As the Post Office, from its size, if not from its architectural beauty, dominates Small Street in some measure it may be well here to introduce particulars from an ancient manuscript in the City Library, which show that Small Street has been a street ever since Anglo-Saxon times. About Small Street and St. Leonard's Lane lived some of Bristol's greatest merchants. For hundreds of years there was not within the walls of Bristol a more fashionable street than Small Street. Many of the mansions there had good gardens. In the reign of Charles II. there were only six houses on the west, or Post Office, side of the street. Amongst the worthies who resided there were the Colstons, the Creswicks, the Kitchens, the Seymours, the Esterfields, the Codringtons, the Haymans, the Kilkes; John Foster, the founder of the almshouse on St. Michael's Hill; Nicholas Thorne, one of the founders of our Grammar School; and Thomas Fenn, attorney, who in 1762 succeeded to the Earldom of Westmoreland. It is not indicated whether he was related in any way to William Fenn, who was postmaster, 1778-88, but it might have been so, for William Fenn must have been a person of some note or the appointment would not at his death have been conferred on his widow. In Small Street, too, more Royal and noble visitors have lodged and received hospitality than in any other street in Bristol. The Earl of Bedford and his son were received there in 1569, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, one of Queen Elizabeth's favourites, and the Earl of Warwick, in 1587; the latter lodged at Robert Kitchen's. In 1643 King Charles I., with Prince Charles and the Duke of York, lodged there, so did Oliver Cromwell and his wife in 1649; and James II., with George, Prince of Denmark, and the Dukes of Grafton, Beaufort, and Somerset, in 1688. Queen Catherine was entertained at Sir Henry Creswick's house in 1677, where Sir Henry, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the good and great Duke of Ormonde, lodged for several days in 1665. We learn that Small Street was selected for the reception of these illustrious visitors "by reason of the conveniency of the street for entertaining the nobility." CHAPTER VIII. THE LOCAL POST OFFICE IN EARLY DAYS. SIR ROWLAND HILL.--RECENT PROGRESS. It is pleasing to look back to the time, little more than one hundred years ago, when Bristol was the premier provincial post town. It had long ranked next to London in wealth, in population, and in its Post Office. Bristol has, however, in a postal sense, yielded place to other towns, and now ranks after Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester.