THE POST OFFICE. 273 



The last fifty years have been an eventful period in 

 the history of the Post Office ; the exclusive field 

 it occupied in the letter department having so vastly 

 increased through the medium of the penny post, 

 it cannot be charged with a want of vitality or pro- 

 gression, and the important additions which have 

 devolved upon the Postmaster- General's office have 

 rendered necessary the erection of the large and com- 

 modious building opposite the old Post Office of St. 

 Martin's le Grand. 



When only twenty-eight mail-coach loads of bags 

 went out from the Post-Office yard nightly, except on 

 Sundays, at eight o'clock, nothing like the present 

 amount of accommodation was required ; but probably" 

 one room which was then in use is now appropriated 

 to some other purpose. 



It was called the Mail-Guards' Room, and in it all 

 the guards had to assemble every night in order that 

 the inspector on duty in London might see that they 

 were all sober and fit to go on duty, and that they 

 might receive their time-pieces and firearms, consist- 

 ing of a blunderbuss and brace of pistols, which, so 

 far as I am aware, no one of the guards ever fired 

 off — not even on the memorable occasion when the 

 lioness seized a leader in the Exeter mail on Salisbury 

 Plain, near Winterslow hut. From personal observa- 

 tion of these firearms, I should say that before the 



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