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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
123
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.
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