320 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



hatched and fed a brood of fiedgHngs, although 

 letters and newspapers had been dropped into the 

 box almost daily. The nest must have been built 

 safely in a corner, otherwise a rain of correspondence 

 would have fallen on the young birds. The post- 

 master also told me that, there being a difficulty in 

 opening the lock of one of his wall-boxes, it was found 

 on examination that the obstruction was caused by 

 the deposit, by bees, of honey in the lock. 



One of the wall-boxes in the Isle of Wight is 

 situated near the entrance to an avenue, in which the 

 owner has placed a private letter-box. Meeting a 

 vendor of hot muffins and crumpets in the street one 

 day, the former requested the latter to put sixpenny- 

 worth into his box. The vendor engaged to do so, 

 and, on reaching the entrance-gate of the avenue and 

 seeing the wall-box, took it for granted that that w^as 

 the private box. So he crammed through the slot 

 the whole of the muffins, which in due course were 

 collected for the night mail ' up,' though in what 

 way the sorters treated the irregularity is not upon 

 record. 



It is not unlikely that the first letter-boxes in British 

 dominions were those fixed in Melbourne, Victoria. 

 At all events, although it was only in 1837 that a 

 post-office was opened in Melbourne itself, there were 

 in 1846 at least two letter-boxes in the town distinct 

 from the box at the post-office. One was fixed in the 

 wall of the watch-house in one direction, and the 

 second in the police-office, in the other direction. 



