Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/267

 12 s. in. APRIL 14, WIT.] JNOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, APRIL Ik, 1917.

C O N T E N T S. No. 67.

NOTES : ETening Papers: their Evolution, 261 The Correspondence of Richard Edwards, 262 Florists' Feasts, 266 Aimy List of 1740, 267 Some Australian Memorial Inscriptions Charles Lamb. Thomas West- wood, and Stackhouse's ' History of the Bible,' 269 Firebacks and Stove Ironwork : Bibliography, 270 Figure of Minerva (or Hibernia), Dublin, 271.

QUERIES : The Alphabet in the Christian Church Govane Maria Jane Jewsbury Heraldry, 271 36th Regiment of Foot Archdeacons of Cleveland John Phillip, A.R.A. : Portraits by Him The Ancestors of Bishop Samuel Seabury Catalogue of Irish MSS. William Blake as " Pictor Ignotus "Folk-Lore : the Spider : Wall - Rue " Talbot Gwynne," 272 Keats Queries Taswell Randle Holme's ' Academy of Armory ' New Milk as a Cure for Swollen Legs Hopkins : Beake Warden Pies Early Nonconformity in Devon and Cornwall, 273 Reference Wanted Military Salute in Cromwell's Army Lope de Vega A Saying of Pitt- Author Wanted The Red Dragon of Wales at 10 Downing Street Col. Sir William Byrd Marten Family Verdun Barony Jack London, 274.

REPLIES : English Colloquial Similes, 274 Foreign Graves of British Authors : Eustace Grenville Murray Mose Skinner Carlyle and Newman, 277- "Small Books on Great Subjects "Heraldic Query : Purple in Heraldry Heraldic Query : Salamander, 278 St. Barbara, V.M., 27* Thomas Gordon : Date of his Birth, 280 The Co- operative System in Fiction Phoenician Traders in Britain Creusot Authors Wanted First Steamer to America, 281 Quaker's Yard, Glamorganshire Will of Nathaniel Kinderley Author of Quotation Wanted St. Paul's School Subscribers to Knight's ' Life of Colet," 282 Gloves at Weddings' The Adventures of a Post Captain 'Library of the late William Watkin Edward Wynne of Peniarth Mother and Child, 283 England, Germany, and the Dye Industry Witchcraft : Case of Mrs. Hicks Jacob or James, 284 Portraits by James Lonsdale Old Flemish Burial-Ground, London Ad- mirals Hood Eglinton Tournament, 285 A "Judy" Portraits in Stained Glass Watts's Charity, Rochester, 286.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' An Introduction to the History of Dumfries ' Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

EVENING PAPERS : THEIR EVOLUTION.

THE various historians of English journalism have given little or no attention to the evolution of the evening paper ; and this is singular, seeing the importance of tha branch of newspaperdom to-day. Mr: Fo Bourne in his ' English Newspapers ' simplj gave a passing mention to the first founda tion of The Evening Post in 1706, and it revival, after a lapse, three years later and he contented himself with observ ing that it was started " partly to giv special prominence to English news." Bu

he main cause for evening journals coming nto existence was the purely natural lemand on the part of the reading public o be supplied with the latest news. This 5 made plain by studying the earliest trace f the idea, which sprang into existence in the written news-letter, forerunner of the rinted newspaper. The news-letter in which that earliest trace is to be found had ecured by that time, however, so large a hare of popular patronage that, while arrying on the style of shaping its intelli- gence from the personal -letter point of view, t was printed in italic characters, preserving hereby, as far as was practicable, the old radition.

On May 11, 1699, Ichabod Dawks an- nounced at the end of his News-Letter that

" This Letter contains whatever is material in ill the other News Papers, to which is added the Occurrences of the day, it not being Published ill between 4 and 5 in the Evening on Post Nights."

On precisely the same lines, and on the jame day, The Flying Post of May 9-11, evidently awakened to the neecssity

or effective competition in this line, pub-

ished the announcement :

" The Flying Post coming out early on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings, /here is added to it the same Evenings a Postscript, printed with all the Domestick Occurrences that lappen, and the Foreign Mails which arrive after The Flying Post is published in the Morning."

Neither of its regularly printed rivals, The Post Man and The Post Boy, exactly followed The Flying Post's example, but the first-named on May 13-16 yielded a little to innovation by intimating that

"If any Gentleman wants this Paper with a Written Postscript to it, they are desired to enquire at Mr. Man's Coffee House, Charing Cross " ;

and this announcement was continued until The Post Boy awakened to the idea of stating to its readers :

" You may be furnish'd with this Paper and Postscript by Mr. John Shank, at Xando's Coffee- house, near Temple-Bar, Fleet-street" ;

and thenceforward the promise made in each case was for some time periodically repeated.

It will be noted that Dawks, in the quota- tion first given, asserted that, as his Letter was not published until the early evening, it gave the news cf the day cf issue. This claim may be held to be substantiated by an incidental proof that this particular news- letter did record " the Occurrences ol the day " on which it was dated, furnished by