But a successful post needed an effective addressing system. And duplicate names, poorly numbered streets, and a public unfamiliar with what an address should even look like made the job of a delivery man harder than it had to be. In 1884, James Wilson Hyde had worked in the post office for twenty-five years, “the best, perhaps of his life,” he wrote. In his history of the Royal Mail, he described some badly addressed letters. Here’s one: “My dear Ant Sue as lives in the Cottage by the Wood near the New Forest.” And another: “This for the young girl that wears spectacles, who minds two
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