Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
219
A
firm
of
solicitors
in
Leith
wrote
a
letter
to
a
client
in
the
same
town,
enclosing
a
cheque
for
L102;
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.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
