ABSTRACT
In 1870, shortly after the postcard was introduced to the British postal service, the journal Notes and Queries published the following response:
The New Postal Cards: We are frequently told that history repeats itself. May not the same be said of fashion and manners? Though in the present day, cards of “Invitation” and “Return Thanks” are almost the only cards in use, it was not so in the old time when George the Third was king. Then, as we know from Walpole, everybody followed Hamlet’s direction, and spoke “by the card”; and not only were they the duly recognised media of messages of all kinds, but, as we know were made the vehicles of the bitterest sarcasm-as Townsend’s Caricatures, originally drawn on the backs of ordinary playing-cards, though afterwards engraved, remain to testify.1
