CHAPTER XVII.
QUAINT ADDRESSES AND THE DEAN'S PECULIAR SIGNATURE.—AMUSING INCIDENTS AND THE POSTMAN'S KNOCK.—HUMOROUS APPLICATIONS.
The members of the Bristol Post Office Staff have to display no little perspicacity in elucidating quaint addresses on letters going through the post. To Postman Wade must go the credit of having correctly surmised that the letter addressed simply "25th March, Clifton," to which allusion has already been made, was intended for Lady Day, the wife of the Judge of Assize, Mr. Justice Day, then staying in Clifton. A letter addressed to "W.D. & H.O.", without street or town being named, came from a distant county, and was delivered to the firm of Messrs. W.D. & H.O. Wills & Co., in Bristol, for whom it was found to be intended.
The pictorial illustrations herewith demonstrate two instances of letters correctly delivered by the post office officials after the address had been deciphered by their Sherlock Holmes.
In the Bristol Royal Mail particulars were given of the peculiar way in which correspondents addressed their envelopes to the Post Office, Bristol. Since that publication was issued, other peculiar instances have occurred. The following are cases of the kind, viz.:—The Head Postmaster (Master's Parlour). The Honourable The Postmaster. Postmaster Number 58 (in answer to query on Form "Postmasters No. 58"). Master, General Post Office, Bristol.
The Dean of Bristol in the preface of his very interesting book "Odds and Ends," writes of the many liberties people take with his surname in their communications, and says that none of their imaginary names are so pleasing to him as his own proper name of Pigou. That his correspondents are not altogether to be blamed may be gathered from the fact that the Dean, in an official letter to the Bristol Post Office, signed his name thus:
The signature was submitted to 22 officers who decipher the badly addressed letters at the "Blind" Division, at "Head Quarters," in the General Post Office, London, and their interpretations were as follows, viz.:—J. Rogers, J. Egan, Ryan, J. Lyon, Roper, J. or T. Rogers, J. Rogers, J. Logan, J. Lyon, J. Logan, J. Pogon, T. Lyon, J. Rogers, J. Goson, J. Rogers, J. Eason, T. Egan, J. Goyfer, J.G. Offin, J. Lyons, J. Pyon, J. Pijou.