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Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 January 1931, Page 6

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WHEN ST. PAUL’S WAS LEADING MEDIUM. SIDELIGHTS OF LIFE IN 17th CENTURY. The first English newspapers appeared at the time o£ the Spanish Armada; but it was not until 1652 that they became a vehicle for advertisements (writes a special correspondent of the Morning Post). Booksellers were the first to take advantage of this medium and the early advertisements found in the Mercurius Politicus were principally of religious publications. One of the first books to be thus advertised bore the appetising title “Gospel Marrow”; it was closely followed by another book called “A Few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul, ” and in 1659 there appeared an advertisement for Milton’s worty, ‘ ‘ Considerations touching the likeliest means /to remove Hirelings out of the Church.” But already the use of newspaper advertising had spread to other trades. In 1658 the following advertisement had appeared in the Mercurius Politicus: “That Excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink called by the Chineans Telia, and by other nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the Sultaness Cophee-House .’ ’ This is the first advertisement for tea; but from the mention of doctors’ recommendations, it is to be presumed that the beverage had been in use for some time. Gradually the power of newspapers increased; they became the accepted medium for every form of advertisement, St. Paul’s Cathedral had once been the clearing house for miscellaneous advertisements; (and one of its walls, nicknamed “Si Quis,” mecause of the notices fixed to it which began with these words, had served the combined duties of • registry office, information bureau, and stock exchange. But when St. Paul’s was burnt to the ground in the great fire of London in 1666 advertisers transferred their patronage to the newspapers.

From the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, the advertisement colmns of London’s newspapers provided the modern reader with continuous sidelights on the history of the times. In 1663 a‘ ‘ Perrywigge-maker. ” trying hard to keep pace with the contemporary demand for flowing wigs, gave notice that: “Anyone having long flaxen hayr to sell may repayre to him, and they shall have 10s the ounce, and for any other long fine hayr after the Eate of os or 7s the ounce,” LEYDEN’S APPEAL.

London, however, had its unpleasant side, as is shown by an advertisement in the London Gazette for 1679, asking for information regarding an attack on the poet Dryden, who had been “at night, barbarously assaulted and wounded in Eose Street, in Covent Garden, by divers men unknown.” About this time appear the first advertisements of the trade in blackamoors, which developed to such proportions that by the middle of the eighteenth century “a well-ni|ade, goodtempered black-boy” was habitually offered for sale in the same lot as chestnut geldings, barrels of brandy, and other goods and chattels. In the seventeenth century the advertisement columns of the press were frequently used by Eoyalty; and in the Public Intelligencer of 166-4 Charles 11. announced that he would be “at home” throughout the month of May for the bestowal of the Boyal I Touch on those of his subjects as were suffering from the King’s Evil. In the same year we have evidence of the popular love for the strange and the marvellous in an announcement that: “At the Mitre, near the west end of St. Paul’s, is to be seen a rare Collection of Curiosityes—among which a choice Egyptian Mummy, with Hieroglyphicks, the Ant-Beare of Brasil, a Eemora, a Torpedo, the Huge Thighbone of a giant, a Moonfish, g Tropic Bird, etc. . . . ” THE SNEAK-GUEST. The early years of the eighteenth century saw the first theatre advertisements, and the rise of the Tatler, the Spectator, and the Guardian. Much space was given in these papers to advertisement matter; and it is possible from these to gain some notion of the craze for lotteries which at this time swept England. Every conceivable article was lotteried; and the advertisements included “A Sixpenny Sale of Lace,” “A Penny Adventure for a Great Pie,” and ‘‘Threepenny Sales of Houses.” The announcement in the Tatler for May Bth, 1709, reveals for the first time the existence of that most sought-after and most shunned individual, the “sneak-guest”: “Any ladies who have any particular stories of their acquaintance, which they are willing privately to make public, may send ’em by the post to Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. ,■ .” The present age may be shameless in certain respects; but it is difficult to imagine Mr Bickerstaff’s advertisements finding publication in any twentiethcentury newspaper.