Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/326

 264 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ 12 s.x. APRIL 8,1022. prise and also with editorial pride for the accuracy of its news, and the quickness with which it printed the " posts " received, for it promised : N.B. This Journal shall constantly contain (Weekly) all the three Posts regularly, (as Thurs- days, Saturdays, and Mondays) and not as some other News Papers published in this Country (an errant cheat to the Publick) where the whole of the last Post is always left for the beginning of the next Week : So that consequently the chiefest, greatest, and most material Part of their News is a Week old before it comes out. Variations were made from time to time in the heading and style of type used. The original woodcut was used for two years and replaced (April 6, 1724) by a new view, one of the " S : W : Prospect of Gloucester," which has some historical value for depicting buildings now gone. The word The was added before Gloucester Journal and so printed (except for spelling as ' GlocesterS used from April 16, 1754) until Dec. 31, 1810. The second woodcut was used for the last time on April 24, 1725, and from that date until April 16, 1754, when the figure of Prudence and the arms of the city were placed on either side of the title. Rules for columns were used first on May 31, 1725, and on Sept. 6 following, the page was arranged in three columns instead of two. In ' N. & Q.' (11 S. xi. 317) I have referred to errors in numbering the earlier issues of the paper and also the curious variation in volume numbers between 1872 and 1892. In 1725 came the first important change in the conduct of the paper, Raikes and Dicey deciding to dissolve the partnership. The last number of the Northampton Mercury bearing their two names is Sept. 13 (not October, as stated in its bicentenary number), 1725, and of the Gloucester Journal Sept. 20, 1725, and from the latter date both papers must have been carried on indepen- dently. On May 3, 1725, the form of the paper was changed to four pages instead of six, the type-measure was slightly increased and the price raised from %d. to 2d. The type- measure was increased in 1727 and again in 1734, of which the printer gives notice as follows : Altho' the Printer hereof will be at upwards of 201. per Ann. extraordinary Expenses, on account of the Enlargement of the Paper the News is now printed on, the said Paper will be continued to be sold at 2d. Weekly, or 2s. 3d. per Quarter ; the Overplus Penny being allow'd to the industrious Traveller, for his care to oblige his Customers. In 1737 it was approximately 14in. by 9in. In 1728 and 1729 occurred the encounter which Raikes had with the House of Com- mons and may be said to have risked for the sake of the freedom of the Press. The incidents are too well known to need detailed reference, but it is of interest to mention that the first offence was for printing a paragraph referring to the state of the National Debt, then (1728) just under 7,000,000 (!), and that on the copy of the issue seen is written in ink " The Woful Paragraph," and below, in a different hand, " this Paragraph cost R, R. 40." In 1753 the editor claimed the paper " takes a much larger Circuit than any other Country Paper whatever." Raikes fre- quently published supplements to the paper,, one of the most interesting being a series (in 1739) entitled " Country Common Sense," of which at least 24 numbers were issued. His death occurred on Sept. 7, 1757, and it is characteristic of the reticence which has always been a feature of the paper that no reference at all was made to it. ROLAND AUSTIN. Gloucester. (To be concluded.) THE LOSS OF H.M.S. TIGER. THE following account of the loss of the Tiger in the Black Sea, April 12, 1854, is taken from the Adm. Med. Journals, 123/5, at the P.R.O. : . . . In April, 1854, the Fleets again entered the Euxine and shortly anchored at Baltchich, where the declaration of war was announced and preparations for more active service were ren- dered necessary. On the 2nd April, the Tiger being one of the ships selected for the attack on Odessa, I made every preparation below relative to the reception of the wounded. . . . Pro- videntially, on this occasion, these preparations were not rendered necessary as no casualty of the slightest description occurred during the twelve- consecutive hours that we continued engaged with the enemy's batteries. From this time up to the llth we were with the squadron off Sebas- topol, cruising in cold, damp and foggy weather ; on this day we started in company with the Vesuvius and Niger and steered in the direction' of Odessa, passing in the afternoon into one of the dense fogs whose darkness we had already ex- perienced and which seem to prevail at this season in the Black Sea. On the morning of the 12th, about 6 a.m., I was awoke by a shock and a grinding sensation con- veying the impression that we had come in con- tact with another vessel, but we were soon' alive to the reality and peril of our position as the ship had struck the ground not much more than her own length from the beach, and as the fog gradually cleared off we found ourselves, lying under a high cliff that rose above our mast- heads at a distance of about 250 yards.