3-003-902 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Prince Consort laying the foundation-stone of the new General Post Office at Edinburgh, 1861. 'The route from Holyrood Palace to the site of the Post Office, immediately opposite the Register House, was lined by the military and several companies of volunteers...The principal streets were gaily decorated with flags...[and] densely thronged with spectators...his Royal Highness was received with the utmost enthusiasm by the assembled crowd...His Royal Highness [said]: "I rejoice with you on the increased facilities of communication by letter which have rendered necessary the erection of a new Post Office; that the advantages of speed and regularity in such communications, which were once the exclusive privilege...of the higher and middle classes, have now, thanks to the marvellous development of the Post Office system, been brought within reach even of the poorest; while another great boon has been conferred upon all classes by the facilities afforded for the safe transmission of money by means of Post Office orders; thus constituting the Post Office, as it were, an universal banking agency"...The foundation-stone was then laid with the usual form amidst loud cheering'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.