The Project Gutenberg eBook ofCuriosities of Civilization

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofCuriosities of CivilizationThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Curiosities of CivilizationAuthor: Andrew WynterRelease date: August 14, 2012 [eBook #40498]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Curiosities of CivilizationAuthor: Andrew WynterRelease date: August 14, 2012 [eBook #40498]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)

Title: Curiosities of Civilization

Author: Andrew Wynter

Release date: August 14, 2012 [eBook #40498]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION ***

CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION.

REPRINTED FROM THE“QUARTERLY” & “EDINBURGH” REVIEWS.

BYANDREW WYNTER, M.D.

SEVENTH EDITION.

LONDON:ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY,AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

[The Right of Translation is reserved.]

The following Essays have been reprinted from the pages of theQuarterlyandEdinburgh Reviews, with the kind permission of their proprietors. It may be necessary, however, to state that, with the exception of the paper on the “Mortality in Trades and Professions,” which was published in theEdinburgh Reviewof January, 1860, the whole of them have appeared in theQuarterly Reviewduring the last six years. The date of each essay is given in the list of contents; but, where necessary, corrections have been made, so as to bring each article up to the knowledge of the present day.A. W.Coleherne Court, Old Brompton.August, 1860.

A. W.

Coleherne Court, Old Brompton.August, 1860.

CONTENTS.

It is our purpose to draw out, as a thread might be drawn from some woven fabric, a continuous line of advertisements from the newspaper press of this country, since its establishment to the present time; and, by so doing, to show how distinctly, from its dye, the pattern of the age through which it ran is represented. If we follow up to its source any public institution, fashion, or amusement, which has flourished during a long period of time, we can gain some idea of our national progress and development; but it strikes us that in no manner can we so well obtain at a rapid glance a view of the salient points of generations that have passed, as by consulting those small voices that have cried from age to age from the pages of the press, declaring the wants, the losses, the amusements, and the money-making eagerness of the people.

As we read in the old musty files of papers thosenaïveannouncements, the very hum of bygone generations seems to rise to the ear. The chapman exhibits his quaint wares; the mountebank capers again upon his stage; we have the living portrait of the highwayman flying from justice; we see the old china auctions thronged with ladies of quality with their attendant negro boys, or those “by inch of candlelight” forming many a Schalken-like picture of light and shade; or, later still, we have Hogarthian sketches of the young bloods who swelled of old along the Pall-Mall. We trace the moving panorama of men and manners up to our own less demonstrative but moreearnest times; and all these cabinet pictures are the very daguerreotypes cast by the age which they exhibit, not done for effect, but faithful reflections of those insignificant items of life and things, too small, it would seem, for the generalizing eye of the historian, however necessary to clothe and fill in the dry bones of his history.

TheEnglish Mercurieof 1588, which professes to have been published during those momentous days when the Spanish Armada was hovering and waiting to pounce upon our southern shores, contains, among its items of news, three or four book advertisements, and these would undoubtedly have been the first put forth in England were that newspaper genuine. Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, has, however, proved that the several numbers of this journal to be found in our national library are gross forgeries, and, indeed, the most inexperienced eye in such matters can easily see that neither their type, paper, spelling, nor composition are much more than one, instead of upwards of two centuries and a half old. Newspapers, in the strict sense of the word—that is, publications of news appearing at stated intervals, and regularly paged on—did not make their appearance until the latter end of the reign of James I. TheWeekely Newes, published in London in 1622, was the first publication which answered to this description; it contained, however, only a few scraps of foreign intelligence, and was quite destitute of advertisements. The terrible contest of the succeeding reign was the hotbed which forced the press of this country into sudden life and extraordinary vigour. Those who have wandered in the vaults of the British Museum and contemplated the vast collection of political pamphlets and the countless Mercuries which sprang full armed, on either side of the quarrel, from the strong and earnest brains which wrought in that great political trouble, will not hesitate to discover, amidst the hubbub of the Rebellion, the first throes of the press of England as a political power. At such a time, when Marchmort Needham fell foul with his types of Sir John Birkenhead and the court party which he supported, with as heavy a hand and as dauntless a will as Cromwell hurled his Ironsides at theCavaliers at Naseby, it is not likely that we should find the press the vehicle to make known the goods of tradesmen, or to offer a reward for stolen horses. The shopkeepers themselves, as well as the nobility, were too hard at it, to avail themselves of this new mode of extending their trade: they had to keep guard over the malignants, to cover the five members with the shield of their arms, to overawe Whitehall, to march to the relief of Gloucester,—objects quite sufficient to account for the fact that the train-bands were not advertisers. After the king’s death, however, when the Commonwealth had time to breathe, the people seem to have discovered the use of the press as a means of making known their wants and of giving publicity to their wares. The very first advertisement we have met with, after an active search among the earliest newspapers, relates to a book which is entitled—

Irenodia Gratulatoria, an Heroick Poem; being a congratulatory panegyrick for my Lord General’s late return, summing up his successes in an exquisite manner.To be sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange, London. Printed by Tho. Newcourt, 1652.

Irenodia Gratulatoria, an Heroick Poem; being a congratulatory panegyrick for my Lord General’s late return, summing up his successes in an exquisite manner.

To be sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange, London. Printed by Tho. Newcourt, 1652.

This appeared in the January number of the Parliamentary paperMercurius Politicus. It is evidently a piece of flattery to Cromwell upon his victories in Ireland, and might have been inserted at the instigation of the great Commonwealth leader himself. Booksellers appear to have been the first to take advantage of this new medium of publicity, and for the obvious reason that their goods were calculated for the readers of the public journals, who at that time must have consisted almost exclusively of the higher orders. From this date to the Restoration the quaintest titles of works on the political and religious views, such as were then in the ascendant, are to be found in theMercurius Politicus: thus, we have “Gospel Marrow;” “A few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul;” “Michael opposing the Dragon, or a Fiery Dart struck through the Kingdom of the Serpent.” And in the number for September, 1659, we find an advertisement which seems to bring us face to face with one of the brightest names in the roll of English poets:—

Considerationstouching the likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of the Church; wherein is also discours’d of Tithes, Church Fees, Church Revenues, and whether any maintenance of Ministers can be settled by Law. The author, J. M. Sold byLivewell Chapman, at the Crown in Pope’s Head Alley.

In juxtaposition to these illustrious initials we find another advertisement, which is the representative of a class that prevailed most extensively at this early time—the Hue and Cry after runaway servants and lost or stolen horses and dogs. Every generation is apt to praise, like Orlando, “the antique service of the old world;” but a little excursion into the regions of the past shows us how persistent this cry has been in all ages. Employers who are in the habit of eulogising servants of the “old school,” would be exceedingly astonished to find that two hundred years ago they were a very bad lot indeed, as far as we can judge from the advertisements of rewards for the seizure of delinquents of their class. Here is a full-length portrait of apparently a runaway apprentice, as drawn in theMercurius Politicusof July 1st, 1658:—

Ifany one can give notice of oneEdward Perry, being about the age of eighteen or nineteen years, of low stature, black hair, full of pockholes in his face; he weareth a new gray suit trimmed with green and other ribbons, a light Cinnamon-colored cloak, and black hat, who run away lately from his Master; they are desired to bring or send word toTho. Firby, Stationer, at Gray’s Inne gate, who will thankfully reward them.

It will be observed that the dashing appearance of this runaway apprentice, habited in his gray suit trimmed with green ribbons, and furbished off so spicily with his cinnamon-coloured cloak, is rather marred by the description of his face as “full of pockholes.” Unless the reader has scanned the long list of villanous portraits exhibited by the Hue and Cry in the old papers of the last portion of the seventeenth and first portion of the eighteenth centuries, he can form but a faint conception of the ravages committed by the small-pox upon the population. Every man seemed more or less to have been speckled with “pockholes,” and the race must have presented one moving mass of pits and scars. Here, for instance, is acompanion picture to hang with that of Edward Perry, copied from theMercurius Politicusof May 31st, 1660:—

ABlack-haired Maid, of a middle stature, thick set, with big breasts, having her face full marked with the smallpox, calling herself by the name ofNanorAgnes Hobson, did, upon Monday the 28 ofMay, about six o’Clock in the morning, steal away from her Ladies house in the Pal-mall a mingle-coloured wrought Tabby Gown of Deer colour and white; a black striped Sattin Gown with four broad bone-black silk Laces, and a plain black-watered French Tabby Gown; Also, one Scarlet-coloured and one other Pink-coloured Sarcenet Peticoat, and a white watered Tabby Wastcoat, plain; Several Sarcenet, Mode, and thin black Hoods and Scarfs, several fine Holland Shirts, a laced pair of Cuffs and Dressing; one pair of Pink-coloured Worsted Stockings, a Silver Spoon, a Leather bag, &c. She went away in greyish Cloth Wastcoat turned, and a Pink-coloured Paragon upper Peticoat, with a green Tammy under one. If any shall give notice of this person, or things, at oneHopkins, a Shoomaker’s, next door to the Vine Tavern, near the Pal-mall end, near Charing Cross, or at Mr.Ostler’s, at the Bull Head in Cornhill, near the Old Exchange, they shall be rewarded for their pains.

Scarcely a week passes without such runaways being advertised, together with a list of the quaint articles of which their booty consisted. At the risk of wearying the reader with these descriptions of the “old-fashioned” sort of servants, we give another advertisement from theMercurius Politicusof July 1st 1658:—

OneEleanor Parker(by birthHaddock), of a Tawny reddish complexion, a pretty long nose, tall of stature, servant to Mr.Frederic Howpert, Kentish Town, upon Saturday last the26th of June, ran away and stole two Silver Spoons; a sweet Tent-work Bag, with gold and silver Lace about it, and lined with Satin; a Bugle work-Cushion, very curiously wrought in all manners of slips and flowers; a Shell cup, with a Lyon’s face, and a Ring of silver in its mouth; besides many other things of considerable value, which she took out of her Mistresses Cabinet, which she broke open; as also some Cloaths and Linen of all sorts, to the value of Ten pounds and upwards. If any one do meet with her and please to secure her, and give notice to the saidFrederic Howpert, or else to Mr.Malpass, Leather-seller, at the Green Dragon, at the upper end of Lawrence Lane, he shall be thankfully rewarded for his pains.

An advertisement which appears in the same paper, of the date of August 11th, 1659, gives us the first notice we have yet found of the service of negro boys in this country. From this period, however, as we shall presently show, England, at least the fashionable part of it, seems to have swarmed with young blackamoors in a greater degree than we should haveimagined even from the familiar notice made of them in the pages of the “Tatler” and “Spectator.” These early negroes must have been imported from the Portuguese territories, as we did not deal in the article ourselves till the year 1680. The amusing point of the following advertisement, however, is the assurance it gives us that the Puritans “polled” their negroes as well as themselves.

ANegro-boy, about nine years of age, in a gray Searge suit, his hair cut close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last,August 9, at night, inS. NicholasLane,London. If any one can give notice of him to Mr.Tho. Barker, at the Sugarloaf in that Lane, they shall be well rewarded for their pains.

About this time we find repeatedly advertised the loss of horses. It is observable that during the “troubles” such things as highwaymen were unknown. The bold, unruly characters, who at a later date took to the road, were then either enlisted under the banners of the state or had gone over the sea to Charlie. The great extent to which horse-stealing prevailed during the Commonwealth period, and, indeed, for the next half-century, might possibly be ascribed to the value of those animals consequent upon the scarcity produced by the casualties of the battle-field. We cannot account, however, for one fact connected with the horse-stealing of the Commonwealth period, namely, that when at grass they were often keptsaddled. The following advertisement, which is an illustration of this singular custom, is very far from being an uncommon one:—

ASmall Black NAG, some ten or eleven years old, no white at all, bob-Tailed, wel forehanded, somewhat thin behind, thick Heels, and goeth crickling and lamish behind at his first going out; the hair is beat off upon his far Hip as broad as a twelvepence; he hath a black leather Saddle trimmed with blew, and covered with a black Calves-skin, its a little torn upon the Pummel; two new Girths of white and green thread, and black Bridle, the Rein whereof is sowed on the off side, and a knot to draw it on the near side, Stoln out of a field atChelmsford,21 Februaryinstant, from Mr.Henry Bullen. Whosoever can bring tidings to the said Mr.BullenatBromfield, or to Mr.Newmanat the Grocer’s Arms inCornhil, shall have 20s.for his pains.—Mercurius Politicus, February 24, 1659.

It could scarcely have been, in this particular case at least,that the exigencies of the time required such precautions, as the only rising that took place this year occurred six months afterwards in the county of Chester. The furniture of the nag, it must be confessed, seems remarkably adapted for service, and might, from its colour, have belonged to a veritable Ironside trooper. Another reason, perhaps, of the great value of horses at this period, was the establishment of public conveyances, by which means travellers as well as letters were conveyed from one part of the kingdom to the other. Prior to the year 1636 there was no such thing as a postal service for the use of the people in this country. The court had, it is true, an establishment for the forwarding of despatches, but its efficacy may be judged of from a letter written by one Bryan Tuke, “master of the postes” in Henry VIII.’s time, to Cromwell, who had evidently been sharply reproving him for remissness in forwarding the king’s papers:—

“The Kinges Grace hath no mor ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe had, but betweene London and Calais.... For, sir, ye knowe well that, except the hackney-horses betweene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as in the accustomed places of France and other partes; ne men can keepe horses in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges; but when placardes be sent for suche cause (to order the immediate forwarding of some state packet)the constables many tymes be fayne to take horses oute of ploues and cartes, wherein can be no extreme diligence.”

This was in the year 1533. Elizabeth, however, established horse-posts on all the great routes for the transmission of the letters of the court; and this, in 1633, was developed into a public post, which went night and day at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter—not such bad travelling for those days. Still there was no means of forwarding passengers until the time of Cromwell, when we find stagecoaches established on all the great roads throughout the kingdom. We do not know that we have ever seen quoted so early a notice of public stage conveyances. We have evidently not given our ancestors so much credit as they deserved. The following advertisement shows the time taken and the fares of a considerable number of these journeys:—

Fromthe 26 day of April 1658 there will continue to go Stage Coaches from theGeorgeInn, without Aldersgate,London, unto the several Cities and Towns, for the Rates and at the times, hereafter mentioned and declared.Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.ToSalisburyin two days for xxs.ToBlandfordandDorchesterin two days and half for xxxs.ToBurputin three days for xxxs.ToExmaster,Hunnington, andExeterin four days for xls.ToStamfordin two days for xxs.ToNewarkin two days and a half for xxvs.ToBawtreyin three days for xxxs.ToDoncasterandFerribridgefor xxxvs.ToYorkin four days for xls.MondaysandWednesdaystoOckintonandPlymouthfor ls.EveryMondaytoHelperbyandNorthallertonfor xlvs.ToDarnetonandFerryhilfor ls.To Durham for lvs.ToNewcastlefor iiil.Once every fortnight toEdinburghfor ivl.a peece—Mondays.EveryFridaytoWakefieldin four days, xls.All persons who desire to travel unto the Cities, Towns, and Roads herein hereafter mentioned and expressed, namely—toCoventry,Litchfield,Stone,Namptwich,Chester,Warrington,Wiggan,Chorley,Preston,Gastang,Lancaster, andKendal; and also toStamford,Grantham,Newark,Tuxford,Bawtrey,Doncaster,Ferriebridge,York,Helperly,Northallerton,Darneton,Ferryhill,Durham, andNewcastle,Wakefield,Leeds, andHalifax; and also toSalisbury,Blandford,Dorchester,Burput,Exmaster,Hunnington, andExeter,Ockinton,Plimouth, andCornwal; let them repair to theGeorgeInn atHolborn Bridge, London, and thence they shall be in good Coaches with good Horses, upon everyMonday,Wednesday, andFridays, at and for reasonable Rates.—Mercurius Politicus, April 1, 1658.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

ToSalisburyin two days for xxs.ToBlandfordandDorchesterin two days and half for xxxs.ToBurputin three days for xxxs.ToExmaster,Hunnington, andExeterin four days for xls.

ToStamfordin two days for xxs.ToNewarkin two days and a half for xxvs.ToBawtreyin three days for xxxs.ToDoncasterandFerribridgefor xxxvs.ToYorkin four days for xls.

MondaysandWednesdaystoOckintonandPlymouthfor ls.

EveryMondaytoHelperbyandNorthallertonfor xlvs.ToDarnetonandFerryhilfor ls.To Durham for lvs.ToNewcastlefor iiil.

Once every fortnight toEdinburghfor ivl.a peece—Mondays.

EveryFridaytoWakefieldin four days, xls.

All persons who desire to travel unto the Cities, Towns, and Roads herein hereafter mentioned and expressed, namely—toCoventry,Litchfield,Stone,Namptwich,Chester,Warrington,Wiggan,Chorley,Preston,Gastang,Lancaster, andKendal; and also toStamford,Grantham,Newark,Tuxford,Bawtrey,Doncaster,Ferriebridge,York,Helperly,Northallerton,Darneton,Ferryhill,Durham, andNewcastle,Wakefield,Leeds, andHalifax; and also toSalisbury,Blandford,Dorchester,Burput,Exmaster,Hunnington, andExeter,Ockinton,Plimouth, andCornwal; let them repair to theGeorgeInn atHolborn Bridge, London, and thence they shall be in good Coaches with good Horses, upon everyMonday,Wednesday, andFridays, at and for reasonable Rates.—Mercurius Politicus, April 1, 1658.

Other announcements about the same time prove that the Great Western road was equally provided, as well as the Dover route to the continent. It is not a little singular, however, that regularly-appointed coaches, starting at stated intervals, should have preceded what might be considered the simpler arrangement of the horse service. That the development of the postal system into a means of forwarding single travellers did not take place until some time afterwards, would appear from the following:—

The Postmasters onChesterRoad, petitioning, have received Order,and do accordingly publish the following advertisement:—AllGentlemen, Merchants, and others, who have occasion to travel betweenLondonandWestchester,Manchester, andWarrington, or any other Town upon that Road, for the accommodation of Trade, dispatch of Business, and ease of Purse, upon every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Morning, betwixt Six and ten of the Clock, at the House of Mr.Christopher Charteris, at the sign of the Hart’s-Horn, in West-Smithfield, and Post-Master there, and at the Post-Master ofChester, at thePost-Master ofManchester, and at the Post-Master ofWarrington, may have a good and able single Horse, or more, furnished at Threepence the Mile, without the charge of a Guide; and so likewise at the House of Mr.Thomas Challenor, Post-Master atStoneinStaffordshire, upon every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays Morning, to go forLondon. And so likewise at the several Post-Masters upon the Road, who will have all such set days so many Horses with Furniture in readiness to furnish the Riders without any stay to carry them to or from any the places aforesaid, in Four days, as well toLondonas from thence, and to places nearer in less time, according as their occasions shall require, they ingaging at the first Stage where they take Horse, for the safe delivery of the same to the next immediate Stage, and not to ride that Horse any further without consent of the Post-Master by whom he rides, and so from Stage to Stage to their Journeys end.All those who intend to ride this way are desired to give a little notice beforehand, if conveniently they can, to the several Post-masters where they first take horse, whereby they may be furnished with so many Horses as the Riders shall require with expedition.This undertaking began the 28 ofJune1658 at all the Places abovesaid, and so continues by the several Post-Masters.

The Postmasters onChesterRoad, petitioning, have received Order,and do accordingly publish the following advertisement:—

AllGentlemen, Merchants, and others, who have occasion to travel betweenLondonandWestchester,Manchester, andWarrington, or any other Town upon that Road, for the accommodation of Trade, dispatch of Business, and ease of Purse, upon every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Morning, betwixt Six and ten of the Clock, at the House of Mr.Christopher Charteris, at the sign of the Hart’s-Horn, in West-Smithfield, and Post-Master there, and at the Post-Master ofChester, at thePost-Master ofManchester, and at the Post-Master ofWarrington, may have a good and able single Horse, or more, furnished at Threepence the Mile, without the charge of a Guide; and so likewise at the House of Mr.Thomas Challenor, Post-Master atStoneinStaffordshire, upon every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays Morning, to go forLondon. And so likewise at the several Post-Masters upon the Road, who will have all such set days so many Horses with Furniture in readiness to furnish the Riders without any stay to carry them to or from any the places aforesaid, in Four days, as well toLondonas from thence, and to places nearer in less time, according as their occasions shall require, they ingaging at the first Stage where they take Horse, for the safe delivery of the same to the next immediate Stage, and not to ride that Horse any further without consent of the Post-Master by whom he rides, and so from Stage to Stage to their Journeys end.All those who intend to ride this way are desired to give a little notice beforehand, if conveniently they can, to the several Post-masters where they first take horse, whereby they may be furnished with so many Horses as the Riders shall require with expedition.This undertaking began the 28 ofJune1658 at all the Places abovesaid, and so continues by the several Post-Masters.

The intimation that these horses might be had without the “charge of a guide” gives us an insight into the bad condition of the roads up to that period. We can scarcely imagine, in these days, the necessity for a guide to direct us along the great highways of England, and can with difficulty realize to ourselves the fact that as late as the middle of the seventeenth century the interior of the country was little better than a wilderness, as we may indeed gather from Pepy’s journey from London to Bristol and back, in which the item “guides” formed no inconsiderable portion of his expenses.

In turning over the musty little quarto newspapers which mirror with such vividness the characteristic lineaments of the Commonwealth period, not yet left behind us, we chanced upon an advertisement which tells perhaps more than any other of the dangerous complexion of those times. It is an advertisement for some runaway young “sawbones,” whose love of desperate adventure appears to have led him to prefer the tossing of a pike to pounding with a pestle:—

George Weale, a Cornish youth, about 18 or 19 years of age, serving as an Apprentice atKingstonwith one Mr.Weale, an Apothecary, and his Uncle, about the time of the rising of the CountiesKentandSurrey, went secretly from his said Uncle, and is conceived to have engaged in the same, and to be either dead, or slain in some of those fights, having never since been heard of, either by his said Uncle, or any of his Friends. If any person can give notice of the certainty of the death of the saidGeorge Weale, let him repair to the said Mr.Graunthis House in Drum-alley in Drury Lane,London; he shall have twenty shillings for his pains.—Mercurius Politicus, Dec. 8, 1659.

Here at least we have probably preserved the name of one of the fameless men who were “slain in some of those fights,” a phrase which in these days opens to us a chapter in romance.

With the exception of book advertisements and quack medicines, we have not up to this date met with a single instance of a tradesman turning the newspaper to account in making known his goods to the public. The very first announcement of this nature, independently of its being in itself a curiosity, possesses a very strong interest, from the fact that it marks the introduction of an article of food which perhaps more than all others has served to wean the nation from one of its besetting sins of old—drunkenness. Common report, Mr. Disraeli informs us, attributes the introduction of “the cup which cheers but not inebriates,” to Lord Arlington and Lord Ossory, who are said to have brought over a small quantity from Holland in 1666. The author of the “Curiosities of Literature” does not think this statement satisfactory, and tells us that he has heard of Oliver Cromwell’s teapot being in the possession of a collector. We never knew before of these teetotal habits of the Protector, but we can so far back the story as to find chronologically correct bohea to put into his pot; for though it is true that the date of the following advertisement is three weeks after the death of his highness, it refers to the article as a known and, by physicians, an approved drink, and therefore must have been some time previously on sale:—

ThatExcellent and by all Physitians approvedChinaDrink called by theChineans Tcha, by other NationsTay alias Tee, is sold at theSultaness Head Cophee-House, inSweetingsRents, by the Royal Exchange,London.—Mercurius Politicus, September 30, 1658.

This is undoubtedly the earliest authentic announcement yet made known of the public sale in England of this now famous beverage. The mention of a “Cophee-house” proves that the sister stimulant was even then making way in the country.[1]Ittook, however, a couple of centuries to convert them, in the extended sense of the term, into national drinks; but, like many other good things, it came too early. Tea may have sufficed for fanatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Independents, and self-denying sectaries of all kinds; and for all we know, its early introduction, had the Commonwealth lasted, might have accelerated the temperance movement a century at least; but the wheel of fortune was about to turn once more—mighty ale had to be broached, and many deep healths to be drunk by those who had “come to their own again;” and tea, for full half a century, was washed away by brown October and the French wines that came in with the Merry Monarch.

We have now brought the reader upon the very borders of the period when Charles, with his hungry followers, landed in triumph at Dover. The advertisements which appeared during the time that Monk was temporizing and sounding his way to the Restoration, form a capital barometer of the state of feeling among political men at that critical juncture. We see no more of the old Fifth-Monarchy spirit abroad. Ministers of the steeple-houses evidently note the storm coming, and cease their long-winded warnings to a backsliding generation. Every one is either panting to take advantage of the first sunshine of royal favour, or to deprecate its wrath, the coming shadow of which is clearly seen. Meetings are advertised of those persons who have purchased sequestered estates, in order that they may address the King to secure them in possession; parliamentary aldermen repudiate by the same means, charges in the papers that their names are to be found in the list of those persons who “sat upon the tryal of the late King;” the works of “late” bishops begin again to air themselves in the Episcopal wind that is clearly setting in; and “The Tears, Sighs, Complaints, and Prayers of the Church of England” appear in the advertising columns in place of the sonorous titles of sturdy old Baxter’s works. It is clear there is a great commotion at hand; theleaves are rustling, and the dust is moving. In the very midst of it, however, we find one name still faithful to the “old cause,” as the Puritans call it: on the 8th of March, 1660—that is, while the sway of Charles’s sceptre had already cast its shadow from Breda—we find the following advertisement in theMercurius Politicus:—

Theready and easie way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the excellence thereof compared with the inconveniences and dangers of readmitting Kingship in this Nation. The Author, J. M. Wherein, by reason of the Printers haste, the Errata not coming in time, it is desired that the following faults may be amended. Page 9, line 32, forthe Areopagusreadof Areopagus. P. 10, l. 3, for full Senate, true Senate; l. 4, for fits, is the whole Aristocracy; l. 7, for Provincial States, States of every City. P. 17, l. 29, forcite,citie; 1. 30, forleft,felt. Sold byLivewel Chapman, at the Crown, in Pope’s-head Alley.

The calmness of the blind bard in thus issuing corrections to his hastily-printed pamphlet on behalf of a falling cause, excites our admiration, and gives us an exalted idea of his moral courage. In two months, as might have been expected, he was a proscribed fugitive, sheltering his honoured head from the pursuit of Charles’s myrmidons in some secret hiding-place in Westminster, whilst his works, by order of the House, were being burned by the common hangman.

The lawyers were not slow in perceiving the way the wind was blowing, and set their sails accordingly—if we may take the action of one Mr. Nicholas Bacon, as shown in the following advertisement, as any index of the feelings of his fellows:—

Whereasone Capt.Gouge, a witness examined against the late Kings Majesty, in those Records stiled himself of the Honorable Society ofGraysInne. These are to give notice that the saidGouge, being long sought for, was providentially discovered in a disguise, seized in that Society, and now in custody, being apprehended by the help of some spectators that knew him, viewing of a Banner with his Majesties arms, set up just at the same time of His Majesties landing, on an high Tower in the same Society, byNicholas Bacon, Esq., a Member thereof, as a memorial of so great a deliverance, and testimony of his constant loyalty to His Majesty, and that the saidGougeupon examination confessed, That he was never admitted not so much as a Clerk of that Society.—Mercurius Politicus, June 7, 1660.

Whilst all London was throwing up caps for the restoredmonarch, and England seemed so glad that he himself wondered how he could have been persuaded to stop away so long, let us catch the lost luggage of a poor cavalier, who has just followed his royal master from his long banishment, and turn out its contents for our reader, in order to show that even ruined old courtiers carried more impedimenta than the famous “shirt, towel, and piece of soap” of our renowned Napier. TheMercurius Publicusis now our mine, in which we sink a shaft, and come up with this fossil advertisement, which bears date July 5th, 1660:—

ALeathern Portmantle Lost atSittingburnorRochester,when his Majesty came thither, wherein was a Suit of Camolet Holland, with two little laces in a seam, eight pair of white Gloves, and a pair of Does leather; about twenty yards of skie-colourd Ribbon twelvepenny broad, and a whole piece of black Ribbon tenpenny broad, a cloath lead-coloured cloak, with store of linnen; a pair of shooes, slippers, a Montero, and other things; all which belong to a Gentleman (a near servant to His Maiesty) who hath been too long Imprisoned and Sequestered to be now robbed when all men hope to enjoy their own. If any can give notice, they may leave word withMr. Samuel Merne,His Majesties Book-binder, at his house in Little Britain, and they shall be thankfully rewarded.

The king had not been “in” a month ere his habits appear through the public papers. TheMercurius Politicusis now turned courtier, and has changed its name to theMercurius Publicus. Its columns, indeed, are entirely under the direction of the king, and, instead of slashing articles against malignants, degenerates into a virulent oppressor of the Puritans, and a vehicle for inquiries after his majesty’s favourite dogs that have been stolen. In the number for June 28th, 1660, for instance, we find the following advertisement:—

☞A Smooth Black DOG, less than a Grey-hound, with white under his breast, belonging to the Kings Majesty, was taken from Whitehall, the eighteenth day of this instantJune, or thereabouts. If any one can give notice toJohn Ellis, one of his Majesties servants, or to his Majesties Back-Stairs, shall be well rewarded for their labour.

It is evident that “the smooth black dog” was a very great favourite, for the next publication of the journal contains another advertisement with respect to him, printed in largerItalic type, the diction of which, from its pleasant raillery, looks as though it had come from the king’s own hand:—

☞We must call upon you again for a Black Dog, between a Grey-hound and a Spaniel, no white about him, onely a streak on his Brest, and Tayl a little bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and doubtless was stoln, for the Dog was not born nor bred inEngland,and would never forsake his Master. Whosoever findes him may acquaint any at Whitehal, for the Dog was better known at Court than those who stole him. Will they never leave robbing His Majesty? must he not keep a Dog? This Dogs place (though better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody offers to beg.

Pepys, about this time, describes the king with a train of spaniels and other dogs at his heels, lounging along and feeding the ducks in St. James’s Park; and on occasions still later he was often seen talking to Nelly, as she leaned from her garden-wall that abutted upon the Pall-Mall, whilst his canine favourites grouped around him. On these occasions perhaps the representatives of those gentlemen to be seen in Regent-street, with two bundles of animated wool beneath their arms, were on the look-out, as we find his majesty continually advertising his lost dogs. Later we find him inquiring after “a little brindled greyhound bitch, having her two hinder feet white;” for a “white-haired spaniel, smooth-coated, with large red or yellowish spots,” and for a “black mastiff dog, with cropped ears and cut tail.” And when royalty had done, his Highness Prince Rupert, or Buckingham, or “my Lord Albemarle,” resorted to theLondon Gazetteto make known their canine losses. We think the change in the temper of the age is more clearly marked by these dog advertisements than by anything else. The Puritans did not like sporting animals of any kind, and we much question whether a dog would have followed a fifth-monarchy-man. Hence the total absence of all advertisements bearing upon the “fancy.” Now that the king had returned, the old English love of field-sports spread with fourfold vigour. We chance upon the traces too of a courtly amusement which had been handed down from the middle ages, and was then only lingering amongst us—hawking. Here is an inquiry after a lost lanner:—

Richard Finney, Esquire, of Alaxton, in Leicestershire, about a fortnight since lost aLannerfrom that place; she hath neither Bells nor Varvels; she is a white Hawk, and her long feathers and sarcels are both in the blood. If any one give tidings thereof to Mr. Lambert at the golden Key in Fleet-street, they shall have forty shillings for their pains.—Mercurius Publicus, September 6, 1660.

As London was the only place in which a newspaper was published during the reign of Charles, and indeed for nearly fifty years afterwards, the hue and cry after lost animals always came to town, as a matter of course. It sounds strange to read these advertisements of a sport the very terms of which are now unintelligible to us. What ages seem to have passed since these birds, in all the glory of scarlet hoods, were carried upon some “faire lady’s” wrist, or poised themselves, with fluttering wing, as the falconer uncovered them to view their quarry! We have skipped a few years, in order to afford one or two more examples of these picturesque advertisements, so different from anything to be seen at the present day:—

Loston the 30 of October, 1665, an Intermix’d Barbary Tercel Gentle, engraven in Varvels, Richard Windwood, of Ditton Park, in the County of Bucks, Esq. For more particular marks—if the Varvels be taken off—the 4th feather in one of the wings Imped, and the third pounce of the right foot broke. If any one inform Sir William Roberts, Knight and Baronet (near Harrow-on-the-Hill, in the County of Middlesex), or Mr. William Philips, at the King’s Head in Paternoster Row, of the Hawk, he shall be sufficiently rewarded.—The Intelligencer, Nov. 6, 1665.

The next paper contains an inquiry for a goshawk belonging to Lord William Petre, and two years later a royal bird is inquired after in theLondon Gazette, as follows:—

ASore ger Falcon of His Majesty, lost the 13 of August, who had one Varvel of his Keeper, Roger Higs, of Westminster, Gent. Whosoever hath taken her up and give notice Sir Allan Apsley, Master of His Majesties Hawks at St. James’s, shall be rewarded for his paines. Back-Stairs in Whitehall.

This Sir Allan Apsley is the brother of Mrs. Hutchinson, who has given us such a vivid picture, in the memoir of her husband, of the Commonwealth time. TheLondon Gazette, from which we quote, is the only paper still in existence that had its root in those days. It first appeared in Oxford, uponthe Court taking up its abode in that city during the time of the Great Plague, and was therefore called theOxford Gazette. On the return of Charles to London it followed in his train, and became theLondon Gazette, or Court and official paper, and the latter character it has retained to the present hour. The gazettes of the seventeenth century were widely different from those of our day. They contain foreign news, as well as state papers, royal proclamations, &c., and, stranger still, miscellaneous advertisements are mixed up with those upon the business of the Court. The quack doctors, with an eye, we suppose, to the “quality,” were the first to avail themselves of its pages to make known their nostrums. It will astonish our readers to find what an ancestry some of the quack medicines of the present day have had. “Nervous powders,” specifics for gout, rheumatism, &c., seized upon the columns of the newspapers almost as early as they were published. Here is a specimen which might still serve as a model for such announcements:—

Gentlemen, you are desired to take notice, That Mr.Theophilus Buckworthdoth at his house onMile-end Greenmake and expose to sale, for the publick good, those so famousLozengesorPectoralsapproved for the cure of Consumptions, Coughs, Catarrhs, Asthmas, Hoarness, Strongness of Breath, Colds in general, Diseases incident to the Lungs, and a sovoraign Antidote against the Plague, and all other contagious Diseases and obstructions of the Stomach: And for more convenience of the people, constantly leaveth them sealed up with his coat of arms on the papers, with Mr.Rich. Lowndes(as formerly), at the sign of the White Lion, near the little north door ofPauls Church; Mr.Henry Seile, over againstS. Dunstan’sChurch in Fleet Street; Mr.William Milward, atWestminsterHall Gate; Mr.John Place, atFurnival’s Inn Gate, in Holborn; and Mr.Robert Horn, at the Turk’s-head near the entrance of the Royal Exchange, Booksellers, and no others.This is published to prevent the designs of divers Pretenders, who counterfeit the said Lozenges, to the disparagement of the said Gentleman, and great abuse of the people.—Mercurius Politicus, Nov. 16, 1660.

This is published to prevent the designs of divers Pretenders, who counterfeit the said Lozenges, to the disparagement of the said Gentleman, and great abuse of the people.—Mercurius Politicus, Nov. 16, 1660.

The next is equally characteristic:—

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