TILL YOU'VE JOINED
THE BEDMINSTER DOWN PENNY BANK.
I have always found the list of the London streets showing their nearest post offices extremely useful. If I cannot locate the district in which the street is situated by its name alone, I am often able to do so when I know the name of its nearest post office. For instance, Holford Square, W.C.: where is it in the big Western Central District? The Guide tells me King's Cross Road is the nearest post office, and I know what part of London to make for at once.
The time-tables of the provincial mail services always interest me exceedingly. Part of the charm of writing a letter is to be able to realise the time when your friend will be reading it. You can of course usually do this if you send a letter by the last post. You know then that as a rule he will be reading it at breakfast. But if your friend lives at Red Hill and you post your letter in London to him after breakfast, when will he get it? The Guide will enlighten you at once. He will be reading the letter between 3 and 4 P.M.
If your friend lives at Wick, in the very north of Scotland, when will he get the letter which you post to him in London, say on a Monday evening at 6 o'clock? Again you can fix the delivery of the letter within an hour at about 6 o'clock on the following evening. If he writes to you by return, and posts the letter the same evening at 11 o'clock, you will receive it by the first post on Thursday morning. Now if you went to the local post office with an inquiry on this subject, the official will only look at the Post Office Guide for the information which you could have obtained yourself without the trouble of a journey.
There are many people who think that the country post is fixed in London for everywhere at 6 o'clock, or at 5 o'clock in the suburbs. If they miss this they think that the first delivery in the morning has been lost. In numbers of instances this is the case, but the Guide will indicate to you plenty of places to which you can post late for the first delivery in the morning. For places as far north as Newcastle-on-Tyne and Manchester you can post up to 10.30 at the General Post Office to secure the first delivery.
Another advantage of these tables is that if you post a letter in London or the country on Saturday you will be able to find out whether or not there is a Sunday delivery in the place to which the letter is addressed. It is difficult to go wrong with these tables; they are often more reliable than the information to be obtained at the local post office.
Outside a local post office, in the flowing handwriting of the postmaster, appeared this notice:—
NOTICE
Hours of Collection