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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
131
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.
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