The charge shown as a black manuscript 1/3 is a mystery. The rate at the time was the land cost at both ends plus the 3d packet rate. The land cost from Dublin to Howth was 9d for the 103 miles, added to the 3d makes 1 shilling, so if any reader can explain the 1/3 charge, I would be pleased to hear from them.

The seal on the letter is quite unusual, being of a paling fence of 5 uprights, against a tree in full leaf with what looks like a fox running between the fence and the tree.

[This image and caption provides background material for a letter of Charles Parke to Jeremiah Duke in 1831, that Eunice and Ron Shanahan have graciously shared with the Victorian Web from their website, Letters from the Past.].