In another number it is related that ‘the Manchestrians have lately taken from severall Papists in that County many desperate weapons which they call Round-heads.’ No. 22 has a portrait of a Cavalier in hat and feather, intended probably for Prince Maurice, as there is in the body of the number an allusion to a report of his death. In No. 42 there is a portrait of Prince Rupert and the following summary on the title-page:—‘Prince Rupert’s forces routed near Stratford-on-Avon. Generall King’s Army dispersed by the Scots. Himselfe wounded and fled to Yorke. Banbury Castle besieged by Colonell Cromwell.’ I give a copy of Prince Rupert’s portrait, which is made to do duty for the Marquis of Newcastle in another number. This practice of making the same woodcut pass for the portraits of different individuals savours somewhat of impudence on the part of the editor, and shows a cool reliance on the good nature or the obtuseness of his readers.
| THE OXFORD JUNTA IN COUNCIL, FROM ‘MERCURIUS CIVICUS,’ 1644. |
In the number of the Mercurius Civicus for April 11, 1644, there is a curious woodcut representing the ‘Oxford Junta in Council,’ with the following paragraph referring to it:—‘The news from his Excellencies generall Roundezvous at Ailsbury on Good-Fryday next, will no doubt cause the Oxonian Papists to whip themselves before the time, and to make the Oxford Junto to recall their late votes.’ The lady and gentleman in the balcony were probably intended for the King and Queen. There is more variety in this number of Mercurius Civicus than in any I have seen. In the war news there is the taking of Waltam House, in Hampshire; the taking of numerous men and horses at Christ-church, in Dorsetshire; then comes a paragraph stating that ‘On Munday last, April 8, there were ten men and two women executed at Tyburne for the severall offences for which they were condemned the last weeke at the Sessions in the Old Bayley.’ Mention is made of a fight between the Scots Army and the Marquis of Newcastle’s forces near Hilton; the gathering of the King’s forces in the neighbourhood of Marlborough, and an announcement that the Parliament intend to draw all their forces together, and, if possible, by fighting a decisive action ‘to put a speedy end to these miserable distractions.’ The trial of Archbishop Laud was at this time going on, and reference is made to his appearance before the House of Peers. Two Welshmen were taken into custody for talking in Welsh, while they were crossing the river from Westminster to Southwark, about firing the city in several places, they not knowing that the waterman understood their language. It is stated that a solemn day of thanksgiving had been observed in London for the victory obtained over Sir Ralph Hopton’s forces, and an ordinance was read in the churches exhorting the citizens to contribute all their strength to bring the contest to a final issue. There is also some account of recent fires in the city, which are attributed to the treachery of Cavaliers and Malignants. ‘But,’ says the writer, ‘which way soever these sad accidents are brought to passe, they may afford the whole City this caution: that if the firing of some few houses be so dreadful and fearfull, as I am sure this appeared to those that beheld them, notwithstanding they had all means convenient to quench them, and the multitude being industrious to set their hands to the worke: O how terrible would it be to see your houses set on fire by the enemy, and the cruell souldiers, instead of bringing buckets of water, should stand with their drawne swords threatening the death of those that should offer to quench the flame? Poore Ireland can give ample testimony of this.’ From Yorkshire there is news that Fairfax had taken Cawood Castle; from Banbury that the Royalist garrison was withdrawn from that place, and ‘that the Carriers of Banbury and Southam were robbed the last weeke neere Tossiter in Northamptonshire by divers of the Cavaliers Forces.’ In the number for April 25, 1644, there is a figure of the King armed with a sword, and with this inscription:—‘Fire and sword again menaced by his Majesty.’ During the first years of the Civil War the newspapers contained many portraits of the King, some of which were carefully engraved on copper.
It is noticeable that the Mercurius Civicus and other papers published during the Civil War were in the habit of including on their title-pages a summary of the contents of the number. Sometimes it was put in the form of rhyme, as—
| ‘Tewkesbury is taken Yorke walls are well shaken.’ |
| HEADING TO THE ‘SCOTTISH DOVE,’ 1644. |
The Scottish Dove frequently indulged in these rhyming summaries. On the title-page of Number 39 for July 13, 1644, the following lines are printed:—
| ‘Rupert and Newcastle wholly Routed Rupert and Newcastle’s jarres undoubted; Newcastle fled to Sea, Rupert to the King, Give God the Glory heavenly praises sing. A day of thankes the parliament hath set, Lord Gray with some of Hasting’s troops hath met. From Oswestree Middleton the siege did raise And Barnstaples defence, doth Essex praise; The Queen Pendennis Castle liketh best. The King uncertain where to take his rest.’ |
The Scottish Dove was a small quarto numbered and paged consecutively like the Mercurius Civicus. On the front page of every number was printed a woodcut of a dove bearing an olive-branch in its mouth, and at the side of the woodcut was usually printed the rhyming summary. I annex a facsimile of this heading.