The ‘E&L’, founded in 1848, was Scotland’s first ‘penny paper’, an affordable, tabloid-style publication. It was started by Thomas Rome (1821-1859) and was bought in 1886 by Walter Wilson, printer, stationer and bookseller in the High Street. He published it until his death in 1918 when his assistant Andrew Little took over.

The E&L was (and still is) published on Wednesdays. Below is a typical layout in the mid 1910s (12th August 1914). The first page consisted mainly of adverts:

Page two incorporated announcements, adverts and local news, with subsections for Ewes, Westerkirk, Eskdalemuir, Canonbie and Newcastleton.

War news was on page three:

The UK’s declaration of war against Germany in the late evening of Tuesday 4th August missed the deadline for the E&L’s Wednesday 5th August issue, so was reported the following week (top left of the above picture).

The final page had creative writing, ‘Women’s Gossip’ and human interest facts and stories.