22 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Time was when at the Cheapside end sanctuary 

 could be found. The aroma of that delectable period 

 still hung around the i^lace. The respectable rate- 

 payers formed themselves into a vigilance com- 

 mittee — so little was the King's peace kept — and 

 paraded the Liberty until two o'clock in the morning. 

 John Grant, who lived next door to the watch-house, 

 testified that he could not sleep for the noises at every 

 hour of the night. George Lee, w^ho had resided at 

 39, St. Martin's-le-Grand for thirty-two years, said 

 the houses were so old that only six had been rebuilt 

 since the Fire of London, a hundred and fifty years 

 earlier. Parliament made a clean sweep of rookery 

 and court. 



The site settled, what about the building? The 

 Select Committee considered it indispensable that a 

 competition of architects should be invited, and, 

 baleful suggestion from the Post-Ofiice point of view, 

 that the Ofiice of Works and Buildings should be 

 called in to advise. 



*An office,' said the committee, 'for the receiving 

 and delivery of letters which should be concealed 

 behind a front fit for a palace, and flanked by 

 triumphal arches, would present an incongruity no 

 less offensive to good taste than inconsistent with 

 rational economy.' 



This was, I fear, a fling at poor Mr. Kaye, architect 

 or buildings - surveyor of the Post-Office, who was 

 really a very capable person, and had prepared plans 

 and elevations. Smirke came to the front. He 



