On July 24, 1837, a balloon ascended from Vauxhall with a parachute attached, in which was Mr. Cocking, who in descending was killed. The Observer published illustrations of this event, which excited great interest at the time. Other papers illustrated Mr. Cocking’s death, which I will recount more at length when I come to treat of the Weekly Chronicle, which contained more illustrations of the event than any other paper. A large engraving appeared in the Observer for August 20, 1837, representing the Waterloo shield, given by Lord George Bentinck, and run for at Goodwood Races, 1837.
When Her Majesty Queen Victoria paid her first visit to the City of London after her accession, the Observer came out with larger engravings than it had ever before produced. Two large views of the interior of Guildhall were given, together with a panoramic sketch of the royal and civic procession, and a portrait of the youthful Queen, ‘surrounded by a beautiful Emblematic Design, in which innocence and strength are happily portrayed by the playfulness of the Doves and the fearless defiance of the Lion.’ Such was the flowery language of the Observer in those days.
The Observer of July 2, 1838, was a double number, price tenpence, and contained several illustrations of the coronation of Queen Victoria, which were also printed in Bell’s Life. I have copied one of them, not because it is particularly good, but simply to mark an important historical event, which ought to have some record in an account of illustrated journalism.
| THE CORONATION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. FROM THE ‘OBSERVER,’ JULY 2, 1838. |
On the occasion of Her Majesty’s marriage, the Observer published a wedding number, containing several engravings, which were introduced to the reader thus:—‘Little in the way of explanation is necessary to render the sketches in the opposite page, with which we have illustrated our account of the splendid ceremonials of Her Majesty’s Nuptials on Monday last, intelligible. Our readers will no doubt make due allowance for any imperfections which may be discovered, when they reflect on the fact that the whole of the labours of the artists and the engravers have been accomplished in less than a week, and this under circumstances of difficulty, in obtaining admission to the scenes to be sketched, almost insurmountable. We should not be doing justice to our engraver were we not to state that it is to Mr. Orrin Smith we owe the consummation of our desire to gratify our patrons.’
On October 30, 1841, a fire occurred in the Tower of London, when the Armoury and 280,000 stand of arms were destroyed. On November 7 the Observer published three illustrations of this great fire. On November 14 it presented its subscribers with a large emblematic engraving on the occasion of the birth of the Prince of Wales. In the following January, when the Prince of Wales was christened, it published a large page engraving designed by W. B. Scott, and engraved by Smith and Linton, containing the ceremony of christening in St. George’s Chapel, the banquet in St. George’s Hall, illustrations of the history of the Princes of Wales from the presentation of the first Prince of Wales to the Welsh, to the religious instruction of Edward VI. by Archbishop Cranmer, including the battle of Cressy with the feats of the Black Prince, and the subsequent pageantry attending the introduction of the King of France as a prisoner into London over London Bridge; following this is the dismissal of Falstaff and his profligate companions by Henry V., with views of Windsor, &c. From this time until 1847 the Observer published no more engravings. In the interval the Illustrated London News commenced its career. On July 12, 1847, the Observer published the last of its illustrations. This was on the installation of Prince Albert as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The engravings have the name of W. J. Linton attached to them, and are on a larger scale, and are better done than anything hitherto appearing in the same paper.
The Weekly Chronicle, the first number of which was published September 18, 1836, started with the idea of illustrating the news of the day as one of its principal features. The price was threepence, and with it was incorporated the Weekly Times. In the first number the public were ‘requested to be on their guard against the substitution of any other paper.’ This probably had reference to some threatened rivalship, for exactly a year later appeared Holt’s Weekly Chronicle, a paper which also gave illustrations of current events. It published engravings connected with the rebellion in Canada, and also illustrated the burning of the Royal Exchange in 1838. It appears to have had only a brief existence. The first number of the Weekly Chronicle contained an engraving of ‘the new grand Balloon which ascended from Vauxhall Gardens with nine persons on Friday, September 9th, engraved by W. C. Walker, from a drawing made by a gentleman who ascended expressly for this paper.’ Number 2 contained a page of comic sketches, apparently by Seymour, and with the number for October 30, 1836, was presented gratis an almanack containing a view of the new Houses of Parliament, not quite as the design was eventually carried out. Very early in its career the Weekly Chronicle selected the criminal records as favourite subjects for illustration. Perhaps some memory of the profits realised by the Observer on the occasion of the Weare murder induced the conductors to cultivate this class of news. Certainly nothing more repulsive ever figured in the pages of an illustrated newspaper than some of the woodcuts published by the Weekly Chronicle.
Towards the end of 1836 another attempt was made on the life of the King of the French, and on January 8, 1837, the Weekly Chronicle published a portrait of the criminal. A month or two later the public were enlightened as to the personal appearance of another murderer, one Pegsworth, who had his portrait taken in Newgate on the morning of his execution. The annals of crime were varied by the exploits of war, and a view of the heights of Amelzagame illustrated the career of the Spanish Legion under the command of General Evans. In the spring of 1837 occurred the Greenacre murder, and the Weekly Chronicle at once went into the case with an evident determination to do full justice to its sensational merits. From the first examination of the murderer before the magistrates to his final exit in the Old Bailey the artists of the paper were on the alert, pencil in hand. It is a painful fact that the numbers of the Weekly Chronicle containing the illustrations of the Greenacre murder had a very large sale. The details of the crime are too shocking to recapitulate, but I will give a list of the woodcuts published in connexion with it.