"letter[-]boxing" -- revival of a sport?

[Michael Quinion]

Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Kahn writes that "letterboxing traces its origins to 19th-century
> England, when hikers in and around the Dartmoor area began leaving
> letters or postcards ... for other hikers to find, collect, and
> sometimes forward to one another by mail.  This quaint if obscure
> pastime was featured in a 1988 Smithsonian magazine article ...".

This is familiar to me from my time in the area in the early 1970s. It was
a practice of considerable antiquity, long predating orienteering or
geocaching. Boxes were located on the Moor in places only accessible by
serious hikers. They contained a rubber stamp and ink pad with which you
could prove you had visited the site.

There are a number of sites that describe letterboxing on Dartmoor. This
one is run by the National Park:

http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/index/visiting/vi-enjoyingdartmoor/vi-
letterboxing.htm

It states that letterboxing began in 1854.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

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