Introduction

Abstract

Edward Villiers Rippingille’s The Post Office (1819) depicts the busy heart of an English country town.1 The post has arrived, letters, parcels and newspapers have been delivered, customers dropped off and others collected. In the distance there is a commotion as the post coach with travellers on board leaves the town, the guard at the back blowing his horn to signal their departure. Street sellers, attracted by the crowds, peddle their wares. Men and women chat while queuing expectantly for their post. Others, already in possession of letters, have hurriedly opened them and read the latest from friends and family, business associates, patrons and others. One woman sets down her basket to make conversation. In the centre of the piece, a gentleman holds a news paper and converses with others, while a tradesman in his overalls seeks to peer closer at the front page. In this busy scene, social and material interactions connect local inhabitants with one another and with those in the world beyond by letter and in print, much aided by eighteenth-century innovations in press, post and roads that provided faster and more regular communication than ever before.