Blind Department (The)

In Post Office parlance, means that department where letters with incoherent, insufficient, or illegible addresses are examined, and, if possible, put upon the proper track for delivery. The clerk so employed is called “The Blind Man.”

“One of these addresses was “Santlings, Hilewite” (St. Helen’s, Isle of Wight). I, myself, had one from France addressed, ‘A Mons. E. Cobham, brasseur, Angleterre,ʹ and it reached me. Another address was ‘Haselfeach in no famtshereʹ (Hazelbeach, Northamptonshire).”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.