[29] A recent discussion in Notes and Queries (Tenth Series, vol. i.) has shown that envelopes are mentioned by Swift and later writers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They are sometimes called “envelopes” and sometimes “covers.” Their use must have been exceedingly limited, and still more limited, perhaps, is the number of people who have actually seen them. They were probably square sheets of paper used to enclose a number of missives addressed to one person or several persons living in the same neighbourhood; and were, most likely, better known to the race of letter smugglers (about whom see further) than to any one else. An obituary notice in the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury of 23rd May, 1906, on the late Mr J. D. Tyson, “a notable Liverpool insurance broker,” shows how new the use of envelopes as we now understand them was more than half a century ago. The writer says: “Even the introduction of the envelope was greatly opposed by most of the old firms; and for fear the envelope would be thrown away and all traces of posting be lost, the juniors were instructed to pin the envelope to the letter. This had soon to give way when the usefulness of the envelope became so pronounced.”
[30] The neat and rapid folding of the large sheets of paper on which single letters were written was regarded as one of the fine arts; and lessons in it were sometimes given to boys at school. I have a distinct recollection of seeing a number of people seated round a table and practising letter-folding, and of my begging to be allowed to join the circle and try my diminutive 'prentice hand at the game. A dignified and elaborate process was the sealing of the folded letter, impressing much the juniors of the family, who looked on admiringly, while the head thereof performed the ceremony, the only drawback being the odious smell of the unnecessarily large, old-fashioned “lucifer” match employed to light the candle. When one of the seals hanging to the broad silken strap showing below the paternal or grand-paternal waistcoat was pressed upon the bountifully spread, hot wax till a perfect impression was left, the letter thus completed would be held up for all to see. What would those stately, leisurely-mannered gentlemen of the olden time, who, perhaps, took five or more minutes over the fastening of a letter, have said to our present style of doing things—especially to the far from elegant mode of moistening the gummed envelope flap which has superseded the cleanly spreading of the scented wax and application of the handsome seal of armorial bearings carved on a precious stone and set in a golden shield?
[31] According to an extract taken from the “New Annual Directory for 1800,” in the Guildhall Library, prepayment might be made in the case of the local “penny” (afterwards “twopenny”) post. That this fact should need an advertisement seems to argue that, even as regards the local posts, prepayment was not a common practice.
[32] This was he who did “good by stealth, and blush[ed] to find it fame.” Out of his contract with the Post Office he made the large income, for that time, of £12,000 a year, and spent the greater part of it in those acts of beneficence which, aided by Pope's famous lines, have preserved for him well-deserved, lasting fame.
[33] “History of the Post Office,” p. 357.
[34] “History of the Post Office,” p. 357.
[35] “The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago,” p. 13.
[36] “The Jubilee of the Uniform Penny Postage,” p. 22. By Pearson Hill.
[37] “Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge,” ii. 114. In different versions of the story the absent relative is described as father, husband, or brother; and in not a few cases the hero's action, through a mistake made by Miss Martineau when writing the History already alluded to, has been claimed for Rowland Hill, who is further supposed—quite erroneously—to have been then and there inspired with the resolve to undertake postal reformation.
[38] “Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry,” pp. 621, 622. Now, if 570 letters, payment for which had not to be waited for, could be delivered in half an hour, it follows that in the hour and half consumed in delivering those 67 other letters, three times 570, or 1710, prepaid letters might have been distributed. This one small fact alone furnishes proof of the necessity for prepayment, for this test delivery was made in the heart of the city of London, where prompt delivery and common-sense postal regulations are of paramount importance to business men.