Her Majesty's Mails

[193] Most of our readers will have heard or read stories of curious articles passing through the post, and without doubt the records of the Returned-Letter Branch of the London Office will present strange appearances in this respect. Sir Francis B. Head, who was permitted to peruse an extraordinary ledger in the General Post-Office where several notable letters and packets were registered, has strung together a catalogue of them, which reminds us of the articles passing through the post before the revocation of the franking privilege. He tells us he found amongst the number--two canaries; a pork-pie from Devonport to London; a pair of piebald mice, which were kept at the office a month, and duly fed till they were called for by the owner; two rabbits; plum-pudding; leeches in bladders, "several of which having burst, many of the poor creatures were found crawling over the correspondence of the country." Further, there was a bottle of cream from Devonshire; a pottle of strawberries; a sample bottle of cider; half a pound of soft soap wrapped in thin paper; a roast duck; a pistol, loaded almost to the mouth with slugs and ball; a live snake; a paper of fish-hooks; fish innumerable; and last of all, and most extraordinary of all, a human heart and stomach.--Head's Essays. [194] The annual return just published (February, 1864) shows to some extent how far the public prefers the stamped newspaper, which can be sent through the Post-Office, in fact, until it is fifteen days old. The number of stamps issued to the principal London newspapers from June, 1862, to June, 1863, are as follows:--