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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
299
CHAPTER
XXIV.
ABOUT
POSTMASTERS.
The
description
furnished
by
Scott
in
the
'Antiquary'
of
the
internal
management
of
a
country
Post-office,
as
existing
towards
the
close
of
last
century,
is
extremely
amusing
and
piquant;
but
the
probability
is
that,
while
so
much
of
what
is
said
might
be
true
to
circumstances,
the
picture
was
heightened
in
colour
for
the
purpose
of
literary
effect.
No
doubt
a
certain
amount
of
gossip
emerged
from
such
country
offices,
derived
from
the
outsides
and
occasionally
from
the
insides
of
letters;
yet
it
is
hardly
likely
that
a
group
of
curious
women
should
have
gathered
together
in
the
postmaster's
room
to
make
a
general
overhaul
of
the
contents
of
the
mail-bag,
as
is
described
in
the
case
of
the
Post-office
at
Fairport.
In
small
country
towns
in
the
present
day,
it
is
no
uncommon
thing
to
attribute
the
spread
of
"secrets"
about
the
place
to
a
breach
of
confidence
at
the
Post-office,
while
the
real
fact
is
that
things
told
by
the
persons
concerned
in
strictest
secrecy
to
their
most
intimate
friends
are
by
these
communicated
again
to
other
kind
friends,
and
so
the
ripple
of
information
rolls
on
till
there
is
no
longer
any
secret
at
all,
and
the
poor
official
at
the
Post-office
is
assumed
to
be
the
only
possible
offender.
The
smaller
the
place
the
greater
is
the
thirst
for
neighbourly
gossip,
the
more
quickly
does
it
spread
when
out,
and
the
more
ready
are
those
whose
secrets
ooze
forth
to
point
the
finger
of
suspicion
at
the
Post-office.
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