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.