Published in Britain for at least 330 years, lonely hearts ads are now a rare sight – driven to the brink of extinction by the rise of dating apps.
This is a pity. ‘The personals’ were a voyeuristic delight. Even if you weren’t looking for love, you still read them. They could be tragic, comic, or both – like this one placed in an 1832 edition of the Dorset County Chronicle: ‘My wife has been dead 12 months ago, last Shroton Fair. I want a good steady woman for a wife. I do not want a second family. I want a woman to look after the pigs while I am out at work.’
His was a straightforward request, clearly stated. But quite often the ads were keyholes through which whole melodramas might be glimpsed. In 1788, the Hibernian Telegraph carried an ad placed by an elderly man who wished to marry ‘a healthy pregnant widow’ in order, he went on to explain, to disinherit a nephew who had behaved ‘in a manner unpardonable’.
But whatever an individual’s situation, the goal was the same: to find the right person. Today’s apps do this by means of filters via which you can choose age, height, income, etc. No doubt this is effective in its way.
Anyone, though, can fill in an online form and let the algorithm do its work. The harder task for the writer of a printed ad was to distil their hopes and dreams into just a few lines. Some of the most entertaining lonely hearts are those which, instead of merely claiming a ‘GSOH’, actually have a go at displaying one, as in: ‘Good looking, athletic, movie star millionaire seeks gullible stunner.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in