Part 2
_George Weale_, a Cornish youth, about 18 or 19 years of age, serving as an Apprentice at _Kingston_ with one Mr. _Weale_, an Apothecary, and his Uncle, about the time of the rising of the Counties _Kent_ and _Surrey_, 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 said _George Weale_, let him repair to the said Mr. _Graunt_ his 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:--
That Excellent and by all Physitians approved _China_ Drink called by the _Chineans Tcha_, by other Nations _Tay alias Tee_, is sold at the _Sultaness Head Cophee-House_, in _Sweetings_ Rents, 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] It took, 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; the leaves 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 the _Mercurius Politicus_:--
The ready 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, for _the Areopagus_ read _of 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, for _cite_, _citie_; 1. 30, for _left_, _felt_. Sold by _Livewel 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:--
Whereas one Capt. _Gouge_, a witness examined against the late Kings Majesty, in those Records stiled himself of the Honorable Society of _Grays_ Inne. These are to give notice that the said _Gouge_, 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, by _Nicholas 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 said _Gouge_ upon 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 restored monarch, 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. The _Mercurius Publicus_ is now our mine, in which we sink a shaft, and come up with this fossil advertisement, which bears date July 5th, 1660:--
_A Leathern Portmantle Lost at_ Sittingburn _or_ Rochester, _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 with_ Mr. 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. The _Mercurius Politicus_ is now turned courtier, and has changed its name to the _Mercurius 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:--
[Hand] 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 instant _June_, or thereabouts. If any one can give notice to _John 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 larger Italic type, the diction of which, from its pleasant raillery, looks as though it had come from the king's own hand:--
[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 in_ England, _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 the _London Gazette_ to 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 a LANNER from 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:--
Lost on 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 the _London Gazette_, as follows:--
A Sore 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. The _London Gazette_, from which we quote, is the only paper still in existence that had its root in those days. It first appeared in Oxford, upon the Court taking up its abode in that city during the time of the Great Plague, and was therefore called the _Oxford Gazette_. On the return of Charles to London it followed in his train, and became the _London 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 Buckworth_ doth at his house on _Mile-end Green_ make and expose to sale, for the publick good, those so famous _Lozenges_ or _Pectorals_ approved 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 of _Pauls Church_; Mr. _Henry Seile_, over against _S. Dunstan's_ Church in Fleet Street; Mr. _William Milward_, at _Westminster_ Hall Gate; Mr. _John Place_, at _Furnival'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.
The next is equally characteristic:--
Most Excellent and Approved _Dentifrices_ to scour and cleanse the Teeth, making them white as Ivory, preserves from the Toothach; so that, being constantly used, the parties using it are never troubled with the Toothach: It fastens the Teeth, sweetens the Breath, and preserves the Gums and Mouth from Cankers and Imposthumes. Made by _Robert Turner_, Gentleman; and the right are onely to be had at _Thomas Rookes_, Stationer, at the Holy Lamb at the east end of St. Paul's Church, near the School, in sealed papers, at 12_d._ the paper.
_The reader is desired to beware of counterfeits._
(_Mercurius Politicus_, Dec. 20, 1660.)
Other advertisements about this time profess to cure all diseases by means of an "antimonial cup." Sir Kenelm Digby, the same learned knight who feasted his wife upon capons fattened upon serpents, in order to make her fair, advertises a book in which he professes to show a method of curing wounds by a powder of sympathy; and here is a notification of a remedy which shows still more clearly the superstitious character of the age:--
Small baggs to hang about Children's necks, which are excellent both for the _prevention and cure_ of the _Rickets_, and to ease children in breeding of Teeth, are prepared by Mr. Edmund Buckworth, and constantly to be had at Mr. Philip Clark's, Keeper of the Library in the Fleet, and nowhere else, at 5 shillings a bagge.--_The Intelligencer_, Oct. 16, 1664.
It was left, however, to the reign of Anne for the mountebank to descend from his stage in the fair and the market-place, in order to erect it in the public newspapers. But we have yet to mention one, who might appear to some to be the greatest quack of all, and who about this time resorted to an advertisement in the newspapers to call his patients to his doors;--the royal charlatan, who touched for the evil, makes known that he is at home for the season to his people through the medium of the _Public Intelligencer_ of 1664:--
Whitehall, May 14, 1664. His Sacred Majesty, having declared it to be his Royal will and purpose to continue the healing of his people for the Evil during the Month of May, and then to give over till Michaelmas next, I am commanded to give notice thereof, that the people may not come up to Town in the Interim and lose their labour.
No doubt there was much political significance in this pretended efficacy of the royal touch in scrofulous afflictions; at the same time, there is reason to believe that patients did sometimes speedily recover after undergoing the regal contact. Dr. Tyler Smith, who has written a very clever little book on the subject, boldly states his belief that the emotion felt by these poor stricken people who came within the influence of "that divinity which doth hedge a king," acted upon them as a powerful mental tonic; in a vast number of cases, however, we might impute the tonic to the gold coin which the king always bestowed upon his patient. Be that as it may, the practice flourished down to the time of Anne, at whose death it stopped; the sovereigns of the line of Brunswick never pretending to possess this medicinal virtue, coming as they did to the throne by only a parliamentary title. The reaction from the straightlaced times of the Commonwealth, which set in immediately upon the Restoration, seems to have arrived at its height about the year 1664, and the advertisements at that period reflect very truly the love of pleasure and excitement which seized hold of the people, as if they were bent on making up for the time that had been lost during the Puritanic rule. They are mostly taken up, in fact, with inquiries after "lost lace-work;" announcements of lotteries in the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, of jewels, tapestry, and lockets of "Mr. Cooper's work," of which the following is a fair specimen:--
Lost, on the 27th of July, about Boswell Yard or Drury Lane, a Ladyes Picture, set in gold, and three Keys, with divers other little things in a perfumed pocket. Whosoever shall give notice of or bring the said picture to Mr. Charles Coakine, Goldsmith, near Staples Inne, Holborn, shall have 4 times the value of the gold for his payns.--_The News_, August 4, 1664.
The love of the people also for the strange and marvellous is shown by announcements of rare sights; for instance, we are told that,--
At the Mitre, near the west end of St. Paul's, is to be seen a rare Collection of Curiosityes, much resorted to and admired by persons of great learning and quality, among which a choyce Egyptian Mummy, with hieroglyphicks; the Ant-Beare of Brasil; a Remora; a Torpedo; the Huge Thigh-bone of a Giant; a Moon Fish; a Tropic Bird, &c.--_The News_ of June 2, 1664.
A rather scanty collection of articles, it is true, but eked out monstrously by the "huge thigh-bone of a giant," which in all probability belonged to some huge quadruped. The ignorance of those times with respect to natural history must have been something astonishing, as about the same date we find the following print of what were evidently considered very curious animals advertised in the _London Gazette_:--
A True Representation of the Rhonoserous and Elephant, lately brought from the East Indies to London, drawn after the life, and curiously engraven in Mezzotinto, printed upon a large sheet of paper. Sold by PIERCE TEMPEST, at the Eagle and Child in the Strand, over against Somerset House, Water Gate.--The _London Gazette_, Jan. 22, 1664.
In the succeeding year all advertisements of this kind stop; amusements, from some great disturbing cause, have ceased to attract; there is no more gambling under the name of lotteries at Whitehall; no more curiosities are exhibited to a pleasure loving crew; no more books of amorous songs are published; no more lockets or perfumed bags are dropped; all is stagnation and silence, if we may judge as much from the sudden cessation of advertisements with reference to them in the public papers. Death now comes upon the stage, and rudely shuts the box of Autolycus, crops the street with grass, and marks a red cross on every other door. It is the year of the Great Plague. Those who could, fled early from the pest-stricken city; those who remained until the malady had gained irresistible sway were not allowed to depart, for fear of carrying the contagion into the provinces, the Lord Mayor denying to such a clean bill of health, in consequence of which they were driven back by the rustics as soon as discovered. A singular instance also of the vigilance of the authorities in confining, as they imagined, the mischief within the limits of the metropolis is afforded by the succeeding advertisement:--