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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
271
The
railway-mail
service
has
now
assumed
quite
gigantic
proportions.
Twenty-six
years
ago,
when
railways
were
only
partially
used
for
post-office
purposes,
a
writer
predicted
that
they
would
"soon
become
the
ne
plus
ultra
of
rapidity,"
and
that
the
Post-Office
would
have
to
take
to
them
more
and
more.
"In
a
few
years,"
said
the
writer,
"railways
will
have
become
so
general,
that
scarcely
a
mail-coach
will
be
left
in
England;
certainly,
none
will
be
wanted
in
London."
Both
predictions
have
since
been
verified;
for
the
last
twenty
years,
railways
have
gradually
absorbed
all
the
mail
contracts,--year
by
year
the
estimates
for
this
service
showing
a
corresponding
increase.[155]
The
first
railway
post-office
journey
was
made
on
the
Grand
Junction
Railway,
between
Liverpool
and
Birmingham,
on
the
1st
of
July,
1837.
When
the
line
was
completed
to
London,
in
January,
1838,
the
travelling
office
started
from
the
metropolis.
The
following
curious
account
of
the
"Grand
Northern
Railway
Post-Office,"
as
it
was
called,
is
culled
from
the
Penny
Magazine.
"On
the
arrival
of
the
four
'accelerators'
at
the
Euston
Station
with
the
mails,
the
railway
servants
immediately
carry
the
large
sacks
to
a
huge
looking
machine,
with
a
tender
attached
to
it,
both
at
the
end
of
the
train.
This
caravan
is
the
flying
Post-Office,
with
a
table
for
sorting
letters,
and
holes
round
the
walls
for
their
reception."
The
carriage
was
certainly
either
an
ungainly
structure,
or
the
above
is
a
most
ungainly
report.
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