Wednesday 21 April 2010

At the House of the White Boot


I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but there was a time when houses didn't have numbers, but had a different form of identification: a name. For example, a house might have a sculpture of 3 blackbirds on it so it was given the address 'At the House of the 3 Blackbirds'. If you look back to the door post of 8 April, that door was in the house 'At the Stone Ram'. It used to be that people would know a house by it's descriptive name and would look for such identifying factors when in search of it. Today's door is in the house 'At the White Boot'. Yep, that is just what it says over the door and it even has a relief sculpture of a white boot! That is all good and fine and even can be romantic, but what on earth did they do if they were in a hurry? I guess back in those days people had a lot of time to go looking around for the right house...I'm just grateful that today we have street names and house numbers!!


As regards the door itself and especially it's accessories, I like the little brass plate that shows a design of a letter then has an arrow to show the postperson where the letter needs to go. Too bad if the letter is fatter than that slit in the door...only thin post will be accepted in 'The House of the White Boot'!! (I have a question: Must the people that live in or that visit this house wear only white boots? Naw, I don't think so!)

2 comments:

Wanda..... said...

I didn't know of that mail delivery system. Certainly wouldn't work now!
♥...Wanda

My Mind's Eye said...

What an interesting post. I did not know about houses not having numbers in the past. I actually like the descriptive way of identifying a home. HA. Love the little plaque indicating where mail goes.
Madi and Mom