Jeremy Black - The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (Routledge Revivals)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.

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1987 Jeremy Black

Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT Croom Helm Australia, 4450 Waterloo Road, North Ryde, 2113, New South Wales

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Black, Jeremy
The English press in the eighteenth century.
1. PressEnglandHistory18th century
I. Title
072 PN5116

ISBN 0-203-83243-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-7099-3924-8 (Print Edition)

Trip to Scarborough, the manager in affliction, and no song no supper. The royal nuptials, slack rope vaulting, and the King and cobler. East India stock, board and lodging, and kitchen utensils. The fugitive, Earl Macartneys embassy to China, and a schoolmaster wanted. Pleasures of imagination, a simple exposition of St Athanasiuss creed, and a chaplaincy for sale. Treasury chambers, transparent orrery, and every man his own gardener. Irish poplin warehouse, view of the prophecies, and three letters to Mr Pitt. Pocket peerage of Great Britain and Ireland, the impenetrable secret, and the whig-club. Independent freeholders, to sail for Philadelphia, and John Hunters infallible preventative. Foreign wines, sea bathing, and national calamities. Rheumatic Tincture, reports of cases, and the history of antient Greece. Sketch of the last campaign, a capital collection of pictures, and paper hangings for the spring trade. Poems in the Scottish dialect, Nipple Liniment, and board and lodging for a lady. Law of corporations, patent watches, and repertory of arts. Essence of pearl, a servant out of livery, and book-keeping at leisure hours. A desirable farm, treatise on tithes, and the next presentation to a valuable rectory. The travellers at home, thirty guineas bounty, and England preserved.

Hodge-podge: or, the first page of a Daily paper, Leeds Mercury, 9 May 1795

To Sarah

I am grateful to a large number of friends, colleagues, archivists, librarians and owners of manuscripts without whom it would have been impossible to write this book. It is not possible to name more than a small number of those who have helped. I owe much to Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Northumberland, Earl Waldegrave, Lady Lucas, the trustees of the Wentworth Woodhouse Collection and John Weston-Underwood for permission to consult their papers. Peter Borsay, Grayson Ditchfield, Michael Harris, David Hayton, Derek Jarrett, Maurice Milne, David Pearson and Peter Thomas read earlier drafts of all or part of this work and their comments have been of the greatest assistance. This book owes much to the kind hospitality of the Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford. Professor Fleury rendered great assistance in Paris. A large number of friends aided the course of research, especially by providing invaluable hospitality. I would particularly like to mention Peter Bassett, Richard Berman, John Blair, Tony Brown, Jonathan Dent, Robert Gildea, Anthony Gross, Dan and Stella Hollis, Harold James, James Kellock, Max King, James Lawrie, Jeremy Mayhew, William Salomon, Peter Spear, Mark Stocker, Alan Welsford and Paul Zealander. My parents were as ever extremely helpful. Richard Stoneman has been an exemplary publisher. The Staff Travel and Research Fund of Durham University and the Twenty Seven Foundation provided useful assistance. The secretaries in the Durham department, particularly Wendy Duery, displayed great patience in coping with my drafts. The book is dedicated to Sarah for being herself.

Note on Currency

Prices are given in eighteenth-century British units of currency. 1=20 shillings (sh)=240 pennies (d). Therefore 6d=2 new pence, lsh=5 new pence.

Note on Dates

Until the 1752 reform of the calendar Britain conformed to Old Style, which was eleven days behind New Style, the Gregorian calendar used in most of the rest of Europe. Until the reform all dates given are Old Style apart from those marked (ns). The convention by which the English New Year began on 25 March has been ignored, and I have given it as starting on 1 January.

This book seeks to provide a general introduction to the eighteenth-century English press. In a work of this length it has not been possible to cover all aspects of the subject. Such a task, demanding knowledge of a wide range of disciplines, has not been attempted for many years, and studies of the press have tended to be of two types. The first, devoted to the press and politics, is predominantly metropolitan in its interests, the second, concentrating on issues of production and ownership, largely so. The most recent study of the London press, the excellent thesis of Michael Harris, to be published as London Newspapers in theAge of Walpole: A Study in the Origins of the Modern English Press, treats metropolitan developments as crucial. The Country Spectator,