William Eden (Lord Auckland) letter

Address: Eden Farm, [Beckenham, Kent]. To the Marquess of Buckingham. Discusses the possibility of a penny post.: 'I cannot pospone my thanks for your letter of the 14th. With respect to that part of it which relates to the Post Office I hope to obtain good information ... on the practicability of establishing a "sort of penny-post from all the great Towns to the Villages, &c" - We already have a regular penny post at Bath, Liverpool, Manchester, &, I believe, at Birmingham, for those palces & for their suburbs. And it is every year more productive to the Revenue, which is the surest proof of its being an accomodation to the Public. I am well satisfied ... that such a system woudl be useful; & even that it might be expedient to give a very general extension to it.' Much of the remainder of the letter concerns crops. Autograph, with signature. This letter suggests that Auckland and Buckingham anticipated Sir Rowland Hill's penny postage scheme some 37 years before its inception.

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Catalogue of the manuscripts and autograph letters in the University Library at the central building of the University of London (1921). A copy is available in the Library's Special Collections Reading Room.