Our social bees, or, Pictures of town and country life : and other papers / by Andrew Wynter.

  • Wynter, Andrew, 1819-1876.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Our social bees, or, Pictures of town and country life : and other papers / by Andrew Wynter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    loose papers with great speed in the first broken wrappers that came to hand. The result of this chance medley upon the readers must be funny enough ; a rabid Tory sometimes getting a copy perhaps of the Daily News, a Manchester Rad a Morning Post, or an old dowager down at Bath, a copy of the Mark Lane Express. The carriage of magazines and other books is an entirely new feature in post-office transactions, introduced by Sir Rowland Hill. At the end of every month the sorting tables at the Post-office are like publishers' counters, from the number of quarterlies, monthlies, magazines, and serials, posted for transmission to country subscribers. The lighter ones must all be stamped at the Stamp-office, like newspapers ; and any magazine under two ounces with this talisman pressed upon it, passes without further ques- tion to any part of the United Kingdom free, whilst books under sixteen ounces can be forwarded for fourpence. This arrangement is a wise and liberal one, recognizing as it does the advantage of circulating as widely as possible the current literature of the country. Many a dull village, where the current literature of the day penetrated not a few years ago, by this means is now kept up level in its reading with the metropolis. The miscellaneous articles that pass through the post under the new regulations are sometimes of the most ex- traordinary nature. Among the live stock, canary birds, lizards, and dormice, passed not long ago, and sometimes travelled hundreds of miles under the tender protection of rough mail-guards. Leeches are also very commonly sent, sometimes to the very serious inconvenience of the post- men. Ladies' shoes go through the general office into the