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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
98
But
as
every
dog
has
its
day,
and
each
succeeding
period
of
life
its
own
interests
and
allurements,
so
have
customs
their
appointed
seasons,
and
ideas
their
set
times
of
holding
sway
over
the
popular
mind.
The
wigs
and
buckled
shoes
of
our
forefathers,
the
ringlets
of
our
grandmothers,
which
in
their
day
were
things
of
fashion,
have
lapsed
into
the
category
of
the
curious,
and
have
to
us
none
other
than
an
antiquarian
interest.
The
Liberal
in
politics
of
to-day
becomes
the
Conservative
of
to-morrow;
and
the
custom
of
sending
Valentines,
at
one
time
so
common,
that
afforded
so
great
pleasure
not
only
to
the
young,
but
sometimes
to
those
of
riper
years,
has
already
had
its
death-knell
sounded;
and
at
the
present
rate
of
decline,
it
bids
fair
very
soon
to
be
relegated
to
the
shades
of
the
past.
The
rage
for
sending
Valentines
probably
had
its
culmination
some
ten
years
ago,
since
when
it
has
steadily
gone
down;
and
now
the
festival
is
no
longer
observed
by
fashionable
people,
its
lingering
votaries
being
found
only
among
the
poorer
classes.
The
following
facts
show
how
far
the
Post-office
was
called
upon
to
do
the
messenger's
part
in
delivering
the
love-missives
of
St
Valentine
when
the
business
was
in
full
swing.
At
the
chief
office
in
London
on
Valentine's
Eve
1874,
some
306
extra
mail-bags,
each
3
feet
long
by
2
feet
wide,
were
required
for
the
additional
work
thrown
on
the
Post-office
in
connection
with
Valentines,
and
at
every
Post-office
in
the
kingdom
the
staff
was
wont
to
regard
St
Valentine's
Eve
as
the
occasion
of
the
year
when
its
utmost
energies
were
laid
under
requisition
for
the
service
of
the
public.
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