[Postal history: Sir Matthew John Tierney, surgeon.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Francis Freeling, Secretary of the General Post Office, complaining of a misdirected letter, with annotation by Freeling and postal inspector Benjamin Critchett.

See the entries on Tierney (Physician-in-Ordinary to George IV and William IV) and Freeling (also a noted bibliophile) in the Oxford DNB. The letter is 3pp, 12mo, with underlinings in red pencil (probably by Freeling), and the reverse of the second leaf carrying the address and annotations by Freeling and Critchett. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with folds for postage and strip of tape from mount adhering to reverse of second leaf, which also has a strip of paper with an ANS by Critchett laid down lengthwise along the outer edge. Tierney addresses himself to ‘Sir Francis Freeling Bt’ and signs ‘M J Tierney’. Begins: ‘My dear Sir Francis / The annexed letter has been returned to my house this morng - why I cannot understand as my Brother Mr Edward Tierney is & has been since Tuesday at my house 26 Bruton St / I wrote to him under a similar cover & address yesterday transmitting important papers, shtould that letter not have been delivered this morning in Bruton Street it will occasion great inconvenience indeed’. He speculates that error is due to the habit of the ‘Postman in that district’ of ‘sending Letters addressed to me in town to this place’, adding that ‘he could not have called in Bruton St. yesterday’. He apologises for troubling Freeling, ‘but I know of no other method by which the error could be rectified’. He ends by asking Freeling to direct the postman to deliver the letter to Bruton St. At the head of the last page: ‘5 Feb 1835 / Brighton / Sir M J Tierney’. Beneath this, in another hand, the letter is redirected to ‘Sir Francis Freeling Bt.’ Under this Freeling writes: ‘This is unfortunate / Can Mr Critchett tell me whether the letter he alludes to was returned yesterday’. In yet another hand, beneath this: ‘The enclosed Letter to be sent to Bruton Street immediately’. And at the foot of the page, in response to Freeling, Critchett writes: ‘The Letter returned from Brighton was delivered yesterday with X’, and continuing on the laid-down strip: ‘an apology for the mistake and the letter from Sir M. Tierney to his Brother of the 4th. instant was duly delivered. I have seriously cautioned the letter carrier / B Critchett / 7 Feb 1835’. Image on requet