A great deal has been written about the General Post Office in newspapers and magazines, but the books on the subject are comparatively few. And these volumes are either exhaustive historical treatises, such as Mr. Herbert Joyce's History of the Post Office, or more popularly written descriptions of Post Office life and work of the character of Lewin's His Majesty's Mails or J. W. Heyde's Royal Mail. Mr. Joyce's work, however, carries us no farther than the eve of penny postage, while the other books were written too long ago to be a guide to the Post Office of to-day. It is within the last twenty years that the Department has made the most rapid strides in the extension of its activities, and it is this period especially which is without an historian.

What I have attempted to do is to tell the story of the Department, briefly in its early beginnings, more fully in its modern developments, and in such a way as to give the reader the impression that the Post Office is alive, that it is in close touch with the needs of the nation, and is in less danger of being strangled with red-tape methods than at any time of its existence.

A book on the Post Office written for the student should contain abundant references to authorities and exhaustive tables of figures and estimates, but in the interest of the general reader I have omitted these aids to reflection. Mark Twain, when he published one of his novels, said he had omitted all descriptions of scenery in the story, but those who liked that sort of thing would find it in the appendix. I have dispensed even with an appendix, and those who really want figures and estimates must be referred to the Postmaster-General's Annual Reports.

Of course I am largely indebted to the volumes I have mentioned and to others for the historical portions of my book. To Sir Rowland Hill's Life, written by his daughter, I owe many of the facts contained in my chapter on “The Penny Post.”

The staff of the General Post Office have during the last twenty-one years conducted a magazine entitled St. Martin's le Grand, the volumes of which have been of great assistance to me, as they will be in the future to a more serious historian of the Post Office than I can claim to be. Among the writers to this magazine whose contributions I have found of great use are A. M. Ogilvie, J. A. J. Housden, C. H. Denver, R. C. Tombs, I.S.O., and R. W. Johnston. Mr. Johnston, who had held during a long life several important posts in the Department, took a keen interest in this book in its early stages, but, to my great regret, died before it was completed. Articles by J. G. Hendry and W. C. Waller helped me considerably in my chapter on “The Travelling Post Office.” Mr. E. Wells and Mr. A. Davey gave me their kind help on the subject of “Motor Mails” and “The Parcel Post,” and to my friend Mr. A. W. Edwards I am indebted for most valuable assistance in the writing of my chapters on “The Telegraph.” I have also to thank another friend, Mr. R. W. Hatswell, for advice and help in many directions.

My acknowledgments are due to Messrs Jarrold and Sons of Norwich and Warwick Lane, E.C., for their kind permission to include a schoolboy's essay on the postman in my chapter dealing with that official. The essay is to be found in a book entitled The Comic Side of School Life, by H. J. Barker.

The Post Office has many critics, friendly and unfriendly, but it counts itscounts its friends in millions, and I have written this book with the belief that a closer knowledge of the Department with which we all have dealings will be acceptable.