A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times.Sampson, Henry
History
A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times.
Sampson, Henry
Advertising -- History
Houghton was indeed so well aware of the utility of giving the
addresses, that in order to render his paper more permanently useful, he
published, apparently on his own account, not only the addresses of some
of the principal shops, but also a list of the residences of the leading
doctors. From this we gather that in June 1694 there were 93 doctors in
and about London, also that Dr (afterwards Sir) Hans Sloane lived at
Montague House (now the British Museum), Dr Radcliffe in Bow Street, and
Dr Garth, by Duke Street. At the conclusion of this list the publisher
says:--
----I shall also go the round, I. of Counsellors and Attorneys; II. of
Surgeons and Gardiners; III. of Lawyers and Attorneys; IV. Schools and
Woodmongers; V. Brokers, coaches and carriers, and such like, and then
round again, beginning with Physitians.
Thus by untiring perseverance, and no small amount of thought and study,
Houghton trained his contemporaries in the art of advertising, and made
them acquainted with the valuable assistance to be derived from a medium
which, as Alexis de Tocqueville remarks, drops the same thought into a
thousand minds at almost the same period. Apart from the interest which
his papers have on the subject we have been considering, they are full
of graphic details which throw a clear and effective light on these old
and bygone times. What can give a more vivid picture of the state of the
roads in this country in winter-time, nearly two centuries ago, than the
following notice extracted from the _Collection for Husbandry and
Trade_, March 10, 1693:--
----Roads are filled with snow, we are forced to ride with the paquet
over hedges and ditches. This day seven-night my boy with the paquet
and two gentlemen were seven hours riding from Dunstable to Hockley,
but three miles, hardly escaping with their lives, being often in
holes and forced to be drawn out with ropes. A man and a woman were
found dead within a mile hence. I fear I have lost my letter-carrier,
who has not been heard of since Thursday last. Six horses lie dead on
the road between Hockley and Brickhill, smothered. I was told last
night that lately was found dead near Beaumarais three men and three
horses.
At this picture of those good old times for which people who know
nothing about them now weep, we will stop. The rest of the story, so far
as the development of advertisements is concerned, will be told in
strict chronological order.
[24] Broer Jansz styles himself “Couranteer in the Army of his
Princely Excellence,” _i.e._, Prince Frederic Henry, the Stadtholder.
Subsequently, in 1630, Jansz commenced a new series, which he entitled
“Tidings from Various Quarters.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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