The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government departmentBennett, Edward
History
The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government department
Bennett, Edward
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
One of the curious incidents of the office was the return of a letter
from Italy in 1905 marked “undeliverable” which had been posted in
Ireland in 1862. The letter contained a Second of Exchange for £600.
As a rule the public trusts the Post Office too much. They have a kind
of impression that it can work miracles, and very little assistance in
consequence is needed on their part. How else can we explain an address
such as this? “To my dear Father in Yorkshire at the white cottage with
green palings.” This was the address of a packet containing a pair of
steel spectacles which a poor girl was sending to her father, implicitly
believing that the Post Office would deliver it. Of course it could not
be delivered neither could it be returned.
I cannot deny that the Post Office frequently encourages people in the
idea that it can do great things. An Aberystwith postman managed to
deliver to the proper person a letter bearing the address, “Mrs. Brown,
Wearing a Large Bear Boa, Violet Flowers in Bonnet. Promenade mornings,
Aberystwith.” The letter was from the lady's son, who had mislaid his
mother's seaside address. This was a comparatively easy puzzle, and
probably any observant man would have found the lady.
The following was perhaps a little more difficult. An American gentleman
arrived in England, and not knowing where a sister was residing at the
time, addressed a letter to her previous residence thus—
“Upper Norwood
or Elsewhere.”
The letter was delivered to the lady on the top of a coach in Wales, and
in thanking the Department for what had been done the gentleman said,
“that no other country can show the parallel or would take the trouble
at any cost.”
Here is another quaint address: “To the military gentleman who arrived
from Aldershot on Thursday, who often stays at the Queen's Hotel, and
who wears a long fawn overcoat and light cap. Queen's Hotel.”
I am afraid a great many people furnish puzzle addresses with malice
aforethought, and the Department does its best to discourage such
attempts to waste its time. An official may sometimes make an effort to
deliver such packets, but there is no call upon him to do so. For
instance, a letter was posted in London addressed as follows:—
“From an old Bachelor
To a Young Lady,
The Youngest of Three,
Who lives in a house
Close down by the sea.
The house is quite large,
Part of it used for a shop,
Where the relatives
Deal in tea, bacca, and soap,
In the scraggy tail end of the British Isles.”
The letter was passed on from one sorter to another, and was finally
hung up. Then a sorter wrote in blue pencil across it—
“Now, postal officials, don't curse so;
It's probably intended for Thurso.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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