the Laws of Excise_, and on its publication Baskett obtained an
injunction to stop its sale. Litigation dragged on until 1758, when
the Court of King's Bench decided in favour of the university,
declaring that it was entrusted with "a concurrent Authority to
print Acts of Parliament and Abridgements by letters patent of K.
Hen. VIII and K. Charles I."
Dyer says of Bentham that "he was not eager after money in the way
of business, but rather ambitious of printing Works that would
do him credit. He had a great taste for Gardening and a turn for
humour. He was an amiable man, as all the Benthams were; and was
the only Bentham of the family that was not in orders. There were
six brothers, who all used to assemble at the Prebendal-house in
Ely at Christmas."[109] Joseph was an alderman of Cambridge and
lived in a house adjoining the Press in Silver Street, the whole
group of buildings forming "a sort of Quadrangle or Square." This
house had belonged to Matthew Stokes, Registrary from 1558 to 1591,
and Cole refers to the arms ("carved very handsomely and very
large") over the chimneypiece in the parlour[110].
Of the books printed by Bentham the most sumptuous is _The History
of Ely Cathedral_ by his brother, James Bentham, a large volume
illustrated with many engravings and published in 1765.
Other illustrated works of some interest are Zachary Grey's edition
of Samuel Butler's _Hudibras_ (1774) with a "set of new cuts" by
Hogarth and _Cantabrigia Depicta_ (1763)[111]. There may also be
noted a Latin version of Pope's _Ode on St Cecilia's Day_ and
a succession of Seatonian prize poems by Christopher Smart; a
volume of _Odes_ (1756) by William Mason; Roger Long's _Astronomy_
(1744); Robert Masters's _History of the College of Corpus Christi_
(1752); a Latin version (anonymously published) of Gray's _Elegy_
by Christopher Anstey and W. H. Roberts, Provost of Eton: and many
editions of the classics, including Squire's _Plutarch de Iside et
Osiride_ (1744), Taylor's _Demosthenes_ (various years) and Richard
Hurd's _Horace_ (1757).
In 1715, when James Gibbs presented his design for "the Publick
Building at Cambridge," his plans included provision for the
printing-house above the Registrary's office in the southern wing;
and it has been therefore inferred that the printing-house in
Silver Street was not adequate to the needs of the university[112].
Only a portion of Gibbs's scheme (the Senate House) was carried out
and in 1762 the Syndics of the Press, seeking fresh accommodation,
purchased a house, called _The White Lion_, which probably stood on
the south side of Silver Street, facing the old Press. This was the
first step taken in the acquisition of the present site.
* * * * *
Bentham continued in office until 1766 and well maintained the
typographical reputation of the Press, but a more famous name is
that of John Baskerville. Originally a writing-master at Birmingham
where, from 1733 to 1737, he was teaching at a school in the Bull
Ring, he afterwards took up, with great success, the trade of
japanning and in 1750 began his experiments in type-founding. He
set his mind to the improvement of type, press, paper, and method
of printing:
It is not my desire (he wrote in the preface to his _Milton_,
1757) to print many books, but such only as are books of
Consequence, and which the public may be pleased to see in an
elegant dress, and to purchase at such a price as will repay
the extraordinary care and expense that must necessarily be
bestowed upon them.... If this performance shall appear to persons
of judgment and penetration in the Paper, Letter, Ink, and
Workmanship to excel; I hope their approbation may contribute to
procure for me what would indeed be the extent of my Ambition, a
power to print an Octavo Common-Prayer Book, and a Folio Bible.
This ambition was fulfilled by Baskerville's getting into touch
with the university. In 1757 he sent a specimen of type to a friend
at Cambridge, explaining that
the size is calculated for people who begin to want Spectacles but
are ashamed to use them at Church.... If I find favour with the
University, & they give me a Grant to print an Edition of a prayer
book according to the specimen I would ... send to Cambridge two
presses, Workmen & all other requisites, but should be glad to
take the chance of the Edition to my self, & make the University
such Considerations as they should think fit to prescribe.... My
highest Ambition is to print a folio Bible, with the same letter
of the inclosed Specimen.
[Illustration: JOHN BASKERVILLE]
The application was successful and on 15 December, 1758, an
agreement was made with the university by which Baskerville was
to have leave to print a folio bible and two octavo common-prayer
books, and on the following day Baskerville was duly elected to be
"one of the Stationers & Printers" of the university for ten years,
securities for £500 each being given by Baskerville himself and by
John Eaves, a toymaker of Birmingham.
The conditions imposed upon the new printer were strict: he was to
print in Cambridge only such books as the Syndics gave him leave
to print; on the title-page of no other book was he to describe
himself as Printer to the University; inspectors appointed by
the Syndics were to have free access to his printing-office; and
Baskerville was to pay the university £20 for every 1000 of the 8vo
common-prayer. On 31 May, 1759, Baskerville wrote from Birmingham
to the Vice-Chancellor:
Sir,
I have at last sent everything requisite to begin the Prayer Book
at Cambridge. The Bearer Mͬ Tho. Warren is my Deputy in conducting
the whole. I have ordered him to inform you of every step he
takes, and to desire you would appoint a person to tell out the
number of sheets before they go to press and again before they
are packed up for Birmingham. Mͬ Bentham will inform you how many
sheets per 1000 are allowed for wast. I have attempted several
ornaments, but none of them please me so well as the specimen;
which I hope will be approved by you and the Gentlemen of the
Syndick. I propose printing off 2000 the first impression, but
only 1000 of the State holidays &c which the patentee has left
out. The paper is very good and stands me in 27 or 28 shillings
the Ream.
I am taking great pains, in order to produce a striking title-page
& specimen of the Bible which I hope will be ready in about six
weeks. The importance of the work demands all my attention;
not only for my own (eternal) reputation; but (I hope) also to
convince the world, that the University in the honour done me has
not intirely misplaced their Favours.
You will please to accept & give my most respectful duty to the
University, particularly to the Gentlemen of the Syndick. I should
be very happy if I could make an Interest to a few Gentⁿ. to whom
the work would not be disagreeable, to survey the sheets, after
my people had corrected them as accurately as they are able, that
I might, if possible, be free from every error of the press; for
which I would gladly make suitable acknowledgements. I procured
a sealed copy of the Common prayer with much trouble and expense
from the Cathedral of Litchfield, but found it the most inaccurate
and ill printed book I ever saw: so that I returned it with
thanks[113].
Evidently neither the university nor Bentham was willing to give
Baskerville a free hand. Bentham was naturally jealous of his own
position and the Syndics' previous experience of leases granted
to outside printers had been unfortunate. Reed's criticism is
therefore a little too harsh: "This learned body," he writes,
"appear to have been influenced in the transaction more by a
wish to fill their own coffers than by a desire to promote the
interests of the Art; and the heavy premiums exacted from
Baskerville for the privilege thus accorded effectually deprived
him of any advantage whatever in the undertaking."[114]
By a further agreement of 3 July, 1761, Baskerville undertook to
pay £12 10_s_ 0_d_ per 1000 for the 4000 copies to be printed of
the 12 mo Common Prayer and in a letter of 2 November, 1762, he
wrote in a dismal strain to Horace Walpole:
The University of Cambridge have given me a Grant to print
there 8vo. & 12mo. Common prayer Books; but under such Shackles
as greatly hurt me. I pay them for the former twenty, & for
the latter twelve pound ten shillings the thousand, & to the
Stationers Company thirty two pound for their permission to print
one Edition of the Psalms in Metre to the small prayer book: add
to this the great Expence of double and treble Carriage, & the
inconvenience of a Printing House an hundred Miles off. All this
Summer I have had nothing to print at Home. My folio Bible is
pretty far advanced at Cambridge, which will cost me near £2000
all hired at 5 p Cent. If this does not sell, I shall be obliged
to sacrifice a small Patrimony which brings me in [£74] a Year
to this Business of printing; which I am heartily tired of &
repent I ever attempted. It is surely a particular hardship that I
should not get Bread in my own Country (and it is too late to go
abroad) after having acquired the Reputation of excelling in the
most useful Art known to Mankind; while every one who excels as a
Player, Fidler, Dancer &c not only lives in Affluence but has it
[in] their power to save a Fortune.
[Illustration: A PAGE OF BASKERVILLE'S PRAYER-BOOK, 1762]
However, four prayer-books (two with long lines and two in double
column) were produced by Baskerville in 1760 and of these two were
reprinted in the following year; the folio bible appeared in 1763.
In spite of their failure from the commercial point of view,
Baskerville's prayer-books and bible were recognised as something
finer than, or at any rate as something different in kind from,
what had been produced before. Dibdin called the bible "one of the
most beautifully printed books in the world" and called special
attention to the title-page as having "all the power and brilliancy
of copper-plate." The contrast, too, between the dignified design
of Baskerville's title-pages and the conventionally crowded
title-page of the period has also been duly emphasised[115].
On the other hand, Baskerville's type has been criticised as being
modelled too closely upon his own mastery of penmanship--the
upstrokes very thin, the downstrokes very thick, the serifs very
fine[116]. Controversy apart, Baskerville's is without doubt
the most distinguished typographical work associated with the
University Press in the eighteenth century.
Depressed by the financial failure of his bible, Baskerville
printed no more in Cambridge after 1763[117]; when he died twelve
years later, a French society bought his types and used them for an
edition of Voltaire and other works.
* * * * *
Bentham continued to hold the office of printer until 1766. On 13
December of that year he resigned and John Archdeacon, an Irishman,
was elected in his place, his salary being fixed two years later
at £140 a year. Archdeacon had been appointed Inspector of the
Press two months before, and, as appears from certain passages in
Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes_[118], had been associated with a
scheme by which Bowyer had contemplated taking over the management
of the University Press:
In consequence (writes Nichols) of overtures from a few
respectable friends at Cambridge, Mͬ Bowyer had some inclination,
towards the latter end of 1765, to have undertaken the management
of the University Press, by purchasing a lease and their
exclusive privileges, by which for several years they had cleared
a considerable sum. To accomplish this he took a journey to
Cambridge; and afterwards sent the Compiler of these Anecdotes to
negotiate with the Vice-Chancellor. The treaty was fruitless; but
he did not much regret the disappointment.
Evidently it was intended that Archdeacon should be the printer
under Bowyer's management, since Nichols wrote to Bowyer in
September, 1765:
I write to you now from the house of Mͬ Labutte[119], with whom I
have dined, and who has most obligingly shewn me all in his power.
Mͬ Archdeacon is not at home. I have opened to Mͬ Labutte my plan,
who is of opinion something may be done. I have talked also with
a _Compositor_, who is sensible, and who now works in the house.
_Six hundred_ a year I believe may carry it. They _talk_ of _ten_
having been _offered_. For 7 years last past the University have
_cleared one-thousand-three-hundred pounds_ annually; besides
farming the _Almanack_ (200 l. more). This might at least be
_doubled by opening the trade_ in new channels. If any bookseller
of reputation would enter into a scheme with you, _an immense
fortune would certainly be raised_....
and Bowyer, in his reply, wrote:
Mͬ Archdeacon, as you observe, must be a leading person, and there
is some delicacy necessary to be shewn to him.
This proposal, however, came to nothing, and no university
documents relating to it have been preserved.
From the business point of view, the printing and selling of bibles
and prayer-books no doubt continued to be the most important branch
of Archdeacon's activities. In a collection of agents' accounts
for the years 1766 and 1767 the well-known names of Edward Dilly,
John Rivington, James Waugh, T. and J. Merrill appear. One of these
accounts, made out in Archdeacon's own hand[120], is reproduced
here as showing the numbers and prices of bibles supplied to
Rivington during the period of six months and also the way in which
the accounts were examined and approved by the Syndics of the Press.
In the year following that of Archdeacon's appointment a contract,
similar to those of 1706 and 1727, was made with the Stationers'
Company by which the Stationers, in return for an annual payment of
£500, were granted the right of printing a large number of books
(including school editions of classical authors, Lily's Grammar,
Almanacks, Gradus ad Parnassum, Horn Book prints and Psalters) for
the term of 21 years[121].
[Illustration: RIVINGTON'S ACCOUNT WITH THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1767]
Later, in 1775, an Act of Parliament secured to the universities
the perpetual copyright of all schoolbooks bequeathed to them; but
in the same year it was ruled in the Court of Common Pleas that
the right of printing almanacks was a common law right over which
the Crown had no control, and the Stationers' Company thereupon
discontinued their payments to the universities.
However, in 1781 a new almanack duty act granted to each university
the sum of £500 per annum as compensation. At Cambridge this sum
was placed at the disposal of the Syndics of the Press for the
publication of works of learning by the following grace of 11 June,
1782:
Cum ad graves librorum imprimendorum sumptus sublevandos
omnigenaeque adeo eruditionis studium promovendum, annuo
quingentarum librarum reditu Academiam nuper auxerit munificentia
publica; ne aut nostra negligentia deflorescat tantus publice
habitus literis honos, aut in alios usus transferatur quod
doctrinae amplificandae sacrum esse oporteat; placeat vobis ut
Typographici Preli Curatores in hac etiam parte Syndici vestri
constituantur, atque ut quingentae quotannis librae, si ipsis
necessarium videatur, vel in novas veterum scriptorum editiones
apparandas, vel in recentiorum opera divulganda insumendae iis hoc
nomine e Communi Cista erogentur....
Since the abolition of the paper duty and the consequent loss to
the university of the advantage of drawback, this grant constitutes
the single subsidy which the Syndics of the Press receive from an
outside source.
About this time the competency of the Syndics was called into
question. It was alleged, for instance, that one Syndic did not
know the difference between _collating_ and _collecting_ MSS;
a more serious charge was that the warehouse in Silver Street,
acquired in 1672, was damp and that great injury had been done to
the stock of sheets kept there. In reply, Dr Plumptre asserted that
the damage done amounted only to £20. Archdeacon remained in office
till the year of his death, 1795; in 1793 John Burges was elected
printer and acted in partnership with him for two years.
Of the books printed in the last thirty years of the eighteenth
century one of the most ambitious was Thomas Kipling's facsimile
edition, in two folio volumes, of the _Codex Bezae_ (1793),
"the very crown of the Cambridge Press." Kipling was the leader
of the prosecution of William Freind, author of _Peace and
Union recommended to the associated bodies of Republicans and
Anti-Republicans_ (2nd ed. 1793), and refused to allow Gilbert
Wakefield's _Silva Critica_ to be printed at the Press on account
of the author's unorthodoxy[122].
Gray's _Commemoration Ode_, set to music by Dr Randal, was printed
in 1769[123]; Samuel Ogden's _Sermons on the Efficacy of Prayer and
Intercession_ (Boswell's favourite reading during his tour to the
Hebrides) were published in 1770 and were followed by other volumes
of sermons in 1777; the Parker MSS were catalogued by James Nasmith
and published in 1777, the Baker collection by Robert Masters in
1784; Thomas Martyn, Professor of Botany, published a _Catalogus
Horti Botanici_ in 1771 and _Elements of Natural History_ in 1775;
the second edition of John Wesley's _Duty and Advantage of early
rising_ was printed in 1785 and the changing spirit of the age is
reflected in a sermon of 1788 entitled _Slavery inconsistent with
the Spirit of Christianity_ and a _Sermon on Duelling_, by Thomas
Jones (1792).
The beginnings of the study of modern languages in Cambridge are
seen in La Butte's _French Grammar_ (2nd ed. 1790) and in various
editions of Tasso and other Italian authors by Agostino Isola, a
teacher who, at different times, could reckon Thomas Gray, William
Pitt, and William Wordsworth among his pupils[124].
_Ten Minutes' Advice to Freshmen_ by A Questionist, printed by
Archdeacon for J. Deighton in 1785, deserves a few lines of
quotation:
It is not reckoned fashionable to go to _St Mary's_ on a
Sunday.--But I know no harm in going, nor that it is any reproach
to a man's understanding to be seen publickly in the same
place with the most dignified and respectable persons of the
University.--To say nothing about the regularity of the thing,
and its being approved of by people whose good opinion you may be
desirous to obtain.
It is neither my business nor my inclination to prose to you upon
the usefulness of Mathematical learning--it is sufficient that it
has its uses....
Of the standard of mathematical printing at this period a
circumstantial complaint is preserved by Nichols in a letter from
William Ludlam, author of _Rudiments of Mathematics_ (2nd ed. 1787)
and other works[125]:
For my own part, I am sometimes forced to make types, which are
commonly brass, of which I here send you a specimen (± a ± b ± c).
It is called plus-minus ±. I printed my first tracts at Cambridge
when Archdeacon (not Bentham) was their printer. I was very sick
of it; the University meanly provided with mathematical types
insomuch that they used daggers turned sideways for _plus's_.
They were sunk into arrant traders, even to printing hand-bills,
quack-bills, &c., which they then for the first time permitted for
Archdeacon's profit. As to tablework of which I had a deal, they
knew nothing of it; and many a brass rule was I forced to make
myself.... I complained of this to Mr Bowyer, and would have had
him print my essay on Hadley's quadrant[126]; but he was too full
of more important work. I remember I told him I had marked all
Archdeacon's damaged letters; which were not a few, especially in
the italic. To which the old gentleman replied 'I don't like you
the better for that.'
One of the last books printed by the Archdeacon-Burges partnership
was a translation of a Latin poem, _The Immortality of the Soul_,
by Isaac Hawkins Browne who, "one of the first wits of this
country," according to Johnson, "got into Parliament, and never
opened his mouth."
John Burges continued as sole printer after the death of
Archdeacon in 1795. Two large dictionaries were, amongst other
works, printed during his term of office: Ladvocat's _Historical
and Biographical Dictionary_ (1800-1801) and Hoogeveen's
_Dictionarium Analogicum_ (1800); academical works of reference,
such as _Cambridge University Calendar_ (1796) and the _Graduati
Cantabrigienses_ (1800), also begin to appear; the _Calendar_,
however, was not regularly printed at the Press until 1826, and it
is only since 1914 that the Syndics have been responsible for its
publication[127].
Finally, there may be noted Relhan's _Flora Cantabrigiensis_ (2nd
ed. 1802) and Harraden's _Picturesque Views of Cambridge_ (1800)
containing 24 views from original drawings by Richard Harraden, a
London artist who came to Cambridge in 1798.
[Illustration: THE SENATE HOUSE, THE NEW LIBRARY, AND ST MARY'S
CHURCH]
(From _Cantabrigia Depicta_, 1763)
VII
THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
The immediate official successor of Burges as university printer
was John Deighton, elected on 28 April, 1802; he, however, held
office only till 11 December of the same year and seems to have
served the Press as publishing agent rather than as printer. Thus
in 1803 he, with Francis Hodson of Cambridge and Richard Newcomb
of Stamford, undertook to purchase the whole stock of royal octavo
bibles belonging to the university (amounting to 5627 copies in
all) for the sum of £2323 10_s_.
Deighton had begun business in Cambridge about 1777 and removed to
London in 1786; in 1795 he appears to have returned to Cambridge,
where he established the bookselling firm that has since become
Deighton, Bell and Co.
About this time the Syndics seem to have taken counsel of, or at
any rate to have compared notes with, the Oxford University Press;
a rough notebook, kept by Isaac Milner, one of the most active
of the Cambridge Syndics, contains various memoranda concerning
the Oxford method of management. Milner seems particularly to
have discussed with Mr Dawson, of the Clarendon Press, the proper
percentage of profit on the printing and selling of bibles. One of
Milner's notes is reproduced here as being of interest not only
in the history of Cambridge printing, but also in the history of
business; it should be added that there is a note appended to the
calculation explaining that "the 25 per cent., it is supposed, will
nearly leave the proposed profit of £10 per cent. and pay all the
wear and tear and salary of superintendence."
[Illustration: A PAGE FROM ISAAC MILNER'S NOTE-BOOK, 1800]
Richard Watts, the printer elected at Cambridge to succeed John
Deighton in December, 1802, also appears to have had previous
experience in Oxford, where he had conducted, and had a share in,
a paper under Dr Manor, called the _Oxford Mercury_, in opposition
to Dr Jackson's _Oxford Journal_. Immediately before his election
he seems to have been agent for Mr Hamilton, a printer of Falcon
Court, London.
A little more than a year after this appointment Cambridge received
another offer of a secret for the process of stereotype printing.
The inventor was the third Earl Stanhope, a remarkable man who,
besides being prominent in political life, was a Fellow of the
Royal Society, the author of _Principles of Electricity_, and the
inventor of many devices including a microscopic lens, a new kind
of cement, a calculating machine, an artificial tile for keeping
out rain, a cure for wounds made in trees, an instrument for
performing logical operations, and several improvements in the art
of printing. Of these last the most important were the Stanhope
press and an improved process of stereotyping: the Stanhope press
was made of iron instead of wood and an ingenious mechanism made
it possible to print a sheet twice as large as on the old wooden
presses; the university bought two of these new presses, which are
still in use at the present day.