_(From "After Worcester Fight," by Allen Fea.)_] In a report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary enquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary conditions of the inhabitants of the City and County of Bristol in 1850, it was stated in a petition from Messrs. H.J.J. Hinton & Son, Small Street, "There is a filthy lane, called Leonard's Lane, near the bottom of Small Street, and which leads round into Corn Street. The state of it, in a general way, is so bad as to be quite sufficient to produce pestilence." According to the report the Parish of St. Werburgh contained 30 houses. Its population in 1841 was 99, and its area was 300 square yards. It had one burial ground, and the average number of interments was 5 per annum. Leaden coffins were always required. The "Inspector of Lamps, etc.", reported that there were 21 houses in Small Street. [Illustration: [_By permission of Mr. John Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London._ CHARLES II. AFTER BATTLE OF WORCESTER ON ROAD TO BRISTOL. _(From "After Worcester Fight," by Allen Fea.)_] CHAPTER XV. THE POST OFFICE TRUNK TELEPHONE SYSTEM AT BRISTOL.--THE COLUMBIA STAMPING MACHINE. The Post Office in Bristol commenced to undertake telephone business in 1896. It began with trunk telephone lines working to Bath, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, London, Taunton, and Weston-super-Mare. At the outset the conversations averaged about 170 daily. In that same year the department took over from the National Telephone Co., Cardiff, Gloucester, Newport and Sharpness lines, and the conversations soon increased to nearly 400 per day. At the present time the department has from 1 to 5 (according to size of town) trunk lines to Bath, Bradford-on-Avon, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Gloucester, London, Lydney, Plymouth, Newport, Sharpness, Southampton, Swansea, Taunton, Tiverton, and Weston-super-Mare. An increased number of wires has had marked effect in diminishing the delays which at first occurred through paucity of trunk lines, but as the business is constantly increasing, the department is still looked to for additional lines. That the better accommodation is appreciated, however, is indicated by the fact that now the Bristol conversations average nearly 1,500 a day, or considerably over a quarter of a million a year. On Sundays the trunk telephones are available, but use is made of them only to a small extent, there being only about 150 conversations per Sunday. The total number of trunk wire transactions throughout the kingdom during the last year, according to the Postmaster General's annual report, was 13,467,975, or, reckoning each transaction as involving at least two spoken messages, a total number of 26,935,950 (an increase of 16.3 per cent. over that of the preceding year). The revenue was £325,525 (an increase of 18.4 per cent.), and the average value of each transaction was 5s. 8d. There is a