A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE ready-made boots at that time were of very both at home and abroad that the business inferior quality. Mr. Burrows's suggestion rapidly attained the size before mentioned : was taken, and the goods met with such favour a philanthropic act substantially rewarded ! PRINTING The county can boast of a very early press which was established in the sixteenth century in accordance with the Act of the reign of Richard III. inviting strangers connected with the art to take up their abode and exercise their calling in the country. In 1528 John Scolar, probably identical with the Oxford printer of 1518, set up a press in the Abbey of Abingdon and there printed a breviary for the use of the monks of that house. Emman- uel College, Cambridge, possesses the only known copy of this work. 1 At the end of the sixteenth century the legislature did all it could to discourage the art, and an Act was passed in 1583 prohibiting the practice of printing except in London, Oxford and Cambridge. In consequence of this edict doubtless, the early press at Abing- don disappeared, and Berkshire printing ceased, except perhaps by the private presses that followed in the wake of the army during the Civil War. Restrictive Acts of Parlia- ment prevented the spread of printing, which were kept in force till 1693 ; after that date the art increased rapidly in the provinces, especially in relation to the production of newspapers. The earliest known printers in Reading were W. Parks and D. Kennier, who were the first printers of the Reading Mercury, a news- paper which made its first appearance on 8 July 1723. This paper has had an interest- ing and remarkable history. Only six other news-sheets in England have existed so long a period, retaining the same title ; and the Reading Mercury has remained in the pos- session of the same family for nearly a century and a quarter. It was founded by Mr. John Watts, mayor of Reading, the author in 1749 of a pamphlet bearing the alarming title, The Black Scene opened. Parks, one of its first printers, was of a roving nature. He estab- lished himself at Ludlow in 1719 and at Hereford in 1721, and thence came to Reading, where his sojourn was equally brief. Mr. Allnutt, Librarian of the Bodleian Library, has traced him to Annapolis in Maryland and to Williamsburgh in Virginia. 3 Isaiah 1 English Provincial Presses, by W. H. Allnutt, published in Bibliographica, ii. 30. 2 Notes on Printing in Reading during .the l8th century, by W. Allnutt in Reading Mercury. Thomas, in his History of Printing in America, says ' Parks was well acquainted with the art of printing and his work was both neat and correct.' He acquired a handsome property, was much respected, sailed for England in 1750, and died on board the ship, his body being buried at Gosport. His partner, David Kennier, was in early life apprenticed to a London printer and member of the Sta- tioners' Company, Matthew Jenour, in 1715. After the departure of Parks he continued to print the Mercury. The first number con- sists of 12 pages foolscap 410 size, or 8 by 10 inches. The first two pages are occupied with a list of goods imported and exported at London, and an introductory address ' to the gentlemen of Berkshire and the counties adjacent,' in which the proprietors quaintly remark : ' We have pitched our Tent at Reading, induc'd by the good character this country bears for Pleasure and Plenty : and intend with your leave to publish a Weekly News-Paper under the Title of The Reading Mercury or Weekly Entertainer: containing Historical and Political Observations on the most remarkable Transactions in Europe ; collected from the best and most authentic accounts, written and printed : with the Imports and Exports of Merchandizes to and from London, and other Remarks on Trade ; also the best recount of the Price of Corn in the most noted Market-Towns 20 or 30 miles circular. And when a scarcity of News happens we shall divert you with something merry.' The printing office was styled the Saracen's Head in High Street. In 1725 Kennier printed Heliocrene a poem in Latin and English : on the Calybeate Well at Sunning Hill in Windsor Forest. It is inscribed Excudebat D. Kennier, Typographus Read- ingensis Anno Dom. 1725. Two years later another printer appeared in the town, one William Ayres, who set up his press in Minster Street. He printed a sermon on the Order of Duties by Joseph Slade, which created much controversy. He continued his art until 1734, when he printed Messiah, a divine essay, a work written by the senior boy of the Free Grammar School, James Merrick, after- wards a noted Reading author. After chang- ing its proprietary at least once the Mercury became in the latter part of the seventeenth century the property of the widow of the 400
