868
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1818. George Clymer, of Philadelphia, in North America, arrived in Ix>Ddon, and took out a patent for the Columbian Press, which he had invented some years before in America. No gpreater eulogium can be paid to this beautiful piece of mechanism, than the fact, that where the art of printing has extended its blessing, the Columbian press distributes the favour.
1818, July 9. Died, Richard Beatniffe, an eminent bookseller at Norwich, and author of the Norfolk Tour. This worthy man was a native of Louth, in Lincolnshire, and was born in 1740. He was brought up by his uncle, the rev. Samuel Beatniffe, rector of Gaywood and Bawsey, in the county of Norfolk, whose kind- ness and attention he gratefully acknowledges in his Norfolk Tour. At an early age he was placed with Mr. Hollingwortb, a bookseller, at Lynn, when, having become dissatisfied with his situation, he waited on his uncle, at Gaywood, to complain of the harsh treatment of his master. His uncle, after eying him attentively, said, " Richard, you look well ;" to which Richard immediately replied, " Yes, sir, I am perfectly well in health." "Then go back to your master," said his uncle, " and serve out your apprentice- ship, and never come to me again with your complaints." This advice of the uncle was im- plicitly obeyed, and Mr. Beatniffe completed his term of servitude to the complete satisfaction of his master. He was, however, the only appren- tice that ever did ; for although Mr. Holling- wortb was in business for more than forty years, and always had four apprentices at a time, they all, with the exception of Mr. Beatniffe, either ran away, went to sea, or enlisted into some regiment. Nor will this occasion any surprise, when it is known they were all compelled to sleep in the same bed, bad clean sheets but once a-year, and were dieted in the most economical manner. At the expiration of his apprentice- ship, Mr. HollingwoTth offered him the hand of his daughter, accompanied with the tempting lure of a share in his business; but the lady being verr deformed, and not according to Mr. Beatniffe 8 taste, he declined the offer, and re- paired to Norwich. Here he worked for some years as a journeyman bookbinder. On the failure of Mr. Jonathan Gleed, a bookseller, in London-lane, in the parish of St. Andrew, Mr. Beatniffe, with the assistance of his old master, who generously lent him JC500, purchased the stock, and commenced business on his own ac- count. After having been settled here a short time, a dignitary of the cathedral stopped at the door, and inquired who had taken the concern ? On being told that it was Mr. Beatniffe, he replied, " Then I give him half a-year." His first catalogue was published in 1770, and his last in 1803, to which an appendix appeared in 1808. In politics he was a very warm and decided tory ; and on one of his workmen once voting against that interest at a general election, was m>served to shed tears. For many years Mr. Beatniffe was supposed to possess as large and as valuable a stock of old books as any provincial
bookseller in the kingdom. His decease took place at Norwich, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. His very valuable stock of books was disposed of by auction. His remains wen deposited in the nave of the church of 8t. Peter at Mancroft, in Norwich, where on a flat stoae is the following inscription to his memory :
To the mem(»7 (rf
RiCBABD BlATNIVrS,
who died July the gtb, ISIS,
aged 78;
also
Martha Dinah, wife of
Richard Beatniffe,
who died Jane the Otli, ISIC,
ageddg.
Mr. Richard Beatniffe will be remembered with respect by those who shared in the pleasure of his acquaintance : he was particulany blunt in his manners to his customers, and nuDj instances of his singularity in this respect ue related ; the following is well authenticated. A Scotch nobleman once called to purchase a bible: the bookseller took one down, and named his price. " 0, mon !" quoth his lordship, " I could buy it for much less at Edinburgh !" " Then, my lord," replied Mr. Beatniffe, replacing the volume on the shelf, and abruptly quitting bis lordship, " go to Edinburgh for it,"
1818, /u/y 28. The Kaleidoscope,* No. I. Printed and published by Egerton Smith and Co., Liverpool. This weekly publication, price threepence, was conducted with very consider- able ability for many vears.
1818, Au(/. 11. Lied, John Gougb, book- seller, Dublin, a member of the Society of Friends. He was son of the celebrated John Gough, author of a Treatise on Arithmetic, History of the Quakers, and other works; and who, with his cotemporary, John Ruttv, con- tributed to raise hign in Dublin the literair character of the sect to which they belonged. John Gough theyounger, like his father, engaged with zeal in u%ful literary pursuits: he com- menced the business of a bookseller in Meath- street, and was long famous for compiling, edit- ing, and publishing cheap tracts and books for the instruction of children. His last and most original was, A Tour through Ireland in tks years 1813 and 1814, published in one large octavo volume. In order to answer, with mon appearance of impartiality, the strictures of some English writer, it is stated in the title- page that this tour vas also written by an Englishman, a fiction not according either vrilh the scrupulous veracity of his own character, or with that of the sect to which he belonged ; nor was it of any use, as the honest zeal of the author soop betrayed his country, in confuting some of those absurd calumnies which had been uttered against it. He seemed to inherit from his father not only his moral but his physical organization, the same literary and the sane
- ThlB name was derived from the Kaleldoacope,* ne*
optical instnunent. invented hj Dr. Brewster ofEdli). bargb, in the year 1818
Digitized bv
