Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/307

 i2S.ii. OCT. 14, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

301

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER U, 19 K.

CONTENTS.-No. 42.

.NOTES : ' The Morning Post,' 1772-1916, 301 Negro, or Coloured, Bandsmen in the Army, 303 London's Enter tainment to " Four Indian Kings." 304' The Tragedy of Caesar's Revenge,' 305 Garrick's Friends Lewisian Epi- taphs at Llanerchaeron, 307 ''Cadeau" = a Present Gloves : Survivals of Old Customs War Words in News- papersNapoleon and Sugar, 308.

QUERIES: Fishing -Rod in the Bible or Talmud William Bell Epitaphs in Old London and Suburban Graveyards, 308 Welthen Author Wanted Abell Bar- nard of Windsor Castle and Clewer Drake's Ship Quaker Grammar "Tefal" Kepier School, Houghton- le-Spring, 1770-90, 309 Sir Herbert Croft and Lowth Plumstead Lloyd Badges : Identification Sought Ear Tingling : Charm to " Cut the Scandal " Madame de Stael : Louis Alphonse Rocca Eighteenth-Century Rate- Books, Fleet Street "Septeiu sine horis," 310 Mary, Queen of Scots John Jones, Author of 'Natural or Supernatural 'Boccaccio's ' Decameron,' 311.

REPLIES : An English Army Listof 1740, 311 Acco, 314 Dr. Thomas Frewen Watch House S. J., Water-Colour Artist William Marshall, Earl of Striguil, 315 Author Wanted The Sign Virgo - Restoration of Old Deeds and Manuscripts Mother and Child, 316 Osbert Salvin St. Newlyn East Slonk Hill, Shoreham, Sussex Por- traits in Stained Glass, 317 '"Court" in French Place- Names Apothecary M.P.s, 313 "One's place in the sun " Erasmus Saunders, Winchester Scholar Village Pounds, 319.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'Le Strange Records ' "The Burlington Magazine.'

Notices to Correspondents.

' THE MORNING POST,' 1772-1916.

NOWADAYS it is impossible to conceive of London without its multitude of morning papers, yet, when The Morning Post was first issued on the 2nd of November, 1772, there were only two other morning papers pub- lished in London, and these with but a very limited circulation, viz., The Public Advertiser, associated with the printing of the Jtinius letters, which expired in 1793, and The Morning Chronicle, founded by " Memory Woodfall " in 1769. It is true that there was The Public Ledger, founded in 1759, and still flourishing ; but it was and is exclusively commercial, and is only of interest to the merchant and the large trader.

On the 9th of August last The Morning Post issued its 45,000th number, and this it commemorated by an article over the

signature of M. T. I., in which are some reminiscences of itscareer. Its full ti:l<; was originally The Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, and it has appeared, with the exception of one day, when the editor wa.s indisposed, " as regular as the morning sun, and has outlived all its contemporaries " (' Lord Glenesk a,nd " The Morning Post," ' by Reginald Lucas).

Among the original proprietors was John Bell, ever to be remembered by his beautiful edition of the " British Poets." In order to evade the stamp duty, he brought out the paper in pamphlet form, consisting of four pages, each measuring twenty inches by fourteen, published at one penny. But the Board of Inland Revenue, which, as long as the taxes on the press remained, kept a keen eye on all newspapers, was " down " on him, and in a fortnight this paragraph ap- peared :

" This present paper will be delivered for only one halfpenny more than the former, and although every paper stands the proprietor in a penny extraordinary, the various publishers will be established in various parts of the town, and it will be sold for three half pence."

In 1775 that extraordinary man, Henry Bate, " the fighting parson," became editor; in 1780, however, he quarrelled with the proprietors, and founded The Morning Herald. He had, in the course of his career, been engaged in several duels, and The Morning Post had to defend many actions for libel. The most serious of these was Bate's charging the Duke of Richmond with treasonably communicating with the French, invasion by whom was then feared. For this Bate was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment. He is better remembered as Sir Henry Bate Dudley. He took the name of Dudley in compliance with a will, and for his defence of the Prince of Wales was re- warded with a baronetcy. Referring to his editorship, Mr. Escott, in his ' Masters of English Journalism,' says :

"Buffoonery, scurrility, riskiness of language* reeking of scandal, and only falling short of the obscene, had formed the staple of the imregenerate Morning Post under Bate's editorship."

The paper was unfortunate in having a yet more unworthy clergyman to succeed him, William Jackson, an Irish revolutionist (' D.N.B.,' xxix. 110), and preacher at Tavistock Chapel, Drury Lane. He had charge of The Morning Post in 1784, when, as " Scrutineer," he fiercely attacked Fox on the occasion of his election for Westminster, but in such a way as to keep clear of an action for libel.