RALPH ALLEN 243 



One of the greatest liistoriccal figures of Bath — 

 perhaps even the greatest figure of all — before whom 

 Blaclud, Prince of Britain, at one end of the historic 

 period, and Beau Nash at the other, sink into some- 

 thing like insignificance, is that of Ralph Allen. And 

 yet — so arbitrary is fiime — that for every ten who 

 could recite you, oif-liand, something of the history 

 and achievements of Allen, a hundred could recount 

 the story of Bladud or of Nash. This is not to say 

 that Bath has forgotten her great man. On the con- 

 trary, the citizens show you his " Town House " in 

 Lilliput Alley with no little pride, while his great 

 mansion of Prior Park, to the south of the city, and 

 looking down upon it, remains to this day the most 

 princely edifice for miles around. But however mind- 

 ful Bath may be of him, and although his classic house 

 on the hillside inevitably recalls him to the memory of 

 Bath people, the fact remains that Allen's is a name 

 comparatively unknown to Bath's visitors. 



That he deserves a record in these pages must be 

 conceded, for he it was who first established a reo-nlar 

 postal service between one provincial town and another, 

 and carried letters along the cross-roads, which, until 

 his time, had been utterly neglected by the Post- 

 oftice. 



It is a singular thing that to Bath should have 

 belonged both Ralph Allen and John Palmer ; the 

 men who respectively developed the postal service 

 and founded mail-coaches. It is true that Allen was 

 not a native of Bath. His father was an innkeeper at 

 St. Blazey, in Cornwall, and in that far western county 

 he first learned the routine of a post-office, in the early 



