Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/83

PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX. 71 purely personal reasons, and not because of any particular enthusiasm for emulating the work of famous printers, or from any wish to assist in attain- ing the ideal that every book published should be a 'book beautiful.' Their productions were also very few, being usually confined to the works written by those who established the presses. BISHOPSTONE PRESS. The Rev. James Hurdis, Vicar of Bishopstone, near Newhaven, from 1791-1801, set up a private press at Bishopstone during the last decade of the eighteenth century. The earliest book I can trace as being printed there is dated 1797, and as Hurdis died in 1801, the press was not long in existence. The owner evidently established his press in order to print his own works mainly volumes of poetry as no other books were printed by him. The first book he issued, as far as can be traced, is an o6tavo edition of one of his poems, the title-page of which reads : c The Village Curate : a poem. A new and improved edition (being the fourth) printed at the author's own press, Bishopstone, Sussex. J797 This work contains one hundred and thirty-six pages, and was issued in paper wrappers. The next production was his ' Lectures shewing the several sources of that pleasure which the human mind receives from poetry. Bishop- stone, Sussex : printed at the author's own press. 1797.' That this work of three hundred and thirty pages was Hurdis's second production seems certain, as we find that at the end of 'The Village Curate ' is a two-paged advertisement which states that