported that a tradesman in town had presented to 
 them the identical seal, with the view of ascertaining 
 its value ! This information served as a clue to the 
 elucidation of the matter, and the loss of the seal was 
 shown to have occurred in the following fashion: 
 In the process of opening the packet, the young 
 person concerned had carelessly allowed the seal to 
 fall, unobserved by her ; it got mixed up with waste- 
 
SINGULAE COINCIDENCES. 337 
 
 paper, which formed part of some waste shortly there- 
 after removed to the premises of a marine-store 
 dealer, where it underwent a course of sortation. 
 An old woman engaged in this work found the seal, 
 appropriated it, and without more ado pawned it. 
 The person with whom it was pledged was he who 
 presented it at the address where it had dropped 
 from the letter. The coincidence is not only a 
 curious one, but the case illustrates how, but for the 
 coincidence, the blame of the loss would have rested 
 on the Post-office. 
 
 A traveller in the north of Europe became sadly 
 puzzled with letters which followed him about, al- 
 though not intended for him, and the difficulties in 
 his case are described in a letter written by him, of 
 which the following is a transcript : — 
 
 " I am sorry you have had so much trouble re- 
 specting the registered letter supposed to have been 
 
 lost in transmission from my wife to me in . 
 
 But I assure you the letter was most carefully and 
 punctually delivered, not having been even a post 
 behind its due time, and I think your case can hardly 
 have referred to me at all. There was another Eev. 
 J D (the same name) travelling in Nor- 
 way at the same time, whose letters kept crossing 
 my path everywhere ; and when I read them, I was 
 
 Y 
 
338 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 almost in doubt ■whether I was myself or him, for his 
 wife had the same name as mine, and his baby the 
 same name as mine, and just the same age ; but who 
 he can be I cannot make out, only he is not I. 
 Perhaps the registered letter which has given you 
 such trouble may have been for him. It may satisfy 
 you, however, to know that mine was all right." 
 
 The following incident occurred about twenty 
 years ago. A gentleman of the uncommon name of 
 Onions was travelling in Scotland, and was expected 
 by his friends to call at a certain post-office for let- 
 ters on a particular day. The day prior to this, a 
 telegram reached this post-office from his home in 
 the south of England, requesting that he might be 
 told to return at once, owing to the serious illness of 
 his brother. The telegram upon its receipt was duly 
 placed in the proper box by the clerk in charge of 
 the paste restante at the time, and who of course, the 
 telegram being open, was aware of its contents. 
 Next day, when the same clerk was upon duty, a Mr 
 Onions presented himself, asking for letters ; but the 
 clerk, on going to the box to get the aforesaid tele- 
 gram, was unable to find it, nor could any one in the 
 office at the time say anything about it. Mr Onions 
 was, however, informed of its import, whereupon he 
 said he had no brother, but as his father had been ail- 
 
SINGULAE COINCIDENCES. 339 
 
 ing when he left, he supposed a mistake of " brother " 
 for "father" had heen made in transmission, and 
 that the message was no doubt intended for him. 
 He then left the office. A few days later the post- 
 master received a letter from this gentleman, then in 
 the south of England, stating that he had been made 
 the victim of a cruel hoax (he having found on 
 reaching home that no telegram had been sent to 
 him), and he was the more convinced of this because 
 his visit to Scotland was in pursuance of his honey- 
 moon. The matter being investigated, it transpired 
 that on the morning of the day on which Mr Onions 
 called for letters, another Mr Onions, for whom the 
 message was meant, had called and received the 
 telegram from a clerk who shortly thereafter went 
 off duty. The confusion had thus arisen through 
 two persons of the same uncommon name calling at 
 the same post-office on the same day for letters, and, 
 as it happened, applying for their letters at hours 
 when two different clerks were in attendance. 
 
 In the following case the names are fictitious, 
 but in their similarity they wiU adequately illustrate 
 the narrative : — 
 
 The sudden expansion of telegraph business upon 
 the transfer of the telegraphs to the State in 1870, 
 necessitated the employment of a large number of 
 
340 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 iuexperienced operators, and some awkward blunders 
 were the consequence. In the year mentioned, a 
 Liverpool man named Parlane went to London ; but 
 before parting with his wife, it was arranged that 
 on a certain day he would telegraph whether she 
 should join him in London or he would return to 
 Liverpool. On the appointed day the promised tele- 
 gram was sent asking his wife to come to London, the 
 message being directed (we shall say) to Mrs Parlane, 
 24 Menzies Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. By some 
 accidental failure of current, or imperfect signalling, 
 the word " Menzies " ^ reached Liverpool as " Meins," ^ 
 and there being no Meins Street in Liverpool, the 
 messenger was directed to take the message for 
 trial to Main Street, for which it was thought it 
 might be intended. The messenger found at 24 
 Main Street ^ a Mrs M'Farlane, and to this person 
 the message was presented. The names being sim- 
 ilar, Mrs MTarlane opened the telegram, and her 
 husband also being in London, she had no doubt 
 whatever that the command which it contained to 
 repair to London, though altogether unexpected, was 
 intended for herself. That evening she accordingly 
 started for the metropolis. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs Parlane had been suffering intense 
 anxiety at not receiving the promised telegram, and 
 ' The names are given from memory. 
 
SINGULAE COINCIDENCES. 341 
 
 being unable longer to endure the suspense in which 
 she found herself, she likewise started for London 
 the same evening. Strange as it may appear, both 
 Mrs Parlane and Mrs M'Farlane travelled to London 
 not only by the same train, but in the same com- 
 partment ; and it was by a comparison of notes that 
 the telegram intended for the one was discovered to 
 have got into the hands of the other. The string of 
 coincidences in this matter is exceedingly singular — 
 viz., that two persons of similar names should reside 
 at the same number in neighbouring streets ; that 
 the husbands of both should be in London at the 
 same time ; that the two wives should travel to 
 London in the same train ; and that they should find 
 themselves companions in the same compartment. 
 
 Identity in names and addresses in aU particulars 
 sometimes gives rise to trouble and inconvenience. 
 Through the misdelivery of a savings-bank acknow- 
 ledgment, it was brought to light that in a suburban 
 district of London, where there were two terraces 
 bearing exactly the same designation, there were 
 residing, at the same number in each, two persons 
 having not only the same surname, but the same 
 Christian name. 
 
 In consequence of the misdelivery of a post- 
 packet, the following case of almost identical ad- 
 
342 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 dresses in two different towns was brought under 
 notice : — 
 
 Mr Andrew Thom, 
 
 Boot Maker, 
 
 8 South Bridge Street, 
 
 Airdrie. 
 And 
 
 Mr Andrew Thom, 
 
 Boot Top Manufacturer, 
 86 South Bridge, 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Not very long ago, two letters directed to Mrs 
 E at her residence in Edinburgh, were duly de- 
 livered there ; but as the lady was at the time living at 
 the Grand Hotel in London, they were placed under 
 a fresh cover by one of her family and forwarded 
 thither. Some days thereafter the Postmaster of 
 Glasgow received a communication from a Mrs 
 
 E (the same name), residing at the Grand 
 
 Hotel, expressing great astonishment that the two 
 letters, which she now returned, had been sent to 
 her, since her permanent address was not in Edin- 
 burgh, but Glasgow. The matter was afterwards 
 explained, on the fact becoming known that two 
 ladies of the same name, one haUing from Glasgow, 
 the other from Edinburgh, had been living at the 
 same time in the same hotel, and that the waiter 
 had delivered the letters to the wrong person. 
 
343 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES. 
 
 WITH persons who deposit their hard-earned 
 savings in the Post-o£&ce Savings Bank, there 
 is sometimes observed a disposition, not to be won- 
 dered at in their case, to use more than ordinary 
 care in keeping their savings secret, — which care, 
 however, does not always secure the aim which they 
 have in view, but results in quite a different fashion. 
 A domestic servant who had invested in a Trustee 
 Savings Bank about £100, entered the holy bonds 
 of matrimony in 1826, when it might have been 
 expected she would be ready to admit the man of 
 her choice to a knowledge of her monetary worth ; 
 but instead of doing so, she concealed this matter 
 from him, and he remained ignorant of it through- 
 out the remainder of his life. The sum at her 
 credit in the Trustee Savings Bank was afterwards 
 transferred to the Post-office Savings Bank, and by 
 dint of saving she added to that amount nearly £50 
 more. At length, in 1862, after thirty-six years of 
 
344: THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 married life, she died, leaving her husband with 
 three children, but without revealing what she had 
 so jealously guarded, in the interest, no doubt, of her 
 children. Not many months thereafter the man 
 married again. The second wife seems by some means 
 to have come to a knowledge of her predecessor's 
 savings, and in order to pave the way to future pos- 
 session, prevailed upon the old man to make a will 
 in her favour, which he consented to do, not knowing 
 that he was worth anything, and thus gratified a 
 whim, as he might suppose, at small cost. The 
 effect of this was, that, when the old man died, the 
 second wife obtained the whole amount of the ac- 
 count, while the poor children, whose mother had 
 kept her secret so many years in their interest, 
 derived no benefit whatever from the savings which 
 she had hoped to leave them. 
 
 An Irishman who had managed to get some 
 savings together in the savings bank was exercised 
 as to the safe-keeping of his deposit-book, and he 
 adopted the following plan to give himself peace of 
 mind on this score. Pirst of all, he placed his book 
 inside a box, which he then locked. This box he 
 placed inside a second box, which he locked like- 
 wise. Continuing the series of operations, he locked 
 the second box inside a third box ; and then, to 
 ferown the business, hung up all the keys in a place 
 
SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES. 345 
 
 where they were accessible to many persons. In a 
 short time the book disappeared, and by forging the 
 signature of the rightful owner, the thief succeeded 
 in obtaining payment of the poor Irishman's deposits 
 to the amount of about £100. This unfortunate 
 depositor is a type of a considerable class of persons, 
 who show themselves capable of carrying out plans 
 to a certain stage, but fail in some one particular to 
 give them the completeness necessary to success. 
 
 Another individual who had some misgivings as 
 to the safety of his deposit-book, suggested a plan 
 for his identification, furnishing the necessary data, 
 which were his age, and a statement that he had a 
 scar under his left arm, known to himself alone. He 
 desired that no one should be allowed to withdraw 
 money from his account unless upon satisfactory in- 
 formation being given on these points. 
 
 In another instance a depositor proposed to send his 
 likeness, with a view to his identification, lest some 
 other person might get possession of his book, and 
 so withdraw his savings. He then proceeded in his 
 letter to touch upon another matter as follows : 
 " There are some little articles I would like to get 
 from London, and one of them is some natural leaf- 
 tobacco, which I would be glad if you sent me an 
 ounce of, and charge me for it — it is only to be 
 bought in the largest tobacco-stores." Not receiving 
 
346 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 the tobacco, he expressed surprise in a subsequent 
 letter that his request had not been complied with, 
 observing, by way of reproach perhaps, that "the 
 commonest person in America (my country) can 
 speak to General Grant, and there is nothing said 
 wrong about it." 
 
 A good deal of trouble has to be taken in sifting 
 claims for moneys iu the Post-office Savings Bank — 
 especially iu cases where the persons concerned are 
 of a poor and illiterate class. The following may be 
 taken as a case in point : — 
 
 " An account had been opened in a manufacturing 
 town in Yorkshire in 1868 by a girl who was de- 
 scribed as a minor over seven years of age. Only 
 one deposit was made; and nothing further was 
 heard of the account imtil 1872, when a labourer 
 wrote from Northumberland claiming the money as 
 having been deposited by his wife, who had recently 
 died. On a marriage certificate being forwarded, it 
 was found that the marriage took place in 1851, 
 and that the wife was thirty-five years of age at 
 that time. The applicant also stated that he could 
 swear to his wife's handwriting, whereas the depos- 
 itor could not write. He was informed of these 
 discrepancies, but stUl insisted that the money was 
 deposited by his wife, and employed a lawyer to urge 
 his claim." 
 
SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES. 347 
 
 Sometimes depositors mislay their deposit-books, 
 or lose them altogether, and in course of time forget 
 that they have anything lying at their credit. This 
 is an instance of such a case : A depositor, upon 
 being reminded that he had not sent up his book 
 for a periodical examination — the time for which 
 was already past — replied that his book was lost, 
 but that if there was any balance due to him, he 
 would be glad to have the particulars. The amount 
 due to him was upwards of £10 ; but as, when a 
 depositor has lost his book, it is usual to test his 
 knowledge of the account, this course was followed, 
 when, from the answers received, it was made clear 
 that he was entirely ignorant of the sum standing 
 to his credit — and, indeed, that he believed his 
 account to be closed. But for the notice sent to 
 him in regard to his deposit-book, he would never 
 have made any claim. 
 
 As might readily be supposed, strange communi- 
 cations are often received on savings-bank business 
 — some quaint and curious, though written quite 
 seriously, while others are -evidently written with 
 the intention of making fun; yet another class 
 deriving their peculiarities from a too common cause 
 — want of education. A few of such specimens are 
 given as follows : — 
 
 A depositor being asked to furnish particulars 
 
348 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 of his account, the reply received from some one 
 who had opened the letter on his behalf was to 
 this effect : " He is a tall man, deeply marked with 
 smallpox, has one eye, wears a billycock, and keeps 
 a pea-booth at Lincoln Fair," — a description ample 
 enough, and one that would rejoice the heart of a 
 detective. 
 
 The envelopes supplied to depositors, in which 
 they send their books to headquarters, have within 
 the flap a space provided to receive the depositor's 
 address, and the request is printed underneath — 
 " State here whether the above address is perman- 
 ent." This request has called forth such rejoinders 
 as these — " Here we have no continuing city," " This 
 is not our rest," " Heaven is our home," " Yes, B. V." 
 In one case the reply was " No, B. V., for the place 
 is beastly damp and unhealthy ; " while another de- 
 positor, being floored by the wording of the inquiry, 
 wrote — " Doant know what permanent is " ! 
 
 When deposit-books are lost or destroyed, some 
 explanation is usually forthcoming as to how the 
 circumstance occurred, and some of these statements 
 are of a very curious kind. Thus a person employed 
 in a travelling circus accounted for the loss of his 
 book in these terms : " Last night, when I was sleep- 
 ing in the tent, one of our elephants broke loose 
 and tore up my coat, in the pocket of which was 
 
SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES. 349 
 
 my bank-book, and eat part of it. I enclose the 
 fragments." In another case the statement furnished 
 was : " I think the children has taken it out of 
 doors and lost it, as they are in the babbit of play- 
 ing shutal cock ■with the backs of books." Another 
 depositor said that his book was " supposed to have 
 been taken from the house by our tame monkey." 
 While in a further case the explanation vouchsafed 
 was as follows : " I was in a yard feeding my pigs. 
 I took off my coat and left it down on a barrell ; 
 while engaged doing so, a goat in the yard pulled it 
 down. The book falling out, the goat was chewing 
 it when I caught her." A sergeant in the army 
 lost his book "whilst in the act of measuring a 
 recruit for the army," — a circumstance which is, 
 perhaps, not creditable to the recruit. A needy 
 depositor pledged his coat, forgetting, however, to 
 withdraw his deposit -book, which was in one of 
 the pockets. On applying to redeem his property, 
 he found that the coat had been mislaid by the 
 pawnbroker, and that his book was thus lost. In 
 a somewhat similar way another depositor accoimted 
 for his loss "through putting the book in an old 
 coat-pocket, and selling the coat without taking out 
 the book again." It was suggested that he should 
 apply to the person who purchased the coat, when 
 he replied that he had been " to the rag merchant," 
 
350 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 but could find no trace of his book. On another 
 occasion a depositor explained that his book had 
 been mutilated by a cat. Another book, which was 
 kept in a strong box in a pigsty, had been destroyed 
 by the tenant — a pig. While in yet another case 
 the depositor explained that " his little puppy of a 
 dog got hold of it and tore it all to pieces — ^not 
 leaving so much as the number." A coast-guards- 
 man employed on the Sussex coast, writing shortly 
 after the occurrence of some severe storms, explained 
 that his book had been washed away with the whole 
 of his household effects. In a case of mutilation 
 of a book, the following account of the circumstance 
 was given by the owner : " In the early part of last 
 year I was taken seriously ill away from home ; and 
 having my bank-book with me, I wrote in the mar- 
 gin in red ink what was to be done with the balance 
 in case of a fatal result, and as a precaution against 
 its being wrongfully claimed on my recovery, I cut 
 this out." 
 
 These are some of the more curious instances of 
 the loss of books — the loss being ordinarily ascribed 
 either to change of residence, to the book being 
 dropped in the street, or to its being burnt with 
 waste-paper. 
 
351 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 REPLIES TO MEDICAL INQUIRIES. 
 
 FOE many years past it has been incumbent upon 
 all candidates seeking employment in the Post- 
 office, as in other public departments, to imdergo 
 medical examination, with the view of securing 
 healthy persons for the service; and in the course 
 of such examinations the medical officer requires 
 to make inquiry into the state of health of the 
 candidates' parents, brothers, sisters, &c., the infor- 
 mation being elicited in forms to be filled up by 
 the candidates. Though it is not to be expected 
 that persons entering as postmen, messengers, and 
 so on, should exhibit perfection in their orthography, 
 stUl, in referring to the more common troubles that 
 afflict the human frame, some approach to an intel- 
 ligible description of diseases might be hoped for. 
 Dr Lewis, who held the post of medical officer in 
 the General Post-office, London, for many years. 
 
352 THE KOYAL MAIL. 
 
 recorded the following examples of answers received 
 to his questions : — 
 
 " Father had sunstroke, and I caught it of him." 
 " My little brother died of some funny name." " A 
 great white cat drawed my sister's breath, and she 
 died of it." A parent died of " Apperplexity "; an- 
 other died of " Parasles." One " caught Tiber fever in 
 the Hackney Eoad " ; another had had " goarnders " ; 
 a third " burralger in the head." Some of the other 
 complaints were described as "rummitanic pains," 
 " carracatic fever," " indigestion of the lungs," " ton- 
 certina in the throat," " pistoles on the back." One 
 candidate stated that "his sister was consumpted, 
 now she's quite well again" ; while the sister of 
 another was stated to have " died of compulsion." 
 
 It is to be hoped that the work of the school 
 boards will be seen in the absence of such answers 
 from the medical officers' schedules of the future. 
 
353 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 VARIOUS. 
 Superstition. 
 
 SUPEESTITION rarely stands in the way of the 
 extension of postal accommodation or con- 
 venience ; but a case of the kind occurred some 
 time ago in the west of Ireland. Application was 
 made for the erection of a wall letter-box, and 
 authority had been granted for setting it up ; but 
 when arrangements came to be made for providing 
 for the collection of letters, no one could be found 
 to undertake the duty, in consequence of a general 
 belief among the poorer people in the neighbour- 
 hood that, at that particular spot, " a ghost went out 
 nightly on parade." The ghost was stated to be a 
 large white turkey without a head. 
 
 Curious Names. 
 
 Everything that departs from the usual mode or 
 fashion of things is regarded as curious, and the 
 
 z 
 
354 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 term may be applied also to the incidence of names 
 and professions, either in regard to their relative 
 fitness of relationship, or to an opposite quality. 
 As the sight of two or three individuals with 
 wooden legs walking in company would be sure 
 to claim our attention, if it did not excite our mirth, 
 so the coming together of persons having similar 
 names under the same roof by mere chance, would 
 not fail to attract notice, and be thought a peculiar 
 circumstance. Of the first class the following cases 
 may be noted, — namely, that at Torquay, Devon- 
 shire, there used to be a butcher called Bovine ; in 
 the east of London there is a James Bull, a cow- 
 keeper; and at Birnam, Perthshire, a gardener and 
 strawberry - grower called John Eake. There is 
 further, we are informed, at Cork a person carrying 
 on the pawnbroking business whose name is Uncle, 
 than which there could be nothing more appropriate. 
 Of the second class the following is an instance, 
 persons of the names given having been employed 
 together in a single office of the General Post-office 
 some years ago : — 
 
 A Lacroix. A Parsons. A Partridge. 
 
 A Laforet. An Archer. A Peacock, 
 
 A Deforge. A Fisher. and 
 
 A Defraine. A Hunter. One Berdmore. 
 A Clark. 
 
VARIOUS. 355 
 
 Letter-lox, St Martin's-le-Grand. 
 
 So much has it become the custom in these later 
 times for the Post-office to afford facilities to the 
 public iu -whatever will tend to increase the business 
 of the Department, that in all large towns pillar- 
 boxes or branch offices are dotted about everywhere 
 at short distances, thus altering the conditions which 
 formerly obtained, when the chief office was the 
 great central point where correspondence had to be 
 deposited for despatch. London is no exception to 
 this general plan of accommodation, and there may be 
 some lingering regrets that the stirring scenes which 
 used to attend the closing of the letter-box at St 
 Martin's-le-Grand (when the great hall led right 
 through the building) no longer exist, at least as 
 things worthy of note. Lewins, who wrote the 
 History of the Post-office (Her Majesty's MaUs), 
 thus describes what nightly took place at the clos- 
 ing of the box at six o'clock : — 
 
 " The newspaper window, ever yawning for more, 
 is presently surrounded and besieged by an array of 
 boys of all ages and costumes, together with children 
 of a larger growth, who are all alike pushing, heav- 
 ing, and surging in one great mass. The window, 
 with tremendous gape, is assaulted with showers of 
 
356 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 papers, which fly thicker and faster than the driven 
 snow. Now it is, that small boys of eleven and 
 twelve years of age, panting Sinbad-like under the 
 weight of huge bundles of newspapers, manage 
 somehow to dart about and make rapid sorties into 
 other ranks of boys, utterly disregarding the cries 
 of the ofi&cial policemen, who vainly endeavour to re- 
 duce the tumult into something like post-office order. 
 If the lads cannot quietly and easily disembogue, 
 they will whizz their missiles of intelligence over 
 other people's heads, now and then sweeping off 
 hats and caps with the force of shot. The gather- 
 ing every moment increases in number, and inten- 
 sifies in purpose; arms, legs, sacks, baskets, heads, 
 bundles, and wooUen comforters— for who ever saw 
 a veritable newspaper boy without that appendage ? 
 — seem to be getting into a state of confusion and 
 disagreeable communism, and yet 'the cry is still, 
 they come.' Heaps of papers of widely opposed 
 political views are thrown in together — no longer 
 placed caref uUy in the openings ; they are now sent 
 in in sackfuls and basketfuls, while over the heads 
 of the surging crowd were flying back the empty 
 sacks, thrown out of the office by the porters inside. 
 Semi-official legends, with a very strong smack of 
 probability about them, tell of sundry boys being 
 thrown in, seized, emptied, and thrown out again 
 
VARIOUS. 357 
 
 void. As six o'clock approaches still nearer and 
 nearer, the turmoil increases more perceptibly, for 
 the intelligent British public is fully alive to the 
 awful truth that the Post-ofi&ce officials never allow 
 a minute of grace, and that ' Newspaper Fair ' must 
 be over when the last stroke of six is heard. One 
 — in rush files of laggard boys, who have purposely 
 loitered in the hope of a little pleasurable excite- 
 ment ; two — and grown men hurry in with the last 
 sacks ; three — the struggle resembles nothing so 
 much as a pantomimic miUe ; four — a babel of 
 tongues vociferating desperately ; five — final and 
 furious showers of papers, sacks, and bags ; and 
 six — when all the windows fall like so many 
 swords of Damocles, and the slits close with such 
 a sudden and simultaneous snap, that we naturally 
 suppose it to be a part of the Post-office operations 
 that attempts should be made to guillotine a score 
 of hands; and then aU is over, so far as the out- 
 siders are concerned." 
 
 Though the tradition referred to of boys being 
 thrown into the letter-box may not have a very 
 sure foundation in fact, it is the case at any rate 
 that a live dog was posted at Lombard Street, and 
 falling into the bag attached to the letter-box, it 
 was not discovered till the contents of the bag were 
 emptied out on a table in the General Post-office. 
 
358 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 Curious Explanations. 
 
 In the considerable army of servants who carry 
 on the work of the Post-office, embracing all grades 
 from the Postmaster-General to the rural postman, 
 are to be found individuals of every temperament, 
 character of mind, and disposition — the candid, the 
 simple, the astute, the wary ; and the peculiarities 
 of the individuals assert themselves in their official 
 dealings as surely as they would do in the ordinary 
 connections of life. 
 
 The following " explanations " furnished by post- 
 masters who had failed to send up their accounts 
 at the proper time, will illustrate the procedure 
 of the candid or simple when in trouble, who 
 seem quite unnecessarily to give every detail of 
 their shortcomings, instead of doing, as most men 
 would do in the circumstances — make a general 
 excuse : — 
 
 " My daily accounts would have reached you in 
 time; but on Saturday morning, whilst purchasing 
 American cheeses and sampling them, I tasted some 
 of them, which brought on a bilious complaint, so 
 that I was obliged to suspend work on Monday. 
 Being now somewhat better, I trust all wiU go on 
 right." 
 
VARIOUS. 359 
 
 "I regret the daily accounts should have been 
 delayed so long ; but having some friends to see 
 me, the accounts were forgotten." 
 
 " The Postmistress of , Cambridge, is very 
 
 sorry that she has not sent her accounts before this ; 
 she will be sure to do so to-morrow. The delay is 
 on account of her having three little motherless 
 grandchildren staying with her for a few days." 
 
 The following will bear company with the three 
 foregoing specimens. It is a pathetic appeal from 
 a letter - receiver, who, mistaking the purpose for 
 which a certain credit of official money was allowed 
 him, spent it, and was unexpectedly called upon to 
 account for the balance due by him to the head 
 office : — 
 
 "Mr , Superintendent of the Money-order 
 
 Department, called upon me yesterday, and dispelled 
 a very mistaken notion of mine — viz., that as I had 
 given a guarantee of £200, I was perfectly 'justi- 
 fiable' in making use of a portion of the money re- 
 ceived for my own business. I am now very sorry 
 indeed that the idea had gained such an ascendancy 
 over me as it had done. The letter I received from 
 you a few days ago aroused me from that delusive 
 lethargy into which I was sinking ; and if you would 
 
360 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 have the kindness to compare the amount now with 
 what it was then, you will perceive that an effort 
 has been made to retrieve my folly. 
 
 " My object in writing this to you is an earnest 
 appeal not to degrade me in the position I have 
 struggled so hard to maintain through such distress 
 as we have had, by suspending the business of the 
 office. I beg and earnestly entreat of you to give 
 me time to recover myself; and I assure you that 
 under such a stimulation a vigorous effort will be 
 made to place myself in that honourable position 
 which it has been my desire to hold. Therefore, 
 hoping that you will take a favourable view of the 
 case, I subscribe myself, your contrite and obedient 
 servant." 
 
 Prisoners of War. 
 
 The following incident, though not directly bearing 
 upon Post-office matters, has a relation to letters. 
 It forms the subject of a pathetic story, and brings 
 into contrast the possible isolation of poor fellows 
 who may be taken in war, with the rapid and con- 
 stant intercourse kept up between the peoples of 
 enlightened countries during times of peace by the 
 intermediary of the Post-office. The facts are here 
 quoted from a notice of the circumstance published 
 in a local newspaper : — 
 
VARIOUS. 361 
 
 "The extensive works for the manufacture of 
 paper belonging to Alex. Cowan & Sons at Valley- 
 field, near Edinburgh, were in 1811, owing to the 
 dulness of trade, sold to Government, and converted 
 into a prison for the French soldiers and sailors, of 
 whom over 6000 were kept from 1811 to 1814, 
 when peace was happily established between Britain 
 and France. During these three years 309 died, 
 whose remains rest in a quiet spot near the mills. 
 Of these, a list of the names, ages, and place of 
 capture is preserved by Messrs Cowan. The mills 
 were reacquired from Government about 1818, and 
 are carried on as among the largest paper-mills of 
 Britain by the same firm. In some repairs lately 
 carried out at these works (1881) an old floor was 
 lifted, and underneath was found a letter written by 
 a prisoner, but which he was never able to despatch. 
 A copy of this letter is annexed, as possibly some of 
 the writer's relatives may see it and be interested by 
 a perusal." 
 
 The French is not very good ; but here it is : — 
 
 "Prison, Valleyfiel, 
 
 16 Mars, annie 1812. 
 
 " MoN CHER Perre et MA CHER MiiRE, — D'aprfes 
 plusieur lettre que je vous ecrives, ^tant en Angle- 
 terre, sans en avoir pu en recevoir aucune r^ponse. 
 
362 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 Je ne sais k quoi attribuer cette interuption, et depuis 
 on va arrivez en Ecosse, je me suis toujours eni- 
 pressez pour vous donner de mes nouvelles, et qui a 
 iti bien impossible, k moins jusqu'^ presens, d'en 
 recevoir. Je d^sirai ardement d'en recevoir des 
 votres, ainsi mon cherre pfere et ma cherre mfere, je 
 vous prie tr^es umblement de prendre des procotions 
 pour me donn4 de vos nouvelle, est des changement 
 du pays, est dans ce qui est 6gale k mon 6gard, de la 
 famille, seuUement pour k regard de ma sant4, elle 
 a toujours ett^ bonne depuis mon de part. Je desire 
 que la pr^sente vous soient pareille, ainsi que mes 
 frerre et seurre, paran, et ami, rien autre chose que 
 
 je puis vous marqu^ pour le . Je soussignez 
 
 Jean FrauQois Noel de Sariget, la Commune de Saint 
 Leonard, Canton de Fraize, arrondissement de Saint 
 Dies, Departemeant Voges. Monsieur Perigord La- 
 feste, Banquier k Paris, dans la Eue de Mont No. 9. 
 Je soussignez Jean Nicolas Demange de Saint Leo- 
 nard, Canton de Franche." 
 
 A handsome monument was erected in 1830 over 
 the last resting-place of the poor prisoners who died 
 during their period of captivity, and it bears the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 " Prfes de ce lieu riposent les cendres de 309 prisonniers de 
 guerre morts dans ce voisinage entre le 21 Mars 1811 et le 26 
 Juillet 1814. 
 
VAKIOUS. 363 
 
 " N^s pour benir les voeux de vieillissantes mferes, 
 Par le sort appel& 
 A devenir amants aitnis, epoux, et pferes, 
 lis sont morts exiles ! 
 
 " Plusieurs habitans de cette Paroisse aimant a croire que tous 
 les hommes sont frferes, firent Clever ce monument Pan 1830." 
 
 Explosion in a Pillar-box. 
 
 A singular accident, though one not altogether 
 unique in its character, befell one of the pillar letter- 
 boxes in Montrose some years ago. A street had 
 been opened up for the purpose of effecting repairs 
 on the gas-pipes, and while the examination and 
 repairs were in progress, some gas, escaping from the 
 pipes, found its way into the letter-box. The night 
 watchman, intending to light his pipe, struck a match 
 on the box close to the aperture, when a violent 
 explosion immediately followed, blowing out the 
 door, and otherwise doing damage ; but, luckily, 
 neither the watchman nor the letters sustained any 
 injury. 
 
 The Mulready JEnvdope. 
 
 The failure of the Mulready envelope to establish 
 itself in public favour is surely a monument to the 
 caprice of the national taste, if it be not an evidence 
 of how readily the tide of thoughtless opposition may 
 
364 
 
 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 set in to reject that which is new or unusual, with- 
 out serious grounds for dislike. A facsimile of the 
 design is here given, the envelopes for sale being 
 printed in two colours — ^black and blue. 
 
 It was introduced to the notice of the public at 
 the time of the establishment of the penny post- 
 age, being intended to supply a desideratum in this 
 respect, that the cover should serve the combined 
 purposes of an envelope and a postage-stamp, the 
 envelopes being good for a postage of one penny or 
 twopence, according as they were printed in black or 
 blue. 
 
 Mulready, a member of the Eoyal Academy, was 
 the artist, and the design had the approval of the 
 Eoyal Academicians, so that it did not go forth with- 
 
VAKIOUS. 365 
 
 out substantial recommendations. If the subjects 
 be examined, it will be found that they are accurately 
 drawn, ingeniously worked together, and apposite in 
 their references to the beneficent work of the Post- 
 office Department. Britannia sending forth her 
 messengers to every quarter of the globe, ships upon 
 the sea with sails unfurled ready to obey her instant 
 behests, the reindeer as the emblem of speed in the 
 regions of snow, intercourse with the nations of the 
 East and of the West, and the blessings of cheap 
 postage in its social aspects, are all suitably depicted. 
 Yet the whole thing fell flat ; the envelope drew down 
 upon itself scorn and ridicule, and it had to be 
 quickly withdrawn. In the end, it was necessary to 
 provide special machinery to destroy the immense 
 quantities of the envelope which had been prepared 
 for issue. 
 
 It is amusing, however, to read the contemptuous 
 and very funny criticisms which were showered upon 
 the artist and Mr Rowland HiU by the newspapers 
 of the day, in one of which the following remarks 
 appear : — 
 
 " The envelopes and half -sheets have an engraved 
 surface, extremely fantastic, and not less grotesque. 
 In the centre, at the top, sits Britannia, throwing 
 out her arms, as if in a tempest of fury, at four 
 winged urchins, intended to represent postboys. 
 
366 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 letter-carriers, or Mercuries, but who, instead of 
 making use of their wings and flying, appear in the 
 act of striking out or swimming, which would have 
 been natural enough if they had been furnished with 
 fins instead of wings. On the right of Britannia 
 there are a brace of elephants, all backed and ready 
 to start, when some Hindoo, Chinese, Arabic, or 
 Turkish merchants, standing quietly by, have closed 
 their bargains and correspondence. The elephants 
 are symbolic of the lightness and rapidity with 
 which Mr Eowland HHl's penny postage is to be 
 carried on, and perhaps, also, of the power requisite 
 for transporting the £1600 a-year to his quarters, 
 which is all he obtains for strutting about the Post- 
 office with his hands in his pockets, and nothing to 
 do, like a fish out of water. On the left of Britannia, 
 who looks herself very much like a termagant, there 
 is an agglomeration of native Indians, missionaries, 
 Yankees, and casks of tobacco, with a sprinkling of 
 foliage, and the rotten stem of a tree, not forgetting 
 a little terrier dog inquisitively gliding between the 
 legs of the mysterious conclave to see the row. 
 Below, on the left, a couple of heads of the damsel 
 tribe are curiously peering over a valentine just 
 received (scene, Valentine's Day), whilst a little girl 
 is pressing the elders for a sight of Cupid, and the 
 heart transfixed with a score of arrows. On the 
 
VARIOUS. 367 
 
 right, again, stands a dutiful boy, reading to his 
 anxious mamma an account of her husband's hap- 
 less shipwreck, who, with hands clasped, is blessing 
 Eowland Hill for the cheap rate at which she gets 
 the disastrous intelligence. With very great pro- 
 priety the name of the artist is conspicuously placed 
 in one corner, so that the public and posterity may 
 know who is the worthy Oliver of the genius of a 
 Eowland on this important occasion. As may well 
 be imagined, it is no common man, for the mighty 
 effort has taxed the powers of the Eoyal Academy 
 itself, if the engraved announcement of W. Mulready, 
 E.A., in the corner, may be credited. Considering 
 the infinite drollery of the whole, the curious assort- 
 ment of figures and faces ; the harmonious milange of 
 elephants, mandarins' tails, Yankee beavers, naked 
 Indians squatted with their hindquarters in front, 
 Cherokee chiefs with feathered tufts shaking mis- 
 sionaries by the hand ; casks of Virginia threatening 
 the heads of young ladies devouring their love- 
 letters ; and the old woman in the corner, with hands 
 uplifted, blessing Lord Lichfield and Sir Eowland for 
 the saving grace of lid. out of the shilling, and 
 valuing her absent husband's calamity or death as 
 nothing in comparison with such an economy, — al- 
 together, it may be said that this is a wondrous 
 combination of pictorial genius, after which Phiz 
 
368 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 and Cruikshank must hide their diminished heads, 
 for they can hardly be deemed worthy now of the 
 inferior grade of associates and aspirants for Aca- 
 demic honours." 
 
 All this is excessively funny, and enables us to 
 smile ; but if the grounds of condemnation were of 
 no more solid kind, we might venture the suggestion 
 that the envelopes had hardly a fair trial at the bar 
 of serious public judgment. 
 
 Lines on the Penny Postage. 
 
 The following lines were popular about the year 
 1840, when Sir Eowland Hill introduced the uni- 
 form penny rate of postage. The scheme was not 
 looked upon hopefully in all quarters, and some 
 persons predicted an early failure for it, while 
 others only saw in the new departure grounds for 
 ridicule or jest. These Hnes, which are certainly 
 amusing, are said to be the production of Mr James 
 Beaton : — 
 
 Something I want to write upon, to scare away each vapour — 
 The " Penny Postage " shall I try ? Why, yes, I'll write on paper. 
 Thy great invention, Rowland HUl, each person loudly hails ; 
 The females they are full of it, and so are all the mails. 
 This maybe called the "Penny Age," and those who are not 
 
 mulish, 
 Are daily growing " penny wise," though not, I hope, pound 
 
 foolish. 
 
VARIOUS. 369 
 
 We've penny blacking, penny plays, penny mags, for informa- 
 tion. 
 
 And now a " Penny Post," which proves we've lots of pene- 
 tration. 
 
 Their love-sick thoughts by this new act may Lucy, Jane, or 
 Mary, 
 
 Array in airy-diction from Johnson's dictionary. 
 
 Each maid will for the postman watch the keyhole like a cat, 
 
 And spring towards the door whene'er there comes a big rat-tat. 
 
 And lots of paper will be used by every scribbling elf, 
 
 That each should be a paper manufacturer himself. 
 
 To serve all with ink enough they must have different plans ; 
 
 They must start an "Ink walk" just like milk, and serve it 
 round in cans. 
 
 The letters in St Valentine so vastly will amount. 
 
 Postmen may judge them by the lot, they won't have time to 
 count ; 
 
 They must bring round spades and measures, to poor love-sick 
 souls 
 
 Deliver them by bushels, the same as they do coals. 
 
 As billet-doux will so augment, the mails wUl be too small. 
 
 So omnibuses they must use, or they can't carry all ; 
 
 And ladies pleasure wiU evince, instead of any fuss. 
 
 To have their lovers' letters all delivered with a 'bus ! 
 
 Mail-coachmen are improving much in knowledge of the head. 
 
 For like the letter which they take, they're themselves all over 
 red. 
 
 Postmen are " men of letters " too ; each one's a learned talker. 
 
 And 'cause he reads the diction'ry, the people call him 
 "Walker." 
 
 Handwriting now of every sort the connoisseur may meet ; 
 
 Though a running hand, I think, does most give postmen run- 
 ning feet. 
 
 2 A 
 
370 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 They who can't write will make their mark when they a line 
 
 are dropping, 
 And where orthography is lame, of course it will "come 
 
 hopping." 
 Invention is progressing so, and soon it will be seen, 
 That conveyance will be quicker done than it has ever been ; 
 A plan's in agitation — as nought can genius fetter — 
 To let us have the answer back, before they get the letter. 
 
 At the Stamp-counter. 
 
 ' A man who can stand at the stamp-counter and 
 serve the public without fear and without reproach, 
 must needs be possessed of a highly sweetened 
 temper. What with the impatient demands of 
 some, the unreasonable demurs of others, the tire- 
 some iteration of questions propounded by the eccen- 
 tric, and the attention required to be given to the 
 Mrs Browns of society, not to mention the irritating 
 remarks at times of the inconsiderate, the position 
 behind the counter is one which calls for self-control 
 and a large share of good-nature. 
 
 The sort of thing that has to be endured at the 
 
 hands of 
 
 " Perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, and command," 
 
 when she chooses to lay siege to the stamp-window, 
 is thus described by an American writer, and the 
 description is not to any great extent an exaggera- 
 
VARIOUS. 371 
 
 tion (if it be so at all) of experiences which are had 
 in our own country in this particular direction : — 
 
 "Just ahout eleven o'clock yesterday forenoon 
 there were thirteen men and one woman at the 
 stamp-window of the Post-office. Most of the men 
 had letters to post on the eastern trains. The woman 
 had something tied up in a blue match-box. She 
 got there first, and she held her position with her 
 head in the window and both elbows on the shelf. 
 
 " ' Is there such a place in this country as Cleve- 
 land ? ' she began. 
 
 " ' Oh yes.' 
 
 " ' Do you send mail there ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' Well, a woman living next door asked me to 
 mail this box for her. I guess it's directed all right. 
 She said it ought to go for a cent.' 
 
 " ' Takes two cents,' said the clerk, after weighing 
 it. ' If there is writing inside, it will be twelve 
 cents.' 
 
 " ' Mercy on me, but how you do charge ! ' 
 
 " Here the thirteen men began to push up and 
 bustle around, and talk about the old match-box 
 delaying two dozen business letters ; but the woman 
 had lots of time. 
 
 " ' Then it will be two cents, eh ? ' 
 
372 THE EOYAL MAIL. 
 
 '"If there is no writing inside/ observed the 
 clerk. 
 
 " ' Well, there may be ; I know she is a great 
 hand to write. She's sending some flower-seed to 
 her sister, and I suppose she has told her how to 
 plant 'em ' 
 
 " ' Two threes,' called out one of the crowd, as he 
 tried to get at the window. 
 
 " ' Hurry up ! ' cried another. 
 
 " ' There ought to be a separate window here for 
 women,' growled a third. 
 
 " ' Then it wUl take twelve cents ? ' she calmly 
 queried, as she fumbled around for her purse. 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' WeU, I'd better pay it, I guess.' 
 
 " From one pocket she took two coppers, from her 
 reticule she took a three-cent piece, from her purse 
 she fished out a nickel ; and it was only after a hunt 
 of eighty seconds that she got the twelve cents to- 
 gether. She then consumed four minutes in lick- 
 ing on the stamps, asking where to post the box, 
 and wondering if there was really any writing 
 inside. 
 
 " But woman proposes and man disposes. Twenty 
 thousand dollars worth of business was being de- 
 tained by a twelve-cent woman, and a tidal wave 
 
VAKIO0S. 373 
 
 suddenly took her away from the window. In sixty 
 seconds the thirteen men had been waited on and 
 gone their ways, and the woman returned to the 
 window, handed in the hox, and said, ' Them stamps 
 are licked on crooked ; it won't make any difference, 
 will it?'" 
 
374 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EED TAPE. 
 
 THE Post-office is no stranger to the taunt that it 
 is swathed from head to foot in red tape ; or, 
 at any rate, that its operations are so trammelled 
 with routine that no inquiry into irregularities can 
 be made with anything like due expedition. Such 
 accusations as these often come from unreflecting 
 persons, or from those whose business operations are 
 of a small kind, and who have no idea of the methods 
 necessary for carrying on a huge administration. 
 
 An ordinary shopkeeper, for example, has under 
 his own eye the whole sphere of his daily business ; 
 he has a personal knowledge of all purchases from the 
 wholesale houses, and knows exactly the particulars 
 of his daily sales ; he has, moreover, the behaviour of 
 his servants constantly under observation with a view 
 to discipline ; in fact, he is ever present in his own 
 business world, the whole scope of which is within 
 his individual purview. If a person of this class 
 
RED TAPE. 375 
 
 were asked a question in regard to his affairs, it 
 would probably be in his power to afford an answer 
 at once ; and when he addresses an inquiry to the 
 Post-ofBce he expects a reply with like rapidity. 
 Not receiving an answer with the looked-for de- 
 spatch, as might very likely happen, the cause would 
 be assumed to be needless routine — otherwise red 
 tape! 
 
 Now it is proper here to observe, that between 
 business or trade in the ordinary sense, and the 
 administration of a department like the Post-of&ce, 
 there exists a gulf which forbids aU comparison, 
 and establishes a contrast of the most striking kind. 
 A stranger, were he taken through the Secretariat 
 of the Post - office at St Martin's - le - Grand, the 
 brain of the whole Department, could not fail to be 
 struck by the method which reigns throughout, and 
 the way in which various subjects coming up for 
 consideration are disposed of in different branches. 
 In one quarter he would find inquiry going on into 
 the characters and antecedents of candidates for ap- 
 pointments throughout the country, and preparations 
 being made for their examination by the Civil Ser- 
 vice Commissioners. In another room would be 
 found officers exercising judicial functions in regard 
 to cases of misbehaviour reported from the country — 
 meting out arrest of pay or dismissal in accordance 
 
376 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 with the gravity of the offence in each instance. 
 Then in other rooms questions as to new buildings, 
 their fittings and furniture, and the increase of staff 
 when demanded by provincial offices, are undergoing 
 close examination. Inquiries for missing letters take 
 up attention in one branch ; various other kinds of 
 irregularities are dealt with in another. The foreign 
 mails, home mails, the telegraph branch, the parcel- 
 post branch, with all their subdivisions of work, 
 occupy separate rooms, and claim the attention of 
 officers specially trained to their several duties. 
 
 And how does all the correspondence for the 
 Secretary at headquarters find its way to its proper 
 quarter for treatment ? There is a branch called 
 the Registry, in which every letter or communica- 
 tion of any importance is registered on receipt — that 
 is, it receives a number, the name of the writer is 
 indexed, and the subject of his letter recorded. The 
 number of of&cers employed in the Registry is 73 ; 
 and the original papers passing through the branch 
 in the way stated exceed 320,000 annually. From 
 this branch every morning the papers for treatment 
 are distributed over the Secretariat, each ofiicer re- 
 ceiving the papers proper to his duty. Nor does the 
 business of the Registry end here, for every case — 
 each separate set of papers on a subject is called a 
 case — ^is recorded again whenever sent elsewhere, so 
 
EED TAPK. 377 
 
 that its destination can te traced. Were this not done, 
 laggard postmasters, or persons acting from base or in- 
 terested motives, might find it convenient not to return 
 the papers, and so by silence end them. Sometimes a 
 single case will go backwards and forwards thirty or 
 forty times, yet its whole history of travel is recorded. 
 This is the routine which some people call red tape. 
 
 In dealing in this way with large masses of corre- 
 spondence, each atom of which has to receive its 
 due share of brain -attention, there is necessarily 
 some degree of retardation ; and it may be remarked 
 that, between this process and the law in mechanics, 
 under which, other things being equal, a gain of 
 power is accompanied by a loss of speed, there exists 
 a strong analogy. But by this classification and 
 division of labour it is possible to bring about results 
 which could not be achieved by a much larger staff 
 under any plan of desultory working. 
 
 We will mention one thing which, perhaps more 
 than any other, excites the public to use the taunt of 
 red tape. It is a printed reply to a complaint, com- 
 monly spoken of as the " stereotyped reply." The 
 public do not know how carefully and conscien- 
 tiously delays and reported losses of letters are inves- 
 tigated in the Post-office. Inquiries are made in 
 every office through which the letters would pass in 
 transit, and records made, lest an explanation should 
 
 2 B 
 
378 THE ROYAL MAIL. 
 
 afterwards be forthcoming ; but after all, in the eyes 
 of some persons, the printed reply spoUs all. These 
 persons forget, however, that the printed letter con- 
 veys all that is to be said on the subject, and that 
 it is used in the interests of economy. 
 
 It may be admitted of the Post-office, that of all 
 its characteristics, the most prominent is that of its 
 method, routine, or red-tapeism, in the limited sense 
 of what is necessary for the furtherance of the pub- 
 lic service ; but there is, perhaps, no concern of like 
 magnitude in the world in which there is less of the 
 musty fusty red tape of antiquity that has outgrown 
 its time, and no longer serves any useful purpose. 
 
 PIUNTKD BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD A14D 60Ka, 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 OF 
 
 MESSES BLACKWOOD & SONS' 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
PHILOSOPHICAL CLASSICS FOR ENGLISH READERS. 
 
 Edited by WILLIAM KNIGHT, LL.D., 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of St Andrews. 
 
 In crown 8vo Volumes, with Portraits, price 3s. 6d. 
 
 Now ready— 
 
 1. Descartes. By Professor Mahaffy, Dublin. 
 
 2. Butler. By Rev. W. LtrcAs Coluns, M.A. 
 
 3. Berkeley. By Professor Fraser, Edinburgh. 
 
 4. Fiehte. By Professor Adamsom, Owens College, Manchester. 
 
 5. Kant. By Professor Wallace, Oxford. 
 
 6. Hamilton. By Professor Veitch, Glasgow. 
 
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IN ONE VOLUME. THE LIBRARY EDITION OF 
 
 STOKMONTH'S DICTIONAKY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 
 
 PRONOUNCING, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND EXPLANATORY. 
 
 Embracing Scientific and other Terms, numerous Familiar Terms, and 
 a Copious Selection of Old English Words. To which are appended 
 Lists of Scripture and other Proper Names, Abbreviations, and Foreign 
 Words and Phrases. 
 
 By the Rev. JAMES STORMONTH. 
 
 The Pkonunciation carefully revised by the Rev. P. H. PHELP, M.A. Cantab. 
 
 Royal Svo, handsomdy hound in half-morocco, 31s. 6d. 
 
 Opinions of the British and American Press. 
 
 ^itnCSt — "This may serve in great measure the purposes of an English cyclo- 
 pedia. It gives lucid and succinct definitions of the technical terms in 
 science and art, in law and medicine. We have the explanation of words 
 and phrases that irazzle most people, showing wonderfully comprehensive 
 and out-of-the-way research. . . . We need only add, that the dictionary 
 appears in all its departments to have been brought down to meet the 
 latest demands of the day, and that it is admirably printed." 
 
 pall inbaU <3a3CttC. — " The pronunciation of every word is given, the sym- 
 bols employed for marking tho sounds being conimendably clear. . . . 
 After the pronunciation comes the. etymology. It has, we think, been 
 well managed here. And the matter is, on the whole, as judiciously 
 chosen as It is skilfully compressed and arranged." 
 
 Scotsman. — "There can be no questiou that the work when completed will form 
 one of the best and most serviceable works of reference of its class. . . . 
 It is admirably adaijted to meet the requirements of every ordinary reader, 
 and there are few occasions of special reference to which it will not be 
 found adequate. Tho definitions are necessarily brief, but they are almost 
 always clear and pointed. ... A word of praise is due to the beauty 
 and clearness of the printing. " 
 
STOKMONTH'S I)mTI01>iARY— Continued. 
 
 Opinions of the British, and American FreaB— Continued. 
 
 CiVtl QCtViCe ©aSCttC— " We have had occasion to notice the peculiar 
 features and merits of ' Stormonth's Dictionary,' and we need not repeat 
 our commendations both of tlie judicious plan and the admiraWe execu- 
 tion. . . . This is a pre-eminently good, comprehensive, and authentic 
 English lexicon, enihracing not only all the words to he found in previous 
 dictionaries, but all the modern words — scientific, new coined, and adopted 
 from foreign languages, and now naturalised and legitimised." 
 
 IftOtCS anO CtUeriCS.— " The whole constitutes a work of high utility." 
 
 3E>Ublin Jrisb ttlltteS. — "The book has the singular merit of being a diction- 
 ary of the highest order in every department and in every arrangement, 
 without being cumbersome; whilst for ease of reference there is no dic- 
 tionary we know of that equals it. . . . For the library table it is also, 
 we must repeat, precisely the sort of volume required, and indispensable 
 to every large reader or literary worker." 
 
 XiiVeipOOl ^CtCUtJS. — "Every page bears the evidence of extensive scholar- 
 ship and laborious research, nothing necessary to the elucidation of pres- 
 ent-day language being omitted. ... As a book of reference for terms 
 in every department of English speech, this work must be accorded a 
 high place — in fact, it is quite a library in itself. . . . It is a marvel of 
 accuracy." 
 
 IReW UOrft tribune— "The work exhibits all the freshness and best results 
 of modern lexicographic scholarship, and is arranged with great care, so 
 as to facilitate reference." 
 
 mew ISOrft ^all anJ) BEpreSS.—" it is certainly a monumental work." 
 
 pbiladC[pb(a Grimes.— "its merits wUl be discovered and commended until 
 the book takes its place among our standard and best English dictionaries." 
 
 Cbrietian JnteIHgencer, IRew lotft.— "a trustworthy, truly schoiady 
 
 dictionary of our English language." 
 
 ^OStOU (S&SCttC, — "There can be but little doubt that, when completed, the 
 work will be one of the most serviceable and most accurate that English 
 lexicography has yet produced for general use." 
 
 Boston post.— "The work will be a most valuable addition to the library of 
 the scholar and of the general reader. It can have for the present no 
 possible rival in its own field." 
 
 ICOtOlltO ©lobe—" lu every respect this is one of the best works of the kind 
 in the language." 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD k SONS, Edinburgh and London.