Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/440

400 THOMAS NELSON. inn, pay a hearty tribute to a traveller who had succoured, him. " This person was no other than the philanthropic bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, who had written so many little books for children : he called himself their friend, but he was the friend of all mankind. He was no sooner alighted but he was in haste to be gone, for he was ever on business of the utmost importance, and was at that time actually compiling materials for the history of one, Mr. Thomas Trip." Newberry purchased the copyright of the " Traveller " for twenty guineas, and eventually offered a hundred guineas for the " Deserted Village," which Goldsmith wished to return when he found that he was receiving payment at the rate of five shillings a line. However historically interesting and bibliographi- cally curious, Newberry's business, measured in bulk, was as a molehill to a mountain when compared to the enormous trade carried on by the largest of our modern publishers of juvenile literature perhaps, also the largest book-manufacturer in the world. Thomas Nelson was born at Throsk, a few miles east of Stirling, in the year 1780, and was brought up in the very bosom of that strong, stern, unwavering religious faith, which has so often seemed the fitting complement to the ruggedness of the Scotch character ; and which, among the other worldly advantages of its system of training, has often prepared its votaries for a successful career in business. His father led a quiet, retired life upon a small farm, not far from the famous field of Bannockburn, and was so satisfied with the content of his humble lot, that he repeatedly refused to take advantage of offered opportunities of making money, by permitting a pottery to be erected on his land. In those days, great gatherings of those known