Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
307
They
also,
it
would
appear,
exercised
some
sort
of
surveillance
over
private
correspondence.
Chambers,
in
his
'Domestic
Annals
of
Scotland,'
to
which
valuable
work
we
are
again
indebted,
gives
a
case
in
point:
"In
July
1701,
two
letters
from
Brussels,
having
the
cross
upon
the
back
of
them,
had
come
with
proper
addresses
under
cover
to
the
Edinburgh
postmaster.
He
was
surprised
with
them,
and
brought
them
to
the
Lord
Advocate,
who,
however,
on
opening
them,
found
they
were
of
no
value,
being
only
on
private
business;
wherefore
he
ordered
them
to
be
delivered
by
the
postmaster
to
the
persons
to
whom
they
were
directed."
Yet
zeal
for
the
King's
interest
did
not
always
have
an
acceptable
reward,
as
is
shown
by
the
Scotch
Privy
Council
Record
of
1679.
The
keeper
of
the
Edinburgh
letter-office
was
accused
of
"sending
up
a
bye-letter
with
the
flying
packet
upon
the
twenty-two
day
of
June
last,
giving
ane
account
to
the
postmaster
of
England
of
the
defeat
of
the
rebels
in
the
west,
which
was
by
the
said
postmaster
communicated
to
the
King
before
it
could
have
been
done
by
his
Majesty's
Secretary
for
Scotland,
and
which
letter
contains
several
untruths
in
matter
of
fact."
For
having
forestalled
his
Majesty's
Secretary,
probably,
rather
than
for
the
inaccuracy
as
to
facts,
the
keeper
of
the
post
was
sent
to
the
Tolbooth,
there
to
meditate
upon
the
unprofitableness
of
official
zeal,
during
the
Council's
pleasure.
It
does
not
seem
to
have
been
thought
prudent
to
intrust
the
date-stamping
of
letters
to
postmasters
generally
until
some
time
in
the
present
century.
Down
to
the
close
of
last
century,
at
any
rate,
according
to
a
Survey
report
of
the
year
1800,
this
was
allowed
only
at
the
more
important
offices.
The
report
is
as
follows:--"In
regard
to
having
the
Dumbarton
letters
stamped
with
the
day
of
the
month,
as
now
done
at
Glasgow,
the
subject
has
often
been
considered,
and
although
it
has
been
approved
of
with
some
large
commercial
towns
in
England,
and
Edinburgh
and
Glasgow
in
Scotland,
it
has
been
much
doubted
how
far
it
would
be
proper
or
necessary
to
establish
it
generally
with
less
towns,
where
the
practice
might
be
more
subject
to
irregularity
or
abuses,
besides
the
very
great
expense
such
a
supply
of
stamps
would
occasion
to
the
revenue."
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
