a.w.coleherne court, old brompton._august, 1860._ contents.page.advertisements(1855)1 food and its adulterations(1855) 53 the zoological gardens(1855) 93 rats(1857)128 lunatic asylums (1857)150 the london commissariat (1854)200 woolwich arsenal(1858)245 shipwrecks(1858)288 lodging, food, and dress of soldiers(1859)325 the electric telegraph(1854)349 fires and fire insurance(1855)401 the police and the thieves(1856)451 mortality in trades and professions (1860)499 advertisements.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 moneymaking eagerness of the people.as we read in the old musty files of papers those _naïve_ announcements, 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 schalkenlike picture of light and shade; or, later still, we have hogarthian sketches of the young bloods who swelled of old along the pallmall.we trace the moving panorama of men and manners up to our own less demonstrative but more earnest 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.the _english mercurie_ of 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 wordthat is, publications of news appearing at stated intervals, and regularly paged ondid not make their appearance until the latter end of the reign of james i.the _weekely 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 the cavaliers 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 trainbands were not advertisers.after the kings 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 generals 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 paper _mercurius 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 the _mercurius 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: considerations touching the likeliest means to remove hirelings out of the church; wherein is also discoursd of tithes, church fees, church revenues, and whether any maintenance of ministers can be settled by law.the author, j.m.sold by _livewell chapman_, at the crown in popes 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 timethe 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 fulllength portrait of apparently a runaway apprentice, as drawn in the _mercurius politicus_ of july 1st, 1658: if any one can give notice of one _edward 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 cinnamoncolored cloak, and black hat, who run away lately from his master; they are desired to bring or send word to _tho.firby_, stationer, at grays 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 cinnamoncoloured 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 smallpox 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 a companion picture to hang with that of edward perry, copied from the _mercurius politicus_ of may 31st, 1660: a blackhaired maid, of a middle stature, thick set, with big breasts, having her face full marked with the smallpox, calling herself by the name of _nan_ or _agnes hobson_, did, upon monday the 28 of _may_, about six oclock in the morning, steal away from her ladies house in the palmall a minglecoloured wrought tabby gown of deer colour and white; a black striped sattin gown with four broad boneblack silk laces, and a plain blackwatered french tabby gown; also, one scarletcoloured and one other pinkcoloured 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 pinkcoloured worsted stockings, a silver spoon, a leather bag, &c.she went away in greyish cloth wastcoat turned, and a pinkcoloured paragon upper peticoat, with a green tammy under one.if any shall give notice of this person, or things, at one _hopkins_, a shoomakers, next door to the vine tavern, near the palmall end, near charing cross, or at mr._ostlers_, 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 oldfashioned sort of servants, we give another advertisement from the _mercurius politicus_ of july 1st 1658: one _eleanor parker_ (by birth _haddock_), of a tawny reddish complexion, a pretty long nose, tall of stature, servant to mr._frederic howpert_, kentish town, upon saturday last the _26th of june_, ran away and stole two silver spoons; a sweet tentwork bag, with gold and silver lace about it, and lined with satin; a bugle workcushion, very curiously wrought in all manners of slips and flowers; a shell cup, with a lyons 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 said _frederic howpert_, or else to mr