| 释义 |
penny post, penny-post
[See post n.]
An organization for the conveyance of letters or packets at an ordinary charge of a penny each; esp. (in early use) that established c 1680 for London and its environs within a radius of 10 miles, and (in later use) that introduced on 10 Jan. 1840 (on the initiative of Rowland Hill) for the United Kingdom, and extended to nearly all British colonies and possessions in and after 1898.
1680J. Stokes Let. fr. London 3 July in Rhode Isl. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1902) X, My note came..by the peny post, that is a post office, which for a peny wee cann have a letter carried to any part of the citty. 1682Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 244 Mr. Do[ck]wray and partners, the inventers of the penny post here in London, are putt down..but..the duke hath thought fitt to sett it up again, and 'tis manadged by the cheif postmaster of the generall post office. 1685P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 347 Write a line or two now and then by the Peny-post. 1706Phillips, Penny-Post, a Post-Office that conveys Letters and Packets under a Pound⁓weight, paying one Penny for each to all Parts of the City of London, and ten Miles round about. 1712Addison Spect. No. 457 ⁋1 Proposals for a printed News-paper, that should take in the whole Circle of the Penny-post. 1794Gentl. Mag. LXIV. ii. 666 The extension of the penny-post hither [to Enfield] took place [on June 23]. 1825Scott Jrnl. 28 Dec., A sly rogue..requested of me, through the penny-post, the loan of {pstlg}50. 1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 455 Between 1814 and 1839..The Postmaster-general had authority to establish penny posts for letters not exceeding in weight four ounces, in, from, or to, any city, town, or place in the United Kingdom... There is a penny post for Dublin, the limits of which the Postmaster-general has authority to alter. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lxxviii. 342 The penny post was one of the few things that came without being long called for. 1904Daily Chron. 9 Jan. 5/1 To-morrow is the sixty-fourth birthday of the Penny Post, inaugurated January 10, 1840.
b. attrib., as penny-post letter, penny-postman, penny-post office.
1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2188/4 The General Penny-Post Office is removed from Crosby-House..to Star-Court..in Cornhill. 1688Ashmole Let. in Mem. (1717) 97 Which the Civility of a Penny-Post Letter would have cleared and prevented. 1690Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 118 His majestie hath granted Mr. Dockwra {pstlg}500 per ann. out of the penny post office, in consideration of his being the first projector thereof. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 358 [Busy bodies] have their stages about the town as regular as a penny postman. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 101 The penny-postman finds no perplexity in his walks to any part of it [London]. 1864Tennyson Let. to W. C. Bennett 22 Oct., Believe me, tho penny-post maddened, yours ever, A. Tennyson.
So ˈpenny-ˈpostage, the postage of letters, etc. at a charge of a penny each.
184.Ocean Postage Envelope Inscr., Britain! from thee the World expects an Ocean Penny Postage. 1863Chambers' Bk. Days I. 89/2 A memorable day..on which the idea of a Penny Postage was first exemplified. 1890Pall Mall G. 9 Jan. 7/1 The Jubilee of the Penny Post. Fifty years ago to-morrow, by virtue of a warrant published in the London Gazette on the 28th December, 1839, was inaugurated our system of penny postage. |