Thus, notwithstanding the primitive form of the advertisements, the benefit to be derived from this mode of publicity began to be more and more understood. It was not without great trouble, however; and it was necessary that Houghton should constantly direct the attention of the trading community to the resources and advantages of advertising, which he did in the most candid manner. He simply and abruptly puts the question and leaves those interested to solve it. Thus :— Whether advertisements of schools, or houses and lodgings about London may be useful, I submit to those concerned. And the answer came; for a few days after the public were informed that At one Mr Packer's, in Crooked Lane, next the Dolphin, are very good Lodgings to be let, where there is freedom from noise, and a pretty garden. Freedom from noise and a pretty garden in a street leading from Eastcheap to Fish Street Hill! Shortly after. Houghton calmly observes :— 1 I now find advertisements of schools, houses and lodgings in and about London are thought useful. He then starts other subjects :— I believe some advertisements about bark and timber might be of use both to buyer and seller. * *** I find several barbers think it their interest to take in these papers, and I believe the rest will when they understand them. The barber's shop was then the headquarters of gossip, as it took a long time to shave the whole of a man's beard and curl a sufficient quantum of hair or wig, as worn in those old days, and so the man of suds was expected to entertain his customers or find them entertainment. Next turning his attention to the clergy, Houghton offers that body a helping hand also :— ** I would gladly serve the clergy in all their wants. How he understood this friendly help soon appeared : If any divine or their relicts have complete sets of manuscript sermons upon the Epistles and the Gospels, the Catechism or Festivals, I can help them to a customer. The use of second-hand sermons was not unknown in those days, and detection was of course much less imminent than now. Then I have sold all the manuscript sermons I had and many more, and if any has any more to dispose of that are good and legibly writ, I believe I can help them to customers. Possibly the "many more" was a heavy attempt at humour; but anyhow the sermon article was in great demand, and his kindly services did not rest there: If any incumbent within 20 miles of London will dispose of his living, I can help him to a chapman. A rectory of £100 per annum in as good an air as any in England, 60 miles off, and an easy cure is to be commuted. A vicaridge and another cure which requires service but once a month, value £86. 'Tis in Kent about 60 miles from London. And so on, proving that the clergy had not refused the friendly offer, and were fully as ready as the tradesman to avail themselves of this means of giving vent to their wants and requirements. Houghton would occasionally do a little business to oblige a friend, though it is fair to assume that he participated in the profits : *For a friend, I can sell very good flower of brimstone, etc., as cheap or cheaper than any in town does; and I'll sell any good commodity for any man of repute if desired. I find publishing for others does them kindness, therefore note : I sell lozenges for 8d. the ounce which good drinkers commend against heartburn, and are excellent for women with child, to prevent miscarriages; also the true lapis nephriticus which is esteemed excellent for the stone by wearing it on the wrist. I would gladly buy for a friend the historical part of Cornelius a Lapide upon the Bible. Besides the above particular advertisements, the paper frequently contained another kind, which to us may appear singularly vague and unbusinesslike, but which no doubt perfectly answered their purpose among a comparatively minute metropolitan population, the subjects of William III. We allude to general advertisements such as these :Last week was imported Bacon by Mr Edwards. Horse Hair by Mr Becens. Joynted Babies by Mr Harrison. Mapps by Mr Thompson. Orange Flower Water by Mr Bellamy. Prospective Glasses by Mr Mason. Saffron by Mr Western. Sturgeon by Mr Kett. If any desire it other things may be inserted. In similar style a most extraordinary variety of other things imported are advertised in subsequent numbers, including crystal stones, hops, oxguts, incle, juniper, old pictures, onions, pantiles, quick eels, rushes, spruce beer, sturgeon, trees, brandy, chimney backs, caviar, tobaccopipes, whale-fins, bugle, canes, sheep's-guts, washballs and snuff, a globe, aqua fortis, shruffe, quills, waxworks, ostrich feathers, scamony, clagiary paste, Scotch coals, sweet soap, onion seed, gherkins, mum, painted sticks, soap-berries, mask-leather, and so on, for a long time, only giving the names of the importers, without ever mentioning their addresses, until at last a bright idea struck this gentleman, who seems to have been one of those vulgarly said to be before their time, but who are in fact the pioneers who pave the way for all improvements; and so the Collection was enriched with the following notice : If desired I'll set down the places of abode, and I am sure 'twill be of good use: for I am often asked it. Houghton was indeed so well aware of the utility of giving the addresses, that in order to render his paper more permanently useful, he published, apparently on his own account, not only the addresses of some of the principal shops, but also a list of the residences of the leading doctors. From this we gather that in June 1694 there were 93 doctors in and about London, also that Dr (afterwards Sir) Hans Sloane lived at Montague House (now the British Museum), Dr Radcliffe in Bow Street, and Dr Garth, by Duke Street. At the conclusion of this list the publisher says:— -I shall also go the round, I. of Counsellors and Attorneys; II. of Surgeons and Gardiners; III. of Lawyers and Attorneys; IV. Schools and Woodmongers; v. Brokers, coaches and carriers, and such like, and then round again, beginning with Physitians. Thus by untiring perseverance, and no small amount of thought and study, Houghton trained his contemporaries in the art of advertising, and made them acquainted with the valuable assistance to be derived from a medium which, as Alexis de Tocqueville remarks, drops the same thought into a thousand minds at almost the same period. Apart from the interest which his papers have on the subject we have been considering, they are full of graphic details which throw a clear and effective light on these old and bygone times. What can give a more vivid picture of the state of the roads in this country in winter-time, nearly two centuries ago, than the following notice extracted from the Collection for Husbandry and Trade, March 10, 1693: Roads are filled with snow, we are forced to ride with the paquet over hedges and ditches. This day seven-night my boy with the paquet and two gentlemen were seven hours riding from Dunstable to Hockley, but three miles, hardly escaping with their lives, being often in holes and forced to be drawn out with ropes. A man and a woman were found dead within a mile hence. I fear I have lost my letter-carrier, who has not been heard of since Thursday last. Six horses lie dead on the road between Hockley and Brickhill, smothered. I was told last night that lately was found dead near Beaumarais three men and three horses. At this picture of those good old times for which people who know nothing about them now weep, we will stop. The rest of the story, so far as the development of advertisements is concerned, will be told in strict chronological order. |