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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
295
Considering
the
infinite
drollery
of
the
whole,
the
curious
assortment
of
figures
and
faces;
the
harmonious
melange
of
elephants,
mandarins'
tails,
Yankee
beavers,
naked
Indians
squatted
with
their
hindquarters
in
front,
Cherokee
chiefs
with
feathered
tufts
shaking
missionaries
by
the
hand;
casks
of
Virginia
threatening
the
heads
of
young
ladies
devouring
their
love-letters;
and
the
old
woman
in
the
corner,
with
hands
uplifted,
blessing
Lord
Lichfield
and
Sir
Rowland
for
the
saving
grace
of
11d.
out
of
the
shilling,
and
valuing
her
absent
husband's
calamity
or
death
as
nothing
in
comparison
with
such
an
economy,--altogether,
it
may
be
said
that
this
is
a
wondrous
combination
of
pictorial
genius,
after
which
Phiz
and
Cruikshank
must
hide
their
diminished
heads,
for
they
can
hardly
be
deemed
worthy
now
of
the
inferior
grade
of
associates
and
aspirants
for
Academic
honours."
All
this
is
excessively
funny,
and
enables
us
to
smile;
but
if
the
grounds
of
condemnation
were
of
no
more
solid
kind,
we
might
venture
the
suggestion
that
the
envelopes
had
hardly
a
fair
trial
at
the
bar
of
serious
public
judgment.
Lines
on
the
Penny
Postage.
The
following
lines
were
popular
about
the
year
1840,
when
Sir
Rowland
Hill
introduced
the
uniform
penny
rate
of
postage.
The
scheme
was
not
looked
upon
hopefully
in
all
quarters,
and
some
persons
predicted
an
early
failure
for
it,
while
others
only
saw
in
the
new
departure
grounds
for
ridicule
or
jest.
These
lines,
which
are
certainly
amusing,
are
said
to
be
the
production
of
Mr
James
Beaton:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
