class="d1">    HIS RESIDENCE AT PRIOR PARK, BATH

9     HIS TOWN HOUSE IN BATH 13     HIS TOMB AT CLAVERTON 16 JOHN PALMER, INTRODUCER OF MAIL COACHES 18 OLD ENGLISH "FLYING" MAIL COACH 21 MAIL COACH PLATE DEDICATED TO PALMER 34 THE WEST COUNTRY MAIL COACHES ABOUT TO LEAVE PICCADILLY 36 THE LAST OF THE MAIL GUARDS 44 ARRIVAL OF THE BATH AND BRISTOL MAIL COACH AT ROADSIDE INN 48 START OF MAIL COACHES FROM BUSH INN, BRISTOL 52 THE OLD PASSAGE, AUST 56 JOHN GARDINER 71 THOMAS TODD WALTON, SENIOR 72 THOMAS TODD WALTON, JUNIOR 74 EDWARD CHADDOCK SAMPSON 79 SIR FRANCIS FREELING, BART 83 THE BRISTOL HEAD POST OFFICE IN 1899 117 THE "GREAT WESTERN" 152 R.M.S. "MONTEREY" 159 THE PUBLIC HALL OF THE BRISTOL POST OFFICE 186 THE TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT ROOM, BRISTOL 204 CRIBBS CAUSEWAY POST OFFICE 261 MR. EDWARD BIDDLE 263 LETTER BOX AT WINTERBOURNE 269 HANNAH BREWER, THE BITTON POSTWOMAN 276

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PREFACE.

In these days when books on every conceivable subject are written in their thousands annually; when monthly journals are produced by scores, and daily newspapers in hundreds, to supply the public with a record of the world's doings; and when readers are found for them all, it may not be thought unfitting that each large mail centre in the United Kingdom which contributes by its postal and telegraph organisation to the dissemination of much of this literature, should in its turn have some record of its own doings. This present compilation has, therefore, been undertaken with that object in view, as regards the Bristol Post Office, and in the hope that the facts, figures, and incidents contained in it relating to past doings and present days and present ways may prove of interest to the inhabitants of the County and City, and its surrounding districts, and in an unpretentious way

commence, or add to, local Post Office history, and demonstrate that though Bristol is not, unfortunately, the leading provincial seaport, as of yore, she has not lagged one step behind her competitors in respect of postal progress.

The profit which may accrue from the publication of The Bristol Royal Mail will be devoted exclusively to the Rowland Hill Memorial and Benevolent Fund, the chief patron of which is Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen-Empress, who is about to show her great interest in works of the kind by visiting our ancient city to open the new Convalescent Home. The object of the fund is the relief of all Post Office servants throughout the United Kingdom, who, through no fault of their own, have fallen into necessitous circumstances. It also affords assistance to their widows and orphans, for whom no provision is made under the Superannuation Acts. The fund is managed by a body of trustees, who are assisted by a committee of recommendation composed of officers of the Post Office. The trustees are well-known gentlemen of high standing and repute in the city of London, to whose benevolent efforts on behalf of the