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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
293
The
public
required
little
attention,
and
got
but
little.
Being
prior
to
the
time
of
postage-stamps,
and
we
may
almost
add
of
money-orders,
not
to
speak
of
savings'
bank
business,
few
applications
were
ever
made
to
the
officers--consisting
of
a
postmaster,
his
wife,
and
another
clerk--for
anything
but
stray
scraps
of
information
relative
to
the
despatch
of
mails.
The
communication
with
the
public
was
anything
but
close,
being
conducted
in
this
town--and,
in
fact,
in
all
others
of
our
acquaintance--through
a
trap-door
in
a
wooden
pane
in
the
office-window.
Near
to
it
was
a
huge
slit,
being
a
passage
to
a
basket,
into
which
letters
and
newspapers
were
promiscuously
thrown.
The
principal
labour
incident
to
the
old
style
of
postage
was
in
regulating
the
amount
to
be
paid
on
the
different
letters.
Those
posted
in
the
town
for
the
town
itself
were
delivered
for
a
penny;
twopence
was
charged
into
the
country
places
surrounding;
letters
for
the
metropolis
cost
a
shilling;
and
Scotch
letters
eightpence-halfpenny
at
least,
the
odd
halfpenny
being
the
charge
as
a
toll
for
the
letter
crossing
the
Tweed.
The
delivery
of
the
letters
in
the
town
took
place
at
any
time
during
the
day,
according
to
the
arrival
of
the
mails,
and
it
was
effected
by
a
single
letter-carrier.[160]
Private
boxes
for
the
principal
merchants
in
the
town,
and
private
bags
for
the
country
gentlemen,
were
almost
indispensable
to
those
who
cared
for
the
proper
despatch
and
security
of
their
correspondence.
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