742
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
the above deteription, (md it may at tomettmet happen that tnch a one cannot be found ; I aould have the dividends in the mean time applied to tuch perton as the matter, wardem, and atsitt- anti, ihall think approachet nearett to what I have deieribed. And whereas the above tnute leill occasion tome trouble; I give to the taid company, in cate they think proper to accept the truitt, £250. * * Mr. Bowyer farther gave to the company of stationers £180 a-year for spe- cific charitable purposes; also a small silver cup.* See his will at large in Nichols's Literary Anec- dotes, vol. iii. p. 270.
1777. The GUugaw Herald established. At first this paper was called the Advertiser, after- wards the Advertiser and Herald, and latterly by the Glasgow Herald ; Mondays and Fridays.
1777. The Kendal Diary, a sheet almanack, began by Mr. Pennington, continued till 1836.
1778, March. The following sums were paid for compiling indexes to the Journals of the House of Commons : Mr. Edward Moore, £6400 as a final compensation for thirteen yesas' labour ; Rev. Mr. Foster, £3000 for nine years' ditto ; Rev. Dr. Roger l^laxman, £3000 for nine years' ditto ; and Mr. Cunningham, £500 in part for ditto; making a total of £12,900.
1778. A Cframmar of the Bengal language, 8to. This work was the production of Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, esq. and printed at Hoogly, a city of Hindostan, m Bengal, from letters cut and trpes founded by Mr. Charles Wilkins, at that time in the East India company's civil ser- vice, whose extraordinary skill and industry had to encounter every difficulty which necessarily resulted from the total want of European artists. Mr. Halhed informs us, that Mr. Wilkins was obliged to charge himself with all the various occupations of the metallorigist, the engraver, the founder, and the printer.
Mr. Wilkins persevered in his noble under- taking of rendering the oriental languages available to the English scholar, through the medium of the art of typography ; with this view he compiled from the most celebrated native grammars and commentaries, a work entirely new to England, on the structure of the Sanskrita tongue: he cut steel letters, made punches, matrices, and moulds, and cast from them a fount of the Dava-nagari character, his only assistance being the mechanics of a country village. Early in 1795, he had commenced the printing of this laborious undertaking in his own dwelling-house ; but, on the second of May in that year, the whole of his premises were destroyed by fire; his books, manuscripts, and the greater part of the Sanskrita punches and matrices were preserved ; but the types which had been prepared with so much labour, were all either lost or rendered useless. This is a circumstance not less interesting as a typo- graphical anecdote, than it is as an instance of
- This cnp was given to the elder Mr. Bowyer by Mrs.
James, after Us loss by fire.
honourable erudite industry ; it i« Uke iieeemtm engraving and colouring his own maps, or Aldu and Stephens working at their own presses aa^ letter cases. About ten years afterwards, the court of directors of the East India oompaay encouraged Dr. Wilkins to resume his laboan, and to cast other types ; as the study of tbe Sanskrita had become an important ol^ect is their new college at Hertford.
1778. Feignot mentions that a lAfe 'ef M. d' Aguesseau, written by his son the cbancdlor d'Aguesseau, was composed and printed by H. and Madame Saron, at Chateau de Fresnes, by means of a private press which they bad obtain- ed from London in 1778. The volume bean the date of 1720, but it was really struck off in this year. Sixty copies of it were printed ; and no other production of this press is known,
1778, April 2i. Died, Samdel Bakek, wk> was for many years distinguished as an emioeat bookseller; and published several good cata- logues of books, at market prices, between the years 1757 and 1777. He was also very famoa as an auctioneer of books ; a quality in whi^ he was at least equalled, if not excelled, by Mr. George Leigh, who was many years his partaer in York-street ; and by his great uephew Mr. Samuel Sotheby, partner with Mr. Leigh in the Strand. Mr. Baker retired from business a fe« Tears before his death to a delightful villa whidt he built at Woodford Bridge, near Chigwell in Essex. He left his property to his nephew, Mr. John Sotheby. Tbe following dates, from three flat stones in the church-yard of St. Paul, Covent Garden, record the deaths of Mr. Bakers mother, his own, &c. &c.
Mrs. Ann Baker, Hay S7, ITSA, aged By.
Mn. Rebecca Baker, of Vork-stTeet, Feb. 18, lyfig, aged St
Mr. Samuel Baker, April 24, 1778, aged S6.
Mr. John Sotheby, Nor. 1, 1807, a^ 67.
Harriet Sotheby, wife of Samuel Sotheby, Books^Ieri
bom S3 Jan. 177s, died 9 Jnly 1808 ;
the beat of women, of wires the peifectest.
1778, May 18. Died, Thomas Gent, piiiiter, in the city of York. The name of Gent is wdl known to the collectors of English topogra{Ay, and of typographical curiosities, as that of a printer who sometimes employed his press upon productions of his own; and who, in his cha- racter of author, produced numerous volumes, which are far from being destitute of merit. He was a native of Dublin, and served his ap- prenticeship to Mr. Powell, a printer in that city, but, unfortunately, no farther can be known of his early history*. On his arriving in Lon- don he was employed by Mr. Daniel Midwinter and Mr. Mears, in Blackfriars. In 1714, April 20, he left London on foot, and walked to YoA in six days, where he was engaged by Mr. White, with whom he remained a year, and then visited Dublin, and found employment with Mr. Tbos. Hume in Copper-alley; but returned to London
- The Lift 0/ Mr. Tkoiiuu Oenl, printrr c/Yart, mriltn
bjf himtet/. London : printed for l%oniaa Thorpe, I8SS. Iliis little work contains an excellent portrait; and agnat deal of corions information upon printers and laintiag.
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