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Gavin FRYER & Clive ACKERMAN (editors). The Reform of the Post Office in the Victorian Era and its Impact on Economic & Social Activity. 

London: The Royal Philatelic Society, 2000-2001. Two Volumes. (30.5 X 22cm. Weight 5kgs). Hardbacks with dustcovers over original boards.

I was glad to be invited to write a brief Foreword to this interesting and important book. Rowland Hill is generally acknowledged to be one of the most eminent of Victorians. Since he is best known as the inventor of the penny post and a major reformer of the Post Office, it is fitting that this edited transcript of his diaries and some of his other publications should be produced by the Royal Philatelic Society London. Yet his contribution to Victorian England was far wider than that as these volumes show. Like his father before him, he was an educational pioneer, and he combined in unusual fashion the talents of an inventor and of an administrator. He built a rotary printing press, and he had strong views on every aspect of administration. He believed profoundly in the dependence of society on the discovery and employment of talent.

In historical perspective he links through his remarkable family 18th century thought and 19th century experience. He was often frustrated in his own life, but he was also honoured. Oxford University gave him an honourary degree, the Queen knighted him, the City of London made him a Freeman and he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

As a historian I gave a prominent place to him in Victorian Things where I recognised his symbolic as well as practical importance. The penny post he himself considered a moral as well as a practical triumph. He believed that it transformed the lives of everyone through communication." The postman now has to make long rounds through humble districts where, heretofor, his knock was rarely heard." It is interesting that the statistician, G.R. Porter, in his great book Progress of the Nation included his chapter on postage in his section not on economic but on "moral "progress.

Given the range of Hill's interests and the length of his public life, the detail is as interesting as the symbolism, and these volumes will be essential reading not only for philatelists but for scholars of different disciplines.

SOURCE: Asa Briggs

Volume 1-Half Title, Frontispiece, Title, Dedication, Picture, Contents, Picture, Preface, Editorial Introduction. Historical Introduction. lviii plus 630 pages text and illustrations.(bumped corners)

Volume 2-Half Title, Frontispiece, Title, Illustration, Colour Plate. Pages 631- 1304 text and illustrations

ISBN 0 900631 36 5

Very Good First limited edition, number 159 of 650 copies: a documentary History 1837 to 1864 based on Sir Rowland Hill's Journal and Ancillary Papers, with Glossary, Bibliography and Comprehensive Index.