EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PRINTERS
Crownfield retired from the office of printer in 1740 and received a pension from the university until his death in 1743[103]. He was a bookseller as well as a printer and seems to have done some binding as well[104]. His bookselling business was carried on after his death by his son James, and a book of 1744 is described on the title-page as "printed for J. Crownfield."
His successor was Joseph Bentham, appointed first by the Curators as 'Inspector' on 28 March, 1740[105], and elected printer on 14 December of the same year.
Bentham was the son of Samuel Bentham, Vicar of Wichford, near Ely; one of his brothers was James Bentham the historian of Ely and another, Edward Bentham, of Oxford, author of Funebres Orationes and other works.
Joseph Bentham was free of the Stationers' Company and Carter, the historian of Cambridge, refers to him as "allowed by all Judges to be as great a Proficient in the Mystery as any in England; which the Cambridge Common Prayer Books and Bibles ... printed by him, will sufficiently evince."[106]
Before Bentham's appointment, steps had already been taken by the university to revive the business of printing and selling bibles. Thus, in December, 1740, the Curators agreed to print small bibles (9000) price 2s and 1000 on large paper at 2s 6d, and six months later 11,000 small nonpareil bibles and 1000 on large paper.
The services of Charles Bathurst, of London, were secured as agent and from 1738 to 1744 he was engaged in "buying, procuring, and expediting Paper, Types, Servants, and other necessaries."
Bathurst's memorandum of 1751, though an ex parte statement, throws an interesting light on printing conditions at Cambridge:
The Insolvency (he writes) of the University's late Lessees for Bibles and the wishes and power of the King's Printer considered, it was then a prevailing opinion, that no advantage could well be made by printing Bibles and Com. Prayers: therefore the Syndics were very diffident and cautious in undertaking other Impressions[107].
However, having previously passed a resolution that Bentham was to sell no bibles without authority from one of themselves, the Syndics in March, 1743/4, covenanted with Bathurst that he should be the sole selling agent for all books printed at Cambridge. Several editions of the bible and prayer-book were put in hand and subsequently reprinted, "but not near so fast as they were sold." Bathurst grew impatient: "If two presses will not do," he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor, "[I hope that] three shall [be] employ'd in it: for truly the jests People make here of the negligence of our Advantage and Honour are very irksome." The university, on the other hand, found itself unable to make the necessary outlay of money for paper. Bathurst had, according to his own account, spent considerable sums in the purchase of type and had made a six weeks' voyage to Holland in 1747 to procure a good stock of paper. One parcel was duly received by Bentham at Cambridge, but by the time that the second consignment arrived, a new Vice-Chancellor (Dr Parris, Master of Sidney Sussex College) had taken office and the paper was promptly returned.
I have returned your paper again (wrote the Vice-Chancellor) which yet I would not have done, if we had either wanted it, or had money left to have paid for it.... The Welsh Bible is paid for within a trifle: works of authors bring in but a trifle: our chief dependance must be on what our books in your hands produce.... I am reduced to ye necessity of either returning your paper, or, what is still worse, putting an intire stop to ye press[108].
A fresh arrangement was therefore proposed by which Bathurst should pay ready money for books printed and the university should not be required to advance money to carry on the business.
Another source of trouble both to the Press and to Bathurst during this period was a second attack made by Baskett, the king's printer, upon the rights of the university.
In 1741 the Syndics had printed for Bathurst an Abridgement of 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.
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 Mr 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. Mr 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 10s 0d 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.
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, Mr 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 Mr Labutte[119], with whom I have dined, and who has most obligingly shewn me all in his power. Mr Archdeacon is not at home. I have opened to Mr 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:
Mr 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].
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.
THE SENATE HOUSE, THE NEW LIBRARY, AND ST MARY'S CHURCH
(From Cantabrigia Depicta, 1763)
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 10s.
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."
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.
The offer of the stereotype secret came to the university from Andrew Wilson, the London printer employed by Earl Stanhope. By a preliminary agreement of 20 April, 1804, Wilson was to receive for the space of 14 years one-third of the savings resulting from the employment of the stereotype process and was to act, in conjunction with Watts, as agent for the Syndics' bibles and prayer-books. The savings were to be calculated by arbitrators appointed by the respective parties.
This not very business-like arrangement naturally led to a dispute before long. As early as October, 1805, Milner seems to have had misgivings both about the scheme and about Wilson's competency, as the following entries in his notebook show:
Qy whether Wilson's declaration of 30,000 profits in 8 years be not a proof want of judgmt.
Qy whether Wilson be not an adventr—without judgment.
Hints to new Vice-Cr.
1. The system of talking before them viz. Watts and Wilson.
The absolute necessity of others being informed in the stereotype art.
Watts talks of going to London again by Wilson's directions to see what chases and things he wants—and when I say he should not leave them, he says, Oh, there is no more in leaving them now than when he was ill—they are to be trusted.
Qy—Quid cogitant ille and Wilson.
Qy x to agree with Oxfd? as a Stereotyper?
The supposition contained in the last cryptic note was well justified, as Wilson had in March, 1805, proposed to the Clarendon Press "to put the University in possession of the Art of Stereotype Printing"; later in the same year the Delegates, having resolved that "the University of Cambridge being in possession of the Art, it seems not only expedient, but necessary, that Oxford should be possess'd of the same advantages," entered into an agreement by which Wilson was to instruct their representatives in the stereotype processes for the sum of £4000[128].
In 1806 Wilson claimed that, as the introduction of stereotyping had enabled the Syndics to convert a warehouse into a printing-office for the sum of £1500 instead of building a new one at a cost of £4500, he was entitled by the agreement to his share of the saving of £3000 thus effected.
On 6 March, 1807, the university agreed to pay Wilson the sum of £865 16s 9d for the composition and two sets of plates of a bourgeois testament, a brevier testament and a nonpareil Welsh testament[129]; it being provided that the university should make for Wilson (from type supplied by himself) so many perfect plates towards octavo editions of Ainsworth's Dictionary and Johnson's Dictionary as should amount in value to the aggregate of Wilson's bill. Later in the same year the university definitely acquired the stereotype secret by a further agreement: £2000 was to be paid immediately, £1000 which had been previously advanced to Wilson was to become his property, and further sums were to be paid in accordance with the amount of the sales of bibles, testaments and prayer-books[130].
The following extracts, describing the outline of the stereotype process, are taken from Milner's notebook:
1. The pages as they come from the composers have been first well cleansed with a solution of American Potash—14 lb in 3 buckets of water.
2. They must then be gently dried by the fire and then cool and a little oil of Turpentine is put on a plate with 2 parts sweet oil.... This mixture gets thick by time: The plate is then well done over with a little of this mixture by one of the small soft brushes like a painter's brush....
3. Then a copper measure of the powdered calcined gypsum is taken—viz. about ½ or ¾ pint and the same quantity of soft water and they are put into a copper vessel and shaken exceedingly well together: and then the mixture is to be poured upon the types, there being first placed upon them an iron frame to form an Edge to sustain the fluid Gypsum and water.
4. Immediately, and without the least loss of time the short square brushes are now to be taken and you must work the Air out quickly with them and continue working till the gypsum is too fixed to allow of more working.
5. When so fixed that you can easily make an impression, that is, while the Plaster is softish, take off the upper frame and scrape clean all the elevated plaster. It will rise again above the level by and by; scrape again—and lastly as soon as it is so fixed that it is not easy to make a mark with yr nail, then lay it carefully upon a soft frame (covered with a sort of cloth) and then take a piece of wood that nearly fits the cake, and gently thrust it so as to make it quit the frame; and then dress it with a knife and lay it between two pieces of marble to keep it from warping.
6. The types must now be cleaned by picking out any bits of gypsum left in the Interstices ... and lastly they must be brushed; and then done over again for a new mold.
7. The artist, Mr Austen, Engraver can dress and cure any little imperfection in the plates when cast.
8. The Gypsum requires about 2 hours for calcination; and is known to be right when you break the pieces, and see them moulded quite thro'—Matter of Experience.
9. The Gypsum should be broken with small bits about 2 ounces each.
10. and when calcined they are to be ground on a Stone....
11. When the moulds are made, and placed between the marbles ... they will be ready in 2 or 3 hours for baking....
12. They are to be baked being placed upright on stands like those for toasted bread—raised a little from the bottom of the furnace—About 2 hours or 2½hours will take the moulds....
Casting
The metal is precisely the Type metal. The Pots must be made quite as hot as the metal—or rather more—. Then the floating plate must be placed in the frame—and the cake or mould directly upon it with its face downwards: Then place upon the top the cover of the frame, and screw it down: and dip the whole in metal melted so that a match will light at it.—The melted metal will run in at those places made in the mould by the bits of brass—till all be full—and then remove the whole to be cooled on a tile in water with lime upon it—and as it cools and shrinks, supply with fresh melted metal.
The acquisition of this secret did not end the disputes with Wilson; the university in 1811 protested against payment of the bill referred to in the agreement of March, 1807, on the ground that Wilson had not supplied them with the type for Ainsworth's and Johnson's Dictionaries and that they were so prevented from selling the plates to him. No documents have been preserved to show how the case ended, but the following hypothetical case on which the university invited the opinion of counsel about this time may be quoted in conclusion:
Whether supposing A.B. to be acquainted with the secret mode of making stereotype plates, and supposing C.D. to know the mode now in general use, and whereas it is conceived that the secret is now no secret. Supposing A.B. to inquire of C.D. his (C.D.'s) mode of making the plates, and by his answers it appeared that he (C.D.) was acquainted with all the peculiarities of the secret, would A.B. be justified in telling C.D. that such was the secret?
Meanwhile, the Press buildings were growing. On the site of the White Lion Inn, bought in 1762, a warehouse had been built in 1786 and on 20 April, 1804, the Syndics instructed Mr Watts, with the assistance of Mr Humphreys, to "prepare a plan for altering the Warehouse into a Printing office." This building was described by Dyer, writing in 1809, as "a commodious brick building, situated in Silver Street, with a stereotype foundry adjoining" and, as has been already seen, it was claimed that this economical conversion was made possible by the introduction of stereotype printing.
The Syndics' relations with their printer at this time were not altogether happy. In 1808 two of the Syndics (Dr Milner and Mr Wood) were appointed to examine the Press accounts, since it was alleged that, in contrast to the average annual profit of £1500 for a number of years before 1802, Watts had shown no profit at all for five years. These charges were set forth in a pamphlet entitled Facts and Observations relative to the state of the University Press, to which Watts wrote a Reply. Watts resigned as soon as the enquiry was instituted and, when the examination of the accounts was completed in the next year, it was decided to elect a new printer. Apart from the various stereotype editions of the bible and prayer-book no books of great importance seem to have been printed by Watts.
His successor, John Smith, was elected in 1809 and held the office of printer for 26 years.
It was during this period that the University Press began to assume its present appearance[131]. By 1820 the existing buildings had become quite inadequate to the growing business of the Press and the Syndics recommended the university to purchase Mr James Nutter's estate in Silver Street for the sum of £5060. The following grace was accordingly passed by the Senate on 24 January, 1821:
Quum in Typographeo vestro, ex angustiis loci, multa detrimenta atque incommoda subinde exoriri soleant; quumque, in remedium mali istius, Preli Typographici Curatores pactionem inierint cum Domino Nutter, ut facultate a vobis impetrata, quasdam domos illius quinque mille et sexaginta librarum pretio redimerunt: Placeat Vobis, ut pactio ista rata ac firma habeatur, atque ut summa praedicta e cista communi, usibus istis destinanda, erogetur.
PLAN OF THE PRESS BUILDINGS
(Based on Willis & Clark, iii. 132. Recent additions are marked – – – –)
The property thus acquired was on the site of the ancient inn known as The Cardinal's Cap. Its boundaries are marked on the plan and in 1824, the Syndics of the Press, having taken the advice of an "eminent London Printer" (Mr Hansard), recommended that, as the existing buildings were "so dilapidated and so inadequate to the effectual conducting of the business," immediate steps should be taken towards extension. In the next year plans by James Walter for a new printing-house on the west side of the quadrangle and a printer's house in Mill Lane were approved by the Senate. These buildings were completed in January, 1827, the fitting of them being superintended by Thomas Hansard[132].
A more famous addition to the Press buildings is that associated with the name of William Pitt.
On 25 May, 1824, the following letter was addressed to the Vice-Chancellor (John Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi College) by the Marquess Camden, chairman of the London Pitt Club Committee:
Sir,
I have the Honor to inform you that I am just returned from a Meeting of the Committee appointed to consider of the disposal of the surplus of Money subscribed, many years ago, for the Erection of a Statue to the memory of Mr Pitt.
I am, now, authorized by that Committee to state to you, Sir, that which I had the Honor of personally communicating to you at Cambridge: 'the disposition of that Committee to recommend to a general Meeting of Subscribers to the Fund above-mentioned the Disposal of a considerable Sum of Money for the Erection of an handsome Building connected with the University Press at Cambridge;' but, as it will be necessary to state to the general Meeting how far the University is disposed to find and provide a proper Scite for the erecting such Building, near or opposite to Pembroke College, I now trouble you on that subject, and I request you will have the goodness to inform me how far I may be authorized to inform the General Meeting of the Disposition of the University to find and provide a proper Scite as above-mentioned for the erecting of an handsome Building, which the Committee is desirous should be erected on such a scale as to be a distinguished Ornament to the University, and tend to perpetuate the Name and Memory of Mr Pitt.
I have the Honor to remain, Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
Camden.
A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following resolution:
That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on the 11th instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University Press; such to bear the name of Mr Pitt. That the Committee be desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution this Resolution.
The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards Trumpington Street."
After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and staircase is evident:
It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts which they think should be ornamented.
Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between Mill Lane and Silver Street—a larger site than that on which Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated. The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of the Press quadrangle.
The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8s 9d.
It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening on 28 April, 1833, abridged from The Cambridge Chronicle (1 May, 1833), may also be given in conclusion:
The Pitt Press having been completed, Tuesday last was appointed for the Vice-Chancellor to receive the key of the building from the Marquis Camden and a deputation of the Pitt Committee.... Having arrived at the building the Marquis Camden, accompanied by the members of the Committee, proceeded into the grand entrance hall, and having invited the Vice-Chancellor to the door, spoke as follows:
"Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the University of Cambridge: The idea of connecting the name of Mr Pitt with the Press of that University to which he owed his education and so much of his fame, was met by all parties with enthusiasm. The University have displayed an activity and liberality in providing this magnificent site which could only have been prompted by an admiration for the character of Mr Pitt. The Committee, animated by a personal respect and affection towards their contemporary, have endeavoured to cause to be erected on this site, such a building as might prove an addition to the other great improvements already perfected in this place and which, from its peculiar destination, will unite the name of Mr Pitt with all those works of religion, morality, and science, which will in future emanate from it, and diffuse throughout the world the connexion of his name with erudition and learning....
Sir, you have caused this ceremony to be attended by all the undergraduates as well as by the dignitaries of the University. Let me call the peculiar attention of all to this ceremony, and allow me to impress on the undergraduates that we, Mr Pitt's contemporaries, have been witnesses of his uniting the closest study with the utmost cheerfulness, and, when not employed in solving the most abstruse problems, he has engaged the admiration of his friends and companions, by the liveliest sallies of wit and imagination. Let his example stimulate you to the greatest exertion during your residence in this place, so well calculated to provide for your instruction in every department of literature and science."[133]
The key was then presented to the Vice-Chancellor, who grew eloquent in his reply:
What more appropriate monument then could be erected to the memory of Pitt than this building, the chief purpose and object of which is to send forth to the world the Word of God; and could he, with prophetic eye, when residing in yon neighbouring college, whose proudest boast is to number him among her sons—could he have beheld such a structure, bearing his name, raised for such a purpose, and erected by such friends, even his own eloquence would have scarce sufficed to express the feelings of his heart. My Lord, the edifice with which you have adorned this University, and the illustrious name it bears, will add a fresh stimulus to our exertions in the dissemination of truth, the extension of science, and the advancement of religious knowledge; and I humbly trust that nothing will ever issue from these walls but such works as may conduce to the furtherance of these important objects....[134]
After which, the company, having printed off copies of the inscription on the foundation-stone from a press specially set up for the occasion, "went upstairs into the Syndicate Room, where they partook of a cold collation given by the Press Syndicate."
In the early part of his career, John Smith laboured under the difficulties arising out of the "dilapidated and inadequate" condition of the old Press buildings. The chief source of business continued to be the sale of bibles and prayer-books and agencies were arranged with Rivingtons, Baldwin & Co., and other London booksellers.
Of the books printed by Smith the most notable are the editions of classical authors for which the "Great Porson Greek" type was used. This fine fount had been cut under Porson's direction by Austin, of London, with the assistance of Richard Watts and was used for various editions of the Greek tragedians by Blomfield, Monk, and Scholefield.
In 1824 the King expressed his gracious pleasure that the newly discovered ms of Milton should be printed at the University Press and a new fount of pica type (weighing 12 cwt.) was specially ordered from Messrs Millar, of Edinburgh, for the purpose[135].
In 1827 the Syndics, having again taken counsel of eminent London printers and booksellers (Charles and John Rivington, Mawman, Baldwin, Hansard, Gilbert), resolved upon the expediency of appointing "a Superintendent of the concerns of the Press in all its departments, immediately under the Vice-Chancellor and General Syndicate," and, while no charges were brought against the technical quality of Smith's printing, there seems to have been a general feeling that he was not adequate to the control of the whole business. Smith's Observations relating to the Affairs of the Press (16 March, 1829) throw an interesting light on the difficulties with which he had to contend. He begs to observe, for instance,
that many of the works brought to the Press are in the most unprepared state possible ... the consequence is, that when proof-sheets are sent to the respective Authors, the work is much cut-up, and subject to continued Overrunnings and Corrections.... The Authors, for the most part being Gentlemen of the University engaged with Pupils during Term-time, furnish their Copy in detail—loosely written—and frequent suspensions of MS, which necessarily occasions great delay and inconvenience.... The Gentlemen of the Press Syndicate must be aware (tho' a London Printer cannot, unless he witnessed the operation) that the Examination-Papers which of late years have abundantly increased, must from their nature have retarded all regular work in the Composing Room. These papers could only be executed by Workmen competent and accustomed to Mathematical and Greek Composition; and my best Mathematical Compositors are those who have been brought up and trained in our own Office: London Workmen having in several instances left the Office, rather than undertake the Composition of such Works[136].
Smith also claims a development of the bible business:
I had the honour of being elected Printer at the close of 1809—at that time the number of Presses employed did not exceed eight: the number increased in 1812 and 1813 to thirteen. At this period, and on to 1815 and 17 increased and increasing Orders flowed in from the British and Foreign Bible Society and also (through Messrs Rivingtons) from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge....
The fact is, that from 1813 to 1815 the demand for Bibles etc was such, that had the same quantity of work to be executed been required to be finished in the manner in which the same books are now printed, they would not possibly have been done with the means the Press then possessed—"Send up the Books in gatherings" (i.e. divisions) was the repeated order of the Bible Society—"and we will spare you the trouble of booking off etc, etc." Many thousand copies were thus supplied which were never properly dried....
Finally, a statement is presented showing an average annual profit of £3191 from 1809 to 1827.
The Syndics, however, adhered to their view and invited Mr Clowes, of London, to examine the Press; Clowes sent his overseer, John William Parker, and in February, 1829, was appointed Superintendent of the Press at a salary of £400 a year on the understanding that, while he himself should execute the London business which the appointment involved, the actual superintendence at Cambridge should be deputed to Parker.
Parker infused new life into the business: he introduced improved methods of book-keeping, bought new types and hydraulic presses, installed an apparatus "for warming the Press buildings by means of heated air," and in 1832 established a depository for the sale of Cambridge bibles and prayer-books at his house in the Strand.
When John Smith retired with a pension in 1836, Parker was appointed printer in his place, visiting Cambridge for two days every fortnight; the bible business continued to expand and in 1838 Parker could offer fifty-six different editions of the bible and prayer-book. One bible calls for special comment: on 10 January, 1835, King William IV wrote to the Marquess Camden from the Pavilion, Brighton, suggesting that there should be printed at Cambridge, as at Oxford, a certain number of bibles for presentation to sovereigns visiting the country. The Chancellor conveyed the suggestion to the Syndics who unanimously agreed "that in obedience to His Majesty's command a quarto Bible with marginal references be immediately put to press"; 250 copies, printed on Imperial paper, were to be reserved for purposes of presentation and one copy was to be struck off on vellum for the King himself; larger editions were to be printed on ordinary paper for general sale and Parker was instructed to order a special fount of English type.
Reductions in the cost of bibles were also effected and the Royal Commission of 1850-52 remarked upon the great reduction of price between 1830 and 1850 "attributable to improved machinery and to better arrangements in the establishment." One of the most important of these improvements was the introduction of steam-power for printing, the Syndics resolving on 13 June, 1838, "that it appears expedient to introduce machinery into the Pitt Press."
For many years, however, the Bible Society stoutly refused to purchase books printed by steam presses.
Apart from the great advances made in the actual processes of printing during this period, Parker's work is also of great importance in the development of Cambridge publishing.
As has been already noted, Parker established a publishing house in the Strand in 1832 and besides acting as agent for Cambridge bibles, he included in his catalogue the greater part of the educational books printed at the Press. The stock-books kept at Cambridge show that the bulk of the editions were delivered to Parker's warehouse in London or to Deighton's in Cambridge and the names of both firms frequently appear on title-pages. University publications, together with classical, mathematical, and theological text-books and treatises, predominate in the list and the names of such scholars as Blomfield, Babington, Colenso, Donaldson, Hare, Monk, Paley, Scholefield, Shilleto, Trench, and Whewell are to be found amongst the authors.
In 1844 it was proposed to reprint a number of standard works in theology and general literature "in order to provide against the loss which the want of full employment for the Workmen frequently occasions." It was hoped that by such an undertaking "the University would not only be enabled to secure regular occupation for their Printing Establishment, but would, also, acquire a copyright-interest in certain important Works which would ultimately prove a permanent source of income." Out of a long list three titles were chosen for publication: Stillingfleet's Conferences and Tracts, Cosin's History of the Canon, and Knight's Life of Erasmus.
Not all the books printed, of course, can be regarded as the publications of the Syndics of the Press. Some were printed to the order of an author or bookseller or society (e.g. the Parker Society); others were private ventures of Parker himself (such as his series of Popular Literature including Linnaeus and Botany, Smeeton on Lighthouses, Cuvier and Natural History, Sir Joseph Banks and the Royal Society); but others were definitely the property of the university, as the following minute of the Syndics of 25 May, 1838, shows:
At a meeting of the Syndicate held this day it was agreed, that the following be the form of an imprint for the New Edition of Wilson's Illustrations etc of the New Testament and that the same be adopted as the imprint in all such editions of books as shall be retained as the property of the University
Cambridge, printed at the Pitt Press,
by J. W. Parker, Printer to the University
and again in 1850 it was ordered that it should be stated on the title-page whether the book was printed for the author, editor, or publisher.
Towards the end of Parker's career in Cambridge, there was a distinct decline of business; the extension of the right of printing bibles to the Scottish printers in 1842 led to "the forced production of inferior editions which gradually lowered the prices of those of better quality produced in England." The Syndics, in a report to the Senate in 1849, while declaring the management of the previous 20 years to have been most satisfactory, found themselves faced by two alternatives for the future: either a large outlay upon new types and stereotype plates, or the placing of the establishment upon a reduced footing—and the second course was recommended.
The condition and extent of the Press in 1852 is summarised in the statement prepared by the Syndics for the Royal Commission.
There were at this time eighteen Syndics, who met once a fortnight during term; by a grace of 1752 five (of whom one must be the Vice-Chancellor or his deputy) constituted a quorum and the average attendance was 79/23.
The printing-office contained frames for 70 compositors, presses for 56 press men, and 8 printing machines, requiring about 50 men and boys to work them; a 10-horse steam-engine, 2 boilers, twining lathe, forge, and circular saw; one steam power milling machine, hydraulic and screw hot presses employing about 100 men and boys in all. The machinery was claimed to be "good of its kind." There was provision also for "any number of Readers, Observers, Warehousemen and Boys, necessary to carry on, get up, complete, and deliver the greatest amount of work which could at any time be done."
The two financial privileges enjoyed by the Press were the 'drawback' of 1½d a lb. on the paper duty and the Government annuity of £500, less income tax[137].
The business of the Press was defined as consisting of the printing of bibles, testaments, and prayer-books; of printing work for the university and colleges; of printing books edited for the Syndics; of book and job printing for the members of the university; of printing works published by the Parker and other learned societies; and of "such Book work, as, subject to the 'Imprimatur' of the Vice-Chancellor, may be offered by Publishers and other connexions of the Press."
Finally, the Syndics declared that it did not appear to them that any change of management could produce greater profits than were at that time realised.
Parker retired in 1854 and, in spite of the serious fluctuations in the bible trade, the first half of the nineteenth century must be regarded as a period of expansion in building, in machinery, and in business. For the first time the chief servant of the Syndics was a man with an intimate knowledge of the book trade, who served the university as publisher as well as printer. The assumption by the Syndics themselves of the full responsibilities of a publishing firm was reserved for the later half of the century.