PILLARS OF THE PAST 319 



the main features of the great scheme he was engaged 

 on alone demanded all his enthusiasm. 



The origin of the boxes is not as clear as it might 

 be. They were certainly not a British invention, 

 having been long in use abroad before they were 

 adopted here. Such as we originally contrived were 

 heavy and inartistic, not to say extremely ugly. 



The first official trial of pillar-boxes was a timid 

 experiment in the Channel Islands in 1840. By 

 degrees they became general, and their appearance 

 improved. I have an impression that there was a 

 specially constructed pillar letter-box of rather magni- 

 ficent design, though I cannot recollect its exact 

 position, in the Great Exhibition of 1851. If so, it 

 should be existent somewhere. Wall -boxes still 

 preserve a Spartan simplicity of elevation. 



There is a surprise in store for some investigator 

 of a later age than Macaulay's New Zealander. Far 

 down in the bowels of the earth — that is, flung into 

 disused coal-mines in Warwickshire — by thousands, 

 are obsolete enamelled plates removed from wall and 

 pillar letter-boxes and post-offices. They are, I pre- 

 sume, to a large extent indestructible because of the 

 enamel, and they will form the subject of curious 

 speculation on the part of those who dig hereafter for 

 traces of our time. 



The Postmaster of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, 

 told me that he saw a nest of birds (tomtits, he 

 believes) in a private letter-box attached to the gate of 

 a farmhouse. The birds had built their nest and 



