One of Britain's few distinctive contributions to world culture may come to an end, according to a survey that suggests holiday postcards are more and more given up because of emails and instant messages in mobile phones. More than half of the 1000 holiday-makers interviewed said they had decided to send fewer cards, turning instead to their electronic rivals. A quarter of the respondents (受调查者) regard postcards as old-fashioned and slow to arrive. A further 14% admitted that thinking of something to fill the space was too challenging, compared with a call home. Although officially invented by a Hungarian, Emanuel Herrmann, in 1869, the idea of illustrated cards was taken up with most enthusiasm in Victorian Britain, joining Gothic architecture and landscape gardening as fields for which the country was famous. 'If the British postcard did disappear, we would lose forever something of great importance to the nation, 'said Chris Mottershead of Thomson Holidays, which did the survey. He was backed by Marie Angelou of Sussex University, who has investigated the importance of sending and receiving postcards. 'Postcards are nothing like phone calls, instant messages and direct photo shots via the mobile, 'she said. 'All these are useful, practical devices, but postcards offer something else, something additional that is not simply functional, but imaginative and personal. They can create the real atmosphere of your holiday in a way that nothing else can do. They are also for more than a moment—with some people adding them to collections built up over years and years. Who first got the idea of illustrated cards?