Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The Leeds Mercury, then published weekly, on Tuesdays, was first printed this year, July 1st, by “John Hirst, over-against Kirkgate-end.” During the first two years of its existence this now popular journal consisted of twelve small quarto pages, the first of which is ornamented with a rude wood cut, representing the Golden Fleece, and a fat old postman, with a wig, and a low-crowned and broad-brimmed hat, blowing a straight horn, and appearing to gallop on a heavy bob-tailed horse, under which was printed, in large type, “THE LEEDS MERCURY, being the freshest advices, Foreign and Domestick, together with an account of trade,” etc., etc. The paper then sold for three-half-pence, and the editor of that day appears to have considered the local affairs of his own town and neighbourhood to be too well known to require noticing: during the whole of the period alluded to, the Mercury contained nothing but brief extracts from the London papers, with the weekly metropolitan bills of mortality, and casualties.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

The Leeds Mercury, then published weekly, on Tuesdays, was first printed this year, July 1st, by “John Hirst, over-against Kirkgate-end.” During the first two years of its existence this now popular journal consisted of twelve small quarto pages, the first of which is ornamented with a rude wood cut, representing the Golden Fleece, and a fat old postman, with a wig, and a low-crowned and broad-brimmed hat, blowing a straight horn, and appearing to gallop on a heavy bob-tailed horse, under which was printed, in large type, “THE LEEDS MERCURY, being the freshest advices, Foreign and Domestick, together with an account of trade,” etc., etc.

The paper then sold for three-half-pence, and the editor of that day appears to have considered the local affairs of his own town and neighbourhood to be too well known to require noticing: during the whole of the period alluded to, the Mercury contained nothing but brief extracts from the London papers, with the weekly metropolitan bills of mortality, and casualties.

170 words.

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• Golden Fleece (1) ·
• Leeds Mercury (18), leading Whig newspaper founded by John Hirst in 1718, bought by Nonconformist-Liberal Edward Baines in 1801 and used to advocate some types of social and political reform, remained in the family for two more generations ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• London (74) ·
• Newspaper (3) ·
• Woodcut (1) ·

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