Stackhouse, curate of Finchley, 8vo. In this rare pamphlet the author very feelingly, but spiritedly, exemplifies in himself the miseries of a poor clergyman. The brief matter of fact is, that, in May, 1732, Mr. Wilford and Mr. Edlin, "when the success of some certain things published weekly set every little bookseller's wits to work," engaged Mr. Stackhouse to write something which might be published weekly, but what it was they knew not. By Wilford he had been before employed to write "A preface to Sir William Dawes's Works;" but "had taken umbrage at Wilford's palming upon the world a Set of Prayers, all taken from other authors, merely to lengthen out sir William's Duties of the Closet, and make the third volume swell." Edlin "he knew of old, as the merest Marplot that ever took the publication of any work in hand." This precious pair appointed Stackhouse to meet them at the Castle tavern,[1] Paternoster-row. "Edlin was for reviving his Roman Hitory; and, with heavy imprecations on Dr. Bundy, maintained, that a little brushing up, i. e. infusing some life and spirit into Ozell's dull style, the thing would still do in a weekly manner." Wilford would by no means come into that design. His talk ran chiefly on Devotional Tracts and Family Directors. To compromise the matter, Mr. Stackhouse proposed A New History of the Bible; there being nothing of that kind considerable in the English language, and his own studies for some years, whilst writing his Body of Divinity, having qualified him for such a work. Proposals were accordingly drawn up; but a disagreement happening between Wilford[2] and Edlin, Wilford gave up the undertaking; and Mr. Stackhouse was left, much against his will, in the power of Edlin; who "had printed proposals; got credit of paper; brushed up his old battered letter; picked up a poor compositor or two; sent [to Finchley] a few curious books, and began to be very clamorous for copy." Mr. S. had engaged to supply three sheets a week, provided he were allowed to furnish forty or fifty sheets before any part of it was published. He accordingly set to work, and completed the Introduction. But Edlin was impatient to begin; and "what mercy," says Stackhouse, "he intended to have of his poor author, appeared in the very first sheet he sent me to correct, which was very near a whole page above the standard stipulation; insomuch that, had I submitted to this encroachment, I had lost, on the impression of the whole book, between £40 and £50 copy money." This imposition led to a quarrel, which was compromised by Edlin's giving ten copies of the book, in consideration of the supernumerary lines, "to be presented by Mr. Stackhouse to some bishops who had thought favourably of some of his other writings." After the reconciliation, Edlin sent an instrument to be signed, binding Stackhouse, his heirs, &c. in a penalty of £50 to write well, and finish the History of the Bible for him. But this Stackhouse resolutely declined. For compiling the introduction, few books of any consequence had been wanted; but for the History itself Mr. Stackhouse required the ablest commentators upon the whole, and reconcilers and critics upon different texts of scripture; but could obtain from his employer none but bishop Patrick; Edlin suggesting, "that the chief of his subscribers lived in Southwark, Wapping and Ratcliffe Highway; that they had no notion of critics and commentators; that the work should be adapted to their capacity, and therefore the less learning in it the better." When the introduction was finished (of which two numbers were published without acquainting the author) the breach became incurable. No copy was ready of the History; and Stackhouse was informed, that, if he did not care to write for Edlin, he had found out another that would. With some difficulty, twelve guineas were obtained for the twelve sheets of introduction; Edlin engaged another author; and Stackhouse, who was happy to escape out of the trammels of a tyrant, engaged to pursue his History under the more auspicious patronage of Mr. Batley[3] and Mr. Cox,[4] booksellers of reputation; and the work was accordingly completed in two folio volumes, which afterwards successively passed through numerous editions. The main purport of Mr. Stackhouse's address to Edlin is, to shew on whose side the infraction of the agreement lay.[5] Mr. Stackhouse deserved well of literature—and had a hard fate as to worldly matters, as a small vicarage was his only church perferment. In 1733 he was presented to the vicarage of Benham Valence, alias Beenham, in Berkshire, and was buried in the parish church, as appears by a neat tablet, which preserves his memory.
1752, Oct. 21. The Gray's Inn Journal, No. 1. These essays were the production of Arthur Murphy, esq. under the assumed name of Charles Ranger, esq. who, in imitation of the Spectator, introduces himself as the member of a "club of originals," yet without making much use of this fictitious assemblage. It was continued weekly, for two years, and each paper is divided into two parts; the first containing an essay on some miscellaneous subject; and the second, under the appellation of True Intelligence, including many ironical and humorous strictures on the various occurrences of human life. In humour, invention, and variety, the Gray's Inn Journal is often superior to the cotemporary papers of Hill and Fielding.
1752, Nov. The Scourge, by Oxymel Busby, esq. folio, a periodical paper, published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at 2d. each number.
1762, Dec. 1 The Public Advertiser, No. 1.
- ↑ It was the custom of booksellers, for a very long period, to make all their bargains at a tavern.
- ↑ Memorials of Eminent Persons was published by John 'Wilford, in monthly number.
- ↑ Jeremy Batley, bookseller, in Paternoster-row, died September 11 1737.
- ↑ Thomas Cox, an eminent bookseller and exchange broker, died February 3, 1754.
- ↑ See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. ii, pp. 493-99.
