ii s. V.APRIL 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
319
0n
The Story of a Printing House : being a Short
Account of the Strahans and Spottiswoodes.
Second Edition. (Spottiswoode & Co.)
WE are glad to receive a second edition of this instructive record. To the enterprise of a Scots- man. William Strahan, is due the founding of this important firm. He started in 1739 as a printer on his own account with one or two journey- men and an apprentice. In 1742 he entered into premises in Wine Office Court, and in 1748 rented a house to reside in, with a garden at the back. Although this part of London is now known as the " Printeries," it was then largely a residential part. In 1760 Franklin wrote to his wife " that Strahan must be laving by at least a thousand a year." Strahan struck out what was practically a new line for a printer by joining the booksellers in taking a share in many of their publications, and he became the trusted friend of men of letters such as Johnson, Hume, Gibbon, and Adam Smith. His house was the scene of many a literary party that included Johnson and Mrs. Thrale. On the 21st of February, 1770, it was announced in The London Gazette : " His Ma- jesty's printing office is removed from Blackfriars to New Street, near Gough Square, in Fleet Street, where all Acts of Parliament, &c., are printed and sold by Charles Eyre and Wm. Strahan, His Majesty's printers." Strahan died in 1785, leaving a fortune of 100,000*. ; he bequeathed 1,OOOZ. to the Stationers' Company. In 1855 Andrew Spottiswoode retired altogether, leaving his son in charge. He had already resigned his share in the Queen's Patent to his elder son William, so that from that date the two houses, Eyre & Spottiswoode and Spottiswoode & Co., became separate concerns, although the most friendly relations have always existed between them.
Extracts from the ledgers of Strahan show that the firm printed for the Longmans as early as 1739. There are charges to George Whitefield in 1741, and to Wesley in 1744 for printing his ' Journal.' Mr. John Osborne in 1748 paid for printing 2,000 ' Roderick Random,' 30| sheets, 54Z. 18s. ; also for second edition of 3,000, 48Z. 6s. In 1752 Messrs. Tonson & Partners for 10,000 of Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' 18mo, were charged 161. 10s., including 30s. for corrections ; and in 1753, for 7,500 ' Paradise Regained,' also 18mo, 61Z. 10s. For ' The Prince of Abyssinia,' April, 1759, 1,500 copies, the price including 21. 4s. 6d. for extra corrections, was 281. Os. 6d, and for a second edition of 1,000 the year following, 20Z. 8s. 6d. Until 1849 the Spottiswoodes con- fined their work to the printing of books, but on Notes and Queries being started, they became its printers ; no doubt they knew Mr. Thorns in reference to Government publications, and since that time they have been the printers of a large number of papers.
The compiler of this ' Story ' has told us much in the small space of sixty pages : he introduces us to the surroundings of Bream's Buildings as far back as 1658, with a plan of New Street Square from W. Faithorne's ' Exact
Delineations of London and Westminster,' and
the same Square in 1772, from Maitland.
In this second edition, through the courtesy
of the proprietors of The Sphere, the compiler
has been able to give a facsimile of Dr. Johnson's^
last letter to William Strahan, as well as some
receipts of his. Other illustrations include por-
traits of the members of the firm from Strahan
to the present time. The volume has a good
index.
The Romance of Words. By Ernest Weekley. (John Murray.)
THIS is a delightful book one which should prove particularly acceptable to the readers of ' N. & Q.,' whether as furnishing information and entertain- ment, or, as is the case here and there, matter for genial criticism. The first chapter deals with ' Our Vocabulary,' that is, illustrates briefly, first the main constituents of the language, and then the divers ways in which new words have been and are being introduced. Among the latter- naturally occurs the word " jingo," and we notice that Prof. Weekley omits to mention that its political use originated with George Jacob Holy- oake's letter to The Daily Neirs of 13 March, 1878.* ' The Wanderings of Words ' and ' Words of Popular Manufacture,' along with some matter which must be tolerably familiar to the general reader, give much more that is, if not new, yet not very easily accessible or commonly known. Thus we are told the original meaning of " garble," " hussar," and " assegai " ; the probable deriva- tion of " pie " and " jug" ; and learn how many more animals than we might suspect are called from the proper names, or the practices, of men. " Ampersand " is explained by the old-fashioned children's way of reciting the alphabet : "A per se A, B per se B," &c., down to " and per se and " ; and again, under ' Phonetic Accidents,' we get the etymology of words like " grog," " canter," " van," and the French " tante."
The treatment in some cases strikes us as: rather too concise, considering that the book is. intended for the non-expert in these matters. Thus it is not made clear how " restive " acquired a meaning precisely the opposite of its original one ; nor how " nice," supposed to come from the Lat. neticius, and explained by Cotgrave as- " idle," " slack," and " simple," arrived at the sense of " exact," " particular," to say nothing of its other uses. We fancy many readers will be surprised to learn that " tulip " is a " doublet " of " turban," and that " chapel " was originally used as a name for the building in which was preserved the " cape " or cloak of St. Martin of Tours ; as also that " surround " has nothing to do with " around," nor " sorry " with " sorrow." Something nearer the prevalent belief than Florio's account of the supposed connexion between the " tarantella " dance and the " taran- tula " spider might well have been supplied ; and in the interesting discussion of " cashier " a word might have been spared on the common connexion of " cash " with China. Two specially interesting and instructive chapters are those on ' Semantics ' and on ' Etymological Fact and Fiction,' the latter still, alas ! necessary.
- See ' Notes by the Way,' by John C Francis,
p. 9.
