Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/429

THOMAS TEGG. 389 ' Yes, my dear, by all means help Mr. Hunt,' was her answer. ' He aided us in trouble ; you can do no less for him.' Next morning I found I had become his surety for thirty thousand pounds. I was sharply questioned in court as to my means, and, rubbing his hands together, Mr. Barrister remarked that Book- selling must be a fine trade, and wished he had been brought up to it. I answered, 'The result did not depend on the trade, but on the man ; for instance, if I had been a lawyer I would not have remained half this time in your situation I would have occupied a seat with their lordships.' There was a laugh in court, and the judge said, ' You may stand down.' " When success first really dawned, Tegg began to feel poignantly the want of a more complete education; however, he determined to employ the powers he possessed as best he could. His earliest publications consisted B of a series of pamphlets, printed in duo- decimo, with frontispieces, containing abridgments of popular works ; and the series extended to two hundred, many of them circulating to the extent of 4000 copies. As an instance of his business energy, we may cite the following : Tegg heard one morning from a friend that Nelson had been shot at Trafalgar. He set an engraver to work instantly on a portrait of the hero, purchased the Naval Chronicle, found ample material for a biography ; and, in a few hours, " The Whole Life of Nelson" was ready for the press. Such timely assiduity was rewarded by a sale of 5000 sixpenny copies. On another occasion, when on a summer jaunt to Windsor with a friend, it was jocu- larly resolved that, as they had come to see the king, they ought to make his Majesty pay the expenses of the trip. Tegg suggested a Life of Mrs. Mary Anne