_THE CASTLE HILL._
With characteristic energy the young student, now in his nineteenth
year, set himself to grapple with the novel difficulties of the
book-trade. Neither the irksome drudgery nor the uncongenial demands
incident to the business daunted the youthful adventurer, who had so
recently found his highest vocation in the mastery of Latin quantities,
and the triumphs of competitive hexameters after the models of Horace
and Virgil. In the summer of 1880, the present writer spent some weeks
with his old schoolmate at Philiphaugh, in the vale of Yarrow, famous as
the scene of Montrose’s last battle. During an excursion to Berwick,
with the special object of visiting another schoolmate, he pointed out
more than one book-store in the old Border town, familiar to him in
association with his first experiences as a commercial traveller, and
humorously described those early ventures in the disposal of his
literary wares. According to Johnson of Liverpool, his journey extended
to that city, and Mr. Johnson gave him his first large order for books.
He had already succeeded in overcoming the prejudices of the regular
trade, and fixed a scale of prices which disarmed their antagonism.
The books, as already stated, were for the most part reprints from
standard and popular works beyond the range of copyright restrictions.
Their paper-covered boards and imperfect printing were in striking
contrast to the choice typography, paper, and binding, and the tasteful
illustrations, which characterized the works issued by the firm in later
days. Yet the germ even of this was already discernible in the engraved
frontispieces and vignette titles introduced to catch the eye and cater
for the popular taste.
So early as 1829, Mr. Thomas Nelson, senior, had aimed at the extension
of his business by engaging a commercial traveller to push the sales of
his publications with the trade. Mr. James Macdonald was first
despatched on this mission; but as Curwen states, in his “History of
Booksellers,” owing to the stigma attached to the unwonted nature of the
business, his mission was a failure. “At Aberdeen the booksellers rose
up in arms, and only one had the courage to give him an order.” To him
succeeded, ere long, Mr. James Peters, a more successful agent, and a
faithful _attaché_ of the house through all its later fortunes till his
death. But Curwen says: “It was not until Mr. William Nelson, the
eldest son of the founder, took to the road that the trade business was
really consolidated, not only in Scotland, but also in the chief towns
of the United Kingdom. In fact, it may be said that Mr. William Nelson
was the real builder of the business, working upwards from a foundation
that was certainly narrow and circumscribed. Mr. Thomas Nelson, the
younger brother, soon after this admitted to the firm, undertook the
energetic superintendence of the manufacturing department, and was the
originator of the extensive series of school books.”
William Nelson’s taste in literature was refined, and his reading
extensive. His mind was stored with the fruits of years of liberal
study; and when stimulated by the sight of beautiful scenery, or moved
by some unusual occurrence, he sometimes surprised strangers by his apt
and lengthened quotations from favourite poets. Soon after the removal
to the Castle Hill establishment, Mr. Duncan Keith,--the son of an old
friend of Mr. Nelson, with whom William had spent at Glasgow a brief
period of initiation into the mysteries of trading,--was welcomed as a
member of the West Bow home-circle, and took his place among the busy
corps on the Castle Hill. He was the junior of William Nelson by some
years, and thus writes: “My evenings were chiefly spent in the society
of the younger branches of the family; but I have a distinct
remembrance of William reading aloud from Horace and Virgil in a manner
that showed an intimate acquaintance with the language, and an
appreciation of the poetry in the original. Though a High School dux
myself, it was far above me; and, so far as my later observation goes,
above most people.” But it was only amongst intimate friends that he
gave free play to his literary sympathies. Nothing was more remote from
his character than any effort at display; and men of culture who, in
their intercourse with him, had long regarded him only as the man of
business, were sometimes startled by an unexpected betrayal of his
familiarity with classical and general literature, as well as by his
sound judgment on questions of critical discussion.
With a taste thus matured, his feeling for art was refined, and he
directed his efforts, with ingenious skill, to render the works issued
from the firm attractive. Novel methods of illustration were introduced.
Wood-cuts were printed with tinted grounds and relieved lights.
Chromo-lithographs vied in effect with the original water-colour
drawings. A late series of reproductions of Landseer’s pictures, though
designed only for a child’s book, constituted a valuable memorial of the
great animal painter. Inventive ingenuity was directed to the production
of fresh novelties in binding and illustration, many of which were
eagerly copied by the trade. William Nelson’s appreciation of artistic
excellence seemed to be innate and instinctive. “A thing of beauty” was
a joy to him wholly apart from his own share in its production. His
admiration for a well-got-up book, or for illustrations of unusual
excellence, found as hearty utterance in reference to the publications
of another firm as of his own; and hence he was always open to fresh
hints, and prepared for improvement on his most successful efforts. He
was, indeed, too easily beguiled by good looks both in books and men.
This characteristic passage occurs in a letter to an old friend: “I had
a call two days ago from a most fair-spoken English clergyman, who
wanted help to build a ragged school in Sheffield. He insisted that you
had introduced him to me, and that I had taken him over the works and
given him a book, which was likely enough; though, as I told him, I had
no recollection of it. He was most plausible, and very good-looking. A
good-looking outside takes my fancy in anything. I always find myself
expecting the best of a good-looking book; and I am apt to believe
pleasant things of good-looking people also. He assured me he was a
great friend of yours; and he had such a friendly look that I gave him
what he wanted. Do you know anything of this Dr. Pike? I have had my
suspicions of him that he is a plausible humbug,”--which, as in many a
similar case, proved to be only too well founded.
A writer in the _Scottish Typographical Circular_ remarks: “Mr. Nelson
was often popping in and out among artists and engravers who did work
for him, giving them new ideas and further suggestions. He did not
grudge trouble or expense if he got things nice and to his mind. He
rejoiced in beautiful typography, and displayed great artistic taste in
the wood-cuts and illustrations.” He was indeed a familiar visitor in
the studios of London and Paris, as well as of Edinburgh; and during his
frequent Continental tours derived intense pleasure from his visits to
the galleries both of ancient and modern art. His eye was quick to
discern the merits of a painting, and his judgment was prompt and
decided. He was indeed sensitive to any manifestation of bad taste; and
the unsightly disfigurement of the buildings or thoroughfares of his
native city by placards or signboards, excited his anger to a degree
that sometimes startled the offender. His remonstrance on such occasions
was apt to be expressed with a blunt sincerity that could not be
misunderstood. The same severe standard of taste was applied in his own
business, and made its influence felt in every department of typography,
illustration, and binding.
A memorandum, found among his papers after his death, preserves an
incident in the first stages of the inexperienced but energetic
reformer’s proceedings. His father had acquired a set of stereotype
plates of Drinkwater’s “Siege of Gibraltar,” and had a portrait of its
author engraved for the frontispiece. A reprint of it being in progress,
the plate was intrusted to the engraver for retouching; and he undertook
to get the autograph of the old soldier, to be added as an attractive
feature. The new and illustrated edition was issued accordingly, and
found a ready sale. But some years afterwards a venerable
military-looking gentleman waited on Mr. Nelson, and asked where he had
obtained the signature. Colonel Drinkwater, who was supposed to have
been long since dead, was himself the questioner; and, as William Nelson
notes, the signature was subsequently identified as in the handwriting
of the deceased manager of Mr. Lizar’s engraving establishment. But only
in the first stage of transition from student life to the counting-house
and the publisher’s office could such a proceeding have eluded his
vigilance. A copy of the engraving is attached to the memorandum, and
contrasts very markedly with the illustrations of later years, when
William Nelson’s critical taste, conjoined with his experience in
adapting the issues of his publishing-house to popular demand, won for
the productions of the firm a character for great attractiveness in
outward aspect and illustration. At a later date, the “Chronicles of the
Schönberg-Cotta Family” constituted the first of a highly popular series
of books by the same author. The charming authoress who writes under
the initials A. L. O. E., the late Mary Howitt, Mrs. Traill, R. M.
Ballantyne, and other writers, figured on their list of authors. The
charming series of “Art Gift Books,” from the French of M. Jules and
Mme. Michelet, and M. Arthur Mangin--“The Insect,” “The Bird,” “The
Mysteries of the Ocean,” and “The Desert World,” as well as other works
of the same class--are illustrated in the best style of art. But it was
as caterers for the people, in an abundant supply of pure, high-toned
popular literature, and not as rivals of the great publishing houses
through which the most eminent writers appeal to select classes of
readers, that the Nelsons achieved their greatest success. In the
tribute paid to the worth of William Nelson by the Rev. Dr. Alison when
his life-work was finished, it is said: “His influence, and that of the
firm of which he was the head, has gone forth healthfully to the ends of
the earth. Religious principle, no less than skill and taste and
enterprise, has been in all their work as publishers of literature. No
man can measure the good which that incessant stream of excellent books
issuing from their press has done for the world. To a large extent they
have been for the multitude, rather than for the learned few.” But this
was the summing up of the work of a lifetime. Much had to be achieved in
its progress, step by step, ere such results could even be aimed at.
Under the energetic management of the young publisher the picturesque
tenement at the head of the West Bow, which had sufficed for his
father’s bookselling operations, soon proved inadequate for the growing
business. A neighbouring “land,”--as an entire pile of building in the
Old Town of Edinburgh is still called,--situated at the head of Blyth’s
Close, Castle Hill, with the palace of Mary of Guise in its rear, was
secured; and there the first steps were taken which ultimately developed
into the great establishments of Hope Park and Parkside. Machinery was
brought into use wherever available; and a well-organized division of
labour was introduced, until at length nearly every process, from the
initial type-setting to the final issue of the bound and illustrated
volume, was executed on the premises. The locality where this new
departure was made, preparatory to the great works at Hope Park, with
its hundreds of work-people, and its wholesale branches at London and
New York, is one rich in literary associations. Near by, on the northern
slope of the Castle bank, is the house of Allan Ramsay, poet and
bookseller; Blair’s Close, long noted among the most ancient nooks of
the Castle Hill, was the abode of Alison Cockburn, authoress of “The
Flowers of the Forest,” and of other plaintive as well as humorous
Scottish songs. To St. James’s Court, on the east side, James Boswell
brought Dr. Samuel Johnson, and entertained him in the house where he
had succeeded to the historian David Hume. There was an old-world
literary flavour about the place that gave a certain piquancy to the
start of the young adventurer deserting the classic grove for the
prosaic haunts of commerce.
The Rev. Dr. Simpson of Derby, already noted as an old schoolmate and a
life-long friend, refers in one of his letters to the lectures and
social entertainments provided at a later date for the numerous workers
in the Hope Park establishment, in which he was an active labourer. But
the interest taken by William Nelson in his employés was manifested at
an earlier stage. Lectures and social recreations had already been
instituted before the transfer of the works to Hope Park, in some of the
earliest of which the present writer bore a part. But with increasing
numbers, and more ample room, those instructive entertainments were
organized on an extensive scale, and are described in a memorandum of
Dr. Simpson, by whom many of the later lectures were given. His account
of them may find a fit place here, though in some points it anticipates
the narrative of later years. “The deep interest,” he remarks, “which
Mr. Nelson felt in his work-people, and his desire to promote their
well-being in every sense, conspicuously appear in the entertainments
which were from time to time got up for them. At first these were
chiefly in the nature of banquets or suppers, to which all were invited,
when they were regaled with the good things of this life in a judicious
but liberal manner. Along with this, however, he was careful to combine
moral and religious instruction, by securing addresses by one or two
clerical friends. By-and-by he provided for them occasional lectures on
subjects of varied interest. For those he got up, at considerable
expense and trouble, a series of illustrations which were shown on a
screen by the oxy-hydrogen light, the lecturer describing each picture
while it was before the eyes of the audience. This was, I believe, the
first introduction of this form of lecture, which has since become so
common. The pictures were reproduced from engravings by the photographer
of the establishment, Mr. Sinclair, and then hand-coloured with much
care and skill by Mr. Ramage, who devoted himself to the art-work
connected with the extensive business of the firm.
“The first of those illustrated lectures was on the transfer of
Napoleon’s remains from St. Helena to Paris. The second was on
Garibaldi’s invasion of Sicily and Italy, ending with his meeting with
Victor Immanuel, and hailing him as king of Italy. Afterwards a new
departure was made, and the lectures were chiefly devoted to the genius
and works of celebrated artists; the illustrations being transcripts of
the artists’ principal works. The first subject of this class was David
Scott, R.S.A., in connection with his illustrations of Coleridge’s
‘Ancient Mariner,’ subsequently reproduced by Messrs. Nelson in a
tasteful edition of the poem. The next lecture was devoted to the works
of Landseer; and to this succeeded similar illustrations of Hogarth,
Wilkie, Harvey, Leech, etc. Those lectures were greatly appreciated; the
large hall at Hope Park, in which they were given, being always crowded
to excess by the employés, their wives and families, supplemented by
friends invited by Mr. Nelson, including some who took an active part in
this generous effort for the social elevation of the working-classes,
such as Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Hannah; and their artist friends, Sir George
Harvey, D. O. Hill, James Drummond, and others. For each of those
lectures Mr. Nelson had prepared from twenty to thirty slides, which
were arranged in partitioned cases made for their safe keeping.” But
they perished, along with much more valuable property, in the disastrous
fire of 1878.
But only the initial steps towards the full development of the Hope Park
works, with their ingeniously devised machinery and systematic division
of labour, were possible at the Castle Hill establishment. Its
accommodation, though a great step in advance of that at the Bowhead,
was inadequate for such plans, and the numbers employed were
correspondingly limited. But the workmen were carefully selected; and
from the first the relations between them and their employer were
characterized by mutual respect and confidence. They recognized in him
one whose interest in their welfare was generous, and his sympathy that
of a friend. But his own attention to business extended to the minutest
details, and anything indicative of mere eye-service or sloth was
intolerable to him. An anecdote highly characteristic of him is thus
narrated on the authority of one who had been long in his
employment:--“Two navvies were engaged one day at Hope Park turning a
crank when Mr. William Nelson was passing. He paused for a moment and
looked at the men, who seemed to go about their work rather leisurely.
He then came forward to them, and asked, in a gruff manner, if they
could not work a little harder and turn the crank quicker. They answered
at once ‘they could not; it was a stiff job, and very fatiguing.’
‘Nonsense,’ he replied; ‘let me try.’ Seizing one of the handles, he did
try; but, after giving the handle two or three turns, desisted, for it
made the perspiration pour from him. Then he remarked, ‘Ay, just go on
as you’ve been doing;’ and, putting his hand into his pocket, added,
‘There’s half-a-crown between you.’ Many similar anecdotes might be
told. He liked smart, active workmen; but he did not willingly drive or
unduly press any one. He would at once rebuke any of his employés if he
considered they deserved it; but if afterwards he found he had acted
hastily or wrongly, he would apologize, even to the humblest worker, and
almost invariably with the apology there came a gift.”
It is not surprising that the relations between such an employer and his
workmen were something closer than those of the mere hireling. The
workmen who had shared in his first efforts in the Castle Hill
establishment followed him to Hope Park. Some of them, by their fidelity
and skill, contributed to the success of later years; and the veteran
survivors of that original staff were regarded by William Nelson to the
last as objects of exceptional favour.
Among those who thus migrated from the Castle Hill to Hope Park, one
claims special attention as a relic of the original Bowhead
establishment. James Peters has already been named. He was a man of good
education, and, what was rare in his day, had a familiar knowledge of
the French language. He was, moreover, a devout Presbyterian of the
early type, eschewing the Covenanting exclusiveness of his old master,
and holding faithfully to the National Kirk. His familiarity with the
Scriptures was so great that he was accredited with knowing the entire
New Testament by heart, and quoting familiarly from much of the Old
Testament. He had been the trusted clerk, commercial traveller, and man
of all work: the entire staff for a time of the bookselling business
under the elder _régime_; and as the cautious ventures of its founder
gave way to the comprehensive schemes of a younger generation, he
watched their operations with many misgivings. Old Peters would have
furnished a study for Sir Walter Scott fit to have ranked alongside of
his Owen and Caleb Balderstone. He moved in all things with the
regularity of clockwork, and sternly resented in others the slightest
deviation from orderly business procedure or punctuality as to time. Mr.
Duncan Keith sums up his own early recollections of him with the remark
that “even John Munro, the beadle of Mr. Goold the Covenanting
minister’s kirk, stood in awe of him.” One day, contrary to all
precedent, he asked leave to go away a little earlier than the usual
closing hour. He reappeared next morning, and, addressing William, said,
“I wish you would tell your father I got married yesterday.” On inquiry,
he stated that he had just wedded the elderly dame with whom he lodged.
“It will be cheaper,” he said; “and we’ll get on weel enough thegither.
We hae been lang used to each other.” When in early days the plan of
book sales was in vogue, he was intrusted with the carrying out of one
of the ventures; but his ideas of orderly procedure were wholly at
variance with the novel experiment. He abruptly returned home the
following day, and would have nothing more to do with such work. His
loyalty to his young masters knew no bounds; but he could never quite
forget that they had been boys when he had the sole charge of the
Bowhead buith, or indeed feel it to be natural to speak of them
otherwise than by their Christian names. Duty clearly required him to
advise and warn them at every new step, so unlike the prudent thrift of
early days. If we could realize all the feelings of a sober old
brood-hen when the ducklings that she has hatched take their first
plunge into the mill-pond, and in spite of her clucking and pother sail
off into the expanse of waters heedless of all remonstrance, we might be
better able to sympathize with the worthy old servitor as his young
master launched into ever new and more ambitious ventures. He survived
his active faculties, and was an object of kindly care and liberality
long after he had ceased even to deceive himself with the fancy that he
could be of service in the business.