'THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.'
1899, Mar. 25. The Gentleman's Magazine.I was preparing the following article when I was anticipated by Mr. Henry Gerald Hope, who contributed on the 25th of February, 1899, an interesting note on The Gentleman's Magazine, in which he expressed regret that, while there had been many laudatory comments on the thousandth number of Blackwood, there was no reference whatever to an old friend, viz., The Gentleman's Magazine.
While The Gentleman's Magazine may lay claim to being eighty-six years older than Blackwood's, it is correct to call Blackwood's the "parent and model of the modern magazine." All honour to the founders of The Gentleman's Magazine, for we owe to them a deep debt of gratitude for the stores of information on the current events of the day they have handed down to us, and made easily accessible by indexes. When established in 1731, The Gentleman's Magazine was a "Traders' Monthly Intelligencer," giving a summary of events and extracts from the various newspapers. The introduction states :—
"Our present undertaking is in the first place to give Monthly a view of all the pieces of Wit, Humour, or Intelligence, daily offered to the Publick in the newspapers (which of late are so multiply'd as to render it impossible, unless a man make it his business, to consult them all), and in the next place we shall join therewith some other matters of Use or Amusement that will be communicated to us."
Its "Monthly Intelligencer," January, 1731.This " Monthly Intelligencer " furnishes a vivid picture of "the good old times," as the following extracts indicate. In the first number, published January, 1731, we have a New Year's greeting to Sir Robert Walpole—
- Guardian of Britannia's Glory,
- Life and Soul of Europe's Peace.
Ode by Colley
Gibber.There is an account of their majesties receiving the compliments of the nobility at the New Year, and among them Lord Carteret, who was graciously welcomed. "The Ode for the day composed by Colley Gibber, Esq., Poet Laureat,[1] was performed; the Musick by Mr. Eccles." In this ode "grateful Britons " are called to "bless the year" :—
- Your plenty to the skies you owe,
- Peace is your monarch's care ;
- Thus bounteous Jove and George below
- Divided empire share.
Royal winnings on Twelfth Night.The 6th of January being Twelfth Day, "at Night their Majesties play'd at Hazard, for the Benefit of the Groomporter: and 'twas
- ↑ The biography of Colley Gibber in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' states that Gibber attributed his being appointed Laureate to his Whig principles. The appointment is dated December 3rd, 1730, Eusden having died on the 27th of the previous September.
