A JOURNEY DUE NORTH 247 



In my lifetime the Postmasters of Newcastle have 

 been rather numerous, Lorraine, Headlam, Pellatt, 

 Montgomery, and Nind having been followed by Mr. 

 Thomas Hunter and the present incumbent, Mr. 

 Stevenson, sometime Her Majesty's packet-agent at 

 the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies. 



The post-office itself has declined to be always 

 tethered to the same spot. From Dean Street it has 

 moved to the Arcade, and thence, in 1876, to the 

 fine new building in St. Nicholas' Square. How long 

 it will remain there — in view of the exigencies of the 

 letter, book, sample, and parcel posts, the savings 

 bank, and telegraphs and telephones — the twentieth 

 century will decide. Great extensions of the new 

 building had been already called for and effected by 

 1891. 



Meanwhile, the past glides into the present by 

 imperceptible changes ; the Queen's Head, on the 

 east side of Pilgrim Street, which held on until the 

 eighties, now no longer feasts mail-coach or mail- 

 train passengers, w^hether down or up. Altered and 

 adapted to modern purposes, within its walls eager 

 politicians have formed a club. The ancient and 

 busy Turf Hotel in Collingwood Street, which received 

 and despatched the old stage-coaches, other than the 

 mails, has blossomed into a splendid bank. Even 

 the rooks have taken their departure, which in early 

 mail-coach days might have been seen in their home 

 on the spire of the Exchange ; in fact, they actually 

 made their nest on the vane itself. Of course, with 



