Long ago post office officials had only two ways in which mail was delivered. One way was that the senders had to drop their mail off at a receiving house or they would await a bellman. The bellman was responsible for roaming the streets and collecting mail from a designated area. They were required to wear a uniform to distinguish themselves from other people. They then decided to put boxes up in the area to allow mails to be collected. The design of this pillar pox was at the discretion of the local authorities. It was only in 1859 that these structures were standardized. People came to prefer the vertical boxes and this tradition grew into the regular shape of our letter boxes today. The color that was most preferred was green and this was to allow the color of the box to blend in with the green British pastures.