66 HISTORY OF PRINTING. nally so piercing, that it required steady impudence to withstand their fixed look, or sudden glance. The works of Ruddiman, for which he had made such previous preparation, shew him to have been a consumate master of the Latin language. He was acquainted with Greek, but he pretended to know nothing of Hebrew. He was acquainted with several modern tongues, though which particularly, or to what extent, cannot now be ascertained. His English has ruggedness without strength, and inelegance without preci sion: but what he plainly wanted in manner, be amply supplied in matter. His writings, whether they were composed in his early youth, or during his old age, are instructive, as might reasonably be expected from his intellect, his eradi tion, and his diligence. It will easily be allowed that Thomas Ruddiman was the most learned printer that North Britain has ever enjoyed. At the commencement of the seventeenth century, the printers of Edinburgh were generally booksellers, who, having acquired some wealth could purchase a press and employ artificers; but knew no more of books than the title-page, and the price. But, however illiterate, they had the merit of reforming the language, and settling, by silent practice, the orthography of the North. These men who practised the art, without possessing the erudition, of which it is the herald. could not dispute with Ruddiman the palm of literature. Henry Stephens himself would not have complained of Ruddiman as one of those printers who had brought the typographic art into contempt by their illiterature. When we recollect his Gawin Douglas, his Buchanan, his Grammars, his Livy, and his Vindication of Buchanan's Psalms, wherein competent judges have found the knowledge of a scholar, and the accuracy of a critic, we may fairly place Ruddiman in the honourable list of learned printers, with Aldus Manutius, with Badius Assensins, with Christopher Plantin, and the Stephens's. during several years, by his labour. He grew rich without the loss of character, in proportion as he extended his industrious occupations. And by the minute account which he made of his worldly goods" in August, 1739, he valued his estate at £2,259 19s. 10 d. sterling. We have already shewn the state of his effects in 1706; and when he valued his worldly goods in 1710, he reckoned them at no more than £24 14s. 9d. sterling. In the mean time he had maintained his family, educated his children, and sustained the usual losses of a complicated business. Mr. Chalmers exhibits these statements of considerable riches, at that period, for the benefit of those who may follow the track of Ruddiman, from dependent penury, through the paths of honest diligence, and careful attention, to independent opulence. Having now established his own fame, he turned his thoughts to the introduction of his son into life. With this design he resigned August 13, 1739, his half of the printing business to his son Thomas,* by his second wife, who was now twenty-five years old, and had been liberally educated; and who had besides been diligently instructed in this ingenious art. Ruddiman, however, allowed his name to continue in the firm of the company in order to give credit to the house. He moreover lent his son, on his introduction into the business, £200 sterling as an additional aid. That resignation, and this loan, must be allowed to have been a handsome provision for his son at that epoch, considering the scarcity of wealth and the facility of subsistence. Mr. Ruddiman was a man of such uncommon temperance, that in the course of so long a life, as to be upwards of eighty-two years of age, he was never once intoxicated with liquor. He loved indeed a cheerful glass; but, when he was wound up by the enjoyment of friendly society to his accustomed exhilaration, he would then refrain from drink; saying, that the liquor would not go down. For the last seven years he had lived under the affliction of bodily diseases of various kinds; but his mental powers remained unshaken to the end. He was buried in the cemetry of the Grey friars church, Edinburgh, but without the affectionate tribute of a tombstone. Cenotaph our 66 great grammarian" will have none. But his philological labours will communicate "eternal blazon" to his name, after the fall of structures of marble, or pillars of brass, had they been erected by other hands than his Born, Oct. 1674, within three miles of the town of Bank, own. At the time of his decease he was probably worth in "worldly goods," about £3,000 sterling, exclusive of the Caledonian Mercury, and his other printing business. He appears to have been an original member of the British Linen Company, which was first established at Edinburgh in 1746. He was of middle stature, and a thin habit, but of a frame so compact as to have carried him on beyond the period which is usually assigned to man. His gait, till the latest period of his life, was upright and active. His eyebrows were arched and bushy: and his eyes were origi * See page 675, ante. memory of Ruddiman in the church of the Grey In 1806, a handsome tablet was erected to the Friars', Edinburgh, at the expense of his relative, Dr. William Ruddiman, late of India. It ex hibits the following inscription :— SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THAT CELEBRATED SCHOLAR AND WORTHY XAN, Died at Edinburgh, 19th January, 1757, Post obitum, benefacta manent, eternaque virtus, dish Dictionary by Jacob Serenius, D. D. an¦ * See a 4to. pamphlet, printed in 1569, entitled — typographica QUERIMONIA, de illiteratis quibusdam graphis, propter quos in contemptum venit. Autore Beunin Stephano, 757, Aug. 4. STRAWBERRY HILL press estabed by Horace Walpole, who in a letter to sir ace Mann, of this date, says, "In short, I turned printer, and have converted a little ige here into a printing-office. My abbey perfect college or academy; I kept a painter he house and a printer." The first producof the press was Odes of Gray, with designs Bentley. The first printer was William inson, who did not long remain in the emment. In a letter to the rev. Henry Zouch, d March, 1759, Walpole says, "At present, press is at a stop; my printer, who was a sh Irishman, and who took himself for a us, and who grew angry when I thought extremely the former and not the least of latter, has left me, I have not yet fixed upon her." A very singular letter from this Irishto a friend, descriptive of Strawberry hill, its answer, has been printed in the Letters r Horace Mann, vol. iii. p. 236. Robinsuccessor was Thomas Farmer, whose name ars on the title-page of the Anecdotes of iters, 1762; the errors in which edition are buted to the knavery of his printer, (Robinwho ran away. A printer named Pratt, ars to have succeeded Farmer, about 1763, to have remained about two years, as he is by a note in Kirkgate's writing, to have ted the Poems of lady Temple, and the noirs of lord Herbert. Thomas Kirkgate eeded Pratt, and remained in the employt of Horace Walpole, until the press was ished. The printing-office, on the death of Oxford, was converted by Mrs. Damer into modelling room. D'Israeli, in the Calamiof Authors, says Horace Walpole, conscious ossessing the talent of amusement, yet feelhis deficient energies, he resolved to provide pus substitutes for genius itself, and to ire reputation, if he could not grasp at brity. He raised a printing-press at his ic castle, by which means he rendered small ons of his works valuable from their rarity, much talked of because seldom seen. The h of this appears from the following extract his unpublished correspondence with a ary friend. It alludes to his Anecdotes of sting in England, of which the first edition consisted of 300 copies. "Of my new 4to. I printed 600; but as they can be had, I ve not a third part is sold. This is a plain lesson to me, that any editions sell their curiosity, and not for any merit in them ad so they would if I printed Mother Goose's 28, and but a few. If I am humbled as an Lor, I may be vain as a printer." he productions of this press are numerous well known, and amongst them are found e valuable and interesting works. A list of a was given in the first edition of the cription of Strawberry Hill, printed there in 4; and a more copious and detailed one in Bibliomania of Dr. Dibdin. The impression often large, amounting to 600, and in one ance to 1000 copies. 1757, Dec. 12. Died, COLLEY CIBBER, poet laureat, who had held that office twenty-seven years, and had become the regular butt for the superior as well as the inferior denizens of Parnassus-for Twickenham as well as Grub-street. Among the innumerable pasquinades which Cibber elicited, one may be given at once brief and pungent :- In merry old England it once was a rule, Colley, however, who had at least a sufficient stock of good nature and power of enduring sarcasm, sung on amidst the thick-flying hail of wit with which he was assailed, probably consoling himself with the reflection, that, in the pension and Canary, he had the better part of the joke to himself. He was the son of Gabriel Cibber, a celebrated sculptor, and born in London, Nov. 6, 1671. He served in the prince of Orange's army at the Revolution, and after that went on the stage, but never obtained any considerable reputation as an actor, on which he became a dramatic_writer, to help his finances. His first play was Love's Last Shift, which was performed in 1695, and met with great applause. His best piece is the Careless Husband, performed in 1704; but the Nonjuror brought him the most fame and profit. Bernard Lintot gave him £105 for the copyright, and George I. to whom it was dedicated, gave him £200, with the office of poet laureat. William Whitehead was now invested with the vacant office, a gentleman of good education, and whose poetry, at least, displayed literary correctness and taste, if it rose to no higher qualities. 1757. The American Magazine, by a society of gentlemen. Veritatis cultores, fraudis inimici. Published at Philadelphia: it only found a three months' market. 1757. The Sentinel. This was the production of Benjamin Franklin, during his residence in England, as agent for the province of Pennsylvania, and of which about thirty numbers were published. It was on this his second visit to England, not as an unfriended journeyman printer, but as the representative of the first province of America, that Franklin had an opportunity of indulging in the society of those friends, whom his merit had procured him while at a distance. The regard which they had entertained for him was rather increased by a personal acquaintance. The opposition which had been made to his discoveries in philosophy gradually ceased, and the rewards of literary merit were abundantly conferred upon him. The royal society of London, which had at first refused his performances admission into its transactions, now thought it an honour to rank him among its fellows. Other societies of Europe were equally ambitious of calling him a member. The university of St. Andrew's, in Scotland, conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. Its example was soon followed by the universities of Edinburgh and Idler. This was not, however, printed singly, 1757, Aug. Lloyd's Evening Post. This paper was commenced by Mr. James Emonson, printer, in St. John's-square, Clerkenwell. 1757, Sept. 17. The Herald; or, Patriot Proclaimer, No. 1. A political paper of little value. 1757. The Contest. This paper was the production of Owen Ruffhead, author of the Life of Alexander Pope, 1769, in which he was assisted by bishop Warburton. 1758, Jan. 12. A general warrant was signed by the earl of Holderness, to search for the author, printer, and publisher of a pamphlet, called A sixth Letter to the People of England. Jan. 23, by virtue of another warrant, all the copies of the above work were seized, and entirely suppressed. Dec. 5, Dr. John Shebbeare convicted as the author, and sentenced to pay a fine of £5, to stand in the pillory at Charing Cross, to be imprisoned three years, and to give security for his good behaviour for seven years, himself in £500, and two others £150 each. Wilkes says the sixth Letter to the People of England contains scarcely one truth: it traduced the revolution, aspersed the memory of king William, vilified kings George I. and II. and bastardized the whole royal family. When Dr.Shebbeare came to stand in the pillory, Mr. Beardmore, the under sheriff, being his friend, caused the upper board of the pillory to be raised to a height convenient for the prisoner, so that the doctor stood at his ease, without bending his neck. Lord Mansfield in consequence ordered the attorney into court, who swore that he saw Shebbeare's head through the pillory, when the chief justice remarked, that it was the most ingenious evasion of perjury he had ever witnessed, and the lawyer was fined in the sum of £50. A servant held an umbrella over his head to protect him from the rain, it being a very wet day; he had on a well combed tied wig, and a drab riding coat, and, remarks an eye witness, looked insolent and impudent. 1758, March 12. Died, BENJAMIN MOTTE, an eminent_bookseller opposite to St. Dunstan's church, Fleet-street, London. He was successor to Benjamin Tooke, and, like his predecessor, was publisher to Swift and Pope. His Abridgement of the Philosophical Transactions is reckoned very incorrect; which having been pointed out by Mr. Henry Jones, in 1731, produced from Mr. Motte, A Reply to Jones's Preface to his Abridgement, 1732, 4to. 1758, April 15. Johnson again resumed his pen as an essayist, and on this day commenced another periodical paper, under the title of the 1758. The Universal Chronicle; or, Weekly Gazette. This paper was projected by Mr. John Newbery, bookseller, in St. Paul's church-yard. In this paper, Dr. Johnson's celebrated Idler was first printed; and it is said that he was allowed a share of its profits, for which he was to furnish a short essay on such subjects of a general or temporary kind as might suit the taste of newspaper readers, and distinguish this publication from its cotemporaries. Sir John Hawkins assigns as a reason for Mr. Newbery's wishing to have an essay in his paper, "that the occurren ces during the intervals of its publication were not sufficient to fill its columns." "If that was the case," adds Mr. Chalmers, "it is a curious particular in the history of political intelligence. Those who now print weekly papers find it not only difficult, but impossible, to contain half the articles which have entertained other readers during the intervals of publication, and which, from the common impulse of domestic or public curiosity, their readers think they have a right to expect." Let it be remembered, however, that to the editor of a newspaper, the parliamentary proceedings were then forbidden fruit. tisement in order to suppress the piratical practice of 58. In many of the royal palaces of Europe | created by the artifice of the publisher. He addressed a packet of the proposals to every parish clerk in England, carriage free, with half-acrown enclosed as a compliment, to have them distributed through the pews of the church; the result was, a universal demand for the work. Smollett, before he began to publish the work, wrote to the earl of Shelburne, then in a Whig administration, and informed him, that if the earl would procure for his work the patronage of government, he would accommodate his politics to the wishes of ministers; but if not, that he had high promises of support from the other party. Lord Shelburne, of course, treated the proffered support of a writer of such accommodating principles with silent contempt, and the work of Smollet became distinguished for its high Toryism. 1758, Aug. 1. The Grand Magazine, No. 1, published by Thomas Kinnersly. This immediately succeeded the Literary Magazine, which ended July 1758; and which was avowedly supported by the pen of Dr. Johnson. 1758, Oct. 7. Died, JOSEPH AMES, F. R. S. 58. A Catalogue of Books, containing up- secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, and aus of 4000 Volumes; in which is included thor of the well known work, entitled Typograbrary of the late Dr.Holland, of Chesterfield, phical Antiquities; being an historical account of erbyshire, &c. (the prices being printed in Printing in England, with memoirs of our ancient atalogue) on Wednesday the 15th March, Printers, and a register of the books printed by , by Samuel Fox, bookseller of Derby. them, from the year 1471 to 1600, with an Ap58. Died, HENRY LINTOT, printer, only son pendix concerning Printing in Scotland and Irernard Lintot, noticed at page 653, ante. He land to the same time. By Joseph Ames. 4to. born about August, 1709; was admitted London, 1749, printed by W. Faden, and sold e freedom of the company of stationers, by by J.Robinson, in Ludgate-street. This work was mony, Sept. 1, 1730; obtained the livery the dedicated to Philip earl of Hardwick, lord high day; and from that time their business was chancellor of England. Joseph Ames was born ed on in the joint names of Bernard and at Yarmouth, in the county of Norfolk, Jan. 23, ty; but the father passed the principal part 1688. He was originally a plane maker, and s time in Sussex, of which county he was afterwards a ship chandler at Wapping, which sheriff. He obtained the patent of law he carried on till his death. He displayed at a er about 1748; and in 1754 was elected very early age a taste for English history and the court of assistants of his company. Two antiquities. In this predilection he was encouafter the death of his father, Henry was raged by his friends, and after many years spent inted high sheriff for the county of Sussex. in the collection of his materials and arranging arried, first, Elizabeth, daughter of sir John them, he published his Typographical Antiquities. ey, bart. of Llantrythed, in Glamorganshire, In 1741 Mr. Ames was appointed secretary to hom he had an only daughter and heiress, the Society of Antiquaries, and this enabled him arine, who was married, Oct. 20, 1768, to pursue his favourite studies with renewed ada fortune of £45,000) to captain Henry vantages, which were further increased by his her, at that time a director of the East In- election into the Royal Society. Besides his company. Mr. Lintot married, secondly, great work, noticed above, Mr. Ames printed a delphia by whom he had no issue. catalogue of English printers from 1471 to 1700, 58. In the beginning of this year Smollet An Index to Lord Pembroke's Coins, also, Á shed his Complete History of England, Catalogue of English Heads, or an account of ced from the descent of Julius Cæsar to the about 2000 prints, describing what is peculiar on of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, in four each. The last of Mr. Ames's literary labours nes 4to. It is said that this voluminous was the drawing up of the Parentalia, or memoirs , containing the history of thirteen centuries, of the family of Wren. The character of Mr. written with uncommon spirit and correct- Ames was remarkable for exemplary integrity of language, was composed and finished for and benevolence in social life. "He was," says press within fourteen months, one of the Mr. Cole, "a friendly good-tempered man, a est exertions of facility of composition person of vast application and industry in colh was ever recorded in the history of lite- lecting old printed books, prints, and other curioe. The history was published in sixpenny sities, both natural and artificial." ly numbers, of which 20,000 were sold tly. This extraordinary popularity was Mr. Ames's collection of coins, natural curiosities, inscriptions, and antiquities, were sold by HISTORY OF PRINTING. known in the literary circles of the metropolis as the author of the Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful, the Vindication of Natural Society, and other anonymous works. There is no doubt that, for some years, the historical narrative was written by Burke, who also probably edited the Mr. Langford, Feb. 20-21, 1760. His library of 1758, Dec. 16. Died, JONATHAN TAYLOR, formerly a stationer, who had retired from business to Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire, where he died. His name is here inserted as a compliment to his intentions. He left to Christ's, Devon, and Exeter and Bath hospitals, and to the society for propagating the gospel, £100 each, the interest of £100 to be divided every Christmas amongst ten poor widows of the stationers' company, the interest of £70 for two boys to be taught navigation at Weymouth; to the mayor and corporation of Dover, a silver punch bowl of 200 ounces, in commemoration of his recovery from a dangerous fit of sickness gained in France; and if a county hospital be erected at Dorchester within seven years, £100, and interest at 4 per cent. But from some informality in his will the legacies were set aside by the lord chancellor. 1758, Dec. 25. Died, JAMES HERVEY, author of Meditations among the Tombs, Theron and Aspasio, and other works of eminence. In learning and genius inferior to few, in benevolence and piety inferior to none. Hardingstone, near Northampton, February 26, He was born at 1714, and died at Weston Flavell, near the same town, of which place he was rector. 1758. The New American Magazine,published monthly, at Woodbridge, in New Jersey, for two years. The editor was Samuel Nevil, judge of the supreme court of New Jersey, speaker of the house of assembly, and mayor of Amboy. 1758. The New England Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. It contained sixty pages 12mo. and continued only four months. 1759, Feb. 28. Died, THOMAS ASTLEY, a bookseller in very considerable and extensive business, and well known as the publisher of an excellent Collection of Voyages. 1759, June 17. Died, CHARLES ACKERS, the original printer of the London Magazine. He was many years in the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex. 1759, June. The Annual Register; or, a View of the History, Politics, and Literature of the year 1758, printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall, London. This well-known and valuable work, being the first of its kind, properly so called, that appeared in this country, was projected by Robert Dodsley, the bookseller, in conjunction with Mr. Edmund Burke, who was already well * See pages 235 and 264, ante. He appears to have been paid for his services at the rate of £100 the volume. Mr. Prior, in his Life of Burke, has given engraved fac-similies of two receipts signed by him for two sums of £50 paid to him by Dodsley for the Annual Register that year, and the second on the 30th of March of 1761, the first dated on the 28th of March in in the year following. Burke took a great interest in the conduct of the Annual Register almost as long as he lived; and Mr. Prior states that much of it was written from his dictation for about thirty years. an eminent bookseller, in St. Paul's church-yard, had held the office of clerk to the company of 66 tleman's Monthly Companion, No. 1. 1759, Sept. Political and Historical Mercury. and English, published by John Pridden, book1759, Sept. 20. The Comptroller, in French seller, Ludgate hill. was the production of Oliver Goldsmith, and was by John Wilkie, bookseller, Fleet-street. rary Journal, No. 1. Gentleman and Lady's Polite Companion; by Repository for Gentlemen and Ladies, No. 1. 1760, Jan. 1. British Magazine ; or, Monthly Tobias Smollett, M. D. and others. 1760, Jan. 12, The Public Ledger (newspaper) 1760, Jan, 26. The Public Magazine, erey other week, No. 1. 1760, Jan. The Imperial Magazine. |