THE LIBERTY OF ST. MARTIN' S-LE-GRAND 37 



Property on the one side cost almost double what it 

 had fetched on the other. The building itself, how- 

 ever, was cheap enough. ' Site and structure came to 

 rather more than four hundred thousand pounds. 



Smirke's office is still, in spite of cruel gashes, as 

 solid as a rock; its successor, as would be expected, 

 scarcely less so. 



But when Sir John Tilley laid his plans, postal 

 telegraphs had hardly loomed on the horizon. 

 Fawcett was yet to come with his vivifying influence 

 — the parcel post, aids to thrift, and other bene- 

 ficent schemes. Lefevre was still to arise and push 

 to completion his dead friend's ideas, and engraft on 

 the department far-seeing plans of his own. More 

 space was soon needed. 



All eyes turned to the Bull and Mouth, which had 

 been largely rebuilt, and named the Queen's Hotel. 

 It was highly prosperous, and somewhat difficult to 

 acquire. But money can do most things. The Post- 

 Office stepped forward and bought it, and built upon 

 the site, from the design of Mr. Tanner, the third 

 office in the Liberty, which is now in occupation 

 and known as the General Post Office (North). It 

 cost, in land, compensations, and structure, four 

 hundred and twenty thousand pounds. 



My official room, on the first floor of the north- 

 eastern angle of the General Post -Office (West), 

 commanded a full view of the hotel. I saw the 

 process of demolition from first to last. The old 

 coffee or smoking room at the back was, I am 



