The Post Office April 1, 1809 Designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson England had the world's fastest postal system in the nineteenth century. In 1809 mail coaches averaged eight miles an hour, including five minutes allowed to change horses. This office, housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, handled 170,000 to 200,000 letters weekly, sorting them between 4:30 and 8 pm and delivering them between 6 and 11 the next morning. The recipient paid the delivery man from 4 pence for 15 miles to 1 shilling and 1 pence for 500 miles. In 1840 the British postal system saved itself such complicated bo
The Post Office April 1, 1809 Designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson England had the world's fastest postal system in the nineteenth century. In 1809 mail coaches averaged eight miles an hour, including five minutes allowed to change horses. This office, housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, handled 170,000 to 200,000 letters weekly, sorting them between 4:30 and 8 pm and delivering them between 6 and 11 the next morning. The recipient paid the delivery man from 4 pence for 15 miles to 1 shilling and 1 pence for 500 miles. In 1840 the British postal system saved itself such complicated bookkeeping by inventing penny stamps for the sender to The Post Office. Microcosm of London, pl. 63. Designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson (British, London 1757–1827 London). April 1, 1809. Hand-colored etching and aquatint. Rudolph Ackermann, London (active 1794–1829). Prints
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