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Title: The Royal Mail
Its Curiosities and Romance
Author: James Wilson Hyde
Release Date: June 12, 2012 [EBook #39978]
Language: English
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THE ROYAL MAIL
[Illustration: MAIL-COACH ACCIDENT NEAR ELVANFOOT, LANARKSHIRE.]
THE ROYAL MAIL
ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE
BY
JAMES WILSON HYDE
SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE,
EDINBURGH
THIRD EDITION
LONDON
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.
MDCCCLXXXIX.
_All Rights reserved._
NOTE.--It is of melancholy interest 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.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY FAWCETT, M. P.
HER MAJESTY'S POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE, BY PERMISSION,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
The second edition of 'The Royal Mail' having been sold out some
eighteen months ago, and being still in demand, the Author has arranged
for the publication of a further edition. Some additional particulars of
an interesting kind have been incorporated in the work; and these,
together with a number of fresh illustrations, should render 'The Royal
Mail' still more attractive than hitherto.
The modern statistics have not been brought down to date; and it will be
understood that these, and other matters (such as the circulation of
letters), which are subject to change, remain in the work as set forth
in the first edition.
EDINBURGH, _February 1889_.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The favour with which 'The Royal Mail' has been received by the public,
as evinced by the rapid sale of the first issue, has induced the Author
to arrange for the publication of a second edition. This edition has
been revised and slightly enlarged; the new matter consisting of two
additional illustrations, contributions to the chapters on "Mail
Packets," "How Letters are Lost," and "Singular Coincidences," and a
fresh chapter on the subject of Postmasters.
The Author ventures to hope that the generous appreciation which has
been accorded to the first edition may be extended to the work in its
revised form.
EDINBURGH, _June 1885_.
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 young 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-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
remembered that the metropolitan offices of London, Edinburgh, 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 maintained, reaching to the remotest corners; and
that the whole threads have to be gathered up and made answerable to the
great head, which is London,--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 conveyance of
letters--there is the subject of circulation, 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, devising, 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 intricate and delicate is
the fabric, that by interference an unskilled hand could not fail to
produce an 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 considered 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 find 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 whenever 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 Reports, 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-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 received valuable help from
several of his brother officers, who have supplied him with facts or
anecdotes; 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 acknowledgments. He also tenders his sincere and respectful
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."
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. OLD ROADS, 1
II. POSTBOYS, 11
III. STAGE AND MAIL COACHES, 24
IV. FOOT-POSTS, 61
V. MAIL-PACKETS, 68
VI. SHIPWRECKED MAILS, 82
VII. AMOUNT OF WORK, 84
VIII. GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES, 95
IX. CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE, 104
X. THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, 116
XI. SORTERS AND CIRCULATION, 124
XII. PIGEON-POST, 135
XIII. ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE,
AND OTHER PETTY FRAUDS, 140
XIV. STRANGE ADDRESSES, 153
XV. POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES, 170
XVI. TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDERS, 200
XVII. HOW LETTERS ARE LOST, 204
XVIII. ODD COMPLAINTS, 239
XIX. CURIOUS LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE
POST-OFFICE, 245
XX. SINGULAR COINCIDENCES, 262
XXI. SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES, 269
XXII. REPLIES TO MEDICAL INQUIRIES, 275
XXIII. VARIOUS, 277
XXIV. ABOUT POSTMASTERS, 292
XXV. RED TAPE, 303
ILLUSTRATIONS.
MAIL-COACH ACCIDENT AT ELVANFOOT, _Frontispiece_
CAUTION TO POSTBOYS, _Page_ 19
ROTHBURY AND MORPETH MAIL-DRIVER, " 23
EWENNY BRIDGE OUTRAGE--NOTICE OF, " 37
HOLYHEAD AND CHESTER MAILS SNOWED UP
NEAR DUNSTABLE--26TH DEC. 1836. (_From
an old Print_) " 39
DEVONPORT MAIL-COACH FORCING ITS WAY
THROUGH A SNOWDRIFT NEAR AMESBURY--27TH
DEC. 1836. (_From an old Print_), " 43
NOCTURNAL REFRESHMENT, " 55
ST MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND IN THE COACHING DAYS, " 59
'LADY HOBART' MAIL PACKET, " 76
POSTBOY JACK, " 78
STEAMSHIP 'AMERICA,' " 80
TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE, " 117
DELIVERING ARM, SHOWING HOW THE POUCH IS
SUSPENDED, " 121
CAUTION AGAINST LETTER CARRYING, " 147
STRANGE ADDRESSES, " 158-169
FALSTAFF AS A HIGHWAYMAN, " 172
GRIZEL COCHRANE AND POSTBOY, " 174
SELBY MAIL-BAG, " 182
LETTER-BOX TAKEN POSSESSION OF BY TOMTITS, " 211
THE MULREADY ENVELOPE, " 285
INTERIOR OF AN OLD POST-OFFICE, " 295
THE POSTMISTRESS OF WATFORD, " 299
FORM OF POSTMASTER'S APPOINTMENT, " 301
THE ROYAL MAIL.
CHAPTER I.
OLD ROADS.
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
highways 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 accounts written by travellers of
the periods we now refer to. The highways of the present day, radiating
from London and the other large centres of industry, and extending their
arms to every corner of the land, are wellnigh perfect in their kind,
and present a picture of careful and efficient maintenance. 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 hills, down valleys, 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 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 availed, 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, represent 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 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
miles broad, which receives all the water that falls 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 till 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 first
four miles out of Edinburgh, on the road towards London, were described
in the Privy Council Record of 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 channel of the river Gala,
which ran for some distance parallel with the road, was, when not
flooded, the 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 showmen to this day prefer
the roads in the south of Scotland to those in the north of England, on
account 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 1702, named Morer, thus describes
the roads: "The truth is, the roads will hardly allow these
conveniences" (meaning stage-coaches, which did not as yet exist in
Scotland), "which is the reason that the 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."[1] 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 overturn of a carriage, or its
temporary swamping in the mire. Even the royal chariot would have fared
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
consumed."
[1] In the north of Scotland a similar account was given of the
roads there about the year 1730. The writer of 'Letters from a
Gentleman in the North of Scotland' stated that "the Highlands
are but 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 obliged 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."
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 happened 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 Fulham 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 satisfactory condition of the
roads, these being everywhere in the same neglected and wretched state,
and travellers 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 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 lift, 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
somewhat 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 roads he gives a sorry account.
Thus: "To Wakefield, 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 description terrible; for you go through such steep,
rough, narrow, rocky precipices, that I would sincerely advise any
friend to go a hundred miles to escape it. The name of this path is very
judicious, _Scarthneck_--that is, _Scare-Nick_, or frighten the devil.
"From Richmond to Darlington, part of the great north road; execrably
broke into holes like 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
_bête noire_ in the roads, and freely expresses himself thereupon 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 disturbance 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 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
produce 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 intersected 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 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 effective; yet it is a fact that the improvement of
the roads in various parts of the country, both in England 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, obstinately 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.
CHAPTER II.
POSTBOYS.
"Hark! 'tis the twanging horn!...
He comes, the herald of a noisy world,
With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks,
News from all nations lumbering at his back,
True to his charge the close-pack'd load behind;
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 him indifferent whether grief or joy."
--COWPER.
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 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 pleasure, 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.
"From my house at Croydon this 22d July 1566, at 4
of the clock afternoon.--Your honour's alway,
MATTH. CANT.
"To the Rt. Honble. Sir W. CECIL."
Endorsed by successive postmasters:--
"Received at Waltham Cross, the 23d of July, about 9 at night."
"Received at Ware, the 23d July, at 12 o'clock at night."
"Received 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 22d, reached Waltham Cross, a distance of nearly 26 miles, by 9 at
night of the 23d, 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
miles."
In 1635 a public post between London and Edinburgh 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, was received in Edinburgh at one o'clock on the morning of the
10th 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 parliamentary
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 Edinburgh 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-office management of the age.
The cause of the slow travelling, which appears to have continued for
over forty years, comes out in a memorial of traders to the Convention
of Burghs in 1758, wherein dissatisfaction was expressed with the
existing 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 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 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 Portpatrick 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 considered 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 distance 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 therefore 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 mails at 3d. out,
or 1-1/2d. 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 surveyor 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 fourteen. 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! Ride, villain, ride,--for thy life--for
thy life--for thy life!" unnecessary though that injunction be in the
present day.
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 department. A surveyor who held office about the
commencement 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 Richard 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
insolent. The second time the said Richard Kent 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 respect 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 perseverance 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 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 own 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 institution, but rather to the
routine nature of the work; for it is the fact that blunders equally
flagrant have occurred in the Post-office in recent times, even under
elaborate checks, which, if rightly applied, would have rendered the
mistakes impossible.
[Illustration (facsimile):
CAUTION to POST-BOYS.
By the Act of 5th of _Geo._ III. If any Post-Boy, or Rider,
having taken any of His Majesty's Mails, or Bags of
Letters, under his Care, to convey to the next Post Town or
Stage, shall suffer any other Person (except a Guard) to ride
on the Horse or Carriage, or shall Loiter on the Road, and
wilfully misspend his Time, so as to retard the Arrival of the
said Mails, or Bags of Letters, at the next Post Town or
Stage.--Every such Offender shall, on Conviction before One
Justice, be committed to the House of Correction, and
confined to hard Labour for one Month. All Post-Boys and
Riders are therefore desired to take Notice of this, and are
hereby cautioned not to fail in the regular Performance of
their Duty, otherwise they will most assuredly be punished as
the Law directs. And it is hoped and requested, for the
Benefit of public Correspondence, that all Persons, who may
observe any Post-Boy or Rider, offending as aforesaid, will
give immediate Notice to
Surveyor of the General Post-Office,
Johnson Williamson (About 1792)]
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 5s. 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 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 employed 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 in 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 had been so violated, while the
contents were found safe. To cover one delinquency the boy had recourse
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 despatch 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 redoubtable 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 adventure 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 plead,
confessed his guilt. There was every disposition on the part of the
public prosecutor, and of the presiding judge, to let the case go as
lightly as possible against the prisoner--doubtless 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 endure 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. Some idea
of what the postboys suffered may be gathered from the adventure of the
Rothbury to Morpeth mail driver in the snowstorm of the 1st March 1886.
This man, Robert Paton, left Rothbury with two horses, and another was
sent from Morpeth to meet him. On his way two of the horses succumbed to
fatigue, and these, with the mail-cart, were left behind in charge of a
companion, while Paton proceeded on the third horse, that sent from
Morpeth, to his destination. One of the horses abandoned was so knocked
up that it had to be left in the snow till next day. At one time the
snow would just reach the horses' knees, at another the animals would be
plunging desperately through quickly forming wreaths, in snow reaching
half-way up their shoulders, and then an open stretch of country would
expose them to the fury of the blinding storm. Paton had started from
Rothbury at five o'clock in the afternoon, and was due at Morpeth at
8.40 P.M., but he did not reach the Post-office there till 11.45 P.M.,
and his son, who had carried the parcel basket for the last three miles,
did not come in till midnight. On his arrival at Morpeth, Paton
presented a most grotesque appearance, something like the pictures of
Father Christmas, being covered over with snow, and adorned with icicles
hanging from his hair and beard. He required the aid of a friendly hand
to steady him when he descended, as his lower limbs seemed cramped and
powerless, owing to the cold and long continuance in the saddle.
[Illustration: Rothbury and Morpeth Mail Driver.]
Of the attacks made upon postboys by highwaymen, some instances more or
less tragic 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 which left Edinburgh on Saturday the
20th November 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 Goswick, 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.
CHAPTER III.
STAGE AND MAIL COACHES.
Prior 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 seventeenth century, as already
stated, the heavy waggons seem also to have held a place till much
later--for in one of these Roderick Random performed part of his journey
to London in 1739; and it was doubtless only the meaner class of people
who travelled in that way, as the description given by Smollett of his
companions does not mirror, certainly, people of fashion. M. Sobrière, a
Frenchman, on his way from Dover to London in the reign of Charles II.,
thus writes of his 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 mightily pleased with himself." Unlike travelling in the
present day, when one may go 100 miles in a railway carriage without
speaking to a fellow-passenger, the journey in the old-fashioned waggon
brought all 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 take 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 conveyance of the
country, improving in its construction and its rate of progression as
the improved state of the roads admitted of and encouraged such
improvement. 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 Aldersgate, 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, Hunnington, and Exeter,
in four days, for xl. s.; to Stamford, 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 10s. 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 Thursday." Then the advertisement makes known the
fact, with regard to another coach, that the stage begins "Flying on
Monday next." They were not satisfied in those days with a coach
"going," "running," 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 0
" Ilminster, 1 14 0
" Yeovil, 1 8 0
" Sherborne, 1 6 0
" Shaftesbury, 1 4 0
Outside passengers, and children in the lap, were half these fares.
To follow out in a historical fashion the development of the coaching
period down to the introduction of railways, would be beyond the purpose
of this work, nor will the limits of these pages admit 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 the 'Lives of
the Engineers,' by Smiles; 'Old Coaching Days,' by Stanley Harris; and
'Annals of the Road,' by Captain Malet,--all of which contain 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 exposed 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 placed in the way; and the peril of being overtaken by
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 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 vigilant 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 mail-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,
Welwyn,
Stevenage,
Baldock,
Biggleswade,
Kimbolton,
St Neots,
Oundle,
Stilton,
Wansford,
Grantham,
Spilsby,
Spalding,
Lowth,
Horncastle,
and
Boston,
--were stolen from the mail-box, about ten o'clock on the same night,
supposed at Barnet, by forcibly 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 19th November of the same year, the bags of letters from
Melton Mowbray,
Oakham,
Uppingham,
Kettering,
Thrapston,
Higham Ferrers,
and
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 vigilance on the part of these officers, by
describing 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. Depredations 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 £1000 or upwards. The Bristol
mail-coach was robbed of money the 3d instant to a large amount. The
'Expedition' coach 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, notoriously 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 Reading and
London, was stopped by a highwayman, who, riding up, demanded money of
the passengers. A lady gave up her watch, a gent his purse, and away
goes the highwayman, 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 hearing
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; and on this
being presented to his Majesty, the sentence 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 ordinary 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 harshly treated by his landlord. The case occurred in Ireland,
and is characteristic of the way in which the Irish people give vent to
their feelings 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 effectually 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 arms; the priming was removed,
and they were returned 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 preventing 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 it was supposed
might have contained ejectment notices. None were found, however, and
the men returned the other letters to the runner. A similar outrage was
committed in the same neighbourhood in 1881.
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 benumbed
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 determined 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 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 charge--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 passengers had time to
realise their fright; and gathering themselves again into the coach, the
journey was continued, though it is hardly likely that sleep resumed 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 sufficient, 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: sometimes they fell asleep on their boxes, and in other respects
wofully infringed the regulations. The following 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 punishments 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; 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 dismissed--this
being followed by the quaint observation, 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 dismissal in the coaching days. The document is of the year 1803, and
runs as follows, viz.:--
"I 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 Brentford) 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."
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
witness the following public act of submission and contrition:--
"Whereas I, John ----, being driver of the mail-coach, on my way from
Congleton to Coleshill on Monday, December 25, 1809" (some excuse,
perhaps, 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 overturning 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 prosecuted, 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
general 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 acknowledgment."
In another case a mail-coach driver was summoned 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 sometimes of a really serious
character, and 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 overtaken 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 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 mail-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, imperilling the lives of all upon the coach; for
it is very likely that they narrowly escaped 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
Northwich and Warrington, early on the morning of the 19th November
1815, eight or ten gates and a door were placed in the way of the
mail-coach, and further on a broad-wheeled cart, with the view of
wrecking the mail. On Sunday, the 15th June 1817, the horses of the
mail-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.
[Illustration: Notice of Offer of Reward.]
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 so 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-office.
The following poster, issued publicly, will explain the matter:--
"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 cart, but damaging the York
and Liverpool mail-coach, and endangering the lives of the
passengers--for which 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 following 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 22d 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 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 December
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 overturned twice. The drivers were called upon on occasions 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 being down a
steep hill with an abrupt turn at the foot. He had hardly got his coach
fairly set in motion, when to his dismay he perceived that the
wheelers, two new horses, had no notion of holding 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
passengers observed a strange smile creep over the coachman'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
passengers saw nothing but destruction before them; yet they had no
alternative but to await the issue. Opposite 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 were there immediately drawn up, neither horses, coach,
nor passengers being seriously hurt by the adventure.
[Illustration: HOLYHEAD AND CHESTER MAILS SNOWED UP NEAR DUNSTABLE--26TH
DEC. 1836. (_From an old Print._)]
Of all the interruptions to the mail-coach service, none were so serious
as those which were occasioned 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
circular issued by the London Post-office 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
represent 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 recovered
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
'Reminiscences.' He wrote as follows:--
"The snow was falling fast, and had already drifted so high between the
Ross 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 midnight: and fortunate was it for the theatre
and ourselves 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 between 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 intercourse
between the southern shires of England and the metropolis been
interrupted for two whole days."
"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 Sunday 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 passengers, 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 horseback, 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
postchaise-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."
"The Manchester down-mail reached St 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
postboy 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
snowdrift, and the horses, in attempting to get out, were nearly buried.
The coachman got down, and almost disappeared in the drift upon which he
alighted. 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 proceeding 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 killed 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 several 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.
[Illustration: THE DEVONPORT MAIL-COACH FORCING ITS WAY THROUGH A
SNOWDRIFT NEAR AMESBURY--27TH DEC. 1836. (_From an old Print._)]
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 18 feet in depth."
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 Coventry, 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 wholesale derangement
or stoppage of road-traffic took place.
On the 9th January 1837, an official report set forth that "the
mail-coach road between Louth and Sheffield had on the 6th 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 mile 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 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."
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 26th of December the Birmingham mail-coach, proceeding to London,
got rather beyond Aylesbury, where 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 deviating 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 metropolis. The guard was in a distressing state of
exhaustion when he reached his destination. This was only one instance
of the way in which the guards acquitted themselves during this
memorable 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 communicated 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 gentlemen who were inside passengers
by the mail."
A notable instance of the devotion to duty of a coachman and mail-guard,
and one illustrating the dangers and hardships which Post-office
servants 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 to continue their journey in this way. They had not proceeded
beyond Erickstane 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 will 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 inspired 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 recover 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.
"And down he sinks
Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift,
Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death,
Mix'd with the tender anguish Nature shoots
Through the wrung bosom of the dying man,
His wife, his children, and his friends unseen.
... On every nerve
The deadly winter seizes; shuts up sense;
And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold,
Lays him along the snows, a stiffened corse,
Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast."
--THOMSON.
We who are accustomed to the comforts of railway 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 nevertheless
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 coaching. 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 his head,
and putting up his hand, he felt a flat surface, which to his dawning
perception appeared to be a section of his neck, his impression being
that his head had been cut off. 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 notable example:--
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
illustrate 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
carried southward into Dumfriesshire. To be more precise, the situation
is between two places called Raecleuch 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 frost and snow, when the
rivers were flooded to such an extent 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 doubt would seem to have
been entertained as to 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 "outsiders" doubtless making
themselves as comfortable as circumstances would allow, 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 dreadful
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 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, while 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
deliberating upon the plan of rescue, had some delicacy 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, Alexander Cooper, was at first thought to have been
carried away; but he was afterwards found caught between two stones in
the river. 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
Kinghorn, 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 persons 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 nervousness
and excitement whenever it approached the scene of the accident.
Yet the mail-coach days had charms and attractions for travellers, if
they at the same time had their drawbacks: the bustle and excitement of
the 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 themselves 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 over-topping 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,"
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, overcome
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 creating 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 intoxicating news
down into the country,--the driver and guard, as the official
representatives of the Crown, 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 correspondence
between members of a family or dear friends, immediately commits his
impressions to writing. We 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, Mendelssohn 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 following 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
Keswick, 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 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, up-hill, down-hill, wrapped in cloaks, and
umbrellas up, we could see nothing but railings, heaps of stones or
ditches, and but rarely catch glimpses of hills and lakes. Sometimes
our umbrellas 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 conversation 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 coachman, 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 following 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 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 appealed 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 mounted 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 the double
object of cooling the tea for his second cup, and detaining the coach
till he drank it.
The illustration here inserted, from an old print, shows a passenger
securing refreshment on a cold night.
[Illustration: Nocturnal Refreshment.]
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 curtailed 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 miles, nineteen hours; London to
Holyhead, 259 miles, twenty-seven hours; London to Devonport, 216 miles,
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.
But though in the earlier days of the mail-coaches the speed achieved by
them, even on the main lines, was probably not more than seven or eight
miles an hour, the people at head-quarters would seem to have regarded
this as a thing not to be trifled with; for in a Postmaster-General's
minute of 1791, directing that, owing to the frequent robberies, a
caution should be given to the public against sending bank notes
otherwise than in halves, the following bit of advice is added. The
minute directs that the notice shall contain "also a printed caution at
the foot of the Table, directing all persons to avoid, as far as may be,
sending any cash by the post, _partly from the prejudice it does the
coin by the friction it occasions from the great expedition with which
it is conveyed_, and especially as the cash is so liable to fall out of
the letter by jolting, and to be found at the bottom of the bag," &c. It
would be a species of high treason to treat with levity any kind of
expression or decision proceeding from a reigning Postmaster-General,
but at this safe distance of time we may venture to smile at the idea
here propounded, that coins would seriously suffer by _sweating_ in a
mail-bag conveyed by coach at the surprising rate of eight miles an
hour. Such ill-founded apprehensions of the mail-coach speed were not,
however, confined to post officials, for Lord Campbell was frequently
warned against the danger of travelling in this way, and instances were
cited to him in which passengers died from apoplexy induced by the
rapidity with which these vehicles travelled!
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-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 suggest, as well as
by earnestness of pursuit, the lover won the lady to his favour, and she
soon thereafter 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 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 doubtless
looked upon 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
advantage, and drew admiring crowds to behold them. The following
account of one of these displays is from the 'Annals of the Road,' a
work of great interest on subjects connected with coaching generally;
and as the description is given with spirit and apparent truthfulness,
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 birthday, 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 in fresh paint and varnish, gold
lettering and Royal 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 cabbage, adorned the
breasts of these portly mail coachmen and guards, while bunches of
cabbage-roses decorated the heads of the proud steeds. In the cramped
interior of the vehicles were closely packed buxom dames and blooming
lassies, 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 mail, which would be
the Bristol. On the King's birthday, 1834, there were 27 coaches in the
procession. 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
billycock 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.
[Illustration: St Martin's-le-Grand in the Coaching Days.]
"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-office. 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 William and his Queen. The
Duke of Richmond (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. The appearance of the
smart coaches, emblazoned with the Royal 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."
CHAPTER IV.
FOOT-POSTS.
"I know of no more universally popular personage than this humble
official. Bearer of love-letters, post-office orders, cheques,
little carefully 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 England, 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 wholly
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
correspondence between country towns and the outlying points 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 circumstances
of these later times make the duties more trying in some respects than
they were formerly. 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 institution was called
the "Council Post"; and the messenger 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 1715, 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 Inveraray. About the year 1750, an
improved plan of forwarding 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.
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 lodgings 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 Inveraray mail service was raised to the dignity
of a horse-post, the surveyor, in referring to the necessity for the
employment of horses, thus deplores the situation: "I have sometimes
observed these mails, 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 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
inhabitants of Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppy.
The document recites that a foot-messenger named John Wright continued
for nine days, from the 25th December 1836, to carry the mails between
Sheerness 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, inasmuch 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 untracked),
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 25th December, the boat in which he 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 without 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 subsequently 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 messenger and two other persons who accompanied
him 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 precipitated into one of the
ditches, was unfortunately drowned. The rural post-messengers having,
moreover, to visit isolated houses along their route, are exposed to the
attacks of dogs kept about the premises. 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 conditions for the rural messengers present themselves. From
Ullapool to Coigach and Rieff in Ross-shire, for example, a journey of
twenty-six miles, the messenger travels out one day, and back again the
next. Proceeding from Ullapool, the main road is followed for about
three miles, 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 dangerous
rocks in Scotland for a distance of three or four miles, the rock in
some places being so precipitous that he is obliged to cling to it for
dear life.[2] After passing this rock he continues some distance further
over the hills, and ultimately regains the main road, by which he
completes his journey. Apart altogether from the dangerous character of
the road, the distance which the post-runner has to walk day after day
must necessarily be severe and trying work.
[2] Route changed since 1885.
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 Trollope
tells that the hardest day's work he ever did in his life was
accompanying a Glasgow postman 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 mentioned, 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."
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 Government equipped and manned its own
ships for the service; then there was an age of very heavy subsidies to
shipping companies who could not undertake regularity of sailing without
some such assistance; 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 instructions to the captains were to run while 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
performed 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 constantly wet all
through, and can noe ways goe below to change themselves, being obliged
to keep the 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
determined 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 interesting to recall how these packets were manned. In May 1695 the
crews of the packets between Harwich and Holland were placed on the
following footing:--
Per mensem.
Master and Commander, £10 0 0
Mate, 3 10 0
Surgeon, 3 10 0
Boatswain, 3 5 0
Midshipman, 1 15 0
Carpenter, 3 5 0
Boatswain's mate, 1 15 0
Gunner's mate, 1 15 0
Quartermaster, 1 15 0
Captain's servant, 1 0 0
11 Able seamen at £1, 10s., 16 10 0
Agent's instrument, 2 0 0
----------
In all, £50 0 0
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 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
discrimination 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 because 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 to these rules we consider also how much
the hurts affect the body, and make the allowances accordingly."
But between different parts of the United Kingdom, not a century ago, it
is remarkable how infrequent the communications sometimes were.
Nowadays, 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 character 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 Shetland in the year ended the 5th July 1802 was no more than £199,
19s. 1d. It was also stipulated, by the terms of the agreement, that the
contractors 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 required to take measures against passengers by the
packet transgressing in the same way. On one occasion the good people in
these northern islands, when memorialising for more frequent postal
service, suggested that the packets would be of great use in spying out
and reporting the presence of French privateers 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
occasionally months passing without the boats carrying the mails being
able to make the passage. The following 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 unsuccessfully, until the 10th 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 9th 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 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 during 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 harbours; 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 occasions in the land service. At a period
probably about 1800, a Mr Ramage, 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 captain, contrary to orders, had put to sea. Mr Ramage, being unable
to acquit himself of his duty in one way, undertook it in another; and
hiring an open 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 particulars 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 memory. 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 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 establishment, including
interest on cost of ship, wages, wear and tear of fittings, medicine,
&c., being £2112, 6s. 8d.; while on the peace establishment, with
diminished wear and tear, and reduced crew, the charge was estimated at
£1681, 11s. 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 before on the subject 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 mail-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, poured in a broadside, and
made an attempt to board, which was repulsed with great slaughter. By
this broadside, Mr Curtis, the master and commander 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
squaresail-yard to the 'Antelope's' fore-shrouds, and immediately
pouring in a few volleys of small arms, which did great execution, the
enemy called for quarter, which was instantly 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' 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."
Another adventure of a mail-packet worthy of mention happened a few
years later. The 'Lady Hobart,' an Atlantic packet of 200 tons burthen,
left Halifax, Nova Scotia, for England in June 1803, and a few days
after leaving port, fell in with a French schooner, called 'L'Aimable
Julie,' laden with salt fish. Captain Fellowes of the packet took
possession of the schooner, and put a prize crew in charge. A few days
later, however, the 'Lady Hobart' ran into an iceberg; and there being
no hope of saving the ship, the mails were lashed to pigs of ballast and
thrown overboard. The crew and passengers took to the boats, and the
'Lady Hobart' shortly thereafter foundered. After suffering great
hardships, the voyagers reached Newfoundland on the 4th July. The
illustration is from a contemporary print.
[Illustration: 'Lady Hobart,' Mail-Packet, 200 tons.]
The duty of throwing the mails overboard, when serious danger was
apprehended, appears sometimes to have been carried out with undue
haste; for we find an account in the 'Annual Register' of March 4, 1759,
that the Dutch Mail of the 23d February had been thus disposed of
through an unlucky mistake. The ship conveying it was of Dutch
nationality, and, being boarded by a privateer, those in charge had
hastily concluded that the visitor must be an enemy. When too late, they
discovered their mistake, for the stranger proved to be a friendly
English cruiser; and they thereafter reached Harwich with a budget of
regrets in place of the mails.
The packet-boats sailing from the ports of Harwich and Dover, being
habitually in the "silver streak," were subject to frequent
interruptions from English privateers and men-of-war frequenting these
waters; and to lessen the inconvenience thus arising, the packets at one
time carried what was called a "postboy jack." An official record of
1792 thus describes the flag: "It is the Union-jack with the figure of a
man riding post with a mail behind him, and blowing his horn." These
flags were made of bunting, and cost £1, 2s. each.
[Illustration: Postboy jack]
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.
Before leaving these mail-packets of former days, it is perhaps worth
recording, that while needy passengers were sometimes carried on board
at half the usual fares, and those in destitute circumstances for
nothing at all, the poor Jews were kept outside the pale of the generous
concession; and the Post-office thus joined the world's mob in the
general harsh treatment of that unhappy race. This appears by an
official order of 1774, and the hardship was only removed under an
authority dated August 24, 1792. The Postmaster-General's minute on the
subject is as follows:--"The Postmaster-General thinks that the last
words of the order which proscribes all Jews, merely because they are
Jews, is not consistent with the usual liberality of the office; but
that the agent should be directed to give to them the same privileges
that are given to all the rest of the world without any exception to
them on account of their religion."
We will be pardoned one more quotation. It is a concession on the score
of religion, made by the Postmaster-General in a minute, dated October
19, 1790. It runs thus:--"Let the Secretary write a civil letter to Mr
Coke, that the Postmaster-General is very willing to relinquish, on the
part of the King, the usual head money of 12 guineas for three persons
at £4, 4s. each, whom Mr Coke represents to be sent to the West Indies
for the purpose of instructing the negro slaves in the principles of the
Christian religion."
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 compared with the 'Etruria'
and the 'Umbria' recent acquisitions of the Cunard Company, for the
conveyance 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.
[Illustration: Steamship 'America.']
A favourite American packet of our own era, for travellers crossing the
Atlantic, was the 'America' of the National Steamship Company, which has
since been purchased by the Italian Government for service as a fast
cruiser. It is a ship of 6500 tons gross tonnage; and is a surprising
contrast to the American packet of eighty years ago already described.
We would present a further contrast between the past and the present as
regards the packet service. So late as 1829, and perhaps later still,
the voyages out to the undermentioned 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:--
Days.
To Jamaica, 18
" America, 7
" West Indies, 16
" Malta, 4-1/2
" Brazil, 21
" Lisbon, 3
And the return mails would occupy a similar amount of time.
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:--
1829. 1884.
France, 2s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Italy, 2s. 10d. 2-1/2d.
Spain, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Sweden, 2s. 7d. 2-1/2d.
Portugal, 2s. 9d. 2-1/2d.
Gibraltar, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d.
Malta, 3s. 5d. 2-1/2d.
United States, 2s. 5d. 2-1/2d.
Brazil, 3s. 9d. 4d.
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 Kingstown. 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 the billows of the
Channel, the process of sorting cannot be comfortably carried on, and
the men have to make free use of their sea legs in steadying themselves,
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 spectator 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.
CHAPTER VI.
SHIPWRECKED MAILS.
Outside the Post-office department it is probably not apprehended to
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 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 lbs. weight of loose diamonds, which had evidently 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
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.
CHAPTER VII.
AMOUNT OF WORK.
_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, 1,280,636,200
Post-cards, 144,016,200
Books and circulars, 288,206,400
Newspapers, 140,682,600
-------------
Total, 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 in by a host of public servants, would
any arrangement of figures put the matter intelligibly within our grasp.
The quantity of paper used in this annual interchange of thought through
the intermediary 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, newspapers, 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 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, according 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 slightly over one-eighth of an inch in width!
Bearing in mind the great quantity of correspondence 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 will 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 misdirected 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
whatever. In fact, three out of four complaints respecting 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
consequence 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 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.
ST VALENTINE'S DAY.
"The day's at hand, the young, the gay,
The lover'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 connection between the
saint and the custom can be traced.
In ancient Rome certain pagan feasts were held every year, commencing
about the middle of February, in honour of Pan and Juno, on which
occasions, 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
Rome, 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 quarters
of the globe, the priests, while unable at once to destroy the pagan
superstitions with the obscene observances by which they were
accompanied, endeavoured 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
previously 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 connection 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 variation, 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 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
Valentine 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 of
Richmond, received from the Duke of York on one occasion a jewel worth
£800, in discharge of this obligation; and Lord Mandeville, 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 embossed margins. Their
style gradually improved until hand-painted scenes upon satin grounds
became common; 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 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 common, 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 delivering 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
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 Christmas-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. During 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 observed passing through the
post from time to time, some of them dangerous or prohibited articles,
which, according to rule, are sent to the Returned-letter Office--the
fact showing that the Post-office is not only called upon to perform its
first duty of expeditiously conveying the correspondence intrusted to
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 ornaments, Devonshire cream, eggs, geranium-cuttings, glazier's
diamonds, gun-cotton, horseshoe nails, 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
conceived how the work would be interfered with in the limited space of
a Travelling Post-office carriage containing half-a-dozen sorters, upon
a considerable snake showing his activity among the correspondence, as
has in reality happened.
On another occasion a packet containing a small snake and a lizard found
its way to the Returned-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 still unclaimed, it was sent to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. In
the Returned-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 mentioned, 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 providing other
means of lighting, and accordingly an 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.
CHAPTER VIII.
GROWTH 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 improvement, having a complexity and yet
simplicity in its fabric, which nothing but many years of growth and
studied application to its aims could have produced.
But it is not the purpose here to go into the history 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, described as follows:--
Salary.
Manager for Scotland, £200 0 0
Accountant, 50 0 0
Clerk, 50 0 0
Clerk's Assistant, 25 0 0
Three Letter-carriers, at 5_s._ a-week each.
In 1736 the number of persons employed had increased to eleven, whose
several official positions were as follows:--
Postmaster-General for Scotland.
Accountant.
Secretary to the Postmaster.
Principal Clerk.
Second Clerk.
Clerk's Assistant.
Apprehender of Private Letter-carriers.
Clerk to the Irish Correspondents.
Three Letter-carriers.
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 was 939.
The Post-office of Glasgow, which claims to be the second city of the
kingdom, shows a similar rapidity 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 0 0
First Clerk, 30 0 0
Second Clerk, 25 0 0
Four Letter-carriers, at 10s. 6d. a-week each, 109 4 0
A Stamper or Sorter, at 10s. 6d. a-week, 27 6 0
So that the whole expense for staff was no more than £391, 10s. per
annum, and this had been the recognised 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 indoor 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 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.
To those who know Liverpool, with its expansive area, its vast shipping,
its stir of commerce, and, in the present relation, its army of postmen,
the following facts will exhibit a striking contrast between the past
and the present. In 1792, when the population of that town stood at
something like 60,000, the number of postmen employed was but three,
whose wages were 7s. a-week each; but, to be quite correct, it should be
added that one of the postmen, having heavier work than the others, was
aided by his wife, and for this assistance the office allowed from £10
to £12 a-year. One of the postmen delivered the letters for the southern
district, including Everton, St Ann's, Richmond, &c.; another served the
northern portion, taking in part of the old dock, the dry dock, George's
Dock, &c.; while the third disposed of the letters for the remaining
portions of the town. The duties of these men seem to have been carried
out with a good deal of deliberation. The postmen arranged the
correspondence for distribution in the early morning, then they partook
of breakfast, and set out upon their rounds about 9 A.M., completing
their work of delivery about the middle of the afternoon. And thus it
would appear that Liverpool at that time had only one delivery per day.
Upon all letters delivered by two of the postmen--the two first
mentioned--a halfpenny per letter over and above the postage was charged
for delivery; in the other case the ordinary postage only was levied.
The reason for the additional charge was no doubt this that the
postmaster was allowed by the Department only one postman, and that
consequently the wages of the other men who were necessarily employed
had to be met by the special tax referred to. The following minute of
the Postmaster-General, dated 28th October 1792, while in some sense
affording an explanation of the matter, shows that somewhat peculiar
notions prevailed with regard to providing force where such was
required. It runs as follows:--
"There are only two instances in the kingdom where more than one
letter-carrier is allowed, viz., Portsmouth and Bath. I understand it
has been held as a general rule not to allow more than one to any other
place, however extensive and populous it may be; in the two exceptions
to this rule the inhabitants had been accustomed to pay the deputies a
gratuity for delivering the letters, but having refused to continue the
payment, these postmasters felt their income considerably reduced, and I
believe it was not till after much discussion the rule was broke
through."
The minute continues as follows:--"Mr Palmer had some ideas respecting
such a modification of the rates of postage as might induce the
inhabitants of every place in the kingdom to pay _with cheerfulness_ an
extra halfpenny or penny over and above the rates; this extra payment to
be sanctioned by an Act of Parliament; and then the whole amount of the
sums now paid for letter-carriers, being £1927, 8s. per year, would be
saved to the Revenue." If this accurately represents Mr Palmer's ideas,
Mr Palmer did not quite understand the British public.
At the same period to which we refer, there were only three
letter-carriers in Manchester, four at Bristol, and three or four at
Birmingham; but in each case only one was allowed by the Department, the
others being employed as extras, and provided for, no doubt, by a
special tax upon the letters delivered. This system of charging extra
for delivery would seem to have been open to abuse, for we find that in
1791 the Postmaster-General called for explanation of an exceptional
charge at Eton, in a Minute as follows:--"Let the Comptroller-General
inquire who serves, and by whose authority, the parts of the country
circumjacent to the Eton delivery, as they charge no less a sum than 3d.
for each letter, in addition to the postage, for all letters delivered
at Upton, which is not above a mile from the College." And the
Postmaster-General makes this very wise observation on the
practice--"This enormous expense for letters must check and ruin all
correspondence, and essentially hurt the revenue."
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.
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, 1s. 11d., 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 revenue of over
£35,000; 193 persons are employed 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.
Notwithstanding 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.
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 districts. The people
being desirous of having the Post-office in their borders, the following
scheme was proposed to be carried out about the time mentioned:--
A runner to travel from Callander to Lochearnhead--fourteen
miles--at 2s. a journey, three times a-week, £15 12 0
Salary to postmaster of Lochearnhead, 5 0 0
A runner from Lochearnhead to Killin--eight miles--at 1s. a
journey, three times a-week, 7 16 0
Salary to postmaster of Killin, 5 0 0
Receiving-house at Wester Lix, 2 0 0
Runner thence to Luib--four or five miles--1s. 6d. per
week, 3 18 0
Office at Luib, 4 0 0
--------
Total, £43 6 0
========
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 than now; and since it has been shown that a messenger had
formerly to travel as much as fourteen double miles for 2s., it is not
surprising that Scotchmen, 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 remark, whose growth is a
marvel, and whose Post-office 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 Rotherhithe 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 the Metropolitan district. In this
district the number of men required to effect the delivery of letters in
1884 is no less than 4030. It may be mentioned that the general
post-delivery above mentioned had reference to the delivery of ordinary
letters coming from the country. Letters of the penny post--or local
letters--and letters from foreign parts, were delivered by different
sets of men, who all went over the same ground. In 1782 the number of
men employed in these different branches of delivery work was as
follows, viz.:--
Men.
For Foreign letters, 12
" Inland letters, 99
" 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 Metropolitan district are nearly 16,000 in
number.
CHAPTER IX.
CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE.
In his Autobiography, Mr Anthony Trollope, 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 arrangements 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 Scotland, 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 remarkable 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 the copy of a fresh memorial from his lordship and
other gentlemen upon the long-argued subject of the alteration 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 multiplicity 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 impartiality in the duties
of his office, and under the authority of the late respectable and
worthy Postmaster-General Mr ----, whose memory is far above any
eulogium of mine, I considered the measure 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, inconsiderately, 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 proceedings_, to have dropped from a person less honourable,
respectable, and conspicuous than I hold the Honble. ---- at the head of
this memorial. Before this last memorial was presented, I understood
from 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 up; indeed this cannot be 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
obtain 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, however, 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 vindictive terms of '_ignorance, arbitrary, and oppressive_'
implied in the memorial, and which, if admitted _sub silentio_, might
not be confined to the mismanagement 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 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 increase in proportion. Coupar-Angus
revenue for the year ending 10th October last was £159, 3s. 7d., and
Blairgowrie £123, 4s. 10d. 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
correspondence in regard to its state of agriculture and improvement as
an infant district, than the parent 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 I 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 Scotland from Perth
(besides one by Dunkeld)--viz., one by Dundee, &c., one by Coupar, &c.,
and one by Blairgowrie, which run not at a very great distance 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 departed from, as there is no other that can ever be equally
certain. The next great road to the westward 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 _arbitrary_ 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 proceed 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, 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 inhabitants of Coupar and beyond it, by any delay
occasioned on that account, what is the whole argument founded upon?
That, by the alteration, the memorialists, 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
conveyance to Perth, without benefiting the Revenue 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 conveyed at all by post) to the post-office nearest them,
or at which they 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 complaint from the town of Coupar itself as to this
alteration, 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 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 country 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 office,
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 forefathers 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 inhabitants short of, as well as for Coupar
itself; and in the delivery of various articles upon the road, and
receiving reimbursements for his trouble one way or other, he lost
one-fourth of his time; and if, as the memorialists 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 still do, that by a regular management
which may be easily accomplished, the post may come sooner by Isla to
Coupar than ever it did formerly by the ancient road; and 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_, _arbitrary_, and _oppression_ 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 impropriety 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 determined to support me, and I can make more
without your 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 consequence
hand-bills that, being now dismissed as a post, he would continue to
carry on as before; and it was not till the _arbitrary_ hand of the
Solicitor of the Post-office fell upon him, that he would either have
been convicted or discouraged from his employ.
"In this view, therefore, and not from ignorance, I know it is better
for the Revenue 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_, _arbitrary_, 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 Revenue, 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 committing 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
committed 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 meeting
sometimes so regularly in very bad or stormy weather. This will happen
to the most regular mail-coaches and horse-posts in Britain; and before
such general objections are to be founded upon, wilful and corrupt
misconduct should be proved, such as I am able to do upon the old system
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 general 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 Blairgowrie 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 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
Revenue, 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 communication would be established
betwixt the two places. This I have no doubt of for private
business-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, like the shortening of
the road here, I do not wish to see. I do not want a reconciliation of
this kind; and whatever 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 till 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 followed, 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 revision, as those who suffer acquire greater independence or a
truer conception of their position in the State. Quite recently the
Postmaster-General was called upon to settle a dispute between the
Senior Magistrate of Fraserburgh and Lord ---- (the local seigneur) 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 provost" or baron-bailie, titles which
smell strongly of antiquity; but the modern Provost and Chief Magistrate
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
Provost 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, 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 proposed
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?
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 will 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 passage enables those inside one carriage to visit
any or all of the other carriages. When the small 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 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--the "T.P.O." There are
several travelling post-offices of more or less importance pursuing
their rapid flight during the night in different 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.
[Illustration: Travelling Post-office.]
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 from the ordinary
oil-lamps of a railway carriage. Yet for years the light supplied in the
Travelling Post-office 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 under 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 rolls 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 of
these hides of leather will be described further on.
The _raison d'être_ 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, carrying 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 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 attached, already referred
to, called pouches, are used as a protection to mail-bags which have to
be delivered by what is commonly known as the apparatus. The mail-bags
to be so disposed of are rolled up inside 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 side, and to the end
of which the pouch containing the bag 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
suspended from brackets on the roadside. The apparatus 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 roadside
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 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 occasions 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:--
"Mr ---- is sorry to return the bracelet to be repaired. It came this
morning with the box 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 advisable for Mr ---- to remonstrate with the Postmaster-General,"
&c.
[Illustration: Delivering Arm, showing how the Pouch is suspended.]
The Travelling Post-office apparatus is said to have been originally
suggested by Mr Ramsay 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 Postmaster-General conferred
upon him an appointment as Supervisor of mail-bag apparatus. Some
further 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
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 Travelling 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.
Birmingham and Stafford.
London and Holyhead.
Bangor and Crewe, and Normanton and Stalybridge.
London and Exeter.
Bristol and Exeter.
York and Newcastle.
St Pancras and Derby.
Midland.
Bristol and Newton Abbot.
South-Western.
South-Eastern.
Great Northern.
London and Bristol.
London and Crewe.
-----------------
Dublin and Belfast.
Belfast and Northern Counties.
Ulster.
Midland (Ireland).
Great Southern and Western.
Dublin to Cork.
There are, besides, a great many other Travelling Post-offices of minor
importance throughout the country, designated Sorting Tenders.
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 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 business being two clerks. In those
days there were really no sorters, unless such as were employed in the
chief office 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
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 number 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 quantities 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 opportunity to send
forward its letters. To lay aside till morning, correspondence arriving
at an intermediate 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 intermission; but in these, as also in many
other cases 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,
perhaps, 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 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 morning, 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 Sunday 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 morning,
and there they remained till Tuesday morning, 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 detained by bad weather or breakdowns. The letters which it
brought for Perth, Aberdeen, and places on 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 Edinburgh newspapers required an interval, after the arrival
of the London mail, for the printing of their journals and preparing
them for the North despatch. The Aberdeen people thought that an
interval 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 Scotland 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 city," say they, "to lay claim to any peculiar merit, it might
perhaps be that of a sincere attachment to order and good government,
which places us, 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 obligation of answering their letters in course--and
particularly in money matters"!
One or two instances of the cross-post service of former times, in
England itself, which might be supposed to be more fortunate than its
Scottish neighbour, will repay consideration. Thus we find it duly
recorded in official reports, that in 1792 there was no direct post
between Thrapston and Wellingborough, though the distance separating
them was only nine miles. Letters could circulate between these towns
by way of Stilton, Newark, Nottingham, and Northampton, performing a
circuit of 148 miles, or they could be sent by way of London, 74 miles
up and 68-1/2 down, in which latter case they reached their destination
one day sooner than by the former round-about route.
Again, from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds, two important towns of 11,277[3]
and 7655[4] inhabitants respectively, and distant from one another only
22 miles, there was no direct post. Letters had to be forwarded either
through Norwich and Newmarket, or by way of London, the distance to be
covered in the one case being 105 miles, and in the other 143-1/2 miles.
We have not the means of computing the time letters took to travel from
Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds in 1792, but an Itinerary for 1812 affords
the necessary information as regards the later period. Suppose a letter
were posted at Ipswich for Bury St Edmunds on Monday, it would be
despatched to Norwich at 5.30 A.M. on Tuesday, reaching Norwich some six
hours thereafter. It would leave Norwich at 4.0 P.M. same day (Tuesday),
and arrive at Newmarket at about 11.0 P.M., where it would lie all night
and the greater part of next day, and would only arrive at Bury St
Edmunds at 5.40 P.M. on Wednesday. If the letter were sent by the
Metropolitan route, its time would be the same, thus:--Leaving Ipswich
at 9.30 P.M. on Monday, it would reach London at 8.0 A.M. on Tuesday.
Thence it would not get despatched till 7.30 P.M.; and proceeding to
Newmarket, would arrive there at 4.0 A.M. on Wednesday. Here it would
remain till the afternoon, and would reach Bury St Edmunds, as in the
former case, at 5.40 P.M. (on Wednesday). So that, in practice, to cover
this short interval of 22 miles by post, three whole days were
necessary.
[3 and 4] From published records of 1812.
One more instance:--From Salisbury to South Wales, a distance of some
70 miles, letters had to circulate through London, making a journey, up
and down, of something like 220 miles, and this without alternative.
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 pretending 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 this. A leaf of the circulation book in use at Edinburgh for places
in England is here inserted (p. 131), 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 Birmingham at 10.0 A.M.; to the
Midland Travelling Post-office Forward, third division, at 2.40 P.M.; no
circulation 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 knowledge 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.
[Abbreviations used in the following table:
T.P.O. - Travelling Post-office
S.T. - Sorting Tender
F. - Forward]
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Towns. | Counties. | How Sent. |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Martock, R.S.O. | Somerset | 10 A.M. Birmingham |
| (_Ilminster_)| | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., F. 3 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. B. & E. T.P.O. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Maryport | Cumberland | 10 A.M. Carlisle |
| | | 2.0 P.M. Carlisle |
| | | 5.50 P.M. Carlisle |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Carlisle |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Matlock Bath | Derby | 2.40 P.M. Derby |
| | | 4.15 P.M. Derby |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Derby |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Leeds |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Melksham | Wiltshire | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| | | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., F. 2 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 7.20 P.M. London |
| | | 9.0 P.M. London, G.W. Div. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Melton Mowbray | Leicester | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., No. 3 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Leicester |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Leeds |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Menai Bridge, | Anglesea | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| R.S.O. (_Bangor_)| | 9.0 P.M. Liverpool |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Manchester |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Merthyr Tydvill | Glamorgan | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| | | 2.40 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Manchester |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Micheldever | Hants | 10.0 A.M. London |
| Station | | 2.40 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 5.50 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 7.20 P.M. London |
| | | 9.0 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Middlesborough | York | 10.0 A.M. Darlington |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Bag |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Middleton-on-the- | York | 10.0 A.M. York |
|Wolds, (_Beverley_)| | 2.40 P.M. Normanton |
| | | 7.20 P.M. Hull |
| | | 10.0 P.M. York |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Middlewich | Chester | 10.0 A.M. Liverpool |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. N.W. T.P.O. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Liverpool |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Midhurst | Sussex | 10.0 A.M. London |
| | | 2.40 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 5.50 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 7.20 P.M. London |
| | | 9.0 P.M. London, S.W. Div. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Milford Haven | Pembroke | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| | | 2.40 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Manchester |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Milnthorpe | Westmorland | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| | | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., F. 3 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. B. & E. T.P.O. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Milverton, R.S.O. | Somerset | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| (_Taunton_) | | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., F. 3 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. B. & E. T.P.O. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Milnehead, R.S.O. | Somerset | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| (_Taunton_) | | 2.40 P.M. Midland T.P.O., F. 1 |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. B. & E. T.P.O. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Mitcham | Surrey | 10.0 A.M. London |
| | | 2.40 P.M. London Sub. |
| | | 5.50 P.M. London Sub. |
| | | 7.20 P.M. London |
| | | 9.0 P.M. London Sub. |
| | | 10.0 P.M. London |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Mitcheldean, | Gloucester | 10.0 A.M. Birmingham |
| R.S.O. (_Ross_) | | 2.40 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 5.50 P.M. G. & C. S.T. |
| | | 9.0 P.M. Gloucester |
| | | 10.0 P.M. Manchester |
+-------------------+--------------+----------------------------------+
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 quâ 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 educational 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 round-about way letters may sometimes arrive sooner than by waiting
the next chance by a more direct route. Post-office circulation is not
tied down by any strait-laced lines of geographical science, nor by any
consideration 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-office proceeding 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
destinations 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 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 Edinburgh as the most expeditious
route. There is such a complexity of arrangement in the matter of
circulation, and so great a dependence of any one part on a great many
other surrounding parts, that comparatively few persons ever thoroughly
understand 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 connection 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 Edenbridge 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 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. Letters for Fiji frequently reach Edinburgh from London 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 addressed to Edinburgh, Saratoga Co.,
N.Y., were recently 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 irregularities which befall letters in their transit
through the post.
CHAPTER XII.
PIGEON-POST.
The intellectual superiority of man has enabled him to bend to his
purposes the various physical 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 remarkable that this
chapter is written--the homing instinct of the carrier-pigeon. This
gentle bird has long been known as a messenger capable of conveying news
from one place to another over considerable distances. It is asserted
that "Hirtius and Brutus, at the siege of Modena, held a correspondence
by pigeons; and Ovid tells us that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained
with purple, gave notice to his father of his victory at the Olympic
games, sending it to him at Ægina." 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 commercial 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 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-office. 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 Rouen 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 communication 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 perplexity prevailed. As soon as Amiens
was threatened--Amiens, the very key-stone of our postal communication
with the interior and south of France--it became evident that the route
_viâ_ Calais would not remain much longer. The alternative routes that
presented themselves were _viâ_ Dieppe, and _viâ_ Cherbourg or St Malo,
and no time was lost in making the necessary arrangements with the
Brighton and South-Western Railway Companies. By both Companies trains
were kept in constant readiness at the terminus in London, and vessels
remained 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 process of photography transferred
in a wonderfully reduced form to a diminutive piece of very thin paper,
such as a pigeon could carry, the photographic process being repeated on
their arrival in Paris, for the purpose of obtaining a larger
impression. They were essential conditions that these letters should be
posted open without cover or 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 intelligible 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
pursuits 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 desirable not to cut the bananas till the steamers from Australia and
New Zealand arrive at Fiji, and consequently 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 communication 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 10th 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 Pigeon-post._
"The following despatch, dated Suva, Sunday, 3 P.M., was received at
Nasova at 3.42 same day:--
"'Hero' arrived midnight, left Melbourne 26th, Newcastle 29th.
Passengers--Mrs Fowler and child, Mrs Cusack and family, Mrs Blythe and
child, Messrs F. Hughes, Fullarton, J. Sims, J. B. Matthews, T. Rose,
and A. H. Chambers.
"Agents-General of Queensland and Victoria gone to France to interview
Ministers _in re_ recidivistes question. Marylebone won match, one
innings and 115 runs; Australians have since defeated Birmingham eleven.
'Gunga,' Capt. Fleetwood, leaves Sydney 24th ult. New Zealand football
team beat N.S. 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.
CHAPTER XIII.
ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE, AND OTHER PETTY FRAUDS.
_Abuse of the Franking Privilege._
Wherever the use of anything of value is given without the check 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 Revenue; and its abolition 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 of that country, about twenty
years after the abolition 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 existence. These abuses, though constantly exposed and animadverted
upon for a series of years, have as constantly 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,
documents, 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; while 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 detecting 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 possible 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 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 unredeemed by a single palliation; and yet the
offender was discharged, unrebuked, to resume, if it should please him,
his guilty task. This verdict of acquittal 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, however, 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."
"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 Ambassador of the Crown of
Portugal."
"A box of medicines for my Lord Galway in Portugal."
"A deal case with four flitches of bacon for Mr Pennington of
Rotterdam."
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 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 suspected, 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 Revenue would have been increased by £170,000. In the hope of
imposing some greater check on the evil, it was enacted in 1763 that the
whole superscription must be in the handwriting of the member; but even
this proved inadequate, and further restrictions were imposed in 1784
and 1795. Some very difficult and troublesome questions arose from time
to time in dealing with member's 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 addressed 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 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 delivery. Then a Catholic peer
dying, who had never taken his seat, and being succeeded 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 observed 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 concern to the Revenue to obtain a clear legal
restriction; 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 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."
Nor were people of quality above the habit of committing similar frauds
upon the Post-office revenue, as will be observed from the following
remarks penned by an official on the 9th April 1812. The statement runs
thus:--"On the 31st ultimo, having gone into the mail-coach office at
Glasgow, soon after the arrival of the coach from Ayr, and observing
several parcels which had arrived by it, one in particular took our
attention by its appearing to contain a loaf of bread of the supposed
value of 6d. or 8d., addressed to the Honble. Mrs ----, of Glasgow; and
as this parcel was charged 10d., it created the idea of some mistake
having happened in sending it in that way, by which the carriage
exceeded the value, besides the original cost of it.
"In a few minutes after this, however, two ladies called for the parcel,
one of them believed to be Mrs ----herself, and the other her sister,
and inquired for the parcel; and my curiosity leading me to notice the
issue of this supposed hoax, I was not a little surprised to find, after
the lady had cut up the cover, that two or three letters were enclosed
with the loaf, one of which she gave to the other lady, and sent the
loaf home by the porter."
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 all 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 Rowland 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 with his family a
plan of informing them of his progress 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 receiving 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 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 attention did the matter require, that special
officers for the duty were employed, called "Apprehenders of Private
Letter-carriers." The penalties were somewhat 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 received 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, contrary 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.
"Should you have any explanation to give, you will please to address the
Postmaster-General.--I am," &c.
[Illustration (facsimile):
General Post-Office, Aug. 10th, 1792
A CAUTION.
To all Coach-Masters, Carriers, Higlers, Ship Masters employed
Coastwise, Newsmen, Watermen and Others.
Having received repeated Information that Letters are illegally
collected, carried and delivered, to the great Injury of the Public
Revenue, and it being the wish of this Office rather to prevent than
punish, and that the unwary may be made acquainted with the Penalties
they are subject to; I am directed to give this Public Notice, that from
the Date hereof, every Effort will be used to detect and punish all
Persons so offending.--The Penalties for which are FIVE POUNDS FOR EVERY
LETTER SO COLLECTED, CARRIED, OR DELIVERED, WHETHER FOR HIRE OR NOT, AND
ONE HUNDRED POUNDS, FOR EVERY WEEK SUCH PRACTICE IS CONTINUED.
By Command of the Postmaster General,
Johnson Wilkinson, _Surveyor_.]
In August 1794, at the Warwick Assizes, a carrier between Warwick and
Birmingham was convicted 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 commit 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 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 generous 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, obtaining 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.
The following is an instance of a fraud upon well-to-do persons in this
country, attempted by an American in the year 1869:--
The Rev. Mr Champneys, of St Pancras, London, received a letter posted
at Florence, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S., which upon being
opened seemed to be not intended for him, but was a communication
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 withhold them, and making free use of the deepest pathos
and high-sounding sentiments, and finally appealing for an immediate
remittance. Mr Champneys, 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 advertisement in the 'Times'
newspaper:--
"A letter, dated Florence, Burlington County, New Jersey, U.S., intended
for Mrs Lucy Campbell, Scotland, has been misdirected to Rev. W.
Champneys, 31 Gordon Square. Will Mrs Campbell kindly communicate her
address immediately?"
In response to this inquiry, what was Mr Champney's surprise but to find
that a large number of 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 consequence 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 17 stamps--demanded merely as a token of
confidence. Stamps will be returned with the present." And then the
address followed, which was not always the same in all the
advertisements.
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 17 stamps, reached the Dead-letter Office--owing
doubtless to his having "moved on" from the places where he had lived,
in consequence of their becoming too warm to hold him. Specimens of the
letters written by the dupes are as follows:--
1. "The Rev. ---- 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 17 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, and is quite an adept at dancing the polka mazourka.
These details may determine the suitability 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 clerygyman's wife, mother of
nine children,--the six eldest fine enterprising sons; the three
youngest, engaging, intelligent girls. We Irish generally have larger
hearts than purses. I therefore lay these facts before you, an
Englishman, knowing that a Briton's generosity and capabilities are
proverbially 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?"
CHAPTER XIV.
STRANGE ADDRESSES.
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 orthography
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 aptitude for
deciphering manuscript; and writing must be bad indeed, if to be read at
all, when it fails to be deciphered in the Post-office. A very large
collection might be made of the vagaries of writers in the addresses
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.
Some time ago the Danish and Norwegian 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 addressed to him. They are
given as follows, viz.:--
Elsfleth, Epshvics, Epshvidts, Epsids, Epsig, Epsvet, Epsvidts,
Epwich, Evswig, Exwig, Hoispis, Hvisspys, Ibsvi, Ibsvig, Ibsvithse,
Ibwich, Ibwigth, Ispsich, Ie yis wich, Igswield, Igswig, Igswjigh,
Ipesviok, Ipiswug, Ipswitis, Ipsiwisch, Ipsovich, Ipsveten,
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, Iysuich, 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, London.
In another case,
No. 52 Oldham & Bury, London,
was written for
No. 52 Aldermanbury, London.
On another occasion the following address appeared on a
letter:--
too dad Thomas
hat the ole oke
Otchut
10 Bary. Pade.
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 address being lost, but the directions given served their
purpose, and the letter was duly delivered:--
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 person 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.
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 about for a day or two, but
Ant Sue was found living in a cottage near Lyndhurst.
Another letter was addressed thus:--
This letter is for Mrs ----. She lives in some part of Liverpool.
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 unable 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 Office.
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
Rowland 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 England, and not knowing where a
sister was residing at the time, addressed a letter to her previous
residence thus--
Upper Norwood,
or Elsewhere.
The letter having been delivered to the lady, the writer 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. In 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 the hands of the
person addressed through a reference 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.
[Illustration: _Read
E. C. _____
Sierra Leone
Cape Coast Castle
or elsewhere_]
[Illustration: _Read
50 ...... Lane?
Scotland Road
Liverpool_]
[Illustration: _Read
Hugglescote
Ashby de la Zouch
Warwickshire_]
[Illustration: _Read
Mr C_____
7 Charlotte Place
Goodge Street W_]
[Illustration: _Read
No 1306 Pvt W_____
No 2 Section 1st Oxfordshire
Light Infantry
Convalescent Depot
Madras, East Indies_]
[Illustration: _Read
Mrs _____
103 Minories
Nr Aldgate Church
London_]
[Illustration: _Read
Harrow Weald
Harrow_]
[Illustration: _(Read
Forest Gate)_]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The letter, of which the above represents the address, was posted in a
town in the north of England, and delivered to the editor of the
'Courant' in Edinburgh. A facsimile of a portion of the communication
enclosed is also shown, which will give an idea of the interest
attaching to editorial work, and afford some valuable information to the
reader!
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XV.
POST-OFFICE ROBBERIES.
If records are not now forthcoming of all the robberies which have been
committed upon the Post-office 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 communications 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 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 Belsize, 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 completely armed, independently of two
tall grenadiers who mounted guard over the gate of the mansion."
The following is from the 'Annual Register' of 1761:--"Murders,
robberies--many of them attended with acts of cruelty and threatening
letters--were never perhaps so frequent about this city [London] as
during last month. One highwayman in particular, by the name of the
Flying Highwayman, engrosses the conversation of most of the towns
within twenty miles of London, as he has occasionally visited all the
public roads round this metropolis, and has collected several
considerable sums. He robs upon three different horses. He has leaped
over Colnbrook turnpike a dozen times within this fortnight, and is now
well known by most of the turnpike men in the different roads about
London."
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."
But highway robbery had long been practised, even by individuals in the
higher stations; and it is recorded of Sir John Falstaff, one of
Shakespeare's heroes, that he was the terror of travellers on every road
for a hundred miles out of London. The place chiefly identified with his
exploits, however, was Gad's Hill, in Kent.
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.
In the coaching days very frequent robberies of the mails took place,
though they were protected by armed guards, and some of these robberies
have been described in the chapter relating to mail-coaches.
[Illustration: Falstaff as a Highwayman.]
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 connection with this event, of which an account has
been handed down by Lauder of Fountainhall, a curious 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 reigning
monarch, James II., so far as Scotland was concerned, which attempt was
only part of the more general scheme of the exiles abroad--both English
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 _sauve qui peut_. Sir John
Cochrane sought refuge in the house of a relative in Renfrewshire,
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 Tolbooth to await their doom.
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 nevertheless conceived the
daring thought of intercepting the mail-packet coming from the South,
which was supposed 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.
[Illustration: Grizel Cochrane and Postboy.]
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 reaching 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 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 Royal household, was the means of securing a pardon. Sir John lived
to become 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 concerned, the dates hardly bear the
matter out; for if Sir John was lodged in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh on
the 3d of 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 and Haddington, had this day reached a point in his
journey between the Alms-house and Hedderwick Muir, when he was
assailed by two gentlemen in masks; one of them mounted on a blue-grey
horse, wearing a stone-grey coat with brown-silk 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
threatened to kill 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 Government communications, besides the correspondence of
private individuals, this was a crime of a very high nature, albeit we
may well believe it was committed on political impulse only. Suspicion
seems immediately to have alighted on James Seton, youngest son of the
Viscount Kingston, and John Seton, brother of Sir George Seton of
Garlton; and Sir Robert Sinclair, the sheriff of the county, immediately
sought for these young gentlemen at their father's and brother's houses,
but found them not. With great hardihood, they came to Sir Robert's
house next morning to inquire, as innocent men, why they were searched
for; when Sir Robert, after a short examination in presence of the
postboy, saw fit to have them disarmed and sent off to Haddington. It
was Sunday, and Bailie 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 presumption 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 considerably 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
neighbours, 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 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
Edinburgh. 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 gentleman-like performances 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
mail:--"Whereas Mr Herbert Jones, attorney-at-law in the town of
Monmouth, 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 London, 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 in 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, offering a reward
of a hundred 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 horse; but while
so engaged, the bags were abstracted 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 property 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 Glasgow were still conveyed by
men travelling on horseback--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 Edinburgh. 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 two men coming down
towards him, and who, 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 handkerchief, and his hands tied behind his back; thereupon he
was thrown down, and his legs bound together to prevent his getting
free. Meanwhile the other man led off the 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 contained 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, and Robert Brown, formerly
privates in the Foot Guards. No sooner had they got back to
Edinburgh--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 affording 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 departure and arrival, and
to wranglings over the particular route to be journeyed, the idea was
abandoned, 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 Riding Academy in Edinburgh," who offered to conduct 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--not 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 robbery were obtained so recently
as 1876, though at the period of its occurrence no trace of the
highwayman or of his plunder could be discovered.
The official account of the robbery, when it happened, 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 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."
[Illustration: Selby Mail-Bag.]
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
Churchhill, 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 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 connection with the
traces of the mail-robbery and the public character of the house,
ominous in the extreme. The case is one which might be taken as somewhat
proving the suggestion put forward by Smollett in 'Roderick Random' 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.
The illustration of the Selby bag is from a photograph. The bag, when
folded for the postboy's back, measured about 17 inches broad by 15
inches deep.
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 remained insensible for
some time. When he regained consciousness in the Exeter Hospital,
whither he had been conveyed, he was able to explain that, at the time
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 official 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 subject 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
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 indictment contained a further charge of forgery against the
elder prisoner, the deputy having endorsed 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 Royal 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.; and a letter from Perth for Orkney, enclosing a note for a
guinea: the whole amount involved being under £9.
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 satisfaction of the jury, who
returned a verdict accordingly against both prisoners, but with a
recommendation of mercy towards the son of the deputy, on the score of
his tender years. Sentence was pronounced on the 5th September, and the
date of execution fixed for the 18th October. By the exercise of the
Royal 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 attended by
the Rev. Mr Black of Lady Yester's, and Mr Struthers of the Relief
congregation, and behaved in a manner suitable to his unhappy
situation!" 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 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 20th
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 desire to amass such a dowry as would improve
her prospects in the matter of obtaining a husband.
_Hatton Garden Robbery._
On Thursday the 16th November 1881, the whole country was made aware,
through the daily papers, that a most daring Post-office robbery had
been committed in London the previous afternoon, 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 proceeding in the
ordinary sense, but a bold and dashing 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 thoroughfares; 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 registered 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. Consternation took possession of the female clerks behind the
counter, while young clerks and boys from warehouses and offices,
conceiving the occasion to be one for noise and merriment, helped to
increase the confusion 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 contained 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 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 contents 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.
_Cape Diamond Robbery._
The greater portion of the 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 delayed until
the day after the arrival of the up-country mails, the bag containing
the registered correspondence 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 villainous 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 attempted 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 continued 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 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., Robarts, 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 hundreds of thousands
of pounds.
A daring robbery of a Berlin postman occurred not very long ago, when
the outrage was accompanied 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 felled him 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 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, remained there as a
witness of the crime. The murderer was said to have previously served in
a cuirassier 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-office authorities 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 correspondence, sent to them from all parts of the kingdom.
The circumstance naturally gave rise to careful inquiry on the part of
the Post-office authorities, 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 ordinary course have to pass. Certain Bank of
England 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 pocketbook
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 inconvenience 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 extended over several months. This
young man, upon being tried for the offences named, was convicted, and
with the usual severity observed in similar circumstances, 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:--
A man was observed one day carrying off some boards from a building in
course of erection in the Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, and being
pursued 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 erection 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 connection, were a large lot of post-letters, mail-bags, and
articles of postmen's clothing, besides milk-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 would seem that his official
delinquencies had extended 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 underlying 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 milk-cans, supposed 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 superannuated 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 astonishing 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 visit the
scenes of former iniquities, even when incurring 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, introduced 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 consequences. 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 Redcliffe district office, where the prisoner was the servant of
the postmaster, Mr Devine. It was the custom of Mr Devine to place the
key of the letter-box 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 removed 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 discovered 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 under 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 hysterical throughout the hearing, was
remanded. Apparently no effort had been made to deal with the cheques,
but the detective stated that the numerous letters had been opened."
_Tale of a Banker's 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 destination, 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 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 intimation 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 somewhere 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
appearance, 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; 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, still 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, cordially offered his personal
services, and it was arranged between the banker and himself that they
should ransack London, visiting the Ranelahs, 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, while frankly stating what she knew, had 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, nor did she know his name. And here the inquiry again seemed to
exhaust itself, in the vague discovery 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 silversmith 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 innkeeper in
such a situation not affording a sufficient living by itself. Feeling
somewhat peckish, the 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 attracted 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 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,
proceeded 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 neighbouring 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 fellow-servants. He visited the
post-office on the day when the stolen letter was posted; he and his
former comrades smoked and drank together; and in the end he 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
accumulated against him; but this testimony was not really necessary,
for the farmer-publican himself confessed 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.
CHAPTER XVI.
TELEGRAPHIC BLUNDERS.
Although the work of sending and receiving telegraphic messages may be
regarded in a general way as partaking largely of a merely mechanical
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 frequently written so far devoid of context
in themselves, 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 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 delicate instrument will 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 will sometimes lead a person to
write "no" where "yes" is intended, or "black" where "white" is meant;
and of such mistakes probably no explanation can be given. So that the
work of a telegraphist 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 a very
trifling kind.
The following are illustrations of such mistakes:--
A pleasure-party, telegraphing to some friends, 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:--
r i g h t
· - · · · - - · · · · · -
t i g 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 a d
- · · · · - - · ·
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 particle 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 brother 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 accepted an engagement with your father's
approval," was rendered, "that your sister has accepted an engagement
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 Wednesday,"
was given a matrimonial turn by being delivered 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 mistake which occurred. His
message, which was written 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 _supper_ of bread," &c. In
another instance the notice 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 by a person 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 suggested 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, received 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, and promptly
received the answer "_No danger; your wife has had a child; if we can
keep her from having another to-night she will do well._" The
mystification of the agitated husband was not removed until a second
inquiry revealed the fact that his indisposed lady had had a _chill_.
CHAPTER XVII.
HOW LETTERS ARE LOST.
In 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 misgivings 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 following facts will
probably establish what is here advanced, besides proving of interest to
the reader.
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 misdelivered by the postman at a given address on the
first floor of a tenement (it being intended for a person occupying the
ground 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 downstairs! Letters are sometimes, too, carried away to wrong
addresses by sticking to the backs of other letters.
Again, through a great want of sense, or perhaps a redundancy of
stupidity, letters are deposited occasionally 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 intending 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 somewhat 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
person 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.
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 contain six sovereigns, one half-crown, two
sixpences, and three halfpenny-pieces, wrapped up in small articles of
ladies' dress.
In the chief office in London, two gold watches were found inside an
unregistered book-packet addressed 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 occasion, but in a Scotch post-office, a
packet containing a book bound in morocco, was on examination discovered
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, unsealed, 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 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 committed on the
Post-office to a large extent by the senders of newspapers, who infringe
the rules by enclosing all sorts of things between the leaves--such as
cigars and tobacco, collars, sea-weed, ferns and flowers, gloves,
handkerchiefs, music, patterns, sermons, stockings, 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 the year 1874, more
than 14,000 newspapers were detected with such articles secreted in
them.
Occasionally letters of great value are very carelessly 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 able 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 address 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 £4000. 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 particulars--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 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 communication whatever in either to show
who had sent them. It was supposed, by way of explanation, that a person
proceeding to Australia had directed 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 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--mentioning at
the same time some circumstances associated 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 appeared 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 depredation of rats upon
letters is as follows:--
Certain letters which ought to have reached a bookseller in a country
town not having been received, 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 alterations
in the shop, however, when it was necessary to remove the flooring under
the window, the discovery 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-office; for
in the olden times, when sailing-ships were in use as mail-packets, sad
complaints were made of the havoc caused by "ratts" to the mails
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
Jackdaw of Rheims--suddenly darted down, snatched it from his grasp, and
flew off with it. The bewildered postman could only watch the bird while
it made a circuit over the town, which it did before alighting; and so
soon as it got to a suitable place, it set to work to analyse the
composition of the missive 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, which
was afterwards renewed when the singular affair was made known.
Another curious incident in which birds are concerned occurred in the
spring of 1884 at Shewbridge 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 drops the
correspondence addressed to Shewbridge Hall. Mr Lockett, the occupier of
the house, expecting a letter from Liverpool, containing a cheque for
£10, went to the box, where, as it happened, he found the letter, but in
a mutilated 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. Returning later on, he
examined the box more closely, and discovered tomtits inside; and
further investigation 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 carried by these small birds.
[Illustration: Letter-box taken possession of by Tomtits.]
The tomtits had taken possession of the box for nesting purposes, and
perhaps they found the letter to be in the way, and accordingly made an
effort to remove it. In the spring of the previous year a pair of
tomtits built 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 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 continued 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, sometimes fell on the top of the
youngsters, and so excited 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 forward 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 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 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
applicant 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 afterwards 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 had been enclosed. The postmaster
chiefly concerned (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 information, he stated that when writing his
letter he had placed the £10 note in an envelope and affixed a
postage-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 beside
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 delivered; 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
cheque for a sum little short of £1000. The cheque not reaching its
destination in due course, payment was stopped at the bank, and
notwithstanding 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 being carried 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 affixed to
the block of ice, as already stated.
On the 27th February 1885, a medical gentleman residing at Richmond,
Surrey, when going his usual round of visits, found on the carriage
floor two letters, one addressed to a person in Edinburgh, the other to
a lady residing near Castle-Douglas. The letters had been duly prepared
for the post, each bearing an undefaced postage-stamp, but nothing in
their appearance indicated that they had ever been posted. The finder
was at first puzzled at the discovery, but on reflection, he remembered
having a few minutes previously opened a large newspaper, the 'Queen,'
which had reached him from Edinburgh two or three days before, but had
till then remained unopened in his carriage. It occurred to him that the
letters might have come concealed within the folds of the newspaper, and
he was good enough to forward a note with each to the persons addressed,
explaining the circumstances under which he had found them. Subsequent
investigation by the Post-office brought to light the fact that one of
the two letters, and the copy of the 'Queen' from which they were
supposed to have dropped, had been deposited in different pillar-boxes
in Edinburgh, but in the same collector's district; and there can be no
doubt that this letter, and probably also the other letter, were shaken
inside the folds of the newspaper during their conveyance to the
head-office in the collector's bag. In one of the notes which the doctor
sent with the letters, he made this remark:--"I cannot help feeling that
the postal authorities and the public should both have their eyes opened
to what a serious danger such a letter-trap as a large newspaper might
prove." He omitted to add, however, that the sender of the 'Queen' had
tied it up very carelessly without a wrapper, and in a way that could
hardly fail to render it a dangerous travelling companion for letters.
Had the letters fallen into dishonest hands, their loss would certainly
have been attributed to the Post-office, and the case is one which aptly
illustrates a means by which letters sometimes get out of their proper
course, or are lost altogether.
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 being 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 spreading town-refuse upon the field when he found the
letter, which he opened, and thereupon threw away 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 addressed to a banker in
Edinburgh, not having reached the addressee's hands, a telegram was
forwarded to the sender intimating the fact, and requesting explanation
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-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 between 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 appeared that, instead of putting it
into the letter-box, he had dropped the letter in the street, where,
fortunately, it was picked up by some honest person, who posted it."
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
_papier-mâché_ 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 complaint 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 signature to which, on being
submitted to the manager, was acknowledged to be that of the wife of the
housekeeper of the establishment. 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 contained 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 assistance he carefully examined the contents of
the bags filled at the bank, and his efforts were rewarded 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 April 1873, a letter was posted in a certain village in Ayrshire,
addressed by a wife to her 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
disappointments, 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 (according 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
direction, and that the return of the long-lost letter did nothing more
than put the finishing touch to restored confidence. In connection with
this matter, 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 correspondence.
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, together 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 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 advertisement was inserted in several of the metropolitan
newspapers--bringing up, it is true, a responsive crop of claimants for
lost notes, but without eliciting 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 the
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 previously
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 receive the note not having been
established by any one, the amount was paid in to the Revenue.
In the Postmaster-General's report for 1881, further mention was made of
the finding of the note in 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 in 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 circumstances which this lady was
able to prove, however, there seemed to be every reason to believe that
her husband (whose practice it was to endorse notes when he had 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 restoring a considerable sum of money to the rightful
owner, while the person who had without title possessed it in the
interval dared not claim it.
"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 himself, as he asserted, the writer had
intrusted it to a servant, who had destroyed the letter, and had
attempted to negotiate the order."
"A person complained repeatedly of letters addressed 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 Romsey, where, on an investigation by the
surveyor, it was discovered that 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 containing a cheque for £79,
12s. 11d., 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 acknowledgment 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 30s.,
which he said had been sent, but had not reached him; but when he found
that the matter was under strict investigation, he confessed 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 by his father, it appeared on inquiry that no such letter had been
written; and he afterwards confessed that his object in 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 magistrate to
attest the truth of her statement upon oath, she confessed that the
statement was false, and explained 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 according, 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 discovered 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 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 corresponding 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 destination; but the inquiry that was instituted by the
Post-office caused the sender to withdraw his complaint, 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 'election papers,' and supposed that these
directions had been duly acted upon. Shortly, however, he received
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
examination, 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 service 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 foreign postage-stamps that
several letters containing such stamps had not reached him, a careful
investigation was made, but for some time without any result. 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
complainant 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 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-office was dispelled."
"The publisher of one of the London papers complained of the repeated
loss in the Post-office 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
complaint 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 newsvendor's cart,
by volunteering on its arrival at the General Post-office to assist the
drivers 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 town, which shall be nameless, was sent to a
boarding-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, however, 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
explaining 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, 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 school-girl to get home; and the young
lady afterwards 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. Still, 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 irregularity, and brought the matter under notice.
Proceedings were taken against the offender, and the case being
established against him, and the fact being stated that this person had
previously been warned by the Post-office against committing like
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-offices 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 concealed 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 addressed, not with the watch that had been
despatched, 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 experience has shown that very
often obloquy is laid upon the Department which ought to rest elsewhere;
and accordingly, a shrewd and practised officer in such matters was sent
to the town in question to make investigations. Arrived at the
clergyman'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 interview was
thus proceeding, the officer, with professional 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 injustice. The officer was not to be satisfied with
such an assurance, however, and by using tact and 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
continued 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 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 suppose?" continues the
officer.
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 butler with the clergyman was mentioned, when the officer
interrupted 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.
Returning immediately to the clergyman's house, he again saw the lady,
and told her what had occurred. 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 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 suspicion was removed from
the Post-office, and prepared 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. 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,[5] 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.
[5] 'La Poste Anecdotique et Pittoresque.' Par Pierre Zaccone.
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 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 Provence, where his poor old
mother, a woman of over sixty, lived, and where also resided a married
brother, younger than himself, who was surrounded by a rising family of
children. The soldier received 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
intercourse through his family; especially a young woman towards whom he
had formerly had very tender feelings, which, though not now so strong,
time and distance had not as yet effaced.
Becoming home-sick, and having no bright prospect 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 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 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 acknowledgment for the money came to
hand. This to Goraud, after the sacrifice he had made, was sadly
disappointing; 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 related 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 coming. 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 regard to the alleged
remittance, it was briefly added that no money had been received.
This latter statement created a most painful impression upon the
soldier. His brother's letter appeared 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 reflections, the blush of offended virtue rose
to his cheek. His feelings ran over the whole gamut of wounded
sentiment. He saw himself an injured man, and felt deeply hurt; his
money had gone unacknowledged, and he became roused to anger; and then,
revolving the whole circumstances in his mind, suspicion took possession
of him. Recollecting 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 received 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, however, he gained the hero's prize--the cross of
honour. One month previously he would have hailed this distinction with
delight; now everything was dull and indifferent to him--even glory!
About a year after this event Goraud accompanied his regiment to Paris.
As he was leaving the barracks 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 Gorauds 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. 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 conveying 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 instruction 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--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 question was
introduced into the primary schools more than twenty years ago.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ODD COMPLAINTS.
The Post-office, in its extensive correspondence 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 following 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 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 ----
Road, where a pillar or pole might very easily be fixed, and the present
one might be removed 100 yards farther 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 through. I was not surprised that six
months were required for their removal instead of one, and 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 sufferings when nine were working! Such being the
case, will you kindly cause the remaining wire either to be removed or
encased in the vulcanized 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 delusion 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 possessed 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 hour or two after, she returned to ascertain whether she
had left a packet of papers which she had meanwhile 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 countenance, 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 another town, in the hope of evading their tormentors, 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 arrangement of the Post-office. The nature of his
grievance has no present significance; but it was so unendurable 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 my business.
'God bless me!' he said, 'you are wet through. John, get Mr Trollope
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 drank the brandy-and-water standing at the drawing-room fire. When
I came down I was introduced 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 business? 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. 'Anything you
please,' he said. 'Don't spare me, if you 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-office
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? Don't know.
Whether posted within eight days from date of
publication? Don't know.
How many papers were there in the packet? 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? Don't know.
Amount of postage paid, and in what manner
paid? Don't know.
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, residing 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 correspondent 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 Rowland Hill':--
"The belief has more than once been manifested at a money-order-office
window that the mere payment 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 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 required 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
Tipperary; and he went away, after all, evidently convinced 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."
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-eminently 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 cannot 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 communications addressed to him not strictly upon the business of
his Department. In the following paragraphs 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 supposed to be a repository
for the human dead, as inquiries for deceased persons are sometimes
addressed 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."
"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
my husband. i ham quite a stranger in London, only two months left
Ireland. i can find know trace of my husband. Your the only gentleman
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
Birmingham last Rtimmas--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 property 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 usually
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 will on 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 french. I wish you would try and find him
for me i woud be so glad if you find him. I will pay you for your
truble.
"I was born in 18--. if you go to that ---- church you will 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 dont know any one in
England. I know the names of no lawyers, and thought I would write to
you. 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 present 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."
"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 full 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 information," &c.
A farmer in the country wants a postmaster to act as go-between in a
little business matter, and pens him a few lines to the following
effect:--
"John ---- acting as Farmer 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:--
"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 partridges 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 will cost before they start it by 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 Henton 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 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
sending. 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 still
alive!--
"À Monsieur le
"Directeur de la Poste de Londres.
"J'ai cinquante trois ans. Veuillez être assez bon de me faire réponse
pour me donner des résultats sur l'existence de Madame ----? Si parfois
elle était toujours veuve je voudrais lui faire la proposition de lui
demander sa main d'après que j'en aurais des nouvelles. En attendant,
Monsieur, votre réponse."
A couple, having got over the proposal and acceptance 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 you--if you
enclose the charge and have it returned, would we get one before next
Monday week to get married at ----. If you will 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, unconnected with Post-office business, as the two
specimens 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 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 peasfully 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 till school commences again. Father has sold off
most all of our 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. For 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 manufacturing 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 Thanksgiving Day set apart by our president as
a day of thanksgiving for our prosperity, &c; it is observed annually
all over the U.S. It is principally observed 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, like Rip 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 receipt of 2s. in
the columns of the 'Daily Telegraph' as conscience money from ----. I
send 1s. 6d. extra as cost of insertion of the acknowledgment."
The question even of "who shall be the hangman" is thought to be a fit
subject for elucidation at the Post-office.
"I hope you will 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
having 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 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
office at ---- for a summons 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 purposes 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 birthday. I shood be verry
thankfull 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. Thinking that such a case might come under your notice, I
have therefore taken the liberty of sending to you."
"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 practicesing 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:--
"SIR,--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 surnumerary, and in a few months I shall be
named clerck. I know completely the two Breguet's and Morse machines,
and I have begun the 'Hughes.' But, as I am now in a little office where
that last is not employed, 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 answering what I must expect of your
resolution, and in the same time yours conditions.
"I am, Master, in expecting, with the most profound respect, your very
humble servant."
"SWITZERLAND.
"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 procure
me a place in the English Colonies or plantations 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 1-1/2 year in the pensionnat ---- an place as teacher of
French language and Mathematics. I can give you some good Certificates;
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 mentioned by you as having
arrived at the Returned-letter office two days ago, having been posted
as a letter contrary to the regulations of the postal system, I now
write to ask you to have the bird fed and forwarded at once to ----; and
to apply for all 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 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 interpreting them. At one
time an element in the definition 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 1d. can be the motive. If in the printed regulations 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 ends
not tied in a knot, if that is considered stitching? 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
Department:--
"I got no redress before, but I trust I shall 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 contrary 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 effusions which occasionally reach
the Post-office:--
"SIR,--Tuesday last week my little son sent 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, carefully
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 would 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
disappointment. 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 will be
equally astonished with me at his assurance. The package was 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 ----."[6]
[6] The mice were duly fed during their detention, and were
eventually sent for by the applicant.
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
headquarters:--
"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 college for three years, and then be sent
adrift without a plank. Is it possible to reinstate him at the
Post-office? 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."
CHAPTER XX.
SINGULAR COINCIDENCES.
Extraordinary coincidences have been chronicled 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 alterations 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-office
Savings' Bank, having received no acknowledgment of a deposit of £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
original acknowledgment, intended for the joiner, having fallen into the
hands of the mason's mother, she concluded 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 Newcastle-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
inquiries 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 still 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-paper, which formed
part of some waste shortly thereafter 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, although 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 respecting 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 Rev.
J---- D---- (the same name) travelling in Norway at the same time, whose
letters kept crossing my path everywhere; and when I read them, I was
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 letters 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 _poste 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
telegram, 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
ailing when he left, he supposed a mistake of "brother" for "father" had
been made in transmission, and that the message was no doubt intended
for him. He then left the office. A few days later the postmaster
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 honeymoon.
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 will 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 inexperienced 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 telegram
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"[7] reached Liverpool as "Meins,"[7] 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[7] a Mrs
M'Farlane, and to this person the message was presented. The names being
similar, Mrs M'Farlane 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.
[7] The names are given from memory.
Meanwhile Mrs Parlane had been suffering intense anxiety at not
receiving the promised telegram, and 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 compartment; 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 all particulars sometimes gives rise
to trouble and inconvenience. Through the misdelivery of a savings-bank
acknowledgment, 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.
But even more curious are the following facts in the matter of similar
names and addresses, though in this instance nothing of ill-consequence
has yet arisen beyond the occasional misdelivery of a letter. In
Edinburgh at the present time (1885), there resides at 5 St Andrew's
Terrace a Mr James Gibson, and, immediately opposite, at 5 St Andrew's
Place, another Mr James Gibson. It happens, also, that a Mr John Gibson
is to be found at 5 St Andrew Square. Hence we have this very singular
series of almost identical addresses, the persons concerned being all
different, and, so far as we are aware, unacquainted with each other:--
(1) Mr J. Gibson,
5 St Andrew's Terrace.
(2) Mr J. Gibson,
5 St Andrew's Place.
(3) Mr J. Gibson,
5 St Andrew Square.
In consequence of the misdelivery of a post-packet, the following case
of almost identical addresses 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 R---- at her residence in
Edinburgh were duly delivered 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 R---- (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 Edinburgh, but Glasgow. The
matter was afterwards explained, on the fact becoming known that two
ladies of the same name, one hailing 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.
CHAPTER XXI.
SAVINGS-BANK CURIOSITIES.
With persons who deposit their hard-earned savings in the Post-office
Savings Bank, there is sometimes observed a disposition, not to be
wondered 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 throughout 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 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 possession, 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 account, 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:--First of all, he placed his book inside a box, which he then
locked. This box he placed inside a second box, which he locked
likewise. Continuing the series of operations, he locked the second box
inside a third box; and then, to crown the business, hung up all the
keys in a place 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 information 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 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 in
the Post-office Savings Bank--especially in 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 described as a minor over seven years of age. Only one
deposit was made; and nothing further was heard of the account until
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 depositor could not write. He was informed of these
discrepancies, but still insisted that the money was deposited by his
wife, and employed a lawyer to urge his claim."
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 communications 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 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 permanent." 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, _D. V._" In one case the
reply was "No, _D. V._, for the place is beastly damp and unhealthy;"
while another depositor, 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 sleeping in the tent, one of our elephants broke
loose and tore up my coat, in the pocket of which was 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 habbit of playing 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
accounted 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," 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-guardsman 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 margin 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.
CHAPTER XXII.
REPLIES TO MEDICAL INQUIRIES.
For many years past it has been incumbent upon all candidates seeking
employment in the Post-office, as in other public departments, to
undergo 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 information 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, still, in referring to
the more common troubles that afflict the human frame, some approach to
an intelligible 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, 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"; another died of
"Parasles." One "caught Tiber fever in the Hackney Road"; 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," "toncertina 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.
In addition to the medical scrutiny as to health, all candidates for
service have to give satisfactory accounts in regard to their previous
employment; and this is elicited by means of questions put to the
candidate on what is known as the A. form.
The following are questions and answers in the case of a young lady
candidate:--
Write your Christian and surname in full.
Elizabeth B----
Your usual signature?
Yours ever, Lizzie.
State how you have been employed since leaving school.
_Ans_. Music and singing, and nursing dear mamma,
who is an invalid!
CHAPTER XXIII.
VARIOUS.
_Superstition_.
Superstition rarely stands in the way of the extension of postal
accommodation or convenience; 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 neighbourhood 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 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, Devonshire, 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 Rake. 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.
_Letter-box, 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 in 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 Mails), thus describes
what nightly took place at the closing 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, heaving, and
surging in one great mass. The window, with tremendous gape, is
assaulted with showers of 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 official policemen, who
vainly endeavour to reduce 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 gathering every
moment increases in number, and intensifies in purpose; arms, legs,
sacks, baskets, heads, bundles, and woollen 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 carefully 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 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-office 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 excitement; two--and grown men hurry in with the last
sacks; three--the struggle resembles nothing so much as a pantomimic
_mêlée_; 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 all is over, so far as the
outsiders 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.
_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 postmasters 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 will go on right."
"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 'justifiable' in making
use of a portion of the money received 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
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 constant 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:--
"The extensive works for the manufacture of paper belonging to Alex.
Cowan & Sons, at Valleyfield, 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, année_ 1812.
"MON CHER PERRE ET MA CHER MÈRE,--D'après plusieur lettre que je vous
ecrives, étant en Angleterre, sans en avoir pu en recevoir aucune
réponse. Je ne sais à quoi attribuer cette interuption, et depuis on va
arrivez en Ecosse, je me suis toujours empressez pour vous donner de mes
nouvelles, et qui a été bien impossible, à moins jusqu'à presens, d'en
recevoir. Je désirai ardement d'en recevoir des votres, ainsi mon cherre
père et ma cherre mère, je vous prie trêes umblement de prendre des
procotions pour me donné de vos nouvelle, est des changement du pays,
est dans ce qui est égale à mon égard, de la famille, seullement pour à
l'égard de ma santé, elle a toujours etté bonne depuis mon de part. Je
désire que la présente vous soient pareille, ainsi que mes frerre et
seurre, paran, et ami, rien autre chose que je puis vous marqué pour le
----. Je soussignez Jean François Noel de Sariget, la Commune de Saint
Leonard, Canton de Fraize, arrondissement de Saint Dies, Departemeant
Voges. Monsieur Perigord Lafeste, Banquier à Paris, dans la Rue de Mont
No. 9. Je soussignez Jean Nicolas Demange de Saint Leonard, 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:--
"Près de ce lieu réposent les cendres de 309 prisonniers de guerre
morts dans ce voisinage entre le 21 Mars 1811 et le 26 Juillet 1814.
"Nés pour bénir les voeux de vieillissantes mères,
Par le sort appelés
A devenir amants aimés, epoux, et pères,
Ils sont morts exilés!
"Plusieurs habitans de cette Paroisse aimant à croire que tous les
hommes sont frères, firent élever ce monument l'an 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.
_A Mother's Love_.
The affection of mothers for their children has been a theme of
tenderest writing in all ages; and innumerable effusions of this nature,
more or less intense, are daily carried by the Post-office. The
following is a case in point, the writing being observed on the back of
a Christmas card.
"MY DEAR CHILD,--Accept this little gift as a token of
true friendship, from
Your mother."
The card was found in the Dead-letter office!
_The Mulready Envelope._
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
set in to reject that which is new or unusual, without serious grounds
for dislike. A facsimile of the design is here given, the envelopes for
sale being printed in two colours--black and blue.
[Illustration]
It was introduced to the notice of the public at the time of the
establishment of the penny postage, 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 Royal Academy, was the artist, and the design
had the approval of the Royal Academicians, so that it did not go forth
without 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 Hill 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, 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 Rowland Hill's penny postage is to be carried on, and
perhaps, also, of the power requisite for transporting the £1500 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 right, again,
stands a dutiful boy, reading to his anxious mamma an account of her
husband's hapless shipwreck, who, with hands clasped, is blessing
Rowland Hill for the cheap rate at which she gets the disastrous
intelligence. With very great propriety 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 Rowland on this
important occasion. As may well be imagined, it is no common man, for
the mighty effort has taxed the powers of the Royal Academy itself, if
the engraved announcement of W. Mulready, R.A., in the corner, may be
credited. Considering the infinite drollery of the whole, the curious
assortment of figures and faces; the harmonious _mélange_ of elephants,
mandarins' tails, Yankee beavers, naked Indians squatted with their
hindquarters in front, Cherokee chiefs with feathered tufts shaking
missionaries 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 Rowland for
the saving grace of 11d. out of the shilling, and valuing her absent
husband's calamity or death as nothing in comparison with such an
economy,--altogether, it may be said that this is a wondrous combination
of pictorial genius, after which Phiz and Cruikshank must hide their
diminished heads, for they can hardly be deemed worthy now of the
inferior grade of associates and aspirants for Academic 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 Rowland
Hill introduced the uniform 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 lines, 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 Hill, each person loudly hails;
The females they are full of it, and so are all the mails.
This may be called the "Penny Age," and those who are not mulish,
Are daily growing "penny wise," though not, I hope, pound foolish.
We've penny blacking, penny plays, penny mags, for information,
And now a "Penny Post," which proves we've lots of penetration.
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 will be too small,
So omnibuses they must use, or they can't carry all;
And ladies pleasure will 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 running feet.
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 tiresome iteration of questions propounded by the
eccentric, 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
exaggeration (if it be so at all) of experiences which are had in our
own country in this particular direction:--
"Just about 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 Cleveland?' 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?'
"'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 will take twelve cents?' she calmly queried, as she fumbled
around for her purse.
"'Yes.'
"'Well, 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
together. She then consumed four minutes in licking 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 detained by a twelve-cent woman, and a tidal wave
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 box, and said, 'Them stamps are licked on
crooked; it won't make any difference, will it?'"
CHAPTER XXIV.
ABOUT POSTMASTERS.
The description furnished by Scott in the 'Antiquary' of the internal
management of a country Post-office, as existing towards the close of
last century, is extremely amusing and piquant; but the probability is
that, while so much of what is said might be true to circumstances, the
picture was heightened in colour for the purpose of literary effect. No
doubt a certain amount of gossip emerged from such country offices,
derived from the outsides and occasionally from the insides of letters;
yet it is hardly likely that a group of curious women should have
gathered together in the postmaster's room to make a general overhaul of
the contents of the mail-bag, as is described in the case of the
Post-office at Fairport. In small country towns in the present day, it
is no uncommon thing to attribute the spread of "secrets" about the
place to a breach of confidence at the Post-office, while the real fact
is that things told by the persons concerned in strictest secrecy to
their most intimate friends are by these communicated again to other
kind friends, and so the ripple of information rolls on till there is no
longer any secret at all, and the poor official at the Post-office is
assumed to be the only possible offender. The smaller the place the
greater is the thirst for neighbourly gossip, the more quickly does it
spread when out, and the more ready are those whose secrets ooze forth
to point the finger of suspicion at the Post-office.
Every one knows what a small country Post-office is nowadays. When we
seek change of air and relaxation in the holiday season, choice is made
maybe of some little country village or seaside resort whereat to spend
the few weeks at our disposal. If the place be a _place_ at all, there
we shall find a Post-office; but possibly there is no house-to-house
delivery, and letters must be called for at the Post-office itself. As
the post-hour approaches, groups of visitors take up positions near the
office door, or squat themselves down on any patch of sward that may be
conveniently near. Young ladies waited upon by their admirers, mothers
with their children, a bachelor group or two from the inn, and here and
there a native of the place, some expecting letters, others indulging a
feeble hope in that direction, attend as assistants at what is one of
the excitements of the day. Presently the post-runner, with his wallet
slung upon his back and a rustic walking-stick in his hand, appears in
the distance, jogging along with that steady swinging stride which is so
characteristic of his class. The visitors begin to close up around the
Post-office; in a few minutes the runner steps into it; he throws down
his wallet of treasures on the counter, removes his faded and dusty hat,
and with his coloured cotton handkerchief wipes the sweat from his
soiled and heated face. Meanwhile the attention of the postmistress is
given to the contents of the bag; and as the expectant receivers of
letters crowd in at or around the door, a few who have been unable to
approach sufficiently near derive what consolation they can from eyeing
the operations through the shop window, or by vainly endeavouring to
catch an early glimpse of some well-known superscription as the letters
pass one by one through the hands of the postmistress.
The division of the letters, which can hardly be called a system of
sorting, is a proceeding worthy of study. Some letters are placed up on
end against sweetie-bottles in the window, others are laid down on
shelves, others again are spread out on drawers or tables, quite in an
arbitrary fashion. The postmistress has no difficulty in reading the
addresses, as a rule, but the name of a new-comer seems to demand a
little study: the letter is looked at back and front, and then laid down
hesitatingly in a place by itself, as if it were an uncanny thing. The
address of a letter for any young lady supposed to be engaged in
correspondence of a tender kind seems also to require scrutiny; and
should she happen to be well in at the door, it is immediately handed to
her, those who are in the secret and those who are not forming different
ideas as to the reason for this special mark of favour. While this is
being done, an undefined sensation is produced in the small crowd, and
the recipient retires in confusion to peruse the letter in peace and
quiet elsewhere. At length the whole treasures are ready, and the
distribution to the eager callers is a matter of a very few minutes, to
be renewed again at the same hour next day.
Something like this is the routine observed when the delivery is being
effected at small rural Post-offices in our own days--the keeper of the
post being a shopkeeper, generally a grocer.
In the earlier history of the post, and up till the time of
mail-coaches, the Post-office was very generally to be found established
at the inn of the place. There was an evident convenience in this, owing
to the innkeeper being the postmaster in the other and original sense of
the provider of horses to ride post, when it was common to send on
expresses, by means of these agents, from stage to stage. But the
innkeepers, being often farmers besides, had business more important
than that of the post to look after, and consequently the work was
delegated to others. The duty of receiving and despatching the mails was
frequently left to waiters or chambermaids, with the undesirable but
inevitable result that the work was badly done. Often there was no
separate place set apart for Post-office business; letters were sorted
in the bar or in one of the public rooms, where any one could see them,
thereby excluding all possibility of secrecy in dealing with the
correspondence. Referring to the middle of last century, a surveyor
expressed himself to the effect that "the head ostler was often the
postmaster's prime minister in matters relating to the mails."
[Illustration: Interior of an Old Post-Office.]
The interest taken by Boniface in the Post-office does not seem to have
been very great; for an English surveyor, writing in 1792, thus
expresses himself: "Persons who keep horses for other uses, and
particularly innkeepers, may assuredly more conveniently and at less
expense work the mails than those who keep horses for that business
only. But, on the other hand, it may be observed that innkeepers, so far
from paying Government service the compliment of employing in it their
best horses, too often send their worst with the mails; and as to their
riders, they are, in general, the dregs of the stable-yard, and by no
means to be compared to those employed by postmasters in private
stations."
Lack of interest in the mails did not, however, stand in the way of
their turning the post to account in favour of their visitors; for in
another official report the following observation is made on the subject
of franking: "The Post-office is not of the consequence or
recommendation to an inn which it used to be before the restriction in
franking took place; and a traveller, now finding that my host at the
public office is deprived of that privilege, moves over to the Red
Lyon."
When mail-coaches came to be put upon the road, the necessity for having
postmasters other than innkeepers forced itself upon the authorities, so
that there should be an independent check upon the contractors, and a
better regulation of the arrival and departure of the mails, with less
chance of excuse for delays; and thus a change was brought about in the
status of country postmasters.
But postmasters in the old days do not seem to have been uniformly happy
in their posts. The following from a surveyor's report of December 1792,
relating to the postmaster of Wetherby, in Yorkshire, shows this, and no
doubt describes the case accurately. The Wetherby office had been made
more important by some rearrangement of posts, with the result which the
surveyor thus pathetically brings under notice: "The
Postmaster-General's humanity, I humbly apprehend, would be very much
affected if they knew exactly the situation of this poor deputy. He has
now experienced the difference between his former snug duty and the
very great fatigue of a large centre office, and labour throughout
almost the whole of every night since the 10th October 1791. Also the
very heavy expenses incurred thereby for assistance, coal, candles,
paper, wax, &c., without any addition to his salary. To add to his
distresses--for he is not rich" (who ever heard of a rich
postmaster?)--"he has been so closely pressed from the Bye-letter Office
for his balance due there as to have been compelled to borrow money to
discharge them, at the very time that he could not obtain any account
from the General Office, nor warrants for payment of as large sums due
to him."
It is not difficult to picture this poor postmaster of Wetherby, tied to
duty all night long arranging his mails by the light of a guttering
candle, and smarting under financial difficulties; the Head Office
squeezing him for revenue with one hand, and holding back what was due
to him for his services with the other.
Sometimes country Post-offices would be the scene of small gatherings
late at night, waiting the arrival of the mail, as was the case at
Dumfries in 1799, when some few of the inhabitants would wait up till
ten, eleven, or twelve o'clock to receive the English newspapers, so
eager were they to peruse them.
Similar anxiety to be first in possession of commercial or political
news conveyed through the newspapers was no doubt common to all business
centres at the period referred to; though in our own age such
information is largely anticipated and discounted by the telegraph, and
in this respect the circumstances have changed. Senex, in 'Glasgow Past
and Present,' humorously describes the scene enacted at the Tontine
Coffee Rooms, in Glasgow, during the French War, at the close of last
century, on the arrival of the mail. He says:--"Immediately on receiving
the bag of papers from the Post-office, the waiter locked himself up in
the bar, and after he had sorted the different papers and had made them
up in a heap, he unlocked the door, and making a sudden rush into the
middle of the room, he tossed up the whole lot of newspapers as high as
the ceiling. Now came the grand rush and scramble of the subscribers,
every one darting forward to lay hold of a falling newspaper. Sometimes
a lucky fellow got hold of five or six newspapers, and ran off with them
to a corner, in order to select his favourite paper; but he was always
hotly pursued by some half-dozen of the disappointed scramblers, who,
without ceremony, pulled from his hands the first paper they could lay
hold of, regardless of its being torn in the contest. On these occasions
I have often seen a heap of gentlemen sprawling on the floor of the
room, and riding upon one another's backs like a parcel of boys. It
happened, however, unfortunately, that a gentleman in one of these
scrambles got two of his teeth knocked out of his head, and this
ultimately brought about a change in the manner of delivering the
newspapers."
Again, when a mail was passing through a town between stages in the
middle of the night, the postmaster, awoke by the postboy's horn, would
present himself at an upper window and take in his bag by means of a
hook and line, his body shivering the while in the cold night blast.
An instance of such a proceeding is given by Williams in his history of
Watford, where the destinies of the post were, at the time, presided
over by a postmistress. "In response," says he, "to the thundering knock
of the conductor, the old lady left her couch, and thrusting her head,
covered with a wide bordered night-cap, out of the bedroom window, let
down the mail bag by a string, and quickly returned to her bed again."
Coming thus nightly to the open window in her night dress could not have
been without its risks to a delicate creature like the postmistress.
These postmasters required looking after occasionally, however, for they
sometimes did wrong. In 1668 the postmaster of Edinburgh got into
trouble by levying charges of 1d., 2d., or 3d. upon letters over and
above the proper rates, and he was peremptorily ordered to discontinue
the practice.
[Illustration: The Postmistress of Watford despatching the Mail.]
They also, it would appear, exercised some sort of surveillance over
private correspondence. Chambers, in his 'Domestic Annals of Scotland,'
to which valuable work we are again indebted, gives a case in point: "In
July 1701, two letters from Brussels, _having the cross upon the back of
them_, had come with proper addresses under cover to the Edinburgh
postmaster. He _was surprised with them_, and brought them to the Lord
Advocate, who, however, on opening them, found they were of no value,
being only on private business; wherefore he ordered them to be
delivered by the postmaster to the persons to whom they were directed."
Yet zeal for the King's interest did not always have an acceptable
reward, as is shown by the Scotch Privy Council Record of 1679. The
keeper of the Edinburgh letter-office was accused of "sending up a
_bye-letter_ with the flying packet upon the twenty-two day of June
last, giving ane account to the postmaster of England of the defeat of
the rebels in the west, which was by the said postmaster communicated to
the King before it could have been done by his Majesty's Secretary for
Scotland, and which letter contains several untruths in matter of fact."
For having forestalled his Majesty's Secretary, probably, rather than
for the inaccuracy as to facts, the keeper of the post was sent to the
Tolbooth, there to meditate upon the unprofitableness of official zeal,
during the Council's pleasure.
It does not seem to have been thought prudent to intrust the
date-stamping of letters to postmasters generally until some time in the
present century. Down to the close of last century, at any rate,
according to a Survey report of the year 1800, this was allowed only at
the more important offices. The report is as follows:--"In regard to
having the Dumbarton letters stamped with the day of the month, as now
done at Glasgow, the subject has often been considered, and although it
has been approved of with some large commercial towns in England, and
Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, it has been much doubted how far it
would be proper or necessary to establish it generally with less towns,
where the practice might be more subject to irregularity or abuses,
besides the very great expense such a supply of stamps would occasion to
the revenue."
The smallness of the salaries allowed to the postmasters of former times
is referred to in another chapter, and this may, no doubt, have
contributed to the lack of interest taken in the work by some of these
officials.
But while their pay was small, a good deal of form and circumstance
attended their appointment, as will be seen from the following
reproduction, on a reduced scale, of the formal appointment of the
postmaster of East Grinstead in 1786. From a Post-office point of view
the form is interesting, as no such documents are now in use.
[Illustration: This whole page is a facsimile.
CHARLES _Earl of_ TANKERVILLE, _and_ HENRY FREDERICK _Lord_ CARTERET,
_His Majesty's Postmaster-General of all His Majesty's Dominions in_
Europe, Africa, _and_ America.
TO ALL PEOPLE to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting. KNOW YE, that
We, the said CHARLES _Earl of_ TANKERVILLE, and HENRY FREDERICK _Lord_
CARTERET, having received good Testimony of the Fidelity and Loyalty to
His Majesty, of Mr. Thomas Palmer and reposing great Trust and
Confidence in the Knowledge, Care and Ability of the said Thomas Palmer
to execute the Office and Duties required of a Deputy Postmaster, have
deputed, constituted, authorized and appointed, and by these Presents do
depute, constitute, authorize and appoint, the said Thomas Palmer to be
our lawful and sufficient Deputy, to execute the Office of Deputy
Postmaster of the Stage of East Grinsted in the County of Sussex to
have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy, the said Office of Deputy
Postmaster of the Stage aforesaid, with all and every the Rights,
Privileges, Benefits and Advantages to the same belonging, from the
Fifth Day of January last for the Term of Three Years, unless sooner
removed by Us, under such Conditions, Covenants, Provisoes, Payments,
Orders and Instructions, to be faithfully observed, performed and done
by the said Deputy, and Servants, as he or they shall, from Time to
Time, receive from Us, or by our Order. In Witness whereof, We the said
CHARLES _Earl of_ TANKERVILLE, and HENRY FREDERICK _Lord_ CARTERET, have
hereunto set our Hands, and caused the Seal of the said Office, in such
Cases used, to be affixed. Dated the Eighth Day of 1786 in the
Twentysixth Year of His Majesty's Reign.
By Command]
Traditions of hard work and long hours linger still in the Post-office,
though nowadays the periods of duty are generally reduced to moderate
limits. Some idea of the service required to be rendered formerly by
Post-office servants may be gathered from the following order, dating
about 1780 or 1790. It refers to the Secretary to the Post-office in
Dublin, but we ought perhaps to put a very free interpretation upon
it:--"The duty of the Secretary is to carry on the general
correspondence, and, under the direction of the Postmaster-General, to
superintend the whole business of the office; to attend the Board, and
give directions for carrying into execution the orders of the
Postmaster-General. His attendance is constant, and at all hours by day
and by night--generally from 7 until 10, from 12 until 5, and from 9
until 11 o'clock each day."
The postmasters of the United Kingdom are a very large class, numbering
many thousands, and comprising every variety of individual from the
honest country shopkeeper to the highly intelligent men who are placed
in charge of the offices in our principal towns. The former have enough
to do in mastering the various codes of rules under which the many
branches of business are carried on; while the latter, in exercising
discipline over their forces, carrying out changes of administration,
and endeavouring to meet the wishes of a public ever wakeful to their
interests and privileges, are something in their way like petty
sovereigns, of whom it might not inaptly be said, "Uneasy is the head
that wears a crown," though the material emblem itself be wanting.
CHAPTER XXV.
RED 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 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-office he expects a reply with like rapidity. Not receiving an
answer with the looked-for despatch, 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-office, there exists a gulf which forbids all 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 appointments throughout
the country, and preparations being made for their examination by the
Civil Service 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 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 branch, the home mails and
parcel-post branch, the telegraph 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 communication 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 officers 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 officer receiving 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 that its
destination can be traced. Were this not done, laggard postmasters, or
persons acting from base or interested 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 correspondence, 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, commonly spoken of as the "stereotyped reply." The public do
not know how carefully and conscientiously delays and reported losses of
letters are investigated 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 afterwards be forthcoming; but after
all, in the eyes of some persons, the printed reply spoils all. These
persons forget, however, that the printed letter conveys 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 public
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 outlived its time, and no longer serves any useful purpose.
[Illustration: Red tape]
PRINTED BY NEILL AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH.
THE ROYAL MAIL:
ITS CURIOSITIES AND ROMANCE.
BY JAMES WILSON HYDE,
SUPERINTENDENT IN THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE, EDINBURGH.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
=The Times.=--"The author of 'The Royal Mail' has served five-and-twenty
years in the Post-office, and had it been his fortune to turn novelist,
like his confrère Anthony Trollope, he would never have been so lavish
of invaluable materials. The merest glance through his pages might
suggest subjects or incidents for half a score of sensational romances.
But the whole of the volume is so full of fascination that once taken up
it is difficult to lay it down."
=Saturday Review.=--'Mr Hyde's work certainly shows that, even at the
present time, the business conducted by the Post-office is not
unfrequently enlivened by romantic incidents; while in antiquarian
interest it is rich beyond the average."
=Pall Mall Gazette.=--"This volume is a storehouse of amusing
anecdotes."
=The Echo.=--"The curiosities and romance of the Post-office have
furnished Mr J. Wilson Hyde, Superintendent in the General Post-office,
Edinburgh, with a subject for one of the most entertaining books of the
year. The book is well written, well arranged, and thoroughly deserves
success."
=Graphic.=--"Contains a vast number of well-arranged facts, some
valuable, some curious, about what is pre-eminently 'the people's
institution.'"
=St James's Gazette.=--"The result is a work that is sure to be widely
read. The author treats of the old coaching days in a cheery spirit; and
if some of his excellent anecdotes lack the gloss of novelty, that was
only to be expected. But by far the most interesting pages in his
interesting book are those in which he deals with the working of the
present system.... An extremely readable and meritorious book."
=Whitehall Review.=--"'The Royal Mail' is not a book to be put down
unfinished, for what is told in it is well worth knowing, and the
admirable way it is related makes it all the more enjoyable."
=The Literary World.=--"This book is free from the least suspicion of
dulness, and is replete with the liveliest anecdotes we have seen for
many a day. There is a good story on almost every page."
=Daily News.=--"A book which is an interesting addition to Post-office
literature, and it will be read with pleasure by thousands who know
nothing of the internal working of the postal service."
=Scotsman.=--"A book of singular interest, and excellence.... The
carelessness with which in some cases the mails were conveyed, the means
taken to preserve them from robbers, the length of time occupied in
their transmission from one place to another, the difficulty in dealing
with particular portions of them,--all these are described in the
earlier chapters of Mr Hyde's book, and are described with singular
power and ease of narrative. The book, in short, is far more interesting
than most of the modern novels, and it will enable the country to
understand better than it could otherwise understand the vast and
complicated machinery by which one of the most ordinary and yet
imperative requirements of modern life is carried out. Mr Hyde must have
hearty commendation for the manner in which he has done his work."
=Glasgow Weekly Citizen.=--"Positively the most interesting book I have
seen for an age. It is certain to have an immediate and very wide
popularity. It reads like a novel, and shows in many cases how true is
the old maxim, that 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' To everybody this
volume will be of the greatest interest. And many subjects of great and
universal interest are treated in the most lively and entertaining
manner. The volume abounds in capital stories."
=North British Daily Mail.=--"It is brimful of the most curious
out-of-the-way facts illustrative of the early struggles of the postal
service, and also contains some very amusing and romantic stories of the
old stage-coach days. The work is written in such an easy unpretentious
chatty style, and is so admirably arranged, that when taken up few will
lay it down until they have read it through to the end. It is, moreover,
capitally illustrated."
=Newcastle Daily Journal.=--"This is a thoroughly instructive and
amusing book. Mr Hyde approaches his subject in the character of a
chronicler. The book is a most entertaining one."
=Liverpool Daily Post.=--"His volume is replete with interesting facts,
anecdotes, and illustrations, and it is written on a subject which has
an interest for every one.... His pages will repay perusal."
=Dundee Advertiser.=--"A perusal of Mr Hyde's clever book will show the
difference between the postal service of a century ago and that of the
present time. To the credit of the author be it said, that he succeeds
in doing this without being tiresome, a consummation not always achieved
by those who undertake such a mission."
=Aberdeen Journal.=--"Every page is full of interest, and the whole book
shows the man accustomed to put the greatest amount of information in
the fewest and most appropriate words. From beginning to end of the book
the reader finds himself in the company of one that speaks what he
knows."
=Bristol Times and Mirror.=--"In this work, Mr J. Wilson Hyde has
gathered together a perfect budget of information pertaining to our
postal service both in the past and present days. The book is neatly
bound, and is decidedly a valuable addition to the literature of the
season."
=Manchester Examiner and Times.=--"'The Royal Mail' is singularly
interesting. The writer has unearthed from ancient documents, old
newspapers, and official reports, a curious collection of incidents and
facts which give a vivid idea of the difficulties of the postal service
in its youth, and of the immense improvements which have been made in
recent years. The book is both entertaining and instructive. The reader
will find a good deal that is strange and even romantic in the account."
=Quiz.=--"A delightful book, by the Superintendent of the Edinburgh
General Post-office.... A book, full of contemporary curiosities and
old-world romances, which, while it gives an entertaining account of the
inner workings of the Post-office of to-day, transports you to the grand
idyllic epoch of sleepy Britain, the times of pack-horses and postboys,
of wayside inns and county hostelries, of masked cavaliers, and great
snows and impracticable roads. A glance at the contents of Mr Hyde's
volume is sufficient to indicate the extent and variety of the materials
he has gathered together."
=Birmingham Daily Mail.=--"A book which may be looked upon in the light
of a historical work.... Its aim, while historic, seems to be to deal
with the lighter features of the great department of the State, the
Post-office. 'The Royal Mail' ... will be found very entertaining, and
sometimes very strange and romantic reading."
=Practical Teacher.=--"A book which, albeit not a novel, has all the
charm and interest of the most exciting romance. Altogether it would be
difficult to speak too highly of Mr Hyde's delightful volume."
=Yorkshire Post.=--"Mr J. W. Hyde of Edinburgh has collected and
arranged an altogether admirable array of historical and illustrative
matter bearing on our postal system."
=Courant.=--"He has made a wonderfully good book. By some curious
instinct he has divined what is most interesting in the subject he
writes about, and there is not a dull page from the first to the last.
No previous writer on the Post-office has given us so graphic a picture
of its daily life, and of the adventures it undergoes from hour to hour.
He has in truth written a romance of the Post-office abounding in truths
stranger than fiction."
Transcriber's Notes:
(1) Obvious punctuation and typographical errors have been rectified.
(2) Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equals=.
(3) Where there are slight differences of print style in facsimiles of
actual documents, they have not been altered (e.g. "postboy",
"Post-Office", etc.).
(4) In chapter XI, the table has been restructured to fit the available
space and some abbreviations have been adjusted and defined.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Royal Mail, by James Wilson Hyde
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