Volume XXIV January, 1927 Number 1 A CENSUS OF BRITISH NEWSPAPERS AND By R. S. CRANE and F. B. KAYE with the assistance of M. E. PRIOK' Gratis quando datur equus, os non inspiciatur. The student of the intellectual and social history of England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who wishes to study the periodical literature of the time can turn to a number of bibiro-. graphical guides. But even the most valuable of these the Ter centenary Handlist and the Union List of Serials, now approaching completion in its provisional edition-still leave certain needs of the scholar uncared for. The Union List, because of its vast scope and its lack of any chronological arrangement, is not very convenient for the student of a special period; and the Tercentenary Handlist, which omits Scotch and Irish periodicals and limits itself to holdings in certain British libraries, does not, naturally, attempt completeness. It has seemed to us, therefore, that this present work would be of service to scholars. We have tried, first, to give a two-fold bibliography, containing both a detailed finding-list of the precise holdings of the leading American libraries and a list of British periodicals apparently not found in these libraries. In these lists we have attempted to include all recognized types of periodicals-newspapers, magazines, reviews, essay sheets in the Spectator tradition, annuals, etc.-from 1620 to 1800, and Scotch, Irish, and Welsh, as well as English publications. In the second place, we have supplied two indexes, the first chronological, so that the student may know just what periodicals were published during any particular year, and the second 1 With the exception of almanacs, though a few of these may have been inadvertently included. geographical, so that he may easily discover the output of periodicals for any particular place outside of London. The finding-list of periodicals in American libraries has been compiled in the main from the reports of thirty-seven libraries.2 It attempts to record not merely the possession of a periodical, but, wherever possible, the precise "run" possessed. In the case of rare periodicals, therefore, the student can often piece out a file of the journal from the scattered holdings. In making this census. We have had to rely chiefly on reports made to us by the various librarians and by certain friends of ours. who have had access to these libraries: naturally, we have seen only a small proportion of the periodicals. In spite, therefore, of the extraordinary amiability and conscientiousness of the librarians, there are evitable errors and omissions in this list against which the user should be warned. (1) Since it is almost impossible for large libraries to single out all their periodicals, it is certain that our list of holdings is incomplete. (2) A few of the items reported are probably not periodicals. (3) As some of the periodicals had a complicated and obscure history, which the existing bibliographies do not untangle, and as the reports of holdings were not all equally full, there are certainly errors in description. Thus many changes in title may well have escaped us; in some instances continuations under a different title may be separated from the original periodical; and in some cases we may have joined what the publishers put asunder. Sometimes, again, we may have failed to discover that a periodical was published outside of London. There are also, no doubt, errors in dates, especially in periodicals of the seventeenth century, because of the difficulty of discriminating between Old and New Style in the reports. Finally, it has sometimes not been possible to be sure of the initial and terminal dates of periodicals, 2 For a list of these libraries see below, pp. 9-11. * We have also used the provisional edition of the Union List of Serials (A-O), from which we have taken a few titles, indicated on our list by the symbol U. L., as well as a few holdings of libraries not included in our original list. The Checklist of Newspapers and Official Gazettes in the New York Public Library (New York, 1915), the List of Newspapers in the Yale University Library (New Haven, 1916), and J. T. Gerould's Sources of English History of the Seventeenth Century, 1603-1689, in the University of Minnesota Library (Minneapolis, 1921) have likewise been consulted with profit. especially of newspapers-to know when a run is complete; and in some cases our terminal dates are simply those of the longest run reported. After all, however, this part of the census is fundamentally a convenience for the locating of periodicals, and anyone using it for that purpose will necessarily, in the periodicals themselves, have a check against its errors. To safeguard the user, however, we have indicated a query whenever we had specific cause for doubt. And we have, moreover, taken great pains to reduce error to a minimum. Queries have been sent again and again to libraries, and a good many of the more perplexing periodicals have been personally examined. As a result, the finding-list, for all its undoubted faultiness, is more complete than any hitherto published for the period. We did not at first intend to publish the supplementary list of periodicals not found in America. In the course of preparing the finding-list, however, it began to come into being, and we presently realized that it might be expanded into a bibliographical convenience and made a part of the chronological and geographical indexes. We therefore set ourselves to pillage bibliographies and to secure 5 This fact will explain some of our deviations from the usual bibliographical descriptions (e. g., in the terminal dates of John Houghton's two Collections). We felt, in those cases, that we had more trustworthy data. The works which we have utilized in this way are: Aitken, G. A. Life of Richard Steele. London, 1889. 2 vols. Allnutt, W. H. "English Provincial Presses, Part III." Bibliographica, II (1896), 276-308. Andrews, A. The History of British Journalism, from the Foundation of the Newspaper Press in England to the Repeal of the Stamp Act in 1855. London, 1859. 2 vols. Austin, Roland. "Gloucester Journal." Notes and Queries, 12th series, X (1922), 261-64, 283-85. Austin, Roland. 6 "Robert Raikes, the Elder, & the Gloucester Journal.'” The Library, 3rd series, VI (1915), 1-24. Barwick, G. F. "A List of Magazines of the Eighteenth Century." Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, X (1908-09), 109-40. Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Catalogue of the Printed Books preserved at Bowes, Robert. A Catalogue of Books printed at or relating to the University Town and County of Cambridge from 1521 to 1893. Cambridge, 1894. information in the British Museum, including the Hendon Repository, and in the Bodleian Library. And the list grew and grew. Soon, as the difficulties accumulated, we felt like Frankensteins. For, from the nature of the case, this list could not be made as trustworthy as the finding-list. The finding-list contained only British Museum. Catalogue of Printed Books: Periodical Publications. London, 1899-1900. Brushfield, T. N. "Andrew Brice, and the Early Exeter Newspaper Press." Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art, XX (1888), 163-214. Burn, J. H. Catalogue of a Collection of Early English Newspapers and Essayists formed by the Late John Thomas Hope, Esq. Oxford, 1865. Catalogue of Periodicals contained in the Bodleian Library. Oxford, 187880. 2 vols. Chalmers, George. The Life of Thomas Ruddiman. London, 1794. Ch[isholm], H. "Newspapers: Sect. 2. British Newspapers." Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., XIX (1911), 552-66. Corns, A. R. Bibliotheca Lincolniensis. Lincoln, 1904. Couper, W. J. The Edinburgh Periodical Press. Stirling, 1908. 2 vols. Crossley, J. "Works of the Learned."" Notes and Queries, 1st series, VI (1852), 435-37. Davidson, James. Bibliotheca Devoniensis: A Catalogue of the Printed Books relating to the County of Devon. Exeter, 1852. Westminster, 1868. Davies, Robert. A Memoir of the York Press. ("Irish Dix, E. R. McC. List of Books Newspapers and Pamphlets printed in Ennis, Co. Clare, in the Eighteenth Century. Dublin, 1912. (“Irish Bibliographical Pamphlets," No. 8.) Dix, E. R. McC. List of Books, Pamphlets and Newspapers printed in Drogheda, Co. Louth, in the Eighteenth Century. Dundalk, 1904. ("Irish Bibliographical Pamphlets," No. 3.) Dix, E. R. McC. List of Books, Pamphlets and Newspapers printed in Limerick from the Earliest Period to 1800. Limerick, 1907. ("Irish Bibliographical Pamphlets," No. 5.) Dix, E. R. McC. List of Books, Pamphlets and Newspapers printed in Monaghan, in the Eighteenth Century. Dundalk, 1906. ("Irish Bibliographical Pamphlets," No. 4.) Dix, E. R. McC. List of Books, Pamphlets, Newspapers, &c. printed in Londonderry, prior to 1801. Dundalk, 1911. ("Irish Bibliographical Pamphlets," No. 7.) Dix, E. R. McC. "Rare Ephemeral Magazines of the Eighteenth Century." Irish Book Lover, I (1910), 71-73. |