The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

"But it was in respect to the mails for France herself, and especially for Paris, that the greatest perplexity prevailed. As soon as Amiens was threatened--Amiens, the very key-stone of our postal communication with the interior and south of France--it became evident that the route via Calais would not remain much longer. The alternative routes that presented themselves were via Dieppe, and via Cherbourg or St Malo, and no time was lost in making the necessary arrangements with the Brighton and South-Western Railway Companies. By both Companies trains were kept in constant readiness at the terminus in London, and vessels remained under steam at Newhaven and Southampton, prepared to start at the shortest notice, according to the course events might take. Late in the evening of the 26th of November, intelligence was received in London that the line of communication through Amiens was closed, and the mails were diverted from Calais to Cherbourg; within the next four days Cherbourg was exchanged for Dieppe, and Dieppe soon afterwards for St Malo. As to the means adopted for maintaining communication with Paris, the pigeon-post has become matter of history. Letters intended for this novel mode of transmission had to be sent to the headquarters of the French Post-office at Tours, where, it is understood, they were all copied in consecutive order, and by a process of photography transferred in a wonderfully reduced form to a diminutive piece of very thin paper, such as a pigeon could carry, the photographic process being repeated on their arrival in Paris, for the purpose of obtaining a larger impression. They were essential conditions that these letters should be posted open without cover or envelope, and that they should be registered; that they should be restricted to twenty words; that they should be written in French in clear and intelligible language, and that they should relate solely to private affairs, and contain no allusion either to the war or to politics. The charge was fixed at 5d. for each word (the name and address counting as one word), and 6d. for registration. During the investment, from November 1870 to January 1871, the number of letters sent from London to Tours, for despatch by pigeon-post to Paris, was 1234."