Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/235

Rh but a few words must be said about the first newspapers by which men and women got their news during the war.

As early as the year 1622 Nathaniel Butter hit on the idea of printing all the news of the day upon a single sheet and publishing it regularly week by week under a distinctive title. The news writers, special correspondents as we call them to-day, used to make their way from tavern to tavern, picking up odds and ends of news; they would squeeze into the Old Bailey to report some interesting trial, or obtain admission to the gallery of Whitehall to notice how the King was dressed. With the outbreak of the war the demand for news increased, and each side started its own newspaper. The Royalist paper, Mercurius Aulicus, appeared in 1643, and numerous others followed. There was the Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, the Weekly Post, the Mercurius Politicus, the Public Advertiser, &c. One hundred and seventy weekly papers are said to have started between 1642 and 1649. These little sheets had a powerful effect. They were distributed through the villages by carriers and foot posts; countrywomen carried them from the market town in their egg-baskets, and those who could read eagerly