Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
145
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.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
