LOMBARD STREET II 



desirous of entering the Accountant's Office. But in 

 the old days a ready way of gauging capacity was to 

 set the youngster to cast long columns of figures, and 

 see if the total brought out agreed with a pre- 

 ascertained sum. One poor youth laboured for hours, 

 and totalled his cast a penny too little. ' You are a 

 penny wrong; you must add up the columns afresh,' 

 said the stern examiner. 'Oh, sir!' replied the 

 neophyte, dismayed, ' will it do if I pay you the penny?' 



When quarterly accounts were still in vogue, the 

 worthy Postmistress of Cowes followed a capital plan. 

 She had a son in the Bank of England, to whom in 

 due course particulars of receipts and disbursements 

 were forwarded. He made out the accounts, his 

 mother signed them, and no head post-town stood 

 better with the Accountant-General in London than 

 that on the banks of the Medina. 



In Lombard Street days, j)ost-offices were frequently 

 handed down from father to son, sometimes even to 

 the third, if not the fourth generation. The late Mr. 

 Norwood, Postmaster of Dover, told me that the 

 Dover post-office had been in his family for a century. 

 The post-office at Liverpool was in the hands of the 

 Bannings for three generations — at any rate, three 

 successive Bannings held the appointment. 



To take an example, in my own native county, the 

 Prices — grandfather, father, and son — have held the 

 i^ostmastership of Ware since 1812. A new plan now 

 operates, which practically throws open every vacancy 

 to the whole service. So the clerk at Penzance 



