Scarcely a week passes without such runaways being advertised, together with a list of the quaint articles of which their booty consisted. At the risk of wearying the reader with these descriptions of the “old-fashioned” sort of servants, we give another advertisement from the Mercurius Politicus of July 1st 1658:—
One Eleanor Parker (by birth Haddock), of a Tawny reddish complexion, a pretty long nose, tall of stature, servant to Mr. Frederic Howpert, Kentish Town, upon Saturday last the 26th of June, ran away and stole two Silver Spoons; a sweet Tent-work Bag, with gold and silver Lace about it, and lined with Satin; a Bugle work-Cushion, very curiously wrought in all manners of slips and flowers; a Shell cup, with a Lyon’s face, and a Ring of silver in its mouth; besides many other things of considerable value, which she took out of her Mistresses Cabinet, which she broke open; as also some Cloaths and Linen of all sorts, to the value of Ten pounds and upwards. If any one do meet with her and please to secure her, and give notice to the said Frederic Howpert, or else to Mr. Malpass, Leather-seller, at the Green Dragon, at the upper end of Lawrence Lane, he shall be thankfully rewarded for his pains.
An advertisement which appears in the same paper, of the date of August 11th, 1659, gives us the first notice we have yet found of the service of negro boys in this country. From this period, however, as we shall presently show, England, at least the fashionable part of it, seems to have swarmed with young blackamoors in a greater degree than we should have imagined even from the familiar notice made of them in the pages of the “Tatler” and “Spectator.” These early negroes must have been imported from the Portuguese territories, as we did not deal in the article ourselves till the year 1680. The amusing point of the following advertisement, however, is the assurance it gives us that the Puritans “polled” their negroes as well as themselves.
A Negro-boy, about nine years of age, in a gray Searge suit, his hair cut close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last, August 9, at night, in S. Nicholas Lane, London. If any one can give notice of him to Mr. Tho. Barker, at the Sugarloaf in that Lane, they shall be well rewarded for their pains.
About this time we find repeatedly advertised the loss of horses. It is observable that during the “troubles” such things as highwaymen were unknown. The bold, unruly characters, who at a later date took to the road, were then either enlisted under the banners of the state or had gone over the sea to Charlie. The great extent to which horse-stealing prevailed during the Commonwealth period, and, indeed, for the next half-century, might possibly be ascribed to the value of those animals consequent upon the scarcity produced by the casualties of the battle-field. We cannot account, however, for one fact connected with the horse-stealing of the Commonwealth period, namely, that when at grass they were often kept saddled. The following advertisement, which is an illustration of this singular custom, is very far from being an uncommon one:—
A Small Black NAG, some ten or eleven years old, no white at all, bob-Tailed, wel forehanded, somewhat thin behind, thick Heels, and goeth crickling and lamish behind at his first going out; the hair is beat off upon his far Hip as broad as a twelvepence; he hath a black leather Saddle trimmed with blew, and covered with a black Calves-skin, its a little torn upon the Pummel; two new Girths of white and green thread, and black Bridle, the Rein whereof is sowed on the off side, and a knot to draw it on the near side, Stoln out of a field at Chelmsford, 21 February instant, from Mr. Henry Bullen. Whosoever can bring tidings to the said Mr. Bullen at Bromfield, or to Mr. Newman at the Grocer’s Arms in Cornhil, shall have 20s. for his pains.—Mercurius Politicus, February 24, 1659.
It could scarcely have been, in this particular case at least, that the exigencies of the time required such precautions, as the only rising that took place this year occurred six months afterwards in the county of Chester. The furniture of the nag, it must be confessed, seems remarkably adapted for service, and might, from its colour, have belonged to a veritable Ironside trooper. Another reason, perhaps, of the great value of horses at this period, was the establishment of public conveyances, by which means travellers as well as letters were conveyed from one part of the kingdom to the other. Prior to the year 1636 there was no such thing as a postal service for the use of the people in this country. The court had, it is true, an establishment for the forwarding of despatches, but its efficacy may be judged of from a letter written by one Bryan Tuke, “master of the postes” in Henry VIII.’s time, to Cromwell, who had evidently been sharply reproving him for remissness in forwarding the king’s papers:—
“The Kinges Grace hath no mor ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe had, but betweene London and Calais.... For, sir, ye knowe well that, except the hackney-horses betweene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as in the accustomed places of France and other partes; ne men can keepe horses in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges; but when placardes be sent for suche cause (to order the immediate forwarding of some state packet) the constables many tymes be fayne to take horses oute of ploues and cartes, wherein can be no extreme diligence.”
This was in the year 1533. Elizabeth, however, established horse-posts on all the great routes for the transmission of the letters of the court; and this, in 1633, was developed into a public post, which went night and day at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter—not such bad travelling for those days. Still there was no means of forwarding passengers until the time of Cromwell, when we find stagecoaches established on all the great roads throughout the kingdom. We do not know that we have ever seen quoted so early a notice of public stage conveyances. We have evidently not given our ancestors so much credit as they deserved. The following advertisement shows the time taken and the fares of a considerable number of these journeys:—