The Pictorial Press Part 10

'Rome, March 6. There did appear here about the middle of Dec. last, a strange and wonderful Comet near the Ecliptick in the sign of Libra, and in the body of the Virgin. At the same time a Prodigious Egge was laid by a Young Pullet (which had never laid before) with a perfect Comet in it, and as many stars, and in the same form as the enclosed figure shows. All the great ones of Rome have seen it, even the Queen and the Pope. What you see in the enclosed Paper is within the Egge most clearly exprest, and not upon the Sh.e.l.l. The Roman Wits are now very busy in guessing at what this Comet and Egge may portend.'

This account of the egg is printed on the front page of _The Loyal Protestant_, in the midst of Court news from Oxford, munic.i.p.al news from Leicester, news from Edinburgh, &c, and is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut, which I have copied. A further description is appended to the representation of the egg:--'The true form of a Prodigious Egg brought forth at Rome the 11th of Dec. last in the year 1680 in which the Commet here printed does continue to appear.'

'The aforesaid 11th of Dec. about 8 of the Clock in the morning, a Hen Chicken, with a great Noise, crying extraordinarily, that never had laid an Egge before this day, brought forth an Egge of an extraordinary greatness, with all these several Forms as you see here exprest, to the great amazement of all those that have seen it. This is an exact draught of the Egge as it was printed in Italy. But all persons are left to their own choice whether they will believe either this or any of our own late home-bred Miracles or visions.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXTRAORDINARY EGG LAID AT ROME. FROM THE 'LOYAL PROTESTANT AND TRUE DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCER,' 1681.]

Supernatural occurrences and uncommon events, even when traceable to natural causes, have always had great attractions for both the ignorant and the educated. We therefore find the talents of the old newsmen were most frequently exercised on mysterious appearances in the air, floods, fires, and frosts, earthquakes and upheavings of the sea. Having already quoted examples dealing with some of these subjects, I now come to two broadsides which describe and ill.u.s.trate the great frost of 1683-4, when the river Thames was covered with ice eleven inches thick, the forest trees, and even the oaks, in England were split by the frost, most of the hollies were killed, and nearly all the birds perished. According to the testimony of an eye-witness, 'The people kept trades on the Thames as in a fair, till February 4, 1684. About forty coaches daily plied on the Thames as on drye land.' The broadsides under notice give representations of the fair held on the Thames, and describe it in doggerel verse. The one containing the engraving I have copied is ent.i.tled '_Great Britain's Wonder; London's Admiration. Being a True Representation of a Prodigious Frost, which began about the beginning of December, 1683, and continued till the Fourth Day of February following.

And held on with such violence, that Men and Beasts, Coaches and Carts, went as frequently thereon as Boats were wont to pa.s.s before. There was also a street of Booths built from the Temple to Southwark, where were sold all sorts of Goods imaginable--namely Cloaths, Plate, Earthen Ware; Meat, Drink, Brandy, Tobacco, and a Hundred sorts of other Commodities not here inserted. It being the wonder of this present Age, and a great consternation to all the Spectators._' The description opens thus:--

'Behold the Wonder of this present Age A Famous River now become a stage.

Question not what I now declare to you, The Thames is now both Fair and Market too.

And many Thousands dayley do resort, There to behold the Pastime and the Sport Early and late, used by young and old, And valued not the fierceness of the Cold.'

The ill.u.s.tration is a roughly executed woodcut, and represents a street of booths opposite the Temple, looking towards the Middles.e.x sh.o.r.e. On one side are men skating, sliding, riding on sledges, and playing at football; whilst bull-baiting, skittle-playing, &c, go on on the other side. Coaches are driven across the ice, boats are dragged as sledges, and an ox is roasted whole in one corner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FROST FAIR ON THE THAMES, 1683.]

The other broadside has a woodcut of the same scene, but taken from a different point, and looking _down_ the river, with London Bridge, the Tower, Monument, &c, in the distance. In addition to a description of Frost Fair, there is an account of all the great frosts from the time of William the Conqueror.

Some curious particulars of this great frost are recorded by contemporary writers. Evelyn describes the whole scene, and says that he crossed the river on the ice on foot upon the 9th, in order to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth; and again in his coach, from Lambeth to the horse-ferry at Millbank, upon Feb. 5th, when 'it began to thaw, but froze again.' Hackney-coaches plied between Somerset House and the Temple to Southwark. There was a printing-press set up in one of the booths, 'where the people and ladys tooke a fancy to having their names printed, and the day and year set down, when printed on the Thames. This humour took so universally that 'twas estimated the printer gained about 5 a day for printing a line onely at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, &c.' A specimen of this printing has been preserved. It was executed for Charles II., who visited Frost Fair accompanied by several members of his family. It contains, besides the names of the King and Queen, those of the Duke of York, Mary his d.u.c.h.ess, Princess Anne (afterwards Queen Anne), and Prince George of Denmark, her husband.

The last name on the list is 'Hans in Kelder,' which literally means 'Jack in the Cellar,' and is supposed to have been suggested by the humour of the King in allusion to the interesting situation of the Princess Anne; and we can fancy the swarthy face of the 'Merry Monarch'

smiling in the frosty air as this congenial joke was perpetrated.

In the Luttrell collection of broadsides there is one with a large woodcut representing the battle of Sedgemoor and other incidents of Monmouth's rebellion. The letterpress is in wretched verse, and is ent.i.tled, '_A Description of the late Rebellion in the West. A Heroic Poem._' The unfortunate issue of Monmouth's rising excited the sympathy of the common people, to whom he was endeared by his many amiable qualities and his handsome person. Though this broadside was evidently written in the interest of the Government it was likely to have a ready sale, and it was sought to increase the interest by pictorial representation. The engraving, which is on an unusually large scale, is very rough, like all the woodcuts of the period.

The slaughter at Sedgemoor and the execution of the Duke of Monmouth were partly forgotten in the greater horror excited by the unsparing severity of Judge Jefferies in condemning to death hundreds of persons who were charged with being concerned in the rebellion. I have met with one ill.u.s.trated tract relating to the 'b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.size.' It is inserted at the end of the volume of the _London Gazette_ for 1685, and has apparently been added by Dr. Burney, the collector, as bearing upon the events of the time. It forms no part of the _London Gazette_, though bound up with it. There is a rough woodcut on the t.i.tle-page containing eleven portraits, and the t.i.tle is as follows:--

'_The Protestant Martyrs; or the b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes, giving an account of the Lives, Tryals, and Dying Speeches, of all those eminent Protestants that suffered in the West of England by the sentence of that b.l.o.o.d.y and cruel Judge Jefferies; being in all_ 251 _persons, besides what were hanged and destroyed in cold blood. Containing also the Life and Death of James Duke of Monmouth; His Birth and Education; His Actions both at Home and Abroad; His Unfortunate Adventure in the West; His Letter to King James; His Sentence, Execution and Dying-words upon the Scaffold; with a true Copy of the Paper he left behind him. And many other curious Remarks worth the Readers Observation. London, Printed by F. Bradford; at the Bible in Fetter Lane._'

At the end of the pamphlet is printed this curious sentence:--'This b.l.o.o.d.y Tragedy in the West being over our Protestant Judge returns for London; soon after which Alderman Cornish felt the Anger of Somebody behind the Curtain.'

Alderman Cornish was afterwards executed at the corner of King Street, Cheapside, for alleged partic.i.p.ation in the Rye House Plot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARTYRS OF THE b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sIZES, 1685.]

This fragment of contemporary history shows that if there were no regular newspapers to supply the people with ill.u.s.trated news they obtained it in the shape of cheap fly-sheets and broadsides--the form in which it was supplied to them before newspapers began.

Macaulay describes the unlicensed press at this period as being worked in holes and corners, and producing large quant.i.ties of pamphlets which were a direct infraction of the law subjecting the press to a censorship. 'There had long lurked in the garrets of London a cla.s.s of printers who worked steadily at their calling with precautions resembling those employed by coiners and forgers. Women were on the watch to give the alarm by their screams if an officer appeared near the workshop. The press was immediately pushed into a closet behind the bed; the types were flung into the coal-hole, and covered with cinders; the compositor disappeared through a trap-door in the roof, and made off over the tiles of the neighbouring houses. In these dens were manufactured treasonable works of all cla.s.ses and sizes, from halfpenny broadsides of doggerel verse up to ma.s.sy quartos filled with Hebrew quotations.'[1] The pamphlet I have just quoted probably issued from a press of this kind; but he must have been a bold printer who dared to put his name and address to a work wherein Jefferies was openly referred to as 'that b.l.o.o.d.y and cruel Judge Jefferies.'

Large broadsides continued to be the favourite form of ill.u.s.trated journalism for some time after this. One gives a 'true and perfect relation' of a great earthquake which happened at Port Royal, in Jamaica, on Tuesday, June 7th, 1692, and is ill.u.s.trated with a large woodcut. On the death of Queen Mary, the consort of William III., an ill.u.s.trated broadside was published, plentifully garnished with skulls and cross-bones, ent.i.tled, '_Great Britain's Lamentation; or the Funeral Obsequies of that most incomparable Protestant Princess, Mary, of ever Blessed Memory, Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, who departed this life the 28th of December, at Kensington, 1694, in the Thirty-second Year of her Age. She Reigned Five Years, Eight Months, and Seventeen Days. And was conducted from Whitehall to Westminster Abbey, in an open Chariot of State, on black cloath, by the n.o.bility, Judges, and Gentry of the Land, on Tuesday, the 5th of March, 1694-5._' The large woodcut shows the funeral procession, and I have copied that part of it containing the funeral car, with the body of the deceased queen resting under a canopy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FUNERAL OF QUEEN MARY, 1695.]

In a few years after the Revolution newspapers began to increase rapidly. The censorship of the press ceased in 1695, and was immediately followed by the appearance of great numbers of periodical papers. At first they were small in size, were wretchedly printed on the commonest paper, and each number contained only a small quant.i.ty of matter. The art of wood-engraving, the readiest and least expensive method of ill.u.s.tration, was now in the lowest possible condition; and the newspapers at the end of the seventeenth century contain scarcely any ill.u.s.trations, except, perhaps, a heading of a rudely executed figure of a man blowing a horn, flanked by a ship or a castle, and numerous small woodcuts to advertis.e.m.e.nts.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _History of England._

CHAPTER VI.

Constant Attempts at Ill.u.s.trated News--Increase of Caricatures--The _Postman_, 1704--Fiery Apparition in the Air, seen in London--Caricature against the Jacobites--The South-Sea Bubble--Eclipse of the Sun, 1724--The _Grub Street Journal_ an Ill.u.s.trated Paper--The _Daily Post_--Admiral Vernon's Attack on Porto Bello--The _Penny London Post_--Henry Fielding and the _Jacobite's Journal_--_Owen's Weekly Chronicle_--_Lloyd's Evening Post_, and the Trial of Lord Byron for the Murder of Mr. Chaworth--The _St. James's Chronicle_--Ill.u.s.trated Account of a Strange Wild Beast seen in France--The _Gentleman's Journal_ of Anthony Motteux--The _Gentleman's Magazine_ of Edward Cave--The _London Magazine_--The _Scot's Magazine_.

In glancing at the early newspapers it is apparent that the idea, in some shape, of ill.u.s.trating the news of the day was never quite absent from the minds of newspaper conductors. Sometimes it took the form of a rude map of the country where some war was going on, or the plan of some city which was being besieged. In the _London Post_ for July 25, 1701, is a map of the seat of war in Italy, which is reprinted in other numbers, and the _Daily Courant_, for Sept. 8, 1709, contains a large plan of Mons. In the absence of other means, even printers' lines were used to represent a plan of some place, or an event of unusual interest.

Such an attempt at ill.u.s.trated news was made in the _Dublin Journal_ for May 14, 1746, where there is a plan, set up in type and printers' lines, of the battle of Culloden; and in the number for March 28, 1747, there is a similar plan of the trial of Lord Lovat. This is doubly interesting as being _Irish_. Engraving on copper, though it involved the expense of a double printing, was sometimes resorted to for the purpose of enlivening the pages of the early newspapers, and we have seen that it was also employed in broadsides. There was so much enterprise that even penny papers sometimes introduced engravings into their pages.

About the beginning of the eighteenth century caricatures began to increase in England. Religious animosities and political intrigues, always keen incentives to satire, had opened a wide field to the caricaturist in the years which followed the Revolution. But religious bigotry and party spirit, strong as they were at this period, were exceeded by the social follies which came afterwards. The trial of Dr.

Sacheverell occasioned the publication of numerous songs, squibs, and caricatures; but the South-Sea Bubble surpa.s.sed it as a fruitful source of lampoons and pictorial satire. The spirit of ridicule was fed by the political intrigues, the follies and the vices of the Georgian era, and reached its highest development in the days of George III. Amongst other early channels for circulation we find caricatures making their appearance in newspapers, and as we proceed I shall give one or two examples from the ill.u.s.trated journalism of this period.

On March 14, 1704, _The Postman_, one of the papers that was started on the expiration of the censorship (and which Macaulay says was one of the best conducted and most prosperous), published what was called a Postscript for the purpose of making its readers acquainted with a prodigy seen in Spain in the air so far back as the year 1536. It is ill.u.s.trated with a woodcut representing two men fighting in the air; and the following account is given of it:--'The success of the expedition of K. Charles III. being now the subject of all Publick Discourses, the Reader, we hope, will excuse the following Postscript, which must be confest to be of an extraordinary nature, as containing some things hardly to be parallelled. All the states of Christendom being concerned some way or other in this great quarrell, it is not to be wondered at if the discovery of a Prodigy, which seems to foretell the decision of it, has made so much noise at Rome, and that we insert it in this place. The French Faction grew intolerably insolent upon account of the storms which have so long r.e.t.a.r.ded the Portuguese expedition, and represented these cross accidents as a manifest declaration that G.o.d did not approve the same; and this way of arguing, though never so rash and impertinent in itself, prevailed over the generality of the people, in a City which is the Centre of superst.i.tion. The Partizans of the House of Austria were very much dejected and had little to say, when they happily discovered in the Library of the Vatican a Book printed at Bazil in the year 1557 written by Conradus Lycosthenes, wherein they found an argument to confute all the reasons alledged by their adversaries, and a sure Presage in their opinion of the success of K. Charles III. This made a great noise at Rome, and his Grace the Duke of Shrewsbury sent an account thereof. The Book perhaps is not so scarce as they thought at Rome; and the learned Doctor Hans Sloane having one in his Library, and having been so obliging as to give me leave to transcribe that pa.s.sage, I present it here to the reader, leaving it to everyone to make his own observations. The Book is thus Int.i.tuled: "_Prodigiorum Ostentorum Chronicon, &c., per Conradum Lycosthenem, Rubeaquensem. Printed in Folio at Bazil per Henric.u.m Petri 1557_," and amongst the infinite number of Prodigies he relates in his collection, which extends from the beginning of the world to his time, he has the following, page 558 (here follows the description on each side of the woodcut in Latin and English). 'In a certain place of Spain on the 7th of Feby, 1536, 2 hours after the setting of the sun as Fincelius relates it after others, were seen in the Air, which was rainy and cloudy, two Young Men in Armour, fighting with Swords, one of them having in his left hand a Shield or round Buckler, adorned with an Eagle, with this inscription, I SHALL REIGN, and the other having on a long Target with these words, I HAVE REIGNED.

They fought a Duel, and he who had the Eagle on his Buckler beat down his enemy and was conqueror.' The whole affair refers to the war of the Spanish Succession between the partisans of Louis XIV. and the House of Bourbon, and the House of Austria, and is made to foretell the downfall of the former. As the Bourbons did eventually obtain the Crown of Spain, this interpretation of the supposed prodigy may be referred to the same cla.s.s as the prophecies of _Old Moore's Almanack_. I have copied the engraving, which is the only ill.u.s.tration I have found in _The Postman_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRODIGY SEEN IN SPAIN. FROM THE 'POSTMAN,' 1704.]

We have already noticed that no cla.s.s of marvels were so attractive to the early news-writers as apparitions in the air. Another example of this is found in a pamphlet, published in 1710, ent.i.tled '_The Age of Wonders: or, A further and particular Description of the remarkable, and Fiery Apparition that was seen in the Air, on Thursday in the Morning, being May the 11th, 1710_.' It is ill.u.s.trated with a rough woodcut, and has the following description:--

.... 'As for the strange Appearances which were seen on the 11th of May in the Morning, I suppose there is by this time few that do not give Credit to the same, since so many creditable People in several parts of the Town have apparently testified the same, and are ready still to do it upon enquirey, as in Clare Market, Cheapside, Tower-hill, and other places; it was likewise seen by several Market Folks then upon the Water, who have since agreed in Truth thereof, most of which relate in the following manner:--

'On Wednesday Night, or rather Thursday Morning last, much about the Hour of two a Clock, several People, who were then abroad, especially the Watchman about Tower Street, Clare Market, Cheapside, and Westminster, plainly and visibly saw this strange Comet, it seem'd a very great Star, at the end of which was a long tail, or streak of Fire, very wonderful and surprizing to behold. It did not continue fix'd, but pa.s.s'd along with the Scud, or two black Clouds, being carried by a brisk wind that then blew.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIERY APPARITION IN THE AIR, SEEN IN LONDON, 1710.]

'After which follow'd the likeness of a Man in a Cloud of Fire, with a Sword in his hand, which mov'd with the Clouds as the other did, but they saw it for near a quarter of an Hour together, to their very great surprize, and related the same the next Morning, which they are ready now to affirm if any are so curious to go and Enquire, particularly John Smith, near Tower-street, Abraham Wilsley, on Tower-hill, John Miller, near Clare Market, John Williams, in Cheapside, George Mules and Rebeccah Sampson upon the Water, and Mr. Lomax, Watchman of St. Anns, with many others too tedious to insert.'

Amongst the many newspapers that had sprung into existence the following so far improved upon their small and dingy predecessors as to be adorned with pictorial headings:--The _Post Boy_, 1720; the _Weekly Journal_, 1720; the _London Journal_, 1720; the _Weekly Journal, or Sat.u.r.day's Post_, 1721; _Applebee's Weekly Journal_, 1721; _Read's Journal, or British Gazetteer_, 1718-31. The last named appeared for many years as the _Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer_; but the _Weekly Journal_ was a favourite t.i.tle, and was borne by so many other papers that after a time the publisher altered the t.i.tle of his paper to _Read's Journal; or British Gazetteer_, and gave it an engraved heading. Read was a man of enterprise, and surpa.s.sed his contemporaries in endeavouring to make his journal attractive by means of ill.u.s.trations. In his paper for Nov. 1, 1718, there is a caricature engraved on wood. It is levelled against the Jacobites, and is called 'An Hieroglyphick,' and is introduced to the reader with the following rhymes:--

'Will _Fools_ and _Knaves_ their own Misfortune see And ponder on the _Tories_ villany Behold this _Hieroglyphick_, and admire What _Loyalty_ do's in true Souls inspire!

Whate'er the _Figures_ mean we shan't declare, Because the _Jacobites_ will curse and swear; But if our _Readers_ will this piece explain, Their Explanation we shall not disdain.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARICATURE AGAINST THE JACOBITES. FROM 'READ'S WEEKLY JOURNAL,' 1718.]

n.o.body appears to have responded to the invitation conveyed in the verses, for in the succeeding numbers of the paper there is no attempt to explain the 'hieroglyphick.' A copy of this early newspaper caricature is given on the opposite page.

In the same journal for May 20, 1721, there is a large woodcut ent.i.tled 'Lucifers Row-Barge,' which I have also copied. It is a caricature on the South-Sea Bubble, and appears, from what follows, to have been first published in the previous week: 'The Call for this Journal (last week) being very extraordinary, upon account of the delineation of Lucifer's Row-Barge in it, we are desired by several of our Correspondents both in City and Country, to present them with it in this week's paper, with an Explanation of every Representation in the aforesaid Cut, adapted to Figures; with which Request we have comply'd, as supposing it will be acceptable not only to them with such a Design, but likewise pleasing to all our Readers in General.' The different parts of the engraving are described under the ill.u.s.tration on the following page.

Each of these divisions of the subject is further described in verse. In concocting this satire the author has allowed some symptoms of journalistic jealousy to appear by dragging in the correspondent of the _London Journal_ (which was a rival paper), and describing him as the common hangman. The feeling about the South-Sea Bubble must have been very strong to have made this caricature acceptable. It was intended to satirise Mr. Knight, the cashier of the South-Sea Company, who fled the country when it became too hot for him. The verses which accompany the engraving, though by no means models of poetic elegance, might be commended to the attention of some directors of our own day:--

'Then what must such vile Plunderers expect When they upon their Actions do reflect; Who barely have three Kingdoms quite undone From aged Father to the Infant Son?

From many Eyes they've drawn a briny Flood, But Tears to ruined People do no Good.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTH SEA BUBBLE CARICATURE. FROM THE 'WEEKLY JOURNAL AND BRITISH GAZETTEER,' 1721.