Saturday Review.—'Mr Hyde's work certainly shows that, even at the present time, the business conducted by the Post-office is not unfrequently enlivened by romantic incidents; while in antiquarian interest it is rich beyond the average."
Pall Mall Gazette.—"This volume is a storehouse of amusing anecdotes."
The Echo.—"The curiosities and romance of the Post-office have furnished Mr J. Wilson Hyde, Superintendent in the General Post-office, Edinburgh, with a subject for one of the most entertaining books of the year. The book is well written, well arranged, and thoroughly deserves success."
Graphic.—"Contains a vast number of well-arranged facts, some valuable, some curious, about what is pre-eminently 'the people's institution.'"
St James's Gazette.—"The result is a work that is sure to be widely read. The author treats of the old coaching days in a cheery spirit; and if some of his excellent anecdotes lack the gloss of novelty, that was only to be expected. But by far the most interesting pages in his interesting book are those in which he deals with the working of the present system.... An extremely readable and meritorious book."
Whitehall Review.—"'The Royal Mail' is not a book to be put down unfinished, for what is told in it is well worth knowing, and the admirable way it is related makes it all the more enjoyable."
The Literary World.—"This book is free from the least suspicion of dulness, and is replete with the liveliest anecdotes we have seen for many a day. There is a good story on almost every page."
Daily News.—"A book which is an interesting addition to Post-office literature, and it will be read with pleasure by thousands who know nothing of the internal working of the postal service."
Scotsman.—"A book of singular interest, and excellence.... The carelessness with which in some cases the mails were conveyed, the means taken to preserve them from robbers, the length of time occupied in their transmission from one place to another, the difficulty in dealing with particular portions of them,—all these are described in the earlier chapters of Mr Hyde's book, and are described with singular power and ease of narrative. The book, in short, is far more interesting than most of the modern novels, and it will enable the country to understand better than it could otherwise understand the vast and complicated machinery by which one of the most ordinary and yet imperative requirements of modern life is carried out. Mr Hyde must have hearty commendation for the manner in which he has done his work."
Glasgow Weekly Citizen.—"Positively the most interesting book I have seen for an age. It is certain to have an immediate and very wide popularity. It reads like a novel, and shows in many cases how true is the old maxim, that 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' To everybody this volume will be of the greatest interest. And many subjects of great and universal interest are treated in the most lively and entertaining manner. The volume abounds in capital stories."