29 
Pearson ; and as the higher part of the town was ordered to be 
delivered first, the people in the lower part of the town not un- 
frequently called at the window and asked for letters, which Mr. 
Atkinson good-naturedly gave them. Before the office was trans- 
ferred to my side of the square, Mr. Beaufort was telling Mr. 
Atkinson not on any account to give out town letters at the 
window. Mr. Beaufort was standing with his back to the fire, with 
his hands in his shooting coat pockets, when giving this positive 
mandate. A knock came to the window, and a soft female voice 
whispered gently, “Any letters, Mr. Atkinson?” When he 
mechanically turned to the letter boxes and handed one out, and 
Miss Nanny Clark thanked him and departed. ‘ There!” said 
Mr. Beaufort, “did I not tell you never to do that?” Mr. Atkin- 
son’s reply was, “Who could refuse a bonny lass like that?” I 
can still see the merry twinkle of Mr. Beaufort’s eyes through his 
spectacles, although he affected to be very severe upon this breach 
of the rule. 
It was the carrying out of this regulation which brought down 
upon me an attack in the Cumberland Pacquet, a Whitehaven 
newspaper. The letter was signed “A.B.,” and was written by a 
- manufacturer who lived down street. It was grossly inaccurate in 
all its statements. I cut it out and sent it to Mr. Beaufort at 
Berwick. He endorsed the letter thus, and sent it on to Mr. 
Tilley. ‘‘ Poor Crosthwaite! He seems to be aggrieved. I told 
him he would be wise to take no notice of it; but if he wished to 
disabuse the editor, for whom he has a respect, he might write to 
Gibson of Whitehaven, who would explain it to him. i Pts) oe) De ss 
_ Mr. Tilley’s endorsement was: “The postmaster must on no 
account answer this. An anonymous letter in a newspaper is 
_ never worthy of notice. J.T. May 17th, 1846.” 
I did write to Mr. John Gibson, and I quoted Mr. Beaufort’s 
words to me (in a separate letter) in which he said: “If you wish 
to disabuse the editor of the Pacguet of the bad impression the 
letter must have made upon him, provided he did not understand 
the subject sufficiently to see how absurd the writer’s statements 
were, perhaps Mr. Gibson, the postmaster of Whitehaven, would 
