there were an alphabet-man, who posted the names of merchants for whom letters had arrived, a sorter of paid letters, and a clerk of undertaxed letters.[135] In the Foreign Office, there were a controller, two sorters, an alphabet-man, and eight letter receivers, of whom two were women. In addition the Foreign Office had a rebate man who saw that overcharged letters were corrected. Both offices seem to have shared the carriers in common.[136] [134] Stow, _London_, bk. ii, p. 163. [135] _Notes and Queries_, series 9, i, p. 122; Hist. MSS. Com., _Rep._, 15, app., pt. 2, p. 19; _Cal. S. P. D._, 1670, p. 578. [136] Hist. MSS. Com., _Rep._, 15, app., pt. 2, p. 19. Before 1680 there was no post between one part of London and another. A Londoner having a letter for delivery had either to take it himself or send it by a special messenger. The houses were not numbered and were generally recognized by the signs they bore or their nearness to some public building. Such was the condition in the metropolis when William Dockwra organized his London Penny Post. On the first of April, 1680, London found itself in possession of a postal system which in some respects was superior to that of to-day. In the Penny Post Office as so established there were employed a controller, an accountant, a receiver, thirteen clerks in the six offices, and about a hundred messengers to collect and deliver letters. The six offices were:-- The General Office in Star Court, Cornhill; St. Paul's Office in Queen's Head Alley, Newgate Street; Temple Office in Colchester Rents in Chancery Lane; Westminster Office, St. Martin's Lane; Southwark Office near St. Mary Overy's Church; Hermitage Office in Swedeland Court, East Smithfield. There were in all about 179 places in London where letters might be posted. Shops and coffee-houses were used for this purpose in addition to the six offices, and in almost every street a table might be seen at some door or shop-window bearing in large letters the sign "Penny Post Letters and Parcels are taken in here." From these places letters were collected every hour and taken to the six main receiving-houses. There they were sorted and stamped by the thirteen clerks. The same messengers carried them from the receiving-houses to the people to whom they were addressed. There were four deliveries a day to most parts of the city and six or eight to the business centres.