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604
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
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The following epigram was written upon his doing penance, in the reign of James II.
Penance eojoin'd, dant Hill refuse To trudfce five mllea with peu in's shoes? No— bid to fsst, the slf sinner Resolred to $Umi upim hit dimuri 80 boU'd his penetential pe«se To give both feet and consdenoe ease; And then his churches role to keep, In soup iidpenanee ankle deep.
Hence an arch wag this inference dimvs : What need we fear a dying cauie > Tis plain long since that crafty Hill TbepuUe of popery coold oat feel.
Prine Epigram.— OaU.'i Mof. March, J73«.
Gillam Hills, his son, was sUnao a printer, and died Oct. 18, 1737.
1713, Sept. 6. Difd, John Dyer, author of a news letter called by his name; but which was discontinued after bis death. In the Flying Pott of the 19th of the same month appeared a most ludicrous epitaph on Mr. Dyer.
Dunton says, " Mr. Dyer, lately deceased, was also a partner with Mr. MerreaJ.* He was a fair dealer and a pious man; he knew the false- ness of the world, and though he could see but with one eye, had learnt to trust himself always; others, so far as he might not be damaged by their disappointment. I bought a good deal of paper of him — and found by his candid treat- ment, he had white hands ana a clean soul; and I do not fear but Mr. Dyer is now in heaven.
Robert Dyer, esq. a grandson of the abore, died in Grav's-inn, September 4, 1748, and left £20,000 to Christ's hospital.
1713, Oct. The Clarendon Printing House, at Oxford, opens upon thb day. It had been built with the profits arising from Lord Clarendon's Hiitory of the Rebellion, The copyright had been presented to the university by the son of the noble author. The first sheet worked off was signature z in the third alphabet of Leland's Collectanea, then being published by Heame. The imprint, E Theatro Sheldoniano, was not left off until after the year 1739, although the university books ceased to be printed there from the time of the completion of the Clarendon.
1713, Jan. 6. Britain, No. 1.
1713, March 12. The Guardian, No. 1. It was during the temporary suspension of the Spec- tator, that Steele, with the same assistance, issued the Guardian, which extended to 175 numbers, or two volumes. It ranks between the Spectator and Tatler. The title was of too grave a cast.
1713, May 26. Mercator; or, Commerce Re- trieved, No. I. So general had become the taste for periodical composition, that even subjects of a commercial as well as a political nature, were conceived capable of being published to advan-
- " He is rich, yet very humble. He has been put up
for sheriff, yet this honour does not make him scornful and imperious, but rather like the fixed stars, — the higher he Is the less he desires to seem. His face, his carriage, his habit, savour of humility. He was the first stationer 1 ever dealt with; — in trading with him for twenty years, I ever found him just and kind;— it is a question whether he is more his chapman's Mend or his own :— and to con- clude his chamcter, he is so naturally good, if there were no heaven, yet Alexander Merreal would be a virtuous m*D."~Dunl<m. His residence was at the sign of the Rose, in Bread-street.
tage in this way. Mercator was soon follouc by other papers of the like nature.
1713, April 30. Reconciler, No. 1. On th 18th of May, two numbers of this paper wei published at once (a sheet and a halt,) Nos. 2 and XI. to evade the Stamp-duty.
1713, Oct.e. Engliihman, being the Seqni of the Gvardian, No. 1 . The chief purport c this publication was to illustrate and defend tl measures and principles of the Whigs, and t point out the infinite importance of the pn testant succession to the peace and welfare of th kingdom. This paper continued two yeais.
Whilst yet employed upon the composition < the EngliAman, Steele was induced, to promol the same views, to publish a pamphlet entitle the Crieit, which so offended the torrparty, thi on March the 12th, 1714, Mr. JohnHung^or brought a complaint before the house, agaim certain paragraphs inserted in two numbers c the Englishman and the Crtm, published und< the name of Richard Steele, and calculated t promote sedition, to asperse the character of he majesty, and arraign the conduct of her admin istration. After a prolonged debate, aod a Ter able defence by Steele, the influence of the mi nistry prevailea, and the house " Resolved, thi RICHARD STEELE, ESQ. for his offcuce in writini and publishing the said scandalous and seditiou libels, be expelled this house."
Soon after this event, dean Swift publishe (anonymously) T'lAf public Spirit of the Whig set forth in their generous encouragement of th author of the Crisit. 8vo. On the first pol lication of this pamphlet all the Scotch lord then in London, went in a body and compliune to queen Anne of the affront put on them an< their nation, by the author of this treatise whereupon proclamation was published by he majesty, offering a reward of £300 for disco vering the author; and Mr. John Barber, th printer, and Mr. Morphew. the publisher, wer both taken into the custody of the black r«>d.
1713, Nov. 16, Lay Monk, No. 1. This wori was by sir Richard Blackmore,* and publishei on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; it haTin)
- Sir Richard Blackmore was a most IndrfaHeaW
writer, whose numerous compositions may be arrange) under the heads of medical, poetical, theological, and arii celtaneouM. He was the son of an attorney in the count] of Wiltshire, and, after the usual routine, was entered a Kdmund Hall, Oxford, where he resided thirteen yean His first employment was that of a schoolmaster, wbid he soon reliiiquished for the study of physic, in which In acquired considerable celebrity, and was created a fefloi of the royal college of physicians in lfiS7. Inlfieghewv appointed physician in ordinary to king WlUiam, aa knighted; he held the same oSlce to quean Anne. Bi died in October, I7S9, after a long life of industry, piety and unblemished reputation. His principal work was hi Creation, a philoeoi^calpoem, which appeared in 171s, ii seven books, of which both the matter and style have bea highly commended by Addison and Johnson; the lattes affirming, that " this poem, if he had writ t en nothing die would have transmitted him to posterity among the Ore favourites of the English muse." The adminttian whid the works of Blackmore once enjoyed, is not whcdiy to Im atMbuted to the low state of public taste, but in acreal measure to the spirit of party. He being a xealoos Wlag, and a ftiend of the kiq^, who knighted him, it became 1 kind of political doty with one party to read and praise Idi works, while another heartily despised them.
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