This was the article published in Stamp News Australasia in May 2010 marking 20 years of my writing articles for the magazine. It is hard to believe how quickly the time passed and how things changed in those 20 years.

I had to choose which letter to use for this 20th anniversary. I thought about writing the story of one of the oldest letters in our collection, which is dated 1668, but it is written in early English, which is very difficult to decipher, and although the contents showed that there was shipping trade between London and the Continent, it is a bit dull. Next I wondered about other letters from the correspondence which I mentioned in 1990 – the Ross Bell letters to and from India, but I have covered a few from the sub–continent, so I decided against that, and chose this one written in April,1834 from Alexander Murray to his daughter, as although it is not wildly exciting, it is the only one I have seen from Peterhead. It is addressed to:

Miss Ann Murray
at Misses Andersons,
Market Street, St Andrews.

This squiggle after the figure should represent the ½d for the Additional halfpenny mail tax. When the postage was paid by the sender this charge had to be marked in manuscript ‘paid’ in red ink. This seems to be an incorrect amount as that is the charge for a distance of between 120 and 170 miles, but Peterhead to St. Andrews is only 107. There must have been a penny post charge somewhere along the line. The maps that are included in Haldane’s book show that there were daily mail coaches from Peterhead going south through Aberdeen, Montrose, Arbroath, Dundee and Cupar in Fife, and from there it was a daily ‘ride’ of 10 miles to St. Andrews. There are no date stamps at all, which is a surprise.

The letter is chatty and affectionate, keeping his daughter in touch with family happenings. I have left the spelling as he wrote it, but where he has put abbreviations, I have inserted the full word in brackets.

17th April 1834,
Dear Ann,
I take the opportunity of Mrs Andersons packet to say we are all well - you will be glad to hear we had a call of Andw (Andrew) last Saturday telling us of his new connection with Mr Stewart, Advocate, who has kindly taken him into partnership and entered on Tewsday on Business. Mr. Stewart is in delicate health and has gone on a jaunt.

We have been speking of your remaining a month or two longer with the Misses Anderson untill the summer vacancy & I shall pay your expenses till then of which Andw was to advise you – I heard of your friends at the Cape last week, they were all well, your Uncle has purchased a frm (farm) property there, & I paid a few Thousand pounds of it today which is not easy on a poor farmer in these days.

We have a visit from Dr. Knight (1) here just now, & Alexr (Alexander) has been busy with him among the shells in the hills. I go to Burnside next week to James ‘firekindling’ (2) he has got into his new house and is disappointed you was not coming down about this time to the dance.

Notes: (1)This was Dr. William Knight, a Scot, who graduated from the Marischal College and University in Aberdeen in 1802. He returned as professor of natural philosophy in 1822 and remained until his death in 1844. He published works on geological subjects.

(2) Firekindling is an old custom when cattle are driven through the embers of a fire to clear them of disease. It is an old pagan custom but was obviously still in use then in that part of Scotland.

The letter then continues:

Mrs Murray was here on Monday at a party, she is at Hillhead seeing Grandmama for a few days & goes home with Geo. Leask next week.

Note : the map shows Hillhead of Cocklaw right near Peterhead

We were glad to hear by him you was well. With best wishes from all here,
I am, My dear Ann,
Your Affec (Affectionate) Father,
Alexr. Murray

Peterhead had three claims to fame:
1) geographically, it is the eastern most point in Scotland;
2) it had a mineral well, so it became a popular spa resort town in the 18th century, and
3) it was the base for a very successful whaling industry in the 19th century.

Perhaps the unpleasant environment from the processing of the whales explained why
Miss Ann Murray was about 100 miles away down south in the town of St. Andrews.

Another thing that has changed is my research – it used to be weeks of sending letters and waiting for replies from overseas, or hours at the local reference library. Now most of the overseas libraries are online, and are happy to answer queries by e-mail. I used to start an article, set all the queries in motion and then have to wait for about 3 weeks to get any further with it. So I would have 3 or 4 articles on the go at a time waiting for the information to become available, and then would work on whichever one arrived first. That is seldom the case nowadays. With broadband access to the net I seldom have to wait more than a couple of days to gather the information I need and can begin working on the article pretty much straight away.

Over the years I have changed the content of the articles to reflect more of the actual letter involved. Initially, as this is a magazine for stamp collectors and, naturally, postal historians, I stressed that part of the letter, rather than the contents and the details of the sender/addressee. I used to enter philatelic competitions and the stress was laid on being specific in the entry, so that if I was using a cover with an Additional Halfpenny postmark, then I was told not to mention any of the other postmarks on the letter so I thought this would also apply to writing up the letters into articles. I didn’t want to do that, as I think it is better to tell the whole story. The feedback showed that the readers were also very interested in all aspects of the letters, so now I make sure that the entire letter takes centre stage.

Twenty years ago I had to post the articles and the actual letter to the Editor by Registered mail, and have them returned in the same way. There was always the possibility that the letter could be lost or damaged in transit. Now it can all be sent via the internet, with scanned images in colour, and it arrives pretty much instantly. The improvement in the printing which makes it possible to illustrate even the watermark on the paper is amazing. It is easy to take the technology for granted, but I for one am extremely pleased to have it. There is no doubt that having a coloured image of the actual letter enhances the end product.