The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

A Lacroix. A Parsons. A Partridge. A Laforet. An Archer. A Peacock, A Deforge. A Fisher. and A Defraine. A Hunter. One Berdmore. A Clark. Letter-box, St Martin's-le-Grand. So much has it become the custom in these later times for the Post-office to afford facilities to the public in whatever will tend to increase the business of the Department, that in all large towns pillar-boxes or branch offices are dotted about everywhere at short distances, thus altering the conditions which formerly obtained, when the chief office was the great central point where correspondence had to be deposited for despatch. London is no exception to this general plan of accommodation, and there may be some lingering regrets that the stirring scenes which used to attend the closing of the letter-box at St Martin's-le-Grand (when the great hall led right through the building) no longer exist, at least as things worthy of note. Lewins, who wrote the History of the Post-office (Her Majesty's Mails), thus describes what nightly took place at the closing of the box at six o'clock:--