The ‘King’s Town Upon Hull Warbler’ — or as it is known on Humber side, ‘The Warbler’ — is a compendium of news from the Towne of Hull, the Dales, church business, and foote balle gayme results, for the edification of all. The Warbler is named after the warbler birds from the marshlands and the messages posted around the city. ‘Messages come by pigeon carrier, by messenger and others means.
The target of each warble is hailed with the letter ‘Þ (thorn)’, meaning ‘that’. For example: ‘Þ Sir John Hotham, 1st Baronet. He will save himself before he saves Hull’.
Recently, some messages have been pilfered by an apostate in the midst of our own church. The messages are spread about the city; painted on walls, posted on fly bills, or on whatever vessel the public might see.
Some messages are quite obscene and as soon as they are found they are obscured to protect the eyes of womenfolk and children. Some insult His Majesty, King Charles Rex. Some insult the defenders of Hull. And some calumniate members of Parlement, including the MP for Cambridge, Oliver Cromwell. When the perpetrator is caught, along with those who aide and abet him, the punishment shall be frightful.
It would take King Charles’ whole army, now arrayed at our gates, to erase every fruity invocation of his God-given honorific daubed on the masonry. Some of it, elegant prose, but most just plain rude. For those who can neither read nor write, there are pictures. Lots of pictures, vivid enough to make a barmaid blush.