rans, the postmaster, and his lieutenants, the staff of postmen and
messengers, marched on to the space between the Abbey and the Guildhall
for inspection by the Head of the Post Office Department. After the
inspection, a procession was formed, in which the Postmaster-General was
accompanied by the Mayor, and followed by the Town Councillors, two by
two. Before them went the city swordbearer, clad in striking robes, and
the party proceeded to the North Parade, from which Allen's house is now
reached by a passage way. The house is built of stone, and has a very
handsome front in the style of the classical Renaissance. In drawing
aside the curtain, which veiled the tablet, on which was inscribed "Here
lived Ralph Allen, 1727-1764," Lord Londonderry said that there was
probably not one of the great men who had been associated with Bath who
was more of a benefactor to his town, as well as to the public service
of his country, than Ralph Allen. The procession then moved on to
Palmer's house, only a few yards away, where a similar ceremony took
place. After another short speech by the Postmaster-General, in which he
explained the share Palmer had borne in developing the modern Post
Office system, the second tablet was unveiled. It bore the inscription,
"Here lived John Palmer, born 1741, died 1818."

Afterwards at the Guildhall, where a bust of Allen in the Council
Chamber looked down upon a large party assembled for luncheon, the
Postmaster-General, in response to the toast of his health, discoursed
more at large upon the topic of the day. He congratulated Bath upon
having among its citizens two out of the four great men of Post Office
history. It was Allen's task to provide a general postal system by
opening up new lines of posts between the main roads, and through new
lines of country. Between 1720, when he began his first contract, and
1764 when he died, he covered the country with a network of posts,
giving easy communication between all important towns, and he also
increased the number and speed of the mails on the post roads. While
doing this he raised himself from being a humble clerk, and later,
postmaster of Bath, to a position of great affluence, and of friendship
with many of the great men of his time. Among those friends was Lord
Chatham.

It was twenty years after Allen's death that Palmer's Mail Coach system
was started. Its advantage soon made itself apparent, and the
improvement of roads at the end of the 18