The Lavengro account of George Borrow leaving London, making his way to Amesbury and Salisbury, would be dated around 22nd May to the 26th May 1825. At the George Borrow Society “Salisbury” weekend members were given a photocopy of the first page of the Salisbury newspaper for that date, The Salisbury and Winchester Journal, for Monday 23rd May 1825. Although the print is illegible in many places, is now being transcribed and provides useful background on what was going on in the area of Salisbury around the Lavengro period.
The Salisbury and Winchester Journal was published weekly and consisted of 4 large pages, each with six columns. Headlines weren’t used and generally a line separates one news item or advertisement from the next. To make the structure clearer, headlines have been added in the transcription and these begin with “Item”. Elsewhere the first line of the item has been made into a headline, although that’s not really what the paper intended.
Spelling is all over the place, with names spelt differently on a line-by-line basis.
Where the text is too illegible to even guess asterisks have been used. Where part of the text is legible at least that part has been typed as it appears, even if the result doesn’t make sense. Overall it’s possible to read most of the newspaper from this transcription, but it cannot be used for research/quotation. Salisbury Library hold a microfilm of this edition (they only have a single microfilm reader and it must be booked in advance), and Hampshire Archives at Winchester probably hold the original paper, but don’t have the microfilm.
It’s likely that all editions of this newspaper around this date would have a similar layout and the general contents of the 23rd May 1825 are given below. As can be seen the local items are mainly on the last page, with most of the rest being taken up with London and Parliamentary news, and country-wide advertisements.
Current state of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 23 May 1825, transcript
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Column |
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Page |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
1 |
Monday and Tuesday’s posts Paris Newspapers London (including market rates) Property investment Various Society AGMs |
Society AGMs cont. Adverts
|
Adverts Steam Packets Adverts Situations wanted Adverts |
Adverts (books)
|
Adverts (mainly property) |
Adverts |
2 |
Wednesday and Thursday’s posts Bankrupts House of Lords (Monday + Tuesday) |
House of Lords (cont.) House of Commons (Monday + Tuesday) London (Wednesday) - various London news
|
London News (cont.) Odds and ends news stories from around the country Book reviews Advert |
Life insurance advert Lottery advert Estates / Farms for lease etc. |
Estates / Farms for lease etc. |
Medicine adverts |
3 |
Friday’s and Saturday’s Posts Paris News House of Lords (Wednesday + Thursday) House of Commons (Wednesday + Thursday) London News - Friday etc. |
Racing news Stage news Various news items from around the country |
Adverts (medicine, fire insurance, property, investment etc.) |
Adverts (medicine, lottery, property for lease/sale etc.) |
Turnpike auction Property for lease/sale |
Property for lease/sale Medicine adverts |
4 |
Sunday’s post Bankrupts House of Lords (Friday) House of Commons (Friday) London news Racing news Stock prices Walking champion |
Walking champion (cont.) Price of stocks [Most below are local Salisbury news] New Race Course Sunday Schools Miscellaneous local news Local imposter story Arrivals / departures Death of Bishop of Sarum |
Death of Bishop of Sarum (cont.) Local news Description of Waterloo Panorama |
Local news (prison) Local market prices Local meetings Adverts, mainly local |
Local religious news Local exhibitions Local adverts by local traders |
Miscellaneous local adverts, including lost horse |