Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/27

 n s.x. JULY ii, 19U.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

21

LOSDON, SATl'RDAY, JULY 11, 191k.

CONTENTS. No. 237.

NOTES : ' Berrow's Worcester Journal,' 21 The Governor of Malta in ' Midshipman Easy, 1 22 Webster a Con- tributor to Overbury's ' Characters,' 23 Anne Bronte Kings of England ' Shrovetide Throwing at the Cock, 25 William Sydenham, M. D. Fenimore Cooper : a Coincidence Rectory House of St. Michael, Cornhill 'Lines quoted in Jonson's ' Poetaster,' 26 Royal Ladies as Colonels-in-Chief "The weakest goes to the wall" A Misquotation in Thackeray : Colman, Goldsmith, and Gray, 27.
 * ' Sandwich spoils " in 1457, 24 ' The Chronicle of the

QUERIES : Judith Cowper : Mrs. Madan, 27 William Bell Scott Medallic Legends Old Etonians Recent Work of Fiction Sought Portrait of Dryden " Galleon " in English Verse, 28 Merchant Adventurers : Muscovy Company Fildieu Wall-Papers " There's some water where the stags drown "Folk- Lore Queries : Robins and Swallows Author Wanted Alexander Innes, D.D. F. Chapman Childe or Child Family, 29" The d d strawberry " McJannet Surname, 30.

REPLIES : Registers of Protestant Dissenters, 30 " Speak to uie, Lord Byron " Wildgoose, 31" Con- damine" Cromwell's Illegitimate Daughter, Mrs. Hartop A " trawn chaer "Moore of Winster, 32 Military Machines Encaustic Tiles Biographical Information 'Wanted John Curwood Alexander Smith's ' Dream- thorp 'Voltaire on the Jewish People Centenary of the Cigar Register of Marriages of Roman Catholics, 33 W. Baker: T. Crane Lethe, 34 " Ragiime "Heart- Burial De Glamorgan Clack Surname, 35' Ethics of the Dust ' " Master " and " Gentleman " during the Seventeenth Century Duke of Sussex : Morganatic Marriages, 36 'The Times': Bananas Loch Chesney Stubbs's Trade Protection Agency Napoleon IIL at Chislehurst Balnes, Laleham, and Littlyngton, 37 Southwark Bridge Announcements in Newspaper Office Windows Old Etonians The Great Eastern Palla- vicini, 38.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' London' 'London Survivals' ' Bannockburn ' ' The Burlington Magazine.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

4 BERROW'S WORCESTER JOURNAL.'

THIS paper has always appeared once a week, and to its present-day title the following assertions are added : " Established 1690. The Oldest Newspaper in Great Britain. Largest and leading county paper."

L T p to the year 1836, no claim of this kind was attached to the title of Berrow's Wor- cester Journal, but to its issue for 22 Sept., 1836, which professed to be "No. 6982," the statement was added " Established 1709." This claim was continued up to and inclusive of "Xo. 8909," published on 26 July, 1873.

But in the following week's issue, " No 9381," for 2 Aug., 1873, the claim was altered to "Established 1690." No expla- nation was given either of this alteration, or of the cause of the jump of 471 numbers in one week.

Finally, to the title of its issue for 24 Jan., 1885, professing to be " No. 9980," the journal added the second claim : " The Oldest News- paper in Great Britain " ; the third claim, with which I am not concerned, being added later.

A simple calculation will convince any one that the numeration is, and has always been, incorrect, from the year 1836 downwards. If No. 6982 appeared in 1836, the paper must have commenced in 1722. And if the paper's present - day numeration is mor3 accurate, it must have commenced in 1693.

In Jan., 1890, Berrow's Worcester Journal seems to have celebrated a sort of bicen- tenary, and reprinted its articles on the subject as a pamphlet (illustrated), with the title of ' The Oldest English Newspaper.'

From this pamphlet it appears that a passage in the book of one Worcester his- torian, Valentine Green, has been the cause of all these errors.

Valentine Green was born on 16 Oct., 1739. He was by profession an engraver, and was 25 years old when the first edition of his work appeared in 1764, with its then title of ' A Survey of the City of Worcester.' In this he says :

" From the best information it is conjectured that a public paper was established in Worcester as early as the commencement of the Revolution. ....That Worcester was among the earliest, if not the first of the provincial cities that opened this important and ready channel of communica- tion of foreign and domestic intelligence is clearly ascertained.

" It will be seen in the next section that the magistracy of this City very early pledged them- selves, in their corporate capacity, to favour and support the public measures taken to rid the nation of a tyranny that had been found inimical to its liberty and happiness. This was, doubtless, the period that gave birth to the weekly Worcester paper. It is uncertain, however, in what order of succession those publications were first issued, whether monthly, weekly, or what day of the month or week, or in what form, folio, quarto, or otherwise ; but in June, 1709, they assumed a regular and orderly appearance in a small folio, containing six pages, which formed a weekly number, published every Friday, and wereprinted by Stephen Bryan, under the title of the Worcester Postman."

Dr. Nash's two immense volumes con- stitute the authoritative history of Worcester. He quotes Green ; but severely disregards all his assertions about the Worcester paper. In 1903 the Rev. J. R. Burton published the second volume of his valuable ' Biblio- graphy of Worcestershire,' and on p. 5 says :

" In 1662, an Act restricted printing to London York, Oxford, and Cambridge ; it was renewed again in 167<J and 1685, and finally expired in