Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
222
In
1883,
a
registered
letter
sent
from
Dunkeld
on
a
given
date
was
duly
received
in
Edinburgh,
and
delivered
at
its
address,
which
was
a
bank,
the
postman
obtaining
a
signature
to
the
receipt-form
in
the
usual
way.
Some
little
time
afterwards
complaint
was
made
by
the
manager
of
the
bank
that
the
letter
had
not
been
received;
but
the
Post-office
was
able
to
prove
the
contrary
by
the
receipt,
the
signature
to
which,
on
being
submitted
to
the
manager,
was
acknowledged
to
be
that
of
the
wife
of
the
housekeeper
of
the
establishment.
Yet
this
person
could
give
no
account
of
the
letter,
nor
had
any
one
else
seen
it;
and
as
the
letter
was
stated
to
have
contained
four
L1
notes
and
a
bank
deposit-book,
the
fact
of
its
disappearance
gave
rise
to
a
state
of
things
which
can
be
better
imagined
than
described.
The
Post-office,
in
the
circumstances,
offered
the
suggestion
that
the
bank's
waste-paper
should
be
carefully
examined.
As
it
happened,
however,
a
quantity
of
this
material
had
just
been
cleared
out,
having
been
purchased
by
a
waste-paper
dealer;
and
the
fact
made
the
chances
of
recovery
in
that
direction
all
the
more
remote.
Yet
the
housekeeper
was
set
to
work:
he
traced
the
bags
first
to
the
store
of
the
dealer,
then
to
the
premises
of
a
waste-paper
merchant
in
another
part
of
the
city.
With
assistance
he
carefully
examined
the
contents
of
the
bags
filled
at
the
bank,
and
his
efforts
were
rewarded
by
the
discovery
of
the
registered
letter,
which
was
in
precisely
the
same
state
as
when
delivered,
never
having
been
opened.
It
had
very
likely
fallen
from
a
desk
in
the
bank
on
to
the
floor,
and
by
a
careless
person
been
brushed
aside
with
used
envelopes
and
scraps
of
paper,
thus
finding
its
way
into
the
waste-paper
basket.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
