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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
79
But
between
different
parts
of
the
United
Kingdom,
not
a
century
ago,
it
is
remarkable
how
infrequent
the
communications
sometimes
were.
Nowadays,
there
are
three
or
four
mails
a-week
between
the
mainland
and
Lerwick,
in
Shetland,
whereas
in
1802
the
mails
between
these
parts
were
carried
only
ten
times
a-year,
the
trips
in
December
and
January
being
omitted
owing
to
the
stormy
character
of
the
weather.
The
contract
provided
that
there
should
be
used
"a
sufficiently
strong-built
packet,"
and
the
allowance
granted
for
the
service
was
L120
per
annum.
It
may
perhaps
be
worthy
of
notice
that
the
amount
of
postage
upon
letters
sent
to
Shetland
in
the
year
ended
the
5th
July
1802
was
no
more
than
L199,
19s.
1d.
It
was
also
stipulated,
by
the
terms
of
the
agreement,
that
the
contractors
should
adopt
a
proper
search
of
their
own
servants,
lest
they
should
privately
convey
letters
to
the
injury
of
the
revenue;
and
they
were
also
required
to
take
measures
against
passengers
by
the
packet
transgressing
in
the
same
way.
On
one
occasion
the
good
people
in
these
northern
islands,
when
memorialising
for
more
frequent
postal
service,
suggested
that
the
packets
would
be
of
great
use
in
spying
out
and
reporting
the
presence
of
French
privateers
on
the
coast;
but
the
Postmaster-General
of
the
period
took
the
sensible
view
that
the
less
the
packets
saw
of
French
privateers
the
better
it
would
be
for
the
packet
service.
Difficulties
are
experienced
even
in
the
present
day
in
communicating
with
some
of
the
outlying
islands
of
the
north
of
Scotland,
weeks
and
occasionally
months
passing
without
the
boats
carrying
the
mails
being
able
to
make
the
passage.
The
following
is
from
a
report
made
by
the
postmaster
of
Lerwick
on
the
27th
March
1883,
with
reference
to
the
interruption
of
the
mail-service
with
Foula,
an
outlying
island
of
the
Shetland
group:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
