FAMILY NEWSPAPER COLLECTION

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28530, 8 March 1958, Page 10

FAMILY NEWSPAPER COLLECTION

Back To 1606—And Since

[Bp a Staff Reporter of “The Press" J

many think, have a short life. Printed for the day, their primary function is fully discharged on that day, and the vast majority of the thousands of copies of each edition are condemned to an early death. The number preserved (mainly by newspaper offices and local libraries) is a minute proportion of the total circulation. Some subscribers, however, do keep a restricted

file. Because the newpapers contain accounts of events which are either abnormal or are considered to be of significance these copies are stored away for a second reading or, perhaps, posterity. More often than not, the collection will disappear in the passage of time; but a few survive to be unearthed by later generations.

One that has survived and which appears to be of some value in the history of journalism is today in the possession of Mrs F. J. Hailes, of Kaikoura. Dating back to 1606, the first years of journalism, the series includes some papers which would be rarely found outside Britain; and even there, few’ copies would survive. Although brittle with age, the papers in spite of the hazards of 350 years, are remarkably well preserved. They, as all old newspapers, are a fascinating and revealing study of the customs, attitudes, and conditions of their times. The first of the collection, “The Weekley Newes” of January 31, 1606, contains an account of the sequel to an event which is still celebrated today—the execution of Guy Fawkes and his associates. According to one authority on the history of journalism (Herd, “The March of Journalism”) the first of the modern newspapers, marked by their continuity and regularity of publication, was “The Oxford Gazette,’ which first appeared in 1665. Although the adjective is inconsistent with this view, “The Weekley Newes” was probably one of the first ‘newsbooks’ —single publications which recorded one event.

Guy Fawkes Pay Today, November 5 means nothing more than fireworks, crackers, bonfires, and guys. The spirit of the origin of the celebration is forgotten. The execution report, however, reveals clearly the full strength of the national hatred against the Roman Catholics at the time, a feeling which w’as inevitably deepened by the Gunppwder Plot. It was written “not to aggravate the sorrow of the living in the shame of the dead, but to dissuade the idolatrously blind from seeking their own destruction.” To this end no detail was omitted, and probably a few were invented.

“Then came Keyes, who -was so sturdy a villain that he could not wait the hangman’s turn but turned himself off with such a leap that he broke the halter with the swing and after his fall he was drawn to the block and there his bowels withdrawn and he was divided into four parts. . . . Last of all came the great devil of all, Guy Fawkes, alias Johnson, who should have put to fire the powder. His body was weak with the torture and sickness and he was scarce able to go up the ladder; yet, with much ado. by the help of the hangman went high enough to break his neck by the fall. He made no speech, but with his crosses and idle ceremonies made his end “upon the gallows and the block to the great joy of all the beholders that the land was ended of so wicked a villainy.” Undoubtedly the two biggest news stories of the second half of the seventeenth century were the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Both these events are covered by the collection. The paper published at the time of the Great Plague cannot be classed as a newspaper proper in any real sense. 1 Entitled “The Newes” and dated July 6, 1665, with a by-line, “published for the satisfaction and information of the people,” it was in fact an official release on the “orders conceived and published by the Lord Mayor and Aidermen of the City of London concerning the infection of the plague.” In an age which is rightly considered as one barren of any real conception of medical science, these orders and instructions, although they reveal recognition of the need for isolation and quarantine were probably of little effect. Any good that could result from their enforcement would be nullified by the primitive and insanitary living conditions. By these orders examiners and watchmen were to be appointed in every parish “with a special care that no persons go in or out of infected houses,” searchers and phirurgeons were to give “a true report to the utmost of their knowledge whether the persons whose bodies they searched do die of the infection or of what other diseases as near as they can” —the last phrase in itself (a recognition of the difficulty) must have been of great relief to the hapless examiner. Houses in which a death had occurred were to be shut up for a month, and nothing was to be taken out of them. The burial of the dead was confined to the hours of darkness.

The Great Fire The treatment of the Great Fire of London by “The London Gazette” of September 10,. 1666. the successor to “The Oxford Gazette” previously mentioned, is both interesting and extraordinary. The paper had thrust upon it the fire story of the country’s history. The city was virtually destroyed. It is known that most of the printing houses in London w’ere victims so it may well be the “Gazette” had the “scoop.” A modern newspaper’s approach to a similar situation can well be imagined. “London Gutted by Fire” would be quite an arresting heading in itself. The “Gazette,” however, was not easily perturbed. In the first sentence of the report the paper appears to recognise its responsibility. “It hath been thought fit for satisfying the minds of so many of His Majesties good subjects who must needs be concerned for the issue of so great an accident to give this short but true accompt of ( it ”

This, however, was not their main concern, for the article is

more an editorial tfian a report. It criticised the (people on the ground that “care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it by pulling down houses as ought to have been done" and their selfishness;

“if the whole industry of the inhabitants had been applyd to the stopping of the fire and not to the saving of their particular goods the success might have been better not only to the publick but to the many of them in their,own particulars.” The only assessment of the damage appears at the end of the article in tabulated form with no elaboration whatever. “The following list of buildings destroyed in this terrible disaster hath been taken: 13,200 houses, 87 churches, 6 chapels, The Royal Exchange, The Custom House, Jail at Newgate, 3 city gates. The Guildhall, and 4 bridges.” “ The Tinies ” The newspaper collection also includes several copies of “The Times” of the period of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1793 to 1815. The earliest copy is one of January 4, 1793, eight years after the first appearance of the paper. At that time it was priced at 4d; but in the period of the collection the price rose, for obvious reasons, to 4£d in 1797 to 6d from 1798 to 1815. Each paper consisted of four pages, usually two each of news and advertisements. The Revolution and later the war, when “The Times” had special “on the spot” correspondents, were almost the sole source of news. At the time the circulation of the paper was between 3000 and 4000, a considerable figure for those days. It is through a study of the columns of advertisements that the best indication of the character of the age can be seen. Although the movements which culminated in the parliamentary and civil service reforms of the next century had begun and were gathering support, the period covered by the collection was still essentially aristocratic and outside that class there was little prospect of advance, place, or position. That it was a time when favour and influence counted more, at least in the first instance, than competence or ability in appointments to Government jobs, seats in Parliaments and rank in the forces can be seen from the content of the following advertisements which appeared in “The Times”: “The sum of five hundred pounds will be given to any lady or gentleman who may be able to procure the appointment of Assistant Commissary to the forces in Great Britain for a young gentleman who has a strong knowledge of business; or to any person holding that appointment and willing to resign in favour of the advertiser who has sufficient interest to carry such succession into effect. If he should be disappointed in this an adequate sum will be given for a situation in any of the offices under the Government. The strictest honour and secrecy may be relied on. Apply to A. B. Nando’s coffee house, Fleet street.”

It was an age when an “embroiderer to His Majesty” could advertise that he “respectfully acquaints the nobility and gentry that he has prepared for the hunting season some pieces of new patent waterproof cloth in scarlet which he can recommend for its superior quality and efficacy in keeping out the wet.” It was an age when a performance of sacred music was advertised as “open to the nobility, the gentry and Che public” and a country house “which must not exceed five miles from London, contain six principal and six servants’ bedrooms, two or three parlours, drawing room, domestic offices, coach house, stable and a garden,” was sought. Board And Lodging The few board and lodging advertisements which appeared are also of interest. In “The Times.” January 10, 1806: “A single gentleman may be accommodated in a private respectable family where there is genteel society. Situation within a quarter of an hour’s walk west from St. Paul’s. For cards of address apply at 91 Hatton Garden. It is requested that none but gentlemen of character apply as respectable references will be expected.” The language sets it apart from its counterpart of today and indeed the person advertising in “The Times” in 1806 would cater for only a limited class of boarders and replies would not be expected from all sections of the community. With the universal use of the advertisement and the demand for economy of space the leisured style has gone, and the language has lost its dignity and exclusiveness. The same advertisement in utilitarian and abbreviated language of the classified advertisement of 1958 would read: “Bd offered to sober young man, Good home. Central. Refs, essential. Apply X 1978 .” Similarly and for the same reasons, the agony column has lost its old colour and distinction. The forbear of today’s “Tom, please call or write; love, Mary” can be seen in “The Times,” July 3. 1797: “To the gentleman who has liberally assisted a lady in the vicinity of Tottenham Court road. Sir, I assure you with the strictest veracity that your last absence from me has rendered me so unhappy that it has occasioned me being very ill. If it does not suit you to call on me I entreat you to let me hear from you as that be of great relief to my miha.”