ANCIENT ADVERTISEMENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4577, 20 November 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANCIENT ADVERTISEMENTS.

(Prom the Church of England Magazine.) Perhaps the first,posted bill printed in England may have been one in 1480, when Oaxton advertised the sale of the “ Pyes of Salisbury use;” not by any means the eatables known by that name, but a collection of rules for the use of the clergy at Easter; which could be bought at the Red Pole in the Almonry, Westminster. Two copies of this bill are still extant, their size about five inches by seven. Booksellers were not long in adopting this plan of announcing their goods. Ulrich Gering has this distich :■ “ Don't run away on account of the price. Come, rich and poor, this excellent work is sold for a very small sum.” The middle aisle of St. Paul’s Cathedral soon became the place for affixing these bills, which were called signis, most of them beginning with that Latin word ; and all kinds of barter and disorderly conduct were common in that ancient edifice. Ben Johnson describes one of the men who- occupied himself in drawing up those advertisement, one of which may be given : “ If there be any lady or gentlewoman of good carriage that is desirous to entertain a young, straight, and upright gentleman, of the age of five or six-aud-twenty at the most ; who can serve in the nature of a gentleman usher, and hath little legs of purpose (small calveless legs were then characteristic of a gentleman), and a black satin suit of his own to go before her in, which suit for the more sweetening now is in lavender (that is, in pawn), and can hide his face with her fan if need require, or sit in the cold at the stair-foot for her, as well as another gentleman ; let her subscribe her name and place, and diligent respect shall be given.” The oldest newspaper advertisement is to be found in a German newsbook of 1591. It is the notice of a book mitten about an unknown plant, which had appeared near the town of Soltwedcl, and was said to be an evident sign of the Divine math on the wicked inhabitants. The Dutch newspapers took up the practice, which was firmly established in the next century, Here is one marking the introduction of tea; “That excellent, and by all physicians approved China drink, called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the Sultan’s Head Coffeehouse, in Sweeting’s Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.” Coffee and chocolate were not long after the subjects of many announcements ; one man says ■ he sells “ the right coffee powder, from four shillings to four and sixpence per pound as in goodness; that pounded in a mortar at two and sixpence a pound. Chocolate might also be obtained at from four to tan shillings under the house seal—Morat

the Great. Negro and mulatto boys, which were then the fashion in England for pages, are constantly advertised for as runaways, and often offered for sale. Dishonest servants who had absconded were but too numerous, and almost all are described as “pock-marked.” So accustomed were persons to the ravages of this disease, that it was not deemed unpleasant. Louis XIV., who was considered the handsomest man in France, was thus disfigured, as well as Madamoiselle la Valliere and other beauties of the period. Houghton, in his weekly newspaper, announced that he would gladly serve the clergy in all their wants, and soon after offers “a vicaridge, and another cure which requires service hut once a month, value £B6. Tis in Kent, about sixty miles from London.” The use of second-hand sermons, too, appears to have been well known, as he says, “ If any divine or their relicts have complete sets of M.S. Sermons upon the Epistles and Gospels, the Catechism or Festivals, I can help them to a customer.