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thought she would be injured by her appearance; but it was the audience who were injured :—several fainted before the curtain drew up! When she came to the scene of parting with her wedding-ring, ah! what a sight was there! the very fiddlers in the orchestra, albeit, unused to the melting mood,' blubbered like hungry children crying for their bread and butter; and when the bell rang for music between the acts, the tears ran from the bassoon players' eyes in such plentiful showers, that they choked the finger stops; and making a spout of the instrument, poured in such torrents on the first fiddler's book, that, not seeing the overture was in two sharps, the leader of the band actually played in one flat. But the sobs and sighs of the groaning audience, and the noise of corks drawn from the smelling-bottles, prevented the mistake between flats and sharps being discovered. One hundred and nine ladies fainted! forty-six went into fits and ninetyfive had strong hysterics! The world will scarcely credit the truth, when they are told, that fourteen children, five old women, one hundred tailors, and six common-councilmen, were actually drowned in the inundation of tears that flowed from the galleries, the slips, and the boxes, to increase the briny pond in the pit; the water was three feet deep; and the people that were obliged to stand upon the benches, were in that position up to their ankles in tears! An Act of Parliament against her playing any more will certainly pass." As this effusion appeared. almost immediately after the famous actress's first appearance, we are hardly wrong in considering it as half an advertisement. It must certainly have helped to draw good houses during the rest of her stay.

Lovers of the gentle craft may be interested to know that what was perhaps the earliest advertisement of Izaak Walton's famous little book "The Compleat Angler" was published in one of Wharton's Almanacs. It is on the back of the dedication-leaf to "Hemeroscopeion: Anni Æra

Christianæ, 1654." Hemeroscopeion was William Lilly, and the almanac appeared in 1653, the year in which Walton's book was printed. The advertisement says :—

There is published a Booke of Eighteen-pence price, called The Compleat Angler, Or, The Contemplative man's Recreation: being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing. Not unworthy the perusall. Sold by Richard Marriot in S. Dunstan's Church-yard, Fleetstreet.

The publication of births, marriages, and deaths seems to have begun almost as soon as newspapers were in full swing. At first only the names of the noble and eminent were given, but soon the notices got into much the same form as we now find them. One advantage of the old style was that the amount a man died worth was generally given, though how the exact sum was known directly he died passes our comprehension, unless it was then the fashion. to give off the secret with the latest breath. Even under such circumstances we should hesitate to believe some people of our acquaintance, who have tried now and again, but have never yet succeeded in telling the truth about their own affairs or those of their relatives. And doubtless many an heir felt sadly disappointed, on taking his property, to find it amount to less than half of the published sum. Notices of marriages and deaths were frequent before the announcement of births became fashionable; and in advertisements the real order of things has been completely changed, as obituaries began, marriages followed, and births came last of all. In the first number of the Gentleman's Magazine, January 1731, we find deaths and marriages published under separate heads, and many papers of the time did likewise. The Grub Street Journal gave them among the summary of Domestic News, each particular item having the initials of the paper from which it was taken appended, as was done with all other information under the same head; for which purpose there was at the top of the article the information that C. meant Daily Courant, P. Daily Post-Boy, D. P. Daily Post, D. J. Daily Journal, D. A. Daily Adver

tiser, S. J. St James's Evening Post, W. E. Whitehall Evening Post, and L. E. London Evening Post.

February 7, 1734, we find this :—

In the number for

Died last night at his habitation in Pall-mall, in a very advanced age, count Kilmanseck, who came over from Hanover with King George I. S. —At his lodgings. L. E. D. A. Feb. 1. -Aged about 70. P. Feb. 1. -Of the small-pox, after 8 days illness, in his 23d year count Kilmansegg, son of the countess of Kilmansegg, who came over from Hanover the beginning of the last reign. D.P. Feb. 1.————— -He came over with his highness the prince of Orange, as one of his gentlemen. D. J. Feb. 1.- -Tho' Mr Conundrum cannot account for these different accounts of these two German counts, yet he counts it certain, that the younger count was the son of the countess, who came over from the county of Hanover.

About the same time we find in the same paper another paragraph worthy of notice :

Died, last week at Acton, George Villers, Esq; formerly page of the preference to queen Anne, said to have died worth 30,000l.-Mr Ryley,

a pay-master serjeant, as he was drinking a pint of beer at the Savoy. D. On friday Mr Feverel, master of the bear and rummer tavern in Gerard-street, who was head cook to king William and queen Anne, reputed worth 40,000l. P.-—Mr Favil. D. P. Mr Favel. D. J. -Mr Fewell, 21,000l. D. A.

On March 14, also of 1734, there is this :—

Died on tuesday in Tavistock-street, Mr Mooring, an eminent mercer, that kept Long's warehouse, said to have died worth 60,000l. D. J.This was 5 days before he did die, and 40,000l. more than he

died worth according to D. P. Mar. 12.

And on the 28th this :

Died yesterday morning admiral Mighelles. C.-Mighells. P.Mighills. D. P. -A gentleman belonging to the earl of Grantham was found dead in his bed. P.

And so on, there being announcements in every number, many of which showed differences in the daily-paper notices. There are also plenty of marriage announcements, which, as a rule, give the amounts obtained with the ladies, and some

times the gentlemen's fortunes.

G. S. J. of February 21, 1734:—

The following is from the

Married, yesterday at S. James's church by the right rev. Dr Hen. Egerton, lord bishop of Hereford, the hon. Francis Godolphin, of Scotland-yard, Esq; to the 3d daughter of the countess of Portland, a beautiful lady of 50,000l. fortune. P.-Will. Godolphin, Esq; to the lady Barbara Bentinck, &c. D.P. -At the chapel-royal, at S. James's:

youngest daughter, &c. D. J. D. A.

A few weeks later on there is this:

Married this day the countess of Deloraine, governess to the princesses Mary and Louisa, to Will. Wyndham, Esq; son to the late col. Wyndham. L. E.—They were not married 'till 10 at night.

And on April 25 this:—

Married a few days since

Price, a Buckinghamshire gentleman of near 2000l. per ann. to miss Robinson of the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane. L. E. -On tuesday, the lord Visc. Faulkland to the lady Villew, relict of the late lord Faukland, a lady of great merit and fortune. D. P.-Mr Price's marriage is entirely false and groundless. D. A. Ap. 24.

There are in the Journal, as well as in contemporary and earlier papers, occasional references to births as well, but none calling for any comment at our hands. In the Gentleman's Magazine of February 1736 there are two notices of deaths, one commencing the list, which is curious, and the other immediately following, which cannot fail to be interesting:

SIR

IR Brownlowe Sherard, Bt in Burlington Gardens. He was of a human Disposition, kind to his Servants dislik'd all extravagant Expence, but very liberal of his Fortune, as well to his Relations and Friends, as to Numbers of distressed Objects; and in particular, to St. George's Hospital, near Hyde-Park Corner.

Bernard Lintott, Esq., formerly an eminent Bookseller in Fleet-street. High Sheriff for Sussex, aged 61.

Also the Earl of Derby, and several men who are noted to have died worth sums varying from £13,000 to £100,000, find obituary notices. These give particulars of the lives of

the deceased, and the ways in which the various properties are disposed of, very different from the short announcements of modern days. Thus we find that by the death of the Hon. Walter Chetwynd, the barony of Rathdown in the county of Dublin, and viscounty of Chetwynd of Beerhaven in the county of Cork, both in the peerage of Ireland, became extinct, but that his brother, John Chetwynd, was consoled by an estate of £3000 per annum ; that Mrs Eliza Barber succumbed to "an illness she had contracted in Newgate on a prosecution of her master, a baronet of Leicestershire, of which being honourably acquitted, and a copy of her indictment granted, she had brought an action of £1000 damages;" that Mr Fellows was an eminent sugarbaker; and that Gilbert Campbell had during his life got himself into trouble for misinterpreting his duties as an attorney. The marriage lists have also the admirable fashion of giving the sums of money obtained with the brides or bridegrooms as the case may be, and in some instances the amounts of revenue.

In the London Journal of February 7, 1730, there is the following, which shows that the presentation of advertisement-books gratis is by no means a novelty:

At the New Masquerade Warehouse in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, are given gratis.

PRINT

RINTED Speeches, Jokes, Jests, Conundrums and smart Repartees, suited to each Habit, by which Gentlemen and Ladies may be qualified to speak what is proper to their respective Characters. Also some Dialogues for two or more Persons, particularly between a Cardinal and a Milkmaid; a Judge and a Chimney-sweeper; a Venetian Courtezan and a Quaker; with one very remarkable between a Devil, a Lawyer and an Orange Wench. At the same place is to be spoke with Signor ROSARIO, lately arrived from Venice, who teaches Gentlemen and Ladies the behaviour proper for a Devil, a Courtezan, or any other Character. And whereas it is a frequent practice for Gentlemen to appear in the Habits of Ladies, and Ladies in the habits of Gentlemen, Signor ROSARIO teaches the Italian manner of acting in both capacities. The Quality of both Sexes may be waited on and instructed at their Houses.

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