TYPE-SET.--Stamps--_e.g._, the 1862 issue of British Guiana--have sometimes been set up with ordinary _printer's type_, as used for books, and the ornamental type-metal designs to be found in a printing establishment. TYPOGRAPHED.--_See_ SURFACE-PRINTED. USED ABROAD.--Prior to certain countries and colonies having their own stamps, British post-offices were established in them, at which British stamps were to be purchased; such stamps, identified by their postmarks as having been so used, are termed "British _used abroad_." The stamps of other countries have been similarly "used abroad." VARIETY.--A slight variation from the normal design, or TYPE, which see. WATERMARKS.--A thinning of the substance of the paper, in the form of letters, words, or designs, &c., during the manufacture. On the paper being held up to the light, or placed on a dark surface, the designs become more or less visible. So-called "watermarks" are sometimes produced by impressing a design on the paper _after_ manufacture; this has a somewhat similar effect, though the paper is only pressed, not thinned. WOVE.--_See_ PAPER. WOVE BÂTONNÉ.--_See_ PAPER. I THE GENESIS OF THE POST CHAPTER I THE GENESIS OF THE POST The earliest letter carriers--The Roman _posita_--Princely Postmasters of Thurn and Taxis--Sir Brian Tuke--Hobson of "Hobson's Choice"--The General Letter Office of England--Dockwra's Penny Post of 1680--Povey's "Halfpenny Carriage"--The Edinburgh and other Penny Posts--Postal Rates before 1840--Uniform Penny Postage--The Postage Stamp regarded as the royal _diplomata_--The growth of the postal business. Postage is so cheap and so easy to-day that we are apt to forget how, not very many years ago, it was a privilege of the rich. To-day the Post Office is no respecter of persons, and the "all swallowing orifice of the pillar-box" receives without favour or distinction the correspondence of the humble with the messages of the mighty. The Post Office treats everything confided to its charge with the same organised routine. In the palatial new edifice, King Edward the Seventh Building, a few days before Christmas, a letter was handed to me for inspection in the "Blind Division," where they deal with insufficiently addressed letters. The missive bore in the handwriting of a little child, "To Santa Claus, No. 1, Aerial Building, London." That letter, I was informed, had to be passed through the Blind Division, thence to the Returned Letter Office, where it would be opened to discover if the enclosure contained any indication of the identity and whereabouts of the writer. If not returnable, the letter would be preserved for a period lest it should be claimed. The Department is as careful of the precocious petitions of a child as it is of the papers of State which it carries throughout the length and breadth of the land.