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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
211
"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withdrawn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
L30,
which
was
afterwards
renewed
when
the
singular
affair
was
made
known.
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