It is very significant that the collectors of this early period of whom any records are preserved were mostly men of culture and of position. The boy was still the main influence and in a majority, but he was in stamp-collecting the father to the man. The historic and scientific possibilities of the pursuit were still but dimly recognised by the mass of collectors. An active exchange of stamps had been carried on from about 1860 in Birchin Lane, London, where crowds of youngsters used to meet and exchange stamps. They were frequently joined by their elders. Fifty to a hundred barterers of all ages and ranks and of both sexes were there in the evenings of the spring of 1862. "We have seen one of Her Majesty's Ministry there," says _The Stamp Collector's Magazine_ of 1863. Characteristic examples of the conversation at these gatherings were given in the same magazine: "Have you a yellow Saxon?"--"I want a Russian"--"I'll give a red Prussian for a blue Brunswicker"--"Will you exchange a Russian for a black English?"--"I wouldn't give a Russian for twenty English." The date attributed to these overheard remarks is 1861. The police intervened later and the exchanging had to be done more or less surreptitiously. But still the group formed in the neighbouring alleys, and still included the Cabinet Minister and "ladies, album in hand," and it is recorded that one of the ladies "contrived to effect a highly advantageous exchange of a very so-so specimen for a rarity, with a young friend of ours, who salvoed his greenness with the apologetic remark that he could not drive a hard bargain with a lady." Similar scenes went on in the gardens of the Tuilleries at Paris, and in other cities they centred around establishments set up by the earliest dealers in postage stamps. Birchin Lane contained the business premises of at least one dealer--a lady--and there was in Paris, in the rue Taitbout, Mme. Nicholas, a little person, "rather lean, very active, lively and intelligent," of whom M. Mahé tells in his reminiscences. For a long period she held "le sceptre dans le royaume des timbres, royaume où la loi salique n'exerce pas ses injustes rigueurs." A woman with considerable talent for business, she and her husband kept a modest little reading-room in a small shop in the rue Taitbout. To this business she added, possibly at the suggestion of one of the Paris amateurs of the period, the business in stamps. Her shop became the regular meeting-place of the _dilettanti_, and these were men of substance and intelligence who were not to be charged with following "fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle for girls of nine."