35s OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
amounted to twenty-three persons, including lettercarriers.
Ten years afterwards thirty-one were
required, and in 1794 the Inland Office, including
the letter-carriers' branch, consisted of twenty-one
persons.
The Edinburgh Post-office, for a long time after
its introduction and establishment, was conducted
solely with a view to the continuance and security of
the correspondence of the people, and thus it
frequently had assistance from the Scottish Treasury;
and if we except the periods of civil war, when a
certain amount of surveillance was exercised by the
Government, as a measure of State security, the
office seems to have been conducted with integrity
and freedom from abuse.
In 1796, Thomas Elder of Forneth, at one time
Lord Provost, was Deputy Postmaster-General; in
1799 and 1802, William Robertson, and Trotter,of
Castlelaw, succeeded to that office respectively.
It was held in 1807 by the Hon. Francis Gray,
afterwards fifteenth Lord Gray of Kinfauns ; and
in 1810 the staff amounted to thirty-five persons,
letter-carriers included.
In April, 1713, the Post-office was in the first
flat of a house opposite the Tolbooth, on the north
side of the High Street-Main's shop, as we have
stated. At a later period it was in the first floor
I ~ t ' a house near the Cross, above an alley, to which it
gave the name of the Post-ofice Close. From thence
it was removed to the Parliament Close, where its
internal fittings were like those of a shop, the letters
were dealt across a counter, and the whole out-door
business of the city was conducted by one lettercarrier.
After being for a time in Lord Covington's
house, it was removed to one already mentioned
on the west side of the North Bridge, and from
thence to a new office (now an hotel) on the Regent
Bridge in 1821. For ten years before that period
James twelfth Earl of Caithness was Deputy Postmaster-
General ; and in the year preceding the removal
there, the Edinbzcrgh WeeklyJournaZ says, that
by order of the Depute Lyon King of Arms, and
the Ushcr of the White Rod, the new coat of the
royal arms of Britain, put thereon, was torn
down and removed, "as derogatory to the independance
of Scotland," Le., wrongly quartered, giving
England precedence. Another and correct coat of
arms was substituted, and remained there till the
present building was erected.
In 1823, Sir David Wedderburn, Bart., of Ballendean,
was appointed Postmaster-General of
Scotland, an office afterwards abolished.
In 1856 the establishment on the Regent Bridge
consisted of 225 officials, of whom 114 were lettercarriers,
porters, and messengers, and the average
number of. letters passing through arid delivered
in Edinburgh daily was estimated at 75,000. The
nuniber of mail-bags received daily was 5x8, and
the number despatched 350. The amount of money
orders issued and paid showed a sum of A;1,758,079
circulating annually through the department in
Scotland.
On the 23rd of October, 1861, the foundationstone
of the new General Post-office was laid, on
the east side of the North Bridge, by the late
Prince Consort, amid much state and ceremony,
the letter-carriers, all clad for the first time in blue,
in lieu of their old scarlet, being drawn up in
double rank within the galleries which occupied the
site of the old Theatre and which were crowded
by a fashionable audience. This was almost the
last act of Prince Albert's public life, as he died
two months subsequently. At his suggestion the
crowning row of vases was added to the fapde.
As finished now, it stands behind a pavement
of Caithness slabs forty-three feet broad, and is
from designs by the late Mr. Robert Matheson, of
H.M. Board of Works in Scotland. Built of fine
white stone from Binny quarry, in the neighbourhood
of the city, its style of architecture is a
moderately rich Italian type. It presents an
ornamental main front of 140 feet to Princes
Street, and another equally ornamental front, or
flank, of 180 feet to the North Bridge, with a rearfront,
which is also ornate, of ~qo'feet, to the deep
valley where once the North Loch lay.
The flank to the Waterloo Place Buildings is
somewhat plainer than the others, and measures
160 feet. The edifice rises in the central part of
each of these three ornamental fronts, to the height of
two stately storeys above the street level, and has
at the corners wings, or towers, a storey higher, and
crowned with rows of massive and beautifully
sculptured vases. On the south front it descends
to the depth of 125 feet from the summit of
these towers, and thus presents a very imposing
appearance.
This. office, the chief one for all Scotland, cost,
including the site, Ar 20,000, and was first opened
for business on the 7th of May, 1866. The entire
staff, from t4e Surveyor-General downwards, consisted
in 1880 of 429 persons; whose salaries,
wages, and allowances, amounted to A38,427.
Connected, of course, with the head office, there
were in Edinburgh, Leith, and the suburbs, in
1880, receiving-offices and pillar-boxes."
. . -
"By a Government return it appears that in 1880 there pased
through the Scottish Post-ofice 101,948,goo letters, 1z,z84,700 post-cards,
zn,14o,goo book-parcels, and 14,570,700 newspapers In the same year,
the average number of letters delivered to each perran in the population of
the three kingdoms was 35 in England, d in Scotland,and 13" Ireland.
