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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. in. MAR. 25, m
THE 'GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.'
(9 th S. iii. 144.)
WHILE the Gentleman's Magazine may lay claim to being eighty-six years older than Blackwood's, it is correct to call jBlackwood's the "parent and model of the modern magazine." All honour to the founders of the Gentleman's Magazine, for we owe to them a deep debt of gratitude for the stores of information on the current events of the day they have handed down to us, and made easily accessible by indexes. When established in 1731, the Gentleman's Magazine was a "Traders' Monthly Intelligencer," giving a summary of events and extracts from the various newspapers. The intro- duction states :
" Our present undertaking is in the first place to give Monthly a view of all the pieces of Wit, Humour, or Intelligence, daily offered to the Publick in the newspapers (which of late are so multiply'd as to render it impossible unless a man make it his business to consult them all), and in the next place we shall join therewith some other matters of Use or Amusement that will be com- municated to us."
This "Monthly Intelligencer" furnishes a vivid picture of " the good old times," as the following extracts indicate. In the first number, published January, 1731, we have a New Year's greeting to Sir Robert Wai- pole
Guardian of Britannia's Glory, Life and Soul of Europe's Peace.
There is an account of their majesties re- ceiving the compliments of the nobility at the New Year, and among them Lord Carteret, who was graciously welcomed. " The Ode for the day composed by Colly Gibber, Esq., Poet Laureat,* was performed ; the Musick by Mr. Eccles." In this ode "grateful Britons "are called to " bless the year " :
Your plenty to the skies you owe, Peace is your monarch's care ; Thus bounteous Jove and George below Divided empire share.
The 6th of January being Twelfth Day, " at Night their Majesties play'd at Hazard, for the Benefit of the Groomporter ; and 'twas said the King won 600 Guineas, the Queen 360, Princess Amelia 20, Princess Carolina 10,
- The biography of Colley Gibber in the ' Dic-
tionary of National Biography ' states that Gibber attributed his being appointed Laureate to his Whig principles. The appointment is dated December 3rd, 1730, Eusden having died on the 27th of the previous September.
the Earl of Portmore and Duke of Grafton
several thousands."
The same night a notorious gaming-house behind Gray's Inn Walks was searched by the High Constable of the Holborn division with several of his constables, but the game- sters, having previous notice, had all fled.
We have also an account of a duel fought on the 25th of January in the new walk in the upper park at St. James's, between Lord Hervey and the Right Hon. Wm. Pulteney Esq.
On the 27th of February two publishers were taken into custody for publishing a libel entitled ' The Divine Catastrophe of the Royal Family of the Stuarts.'
On the next day the new church at Blooms- bury was consecrated by the name of St. George, as was also the bury ing-ground in the Fields adjoining.
On March 8th Charlforth and Cox, two solicitors convicted of forgery, stood in the pillory at the Royal Exchange, and on the same day five malefactors were executed at Tyburn.
On April 26th the death of "Mr. Daniel de Foe, Sen., eminent for his many Writings," is recorded ; and among the appointments on the 29th of the same month is that of William Cowper, Esq., to be clerk to the Commission of Bankruptcy.
On the 7th of May the royal assent is given to a number of Acts, including one for raising 1,200,000^. by annuities and a lottery, and another directing that all proceedings in courts of justice in England, and in the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, shall be in English, and shall be written in such a legible hand as Acts of Parliament are engrossed in, not court hand.
On August 18th Erlw. Mitchel was executed at Nottingham for forgery, made felony by a late Act of Parliament.
On Sunday, September 5th, a man of sixty years of age stood in a white sheet at the cathedral church at Norwich as a penance.
In the September number it is also stated :
"From Mosco 'tis advised, that Ewdokia Foedor- owna Lassuckin [sic], first Wife to Peter the Great, died in a Monastery near that City, Aug. 2 last. She was separated from his Czarish Majesty, and confin'd in a Prison for several Years ; during which Imprisonment, she lost her only son the Czarowitz. When her Grandson Peter II. ascended the Throne she was taken out of Prison, and a little after had the Grief to see her Granddaughter, the Princess Natalia, depart this Life; who was soon followed by her Grandson Peter II."
O n September 3rd it is reported from Moscow that " ambassadors are on the Road from the Emperor of China to demand the Czarina's
