If what was happening in the capital city and its suburbs was the most important source of home news for a London newspaper, news items from other parts of England, and from Scotland and Ireland, were also provided in varying measure. When Harris and Thompson were both producing a Domestick Intelligence in 1679, and when Benskin started his Domestick Intelligence in 1681, all three papers carried in their subtitle the words, ‘News both from City and Country’. The word ‘City’ referred to London, and the word ‘Country’ to the rest of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Country news came in from villages, from provincial towns and cities, such as Leicester or Tewkesbury, York or Bristol, but also from the two capital cities of Edinburgh and Dublin. It therefore varied considerably in kind and importance; but it has seemed best to deal with it in this chapter under the heading then accepted of ‘Country News’.

News from the country districts would normally reach a London newspaper by way of the letter post. The incoming mail arrived at the London letter office three days a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with as much regularity as the weather, the state of the roads and unforeseen accidents permitted. The only exceptions were the Dover Road, and (from the late 1670s) the Colchester Road, both of which had a daily service, Sundays excepted.