XETER TRAIN, 1844 145

35. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY ENGINE: "LA FRANCE" 148

36. HORTON THATCHED POST OFFICE 152

37. EARLY BRISTOL POST MARKS 154

38. SIR ALFRED JONES, K.C.M.G. 160

39. THE "PORT KINGSTON" 161

40. THE "PORT ROYAL" 162

41. MR. F.P. LANSDOWN 171

42. MR. J. PAUL BUSH, C.M.G. 174

43. ELTON MANSION 177

44. SIR ABRAHAM ELTON 184

45. LADY ELTON 185

46. GARGOYLE IN ELTON MANSION 188

47. ANCIENT CHIMNEY-PIECE 191

48. EDWARD COLSTON 192

49. CHARLES II. 193

50. KING CHARLES, FLIGHT OF 194

51. COLUMBIA STAMPING MACHINE 198

52. POSTMASTER OF BRISTOL _(The Author)_ 211

53. QUAINTLY ADDRESSED ENVELOPES 224

54. PRUDENT MAN'S FUND RECEIPT NOTE 231

55. ADDRESS TO THE KING 241

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLIEST BRISTOL POSTS, 1580.--FOOT AND RUNNING POSTS.--THE FIRST
BRISTOL POSTMASTERS: ALLEN AND TEAGUE, 1644-1660.--THE POST
HOUSE.--EARLIEST LETTERS, 1662.

The difficulty in Queen Elizabeth's time of communicating with persons
at a distance from Bristol before the establishment of a post office is
illustrated by the following item from the City Chamberlain's
accounts:--

"1580, August. Paid to Savage, the foot post, to go to Wellington with a
letter to the Recorder touching the holding of the Sessions, and if not
there to go to Wimborne Minster, where he has a house, where he found
him, and returned with a letter; which post was six days upon that
journey in very foul weather, and I paid him for his pains 13s. 4d."

The next record of a person performing postman's work in Bristol is that
of 1615, when the City Chamberlain paid a tradesman 12s. "for cloth to