h Street, and Lincoln's-Inn-Fields being the
second place numbered." While in our own time the addresses of letters
are generally brief and direct, it is not to be wondered at that, under
the conditions above stated, the superscriptions were often such as now
seem to us curious. Here is one given in a printed notice issued at
Edinburgh in 1714:--

"The Stamp office at Edinburgh
in Mr. William Law, Jeweller,
his hands, off the Parliament close,
down the market stairs, opposite
to the Excise office."

Here is another old-fashioned address, in which one must admit the
spirit of filial regard with which it is inspired:--

"These for his honoured Mother,
Mrs. Hester Stryp, widow,
dwelling in Petticoat Lane, over
against the Five Inkhorns,
without Bishopgate,
in London."

Yet one more specimen, referring to the year 1702:--

"For
Mr. Archibald Dunbarr
of Thunderstoune, to be
left at Capt. Dunbar's
writing chamber at the
Iron Revell, third storie
below the cross, north end
of the close at Edinburgh."

Under the circumstances of the time it was necessary thus to define at
length where letters should be delivered; and the same circumstances
were no doubt the _raison-d'etre_ of the corps of caddies in Edinburgh,
whose business it was to execute commissions of all sorts, and in whom
the paramount qualification was to know everybody in the town, and where
everybody lived.

All this is changed in our degenerate days, and it is now possible for
any one to find any other person with the simple key of street and
number.

The irregular way in which towns grew up in former times is brought out
in an anecdote about Kilmarnock. Early in the present century the
streets of that town were narrow, winding, and intricate. An English
commercial traveller, having completed some business there, mounted his
horse, and set out for another town. He was making for the outskirts of
Kilmarnock, and reflecting upon its apparent size and importance, when
he suddenly found himself back at the cross. In the surprise of the
moment he was heard to exclaim that surely his "sable eminence" must
have had a hand in the building of it, for it was a town very easily got
into, but there was no getting out of it.

A duty that the changed circumstances of the times now renders
unnecessary was formerly imposed upo