4to. This mode of printing has chiefly been confined to the rarest manuscripts; which, being liable to decay, have thus been preserved for every valuable purpose of collation.
1812, Feb. 12. Died, Andrew Cherry, an eminent dramatist. He was the eldest son of Mr. John Cherry, a noted printer and bookseller, in the city of Limerick, in Ireland, whose ancestors possessed a considerable estate, on which they for centuries resided, near Sheffield, in Yorkshire. They were of the persuasion of Friends, one of whom, disclaiming the mild tenets of the primitive church, and possessing a thirst for martial glory, followed the fortunes of William III. of England, and fought under him as cornet of horse in all the Irish wars, at the end of which he married an Irish lady, and settled at Croome, near the city of Limerick. Andrew Cherry was born in the city of Limerick, on the llth of January, 1762, and received a liberal education. At eleven years of age, he was placed under the care of Mr. James Potts, a respectable printer, of Dame-street, in the city of Dublin; but a desire for the stage induced him to quit his original profession, about the time he had completed his apprenticeship. He was the author of the comedy of the Soldier's Daughter, 1804, and the Travellers; or, Music's Fascination, an opera.[1]
1812. Queen Charlotte caused a printing press to be erected for her amusement at Frogmore-lodge, near Windsor; but the only publications from it were five sets of Historical and Chronological Cards, and two volumes of Translations from the German, in prose and verse.
Make as eternal truths receive.
And practice all that we believe.—Dryden.
Printed by E. Harding, Frogmore-lodge, Windsor. 12mo. pp. 112. There is a leaf following the title, with this inscription:
"The gift of the queen to her beloved daughters—Charlotte-Augusta, Matilda, Augusta-Sophia, Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia: and, with her majesty's permission, dedicated to their royal highnesses, by the translator. Ellis Cornelia Knight."
The other, entitled Miscellaneous Poems, with the same imprint and date, 4to. pp. 99. To each of these is prefixed a neat vignette of Frogmore-lodge. Only thirty copies of each work were struck off, and the press ceased.
1812, March 11. The valuable printing-office established in the mansion-house at Serampore, in the East Indies, conducted by the rev. William Carey, and his colleagues, was totally destroyed by fire; which consumed seven hundred reams of English paper, expressly sent out for the Tamul and Cingalese New Testaments. Every thing in the office perished, except the six presses, which were in a side-room. Altogether two thousand reams of English paper, worth five thousand pounds, were lost; also founts of type in fourteen languages (besides English), together with the cases, imposing stones, brass rules, chases, and all other furniture. Printed books perished to the amount of 5,000 rupees; and manuscripts of the value of 7,000 rupees: the total loss was not under seven thousand pounds sterling. Nine editions of the New Testament, and five of the Old Testament, were stopped by this accident. But providentially no human life was lost in the calamity, and no man's health was injured. The important matrices were saved, and the paper manufactory was not damaged. The missionaries, not dispirited, speedily returned to their work; they recast types from the metal which the fire had melted; so that by the month of June, six out of twelve versions of the scriptures were again in progress. See their Third Memoir of Translations of the Scriptures.
1812. The Bloody Journal, kept by William Davidson, on board a Russian pirate, in the year 1789. Mediterranean: printed on board his majesty's ship Caledonia. 1812. 8vo. 34 pages, four of preface. This man served on board his majesty's ship Niger, in 1791, then under the command of admiral sir Richard Keates. The journal contains a horrible narrative of the enormities committed by the crew of the pirate, in which Davidson acknowledges that he and other Englishmen on board took the most active lead. He was afterwards accidentally drowned, while in his majesty's ship Royal George. Sir Walter Scott, who had heard of the existence of such a memoir, desired to found a poem upon the subject; obtained an authentic copy in 1811, which sir Richard Keates verified, with some further particulars of this man's story. But, on perusal, sir Walter Scott pronounced it too horrible for versification, and inserted the substance of it in the Edinburgh Annual Register, in 1812. A copy of this work is in the library of Corpus Christi college, Oxford.
1812. The Cheap Magazine, printed and published by George Miller, Dunbar, Scotland. This publication was one of the first attempts to diffuse a pure and useful literature among the less educated portion of Scotland. Mr. Miller was the author and compiler, and does equal credit to talent and intention. He was also the author of a work entitled Popular Philosophy; or, the Book of Nature laid open. Mr. Miller died July 23, 1835; and the following lines are from some verses to his memory.
Within thy native district, first to rear
The "Press," which in thy hands, was doomed to wear
A chaster form:—No more, from door to door,
The lounging pedlar hawked his poisoned lore;
For now subservient to one virtuous end,
Amusement with instruction, thou didst blend.
And, lo! where Brougham and Chambers blaze in day,
Thou "went before, and gently cleared the way;"
Unmindful of the magic of a name,
In secret toil'd, and "blush'd to find it fame!"
- ↑ Mr. Andrew Cherry was written to, with an offer of a very capital engagement from a manager, who, on a fonner occasion, had not behaved altogether well to him. Cherry sent him word, that he had been bit by him once, and he was resolved that he should not make two bites of A Cherry. At another time, in 1789, while performing Druggett with Lewis's Sir Charles Rackett, at the theatre-royal, Manchester; when in the quarrel scene. Cherry observes,—"Egad, he looks as if he was going to eat me." "Eat you! (replied Lewis) yes—damme, I would not make two bites of A Cherry."
