CHAPTER XIX.

RETURNED LETTER OFFICE 292

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE POSTMASTER'S OFFICE, BRISTOL Preface iv

RALPH ALLEN OF CROSS POST FAME _Page_ 8

" HIS RESIDENCE AT PRIOR PARK, BATH 10

" HIS TOWN HOUSE IN BATH 12

" HIS TOMB AT CLAVERTON 16

JOHN PALMER, INTRODUCER OF MAIL COACHES 20

OLD ENGLISH "FLYING" MAIL COACH 22

MAIL COACH. PLATE DEDICATED TO PALMER 34

THE WEST COUNTRY MAIL COACHES ABOUT TO LEAVE PICCADILLY 36

THE LAST OF THE MAIL GUARDS 44

ARRIVAL OF THE BATH AND BRISTOL MAIL COACH AT ROADSIDE INN 48

START OF MAIL COACHES FROM BUSH INN, BRISTOL 52

THE OLD PASSAGE, AUST 56

JOHN GARDINER 70

THOMAS TODD WALTON, SENIOR 72

THOMAS TODD WALTON, JUNIOR 74

EDWARD CHADDOCK SAMPSON 80

SIR FRANCIS FREELING, BART 82

THE BRISTOL HEAD POST OFFICE IN 1899 118

THE "GREAT WESTERN" 152

R.M.S. "MONTEREY" 158

THE PUBLIC HALL OF THE BRISTOL POST OFFICE 186

THE TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT ROOM, BRISTOL 204

CRIBBS CAUSEWAY POST OFFICE 261

MR. EDWARD BIDDLE 263

LETTER BOX AT WINTERBOURNE 269

HANNAH BREWER, THE BITTON POSTWOMAN 276

PREFACE.

In these days when books on every conceivable subject are written in their thousands annually; when monthly journals are produced by scores, and daily newspapers in hundreds, to supply the public with a record of the world's doings; and when readers are found for them all, it may not be thought unfitting that each large mail centre in the United Kingdom which contributes by its postal and telegraph organisation to the dissemination of much of this literature, should in its turn have some record of its own doings. This present compilation has, therefore, been undertaken with that object in view, as regards the Bristol Post Office, and in the hope that the facts, figures, and incidents contained in it relating to past doings and present days and present ways may prove of interest to the inhabitants of the County and City, and its surrounding districts, and in an unpretentious way commence, or add to, local Post Office history, and demonstrate that though Bristol is not, unfortunately, the leading provincial seaport, as of yore, she has not lagged one step behind her competitors in respect of postal progress.

The profit which may accrue from the publication of _The Bristol Royal Mail_ will be devoted exclusively to the Rowland Hill Memorial and Benevolent Fund, the chief patron of which is Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen-Empress, who is about to show her great interest in works of the kind by visiting our ancient city to open the new Convalescent Home. The object of the fund is the relief of all Post Office servants throughout the United Kingdom, who, through no fault of their own, have fallen into necessitous circumstances. It also affords assistance to their widows and orphans, for whom no provision is made under the Superannuation Acts. The fund is managed by a body of trustees, who are assisted by a committee of recommendation composed of officers of the Post Office. The trustees are well-known gentlemen of high standing and repute in the city of London, to whose benevolent efforts on behalf of the department the fund owes its origin. The Superannuation Acts afford pensions to those who have been in the Post Office not less than ten years. Sometimes a deserving and distressed Post Office servant has not served long enough to qualify for a pension, and sometimes help is needed by persons whose time has been partly spent in the postal service, but who, because they have been permitted to carry on some other occupation, are not entitled by law to any pension at all. A pension, even if it should prove to be sufficient for the pensioner's own support, ceases at death, and the widow and orphans are often left destitute. There are more than eighty-one thousand, and, counting those employed only a portion of their time, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand servants in the Post Office; and in comparison with the number of persons amongst whom cases needing relief may arise, the assured income at the disposal of the trustees of the fund is still inadequate. In the period since 1893 the trustees have granted to necessitous cases in the Bristol district L120, so that any proceeds from the sale of this book will be bestowed where such bestowal is certainly due.

It is right to state that some of the information in these pages has been derived from _The History of the Post Office_, by the late Mr. Herbert Joyce, C.B.; _Forty Years at the Post Office_, by Mr. F. E. Baines, C.B.; _The Royal Mail_, by Mr. J. Wilson Hyde; and from _St. Martin's-le-Grand Magazine_, also Latimer's _Annals of Bristol_. Thanks are due also to Mr. Norris Mathews, the Bristol City Librarian, for his courtesy in permitting and facilitating access to old records in the Public Library; to Mr. H. J. Spear, Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce; to the proprietors of the _Times and Mirror_, for allowing inspection of their old files; and for illustrations to Mr. A. F. Walbrook, of the _Bath Chronicle_; to the proprietor, _Black and White_, and many others whose kindness is hereby acknowledged.

The Bristol Royal Mail.