[Illustration: SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX AND HIS MILITARY COUNCIL, 1647.]
Though Cromwell was at this time the real director of the army, and ere long became its acknowledged head, I have met with no representation of him in the illustrated news of the period. The art of 'interviewing' had not then been developed, and the 'Special Artist' did not exist. The most enterprising correspondent would probably have hesitated to intrude upon that stern and resolute leader of a revolutionary army, if he had no better excuse than to describe how he looked and what he said. Fancy the Special Artist of the _Mercurius Civicus_, for instance, sending in his card to Oliver Cromwell with a polite request that the General would give him five minutes of his valuable time for the purpose of making a sketch for the next number of his journal! And fancy how the uncomely countenance of the _ci-devant_ brewer would redden at the request, and how, probably, the unlucky artist would be consigned to the custody of the sentinel at the door!
There is not much said about naval matters in the newspaper chronicles of the Civil War. The earliest account of a sea-fight that I have met with occurs in a pamphlet published in 1647. It is illustrated with a woodcut representing ships of war in action--which woodcut, by-the-by, afterwards appears in other pamphlets. The narrative is in the form of a letter, dated at sea, off Dover, May 4th, 1647; and, as the pamphlet is dated May 10th, we have another example of the extreme eagerness of the news-writers to supply the public with early intelligence. The combatants were not at war, and the fight appears to have arisen out of a mere question of naval etiquette. The following account is given of the transaction:--
'A full Relation of a late Sea-Fight, betwixt the Parliament Ships and the Queene of Sweathlands, upon the Coast of England, neere Portsmouth, May 1.
'On the 2 of this instant moneth, being the Lords day, our Commander in chiefe of the Sea Forces, received a packet from a small Frigat, that came from the Rear-Admirall who had been in Fight the day before with five of the Queen of Swethlands ships, which they conveyed, being all laden with salt from Tubey in Portingale.