A couple, having got over the proposal and acceptance stage, write for a special licence to get married forthwith:—
"Will you please oblige Susannah —— and Walter —— with the particulars of an aspecial licence to get married—is it possible for you to forward one to us without either of us coming to you—if you enclose the charge and have it returned, would we get one before next Monday week to get married at ——. If you will kindly send by return to the address enclosed the particulars, we should feel greatly obliged."
And matters being advanced one stage further in another case, the following inquiry is sent to the Postal headquarters:—
"Will you please inform me if there is to be a baby show this year at Woolwich; if so, where it is to be holden, and what day."
Nor is the purely social element lost sight of in the letters reaching St Martin's-le-Grand, unconnected with Post-office business, as the two specimens hereafter show:—
"United States.
"I have always had a great desire to visit your country, but as I probly never shall, I thought I would write.
"I am a young lady attending the High School at ——, a pictorest town bordering on the —— river. Our country seat is four miles and a half west of ——. My father is a rich gentleman farmer.
"We have four horses, 30 or 35 head of cattle, 15 or 20 pigs, and a large henery. We have about 250 acres of land, so of course we have to keep a house full of servants.
"We are quite well off in worldly goods, but should be better off if you could inform me about that fortune I expect from a great-uncle, great-aunt, or somebody. It is about half a million either on my father's or mother's side. If you would be so kind as to write and inform me, I would be a thousand times obliged. If you would assist me in getting it I will reward you handsomely. Their name is ——. They used to be very fond of me when I was a crowing infant in my mother's arms. It is a very pretty country out hear, wide rolling prairies enter spersed with fine forests. There is a stream of water running through our land, a stream so softly and peasfully wild that it looks as if nature had onely just made it and laid down her pencil and smiled.