BY SEVERN, TAFF, AND TOWY 155 



From an early j)eriod the post-office in St. Mary 

 Street displayed its energy. It made a striking con- 

 tribution to local history by handsomely setting itself 

 on fire, April 8, 1812, and blazing ^Yith such fury 

 (being established in a chandler's shop and aware of 

 its capacities) and with such destruction of property 

 that the event, and the exciting fact of gunpowder 

 being stored next door, are a tradition in Carmarthen 

 to this day. 



When, in the forties, the District Surveyor had time 

 to deviate from the beaten track and visit the small 

 sub-post-offices up the valleys or on the moorland 

 of South Wales, a rich field for revision and reproof 

 sometimes spread itself before him. ' What are those 

 rows of letters on your shelf ?' ' Oh yes, sir ! I am 

 fery sure they are valentines — oh yes !' ' But how do 

 you know ; have you opened them ?' ' Oh ye-es ; it 

 may be five or two or maybe six I hev opened — oh 

 yes !' ' And what are these letters in this dusty 

 pigeon-hole, which have been here, I see, a week or 

 more ?' ' Oh yes, I hev not hed time to go with 

 them, sir ; but it is Friday, or next week, or to- 

 morrow, I sail be sure and deliver them, sir ; oh yes, 

 it wass to-day I wass going. Oh yes!' 



It is only within comparatively recent years that 

 the free delivery of letters has been fully extended to 

 the remoter rural districts of South Wales ; so that 

 not only was it usual for rows of letters to be ex- 

 hibited in sub-offices, but they were to be seen in 

 public-house windows, village schools, etc. ; whence 



