General History of Bath. 



With the discovery of these plots to Marshall Wade, who 

 -was stationed in Bath, Allen >vas certainly concerned, but 

 the statement that his part was the opening of letters in the 

 Post-office rests upon a very vague tradition. 



Whatever truth there may have been in this tradition, he 

 certainly commended himself to Marshall Wade as a young 

 man of great promise. The Marshall not only secured him 

 the position of Post-master, but gave him his daughter, Miss 

 Earle, in marriage. Allen's rise was very rapid, and his 

 judgment was seldom at fault. As Post-master, he noticed 

 the utter confusion in the practice of conveying letters on 

 all but the main routes. Footboys took the letters to some 

 inn which the mail coach passed, and the bags were carried 

 to London, where they were sorted. Thence the same 

 letters would perhaps return in other bags to the inn from 

 which they started, and be conveyed by footboys to their 

 ■destination, only a few miles from the place at which they 

 -were written. Allen contracted for the conveyance of letters 

 from Exeter to Chester, via Bristol, Bath, Gloucester, and 

 Worcester, and gradually enlarged the system until "cross 

 posts " extended their ramifications over almost the entire 

 country. The profits were enormous ; one estimate puts 

 them at _;^i6,ooo per annum, but the public gained even 

 more than the contractor. 



The " Bath stone," which has acquired a 



Bath Stone. . , ,•,.-, . , 



reputation almost world-wide, was, in the 

 early part of the eighteenth century, scarcely worked. Allen 

 ■entered vigorously into the trade, opened quarries, arranged 

 wagon-ways, built cottages for workmen, introduced machi- 

 nery, and by his influence and example, demonstrated that 

 Bath was provided with a building material, combining great 

 convenience of working with extreme durability. 



