SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS
_'That's a strange man!' said I to myself, after I had left the
house, 'he is evidently very clever; but I cannot say that I
like him much with his Oxford Reviews and Dairyman's
Daughters.'_--LAVENGRO.
Borrow lost his father on the 28th February 1824. He reached London on
the 2nd April of the same year, and this was the beginning of his many
wanderings. He was armed with introductions from William Taylor, and
with some translations in manuscript from Danish and Welsh poetry. The
principal introduction was to Sir Richard Phillips, a person of some
importance in his day, who has so far received but inadequate treatment
in our own.[49] Phillips was active in the cause of reform at a certain
period in his life, and would seem to have had many sterling qualities
before he was spoiled by success. He was born in the neighbourhood of
Leicester, and his father was 'in the farming line,' and wanted him to
work on the farm, but he determined to seek his fortune in London. After
a short absence, during which he clearly proved to himself that he was
not at present qualified to capture London, young Phillips returned to
the farm. Borrow refers to his patron's vegetarianism, and on this point
we have an amusing story from his own pen! He had been, when previously
on the farm, in the habit of attending to a favourite heifer:
During his sojournment in London this animal had been killed;
and on the very day of his return to his father's house, he
partook of part of his favourite at dinner, without his being
made acquainted with the circumstance of its having been
slaughtered during his absence. On learning this, however, he
experienced a sudden indisposition; and declared that so great
an effect had the idea of his having eaten part of his
slaughtered favourite upon him, that he would never again taste
animal food; a vow to which he has hitherto firmly adhered.[50]
Farming not being congenial, Phillips hired a small room in Leicester,
and opened a school for instruction in the three R's, a large blue flag
on a pole being his 'sign' or signal to the inhabitants of Leicester,
who seem to have sent their children in considerable numbers to the
young schoolmaster. But little money was to be made out of schooling,
and a year later Phillips was, by the kindness of friends, started in a
small hosiery shop in Leicester. Throwing himself into politics on the
side of reform, Phillips now started the _Leicester Herald_, to which
Dr. Priestley became a contributor. The first number was issued gratis
in May 1792. His _Memoir_ informs us that it was an article in this
newspaper that secured for its proprietor and editor eighteen months
imprisonment in Leicester gaol, but he was really charged with selling
Paine's _Rights of Man_. The worthy knight had probably grown ashamed of
_The Rights of Man_ in the intervening years, and hence the reticence of
the memoir. Phillips's gaoler was the once famous Daniel Lambert, the
notorious 'fat man' of his day. In gaol Phillips was visited by Lord
Moira and the Duke of Norfolk. It was this Lord Moira who said in the
House of Lords in 1797 that 'he had seen in Ireland the most absurd, as
well as the most disgusting tyranny that any nation ever groaned under.'
Moira became Governor-General of Bengal and Commander-in-Chief of the
Army in India. The Duke of Norfolk, a stanch Whig, distinguished himself
in 1798 by a famous toast at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Arundel
Street, Strand:--'Our sovereign's health--the majesty of the people!'
which greatly offended George III., who removed Norfolk from his
lord-lieutenancy. Phillips seems to have had a very lax imprisonment, as
he conducted the _Herald_ from gaol, contributing in particular a weekly
letter. Soon after his release he disposed of the _Herald_, or permitted
it to die. It was revived a few years later as an organ of Toryism. He
had started in gaol another journal, _The Museum_, and he combined this
with his hosiery business for some time longer, when an opportune fire
relieved him of an apparently uncongenial burden, and with the insurance
money in his pocket he set out for London once more. Here he started as
a hosier in St. Paul's Churchyard, lodging meantime in the house of a
milliner, where he fell in love with one of the apprentices, Miss
Griffiths, 'a native of Wales.' His affections were won, we are naïvely
informed in the _Memoir_, by the young woman's talent in the preparation
of a vegetable pie. This is our first glimpse of Lady Phillips--'a
quiet, respectable woman,' whom Borrow was to meet at dinner long years
afterwards. Inspired, it would seem, by the kindly exhortation of Dr.
Priestley, he now transformed his hosiery business in St. Paul's
Churchyard into a 'literary repository,' and started a singularly
successful career as a publisher. There he produced his long-lived
periodical, _The Monthly Magazine_, which attained to so considerable a
fame. Dr. Aikin, a friend of Priestley's, was its editor, but with him
Phillips had a quarrel--the first of his many literary quarrels--and
they separated. This Dr. Aikin was the father of the better-known Lucy
Aikin, and was a Nonconformist who suffered for his opinions in these
closing years of the eighteenth century, even as Priestley did. He was
the author of many works, including the once famous _Evenings at Home_,
written in conjunction with his sister, Mrs. Barbauld;[51] and after his
quarrel with Phillips he founded a new publication issued by the house
of Longman, and entitled _The Athenæum_. Hereupon he and Phillips
quarrelled again, because Dr. Aikin described himself in advertisements
of _The Athenæum_ as 'J. Aikin, M.D., late editor of _The Monthly
Magazine_.' Aikin's contributors to _The Monthly_ included Capell Lofft,
of whom we know too little, and Dr. Wolcot, of whom we know too much.
Meanwhile Phillips's publishing business grew apace, and he removed to
larger premises in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, an address which we find
upon many famous publications of his period. A catalogue of his books
lies before me dated 'January 1805.' It includes many works still upon
our shelves. Almon's _Memoirs and Correspondence of John Wilkes_, Samuel
Richardson's _Life and Correspondence_, for example, several of the
works of Maria Edgeworth, including her _Moral Tales_, many of the works
of William Godwin, including _Caleb Williams_, and the earlier books of
that still interesting woman and once popular novelist, Lady Morgan,
whose _Poems_ as Sydney Owenson bears Phillips's name on its title-page,
as does also her first successful novel _The Wild Irish Girl_, and other
of her stories. My own interest in Phillips commenced when I met him in
the pages of Lady Morgan's _Memoirs_.[52] Thomas Moore, Lady Morgan
tells us,
had come back to Dublin from London, where he had been 'the
guest of princes, the friend of peers, the translator of
Anacreon!' From royal palaces and noble manors, he had returned
to his family seat--a grocer's shop at the corner of Little
Longford Street, Angier Street.
Here, in a little room over the shop, Sydney heard him sing two of his
songs, and was inspired thereby to write her first novels, _St. Clair_
and _The Novice of St. Dominick_. The first was published in Dublin;
over the second she corresponded with Phillips, and his letters to her
commence with one dated from Bridge Street, 6th April 1805, in which he
wishes her to send the manuscript of _The Novice_ to him as one 'often
(undeservedly) complimented as the most liberal of my trade!' She
determined, fresh from a governess situation, to bring the manuscript
herself. Phillips was charmed with his new author, and really seems to
have treated her very liberally. He insisted, however, on having _The
Novice_ cut down from six volumes to four, and she was wont to say that
nothing but regard for her feelings prevented him from reducing it to
three.[53] _The Novice of St. Dominick_ was a favourite book with the
younger Pitt, who read it over again in his last illness. Then
followed--in 1806--Sydney Owenson's new novel, _The Wild Irish Girl_,
and it led to an amusing correspondence with its author on the part of
Phillips on the one side, and Johnson, who, it will be remembered, was
Cowper's publisher, on the other. Phillips was indignant that, having
first brought Sydney into fame, she should dare to ask more money on
that account. As is the case with every novelist to-day who scores one
success, Miss Owenson had formed a good idea of her value, and there is
a letter to Johnson in which she admitted that Phillips's offer was a
generous one. Johnson had offered her £300 for the copyright of _The
Wild Irish Girl_. Phillips had offered only £200 down and £50 each for
the second and third editions. When Phillips heard that Johnson had
outbidden him, he described the offer as 'monstrous,' and that it was
'inspired by a spirit of revenge.' He would not, he declared, increase
his offer, but a little later he writes from Bridge Street to Sydney
Owenson as his 'dear, bewitching, and deluding Syren,' and promises the
£300. A few months later he gave her a hundred pounds for a slight
volume of poems, which certainly never paid for its publication,
although Scott and Moore and many another were making much money out of
poetry in those days. In any case Phillips did not accept Miss Owenson's
next story with alacrity, in spite of the undoubted success of _The Wild
Irish Girl_. She no doubt asked too much for _Ida of Athens_. Phillips
probably thought, after reading the first volume in type, that it was
very inferior work, as indeed it was. Athens was described without the
author ever having seen the city. After much wrangling, in which the
lady said that her 'prince of publishers,' as she had once called him,
had 'treated her barbarously,' the novel went into the hands of the
Longmans, who published it, not without some remonstrance as to certain
of its sentiments. The successful Lady Morgan afterwards described _Ida_
as a bad book, so perhaps here, as usually, Phillips was not far wrong
in his judgment. A similar quarrel seems to have taken place over the
next novel, _The Missionary_. Here Phillips again received the
manuscript, discussed terms with its author, and returned it. The firm
of Stockdale and Miller were his successful rivals. Later and more
prosperous novels, _O'Donnel_ in particular, were issued by Henry
Colburn, and Phillips now disappears from Lady Morgan's life. I have
told the story of Phillips's relation with Lady Morgan at length because
at no other point do we come into so near a contact with him. In Fell's
_Memoir_ Phillips is described--in 1808--as 'certainly now the first
publisher in London,' but while he may have been this in the volume of
his trade--and school-books made an important part of it--he was not in
mere 'names.' Most of his successful writers--Sydney Owenson, Thomas
Skinner Surr, Dr. Gregory, and the rest--have now fallen into oblivion.
The school-books that he issued have lasted even to our own day, notably
Dr. Mavor's _Spelling Book_. Dr. Mavor was a Scotsman from Aberdeen, who
came to London and became Phillips's chief hack. There are no less than
twenty of Mavor's school-books in the catalogue before me. They include
Mavor's _History of England_, Mavor's _Universal History_, and Mavor's
_History of Greece_. In the _Memoir_ of 1808 it is claimed that 'Mavor'
is but a pseudonym for Phillips, and the claim is also made, quite
wrongfully, by John Timbs, who, before he became acting editor of the
_Illustrated London News_ under Herbert Ingram, and an indefatigable
author, was Phillips's private secretary.[54] It seems clear, however,
that in the case of Blair's _Catechism_ and Goldsmith's _Geography_, and
many another book for schools, Phillips was 'Blair' and 'Goldsmith' and
many another imaginary person, for the books in question numbered about
two hundred in all. For these books there must have been quite an army
of literary hacks employed during the twenty years prior to the
appearance of George Borrow in that great army. On 9th November 1807,
the Lord Mayor's procession through London included Richard Phillips
among its sheriffs, and he was knighted by George III. in the following
year. During his period of office he effected many reforms in the City
prisons. John Timbs, in his _Walks and Talks about London_, tells us
that Phillips's colleague in the shrievalty was one Smith, who
afterwards became Lord Mayor:
The _personnel_ of the two sheriffs presented a sharp contrast.
Smith loved aldermanic cheer, but was pale and cadaverous in
complexion; whilst Phillips, who never ate animal food, was
rosy and healthful in appearance. One day, when the sheriffs
were in full state, the procession was stopped by an
obstruction in the street traffic; when droll were the mistakes
of the mob: to Smith they cried, 'Here's Old Water-gruel!' to
Phillips, 'Here's Roast Beef! something like an Englishman!'
Two volumes before me show Phillips as the precursor of many of the
publishers of one-volume books of reference so plentiful in our day. _A
Million of Facts_ is one of them, and _A Chronology of Public Events
Within the Last Fifty Years from 1771 to 1821_ is another, while one of
the earliest and most refreshing guides to London and its neighbourhood
is afforded us in _A Morning Walk from London to Kew_, which first
appeared in _The Monthly Magazine_, but was reprinted in 1817 with the
name 'Sir Richard Phillips' as author on the title-page. Phillips was
now no longer a publisher. Here we have some pleasant glimpses of a
bygone era, many trite reflections, but not enough topography to make
the book one of permanent interest. It would not, in fact, be worth
reprinting.[55]
This, then, was the man to whom George Borrow presented himself in 1824.
Phillips was fifty-seven years of age. He had made a moderate fortune
and lost it, and was now enjoying another perhaps less satisfying; it
included the profits of _The Monthly Review_, repurchased after his
bankruptcy, and some rights in many of the school-books. But the great
publishing establishment in Bridge Street had long been broken up.
Borrow would have found Taylor's introduction to Phillips quite useless
had the worthy knight not at the moment been keen on a new magazine and
seen the importance of a fresh 'hack' to help to run it. Moreover, had
he not written a great book which only the Germans could appreciate,
_Twelve Essays on the Phenomena of Nature_? Here, he thought, was the
very man to produce this book in a German dress. Taylor was a thorough
German scholar, and he had vouched for the excellent German of his pupil
and friend. Hence a certain cordiality which did not win Borrow's
regard, but was probably greater than many a young man would receive
to-day from a publisher-prince upon whom he might call laden only with a
bundle of translations from the Danish and the Welsh. Here--in
_Lavengro_--is the interview between publisher and poet, with the
editor's factotum Bartlett, whom Borrow calls Taggart, as witness:
'Well, sir, what is your pleasure?' said the big man, in a
rough tone, as I stood there, looking at him wistfully--as well
I might--for upon that man, at the time of which I am speaking,
my principal, I may say my only hopes, rested.
'Sir,' said I, 'my name is So-and-so, and I am the bearer of a
letter to you from Mr. So-and-so, an old friend and
correspondent of yours.'
The countenance of the big man instantly lost the suspicious
and lowering expression which it had hitherto exhibited; he
strode forward and, seizing me by the hand, gave me a violent
squeeze.
'My dear sir,' said he, 'I am rejoiced to see you in London. I
have been long anxious for the pleasure--we are old friends,
though we have never before met. Taggart,' said he to the man
who sat at the desk, 'this is our excellent correspondent, the
friend and pupil of our excellent correspondent.'
[Illustration: SIR JOHN BOWRING in 1826
From a portrait by John King now in the National Portrait Gallery.]
[Illustration: JOHN P. HASFELD IN 1835
From a portrait by an Unknown Artist formerly belonging to George
Borrow]
[Illustration: WILLIAM TAYLOR
From a portrait by J. Thomson, printed in the year 1821, and engraved in
Robberds's _Life of Taylor_.]
[Illustration: SIR RICHARD PHILLIPS
From a portrait by James Saxon, painted in 1828, now in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
[Illustration: FRIENDS OF BORROW'S EARLY YEARS] [Transcriber's Note:
This is the caption for the page of four portraits, each portrait's
caption is shown above.]
Phillips explains that he has given up publishing, except 'under the
rose,' had only _The Monthly Magazine_, here[56] called _The Magazine_,
but contemplated yet another monthly, _The Universal Review_, here
called _The Oxford_. He gave Borrow much the same sound advice that a
publisher would have given him to-day--that poetry is not a marketable
commodity, and that if you want to succeed in prose you must, as a rule,
write trash--the most acceptable trash of that day being _The Dairyman's
Daughter_,[57] which has sold in hundreds of thousands, and is still
much prized by the Evangelical folk who buy the publications of the
Religious Tract Society. Phillips, moreover, asked him to dine to meet
his wife, his son, and his son's wife,[58] and we know what an amusing
account of that dinner Borrow gives in _Lavengro_. Moreover, he set
Borrow upon his first piece of hack-work, the _Celebrated Trials_, and
gave him something to do upon _The Universal Review_ and also upon _The
Monthly_. _The Universal_ lasted only for six numbers, dying in January
1825. In that year appeared the six volumes of the _Celebrated Trials_,
of which we have something to say in our next chapter. Borrow found
Phillips most exacting, always suggesting the names of new criminals,
and leaving it to the much sweated author to find the books from which
to extract the necessary material:
In the compilation of my Lives and Trials I was exposed to
incredible mortification, and ceaseless trouble, from this same
rage for interference.... This was not all; when about a moiety
of the first volume had been printed, he materially altered the
plan of the work; it was no longer to be a collection of mere
Newgate lives and trials, but of lives and trials of criminals
in general, foreign as well as domestic.... 'Where is Brandt
and Struensee?' cried the publisher. 'I am sure I don't know,'
I replied; whereupon the publisher falls to squealing like one
of Joey's rats. 'Find me up Brandt and Struensee by next
morning, or--' 'Have you found Brandt and Struensee?' cried the
publisher, on my appearing before him next morning. 'No,' I
reply, 'I can hear nothing about them'; whereupon the publisher
falls to bellowing like Joey's bull. By dint of incredible
diligence, I at length discover the dingy volume containing the
lives and trials of the celebrated two who had brooded treason
dangerous to the state of Denmark. I purchase the dingy volume,
and bring it in triumph to the publisher, the perspiration
running down my brow. The publisher takes the dingy volume in
his hand, he examines it attentively, then puts it down; his
countenance is calm for a moment, almost benign. Another moment
and there is a gleam in the publisher's sinister eye; he
snatches up the paper containing the names of the worthies
which I have intended shall figure in the forthcoming
volumes--he glances rapidly over it, and his countenance once
more assumes a terrific expression. 'How is this?' he exclaims;
'I can scarcely believe my eyes--the most important life and
trial omitted to be found in the whole criminal record--what
gross, what utter negligence! Where's the life of Farmer Patch?
where's the trial of Yeoman Patch?'
'What a life! what a dog's life!' I would frequently exclaim,
after escaping from the presence of the publisher.[59]
Then came the final catastrophe. Borrow could not translate Phillips's
great masterpiece, _Twelve Essays on the Proximate Causes_, into German
with any real effectiveness although the testimonial of the enthusiastic
Taylor had led Phillips to assume that he could. Borrow, as we shall
see, knew many languages, and knew them well colloquially, but he was
not a grammarian, and he could not write accurately in any one of his
numerous tongues. His wonderful memory gave him the words, but not
always any thoroughness of construction. He could make a good
translation of a poem by Schiller, because he brought his own poetic
fancy to the venture, but he had no interest in Phillips's philosophy,
and so he doubtless made a very bad translation, as German friends were
soon able to assure Phillips, who had at last to go to a German for a
translation, and the book appeared at Stuttgart in 1826.[60] Meanwhile,
Phillips's new magazine, _The Universal Review_, went on its course. It
lasted only for a few numbers, as we have said--from March 1824 to
January 1825--and it was entirely devoted to reviews, many of them
written by Borrow, but without any distinction calling for comment
to-day. Dr. Knapp thought that Gifford was the editor, with Phillips's
son and George Borrow assisting. Gifford translated _Juvenal_, and it
was for a long time assumed that Borrow wished merely to disguise
Gifford's identity when he referred to his editor as the translator of
_Quintilian_. But Sir Leslie Stephen has pointed out in _Literature_
that John Carey (1756-1826), who actually edited _Quintilian_ in 1822,
was Phillips's editor, 'All the poetry which I reviewed,' Borrow tells
us, 'appeared to be published at the expense of the authors. All the
publications which fell under my notice I treated in a gentlemanly ...
manner--no personalities, no vituperation, no shabby insinuations;
decorum, decorum was the order of the day.' And one feels that Borrow
was not very much at home. But he went on with his _Newgate Lives and
Trials_, which, however, were to be published with another imprint,
although at the instance of Phillips. By that time he and that worthy
publisher had parted company. Probably Phillips had set out for
Brighton, which was to be his home for the remainder of his life.
FOOTNOTES:
[49] The few lines awarded to him in Mumby's _Romance of Bookselling_
are an illustration of this.
[50] _Memoirs of the Public and Private Life of Sir Richard Phillips,
King's High Sheriff for the City of London and the County of Middlesex,
by a Citizen of London and Assistants_. London, 1808. This _Memoir_ was
published in 1808, many years before the death of Phillips, and was
clearly inspired and partly written by him, although an autograph letter
before me from one Ralph Fell shows that the worthy Fell actually
received £12 from Phillips for 'compiling' the book. A portion of the
_Memoir_ may have been written by another literary hack named Pinkerton,
but all of it was compiled under the direction of Phillips.
[51] Mr. Arthur Aikin Brodribb in his memoir of Aikin in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_ makes the interesting but astonishing statement
that Aikin's _Life of Howard_ 'has been adopted, without acknowledgment,
by a modern writer.' Mr. Brodribb apparently knew nothing of Dr. Aikin's
association with the _Monthly Magazine_ or with the first _Athenæum_.
[52] I have no less than four memoirs of Lady Morgan on my
shelves:--_Passages from my Autobiography_, by Sydney, Lady Morgan
(Richard Bentley, 1859); _The Friends, Foes, and Adventures of Lady
Morgan_, by William John Fitzpatrick (W. B. Kelly: Dublin, 1859); _Lady
Morgan; Her Career, Literary and Personal, with a Glimpse of her
Friends, and A Word to her Calumniators_, by William John Fitzpatrick
(London: Charles J. Skeet, 1860); _Lady Morgan's Memoirs: Autobiography,
Diaries and Correspondence_. Two vols. (London: W. H. Allen, 1863).
[53] _Memoirs of Lady Morgan_, edited by W. Hepworth Dixon.
[54] See Timbs's article on Phillips in his _Walks and Talks about
London_, 1865. Timbs was wont to recall, as the late W. L. Thomas of the
_Graphic_ informed me, that while at the _Illustrated London News_ he
got so exasperated with Herbert Ingram, the founder and proprietor, that
he would frequently write and post a letter of resignation, but would
take care to reach the office before Ingram in the morning in order to
withdraw it.
[55] Another London book before me, which bears the imprint 'Richard
Phillips, Bridge Street,' is entitled _The Picture of London for 1811_.
Mine is the twelfth edition of this remarkable little volume.
[56] In _Lavengro_.
[57] Legh Richmond (1772-1827), the author of _The Dairyman's Daughter_
and _The Young Cottager_, which had an extraordinary vogue in their day.
A few years earlier than this Princess Sophia Metstchersky translated
the former into the Russian language, and Borrow must have seen copies
when he visited St. Petersburg. Richmond was the first clerical
secretary of the Religious Tract Society, with which _The Dairyman's
Daughter_ has always been one of the most popular of tracts.
[58] Phillips at his death in 1840 left a widow, three sons, and four
daughters. One son was Vicar of Kilburn.
[59] _Lavengro_, ch. xxxix.
[60] _Ueber die nächsten Ursachen der materiellen Erscheinungen des
Universums_, von Sir Richard Phillips, nach dem Englischen bearbeitet
von General von Theobald und Prof. Dr. Lebret. Stuttgart, 1826.