Part 8

For my own part, I am sometimes forced to make types, which are commonly brass, of which I here send you a specimen (± a ± b ± c). It is called plus-minus ±. I printed my first tracts at Cambridge when Archdeacon (not Bentham) was their printer. I was very sick of it; the University meanly provided with mathematical types insomuch that they used daggers turned sideways for _plus's_. They were sunk into arrant traders, even to printing hand-bills, quack-bills, &c., which they then for the first time permitted for Archdeacon's profit. As to tablework of which I had a deal, they knew nothing of it; and many a brass rule was I forced to make myself.... I complained of this to Mr Bowyer, and would have had him print my essay on Hadley's quadrant[126]; but he was too full of more important work. I remember I told him I had marked all Archdeacon's damaged letters; which were not a few, especially in the italic. To which the old gentleman replied 'I don't like you the better for that.'

One of the last books printed by the Archdeacon-Burges partnership was a translation of a Latin poem, _The Immortality of the Soul_, by Isaac Hawkins Browne who, "one of the first wits of this country," according to Johnson, "got into Parliament, and never opened his mouth."

John Burges continued as sole printer after the death of Archdeacon in 1795. Two large dictionaries were, amongst other works, printed during his term of office: Ladvocat's _Historical and Biographical Dictionary_ (1800-1801) and Hoogeveen's _Dictionarium Analogicum_ (1800); academical works of reference, such as _Cambridge University Calendar_ (1796) and the _Graduati Cantabrigienses_ (1800), also begin to appear; the _Calendar_, however, was not regularly printed at the Press until 1826, and it is only since 1914 that the Syndics have been responsible for its publication[127].

Finally, there may be noted Relhan's _Flora Cantabrigiensis_ (2nd ed. 1802) and Harraden's _Picturesque Views of Cambridge_ (1800) containing 24 views from original drawings by Richard Harraden, a London artist who came to Cambridge in 1798.

(From _Cantabrigia Depicta_, 1763)

VII

THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

The immediate official successor of Burges as university printer was John Deighton, elected on 28 April, 1802; he, however, held office only till 11 December of the same year and seems to have served the Press as publishing agent rather than as printer. Thus in 1803 he, with Francis Hodson of Cambridge and Richard Newcomb of Stamford, undertook to purchase the whole stock of royal octavo bibles belonging to the university (amounting to 5627 copies in all) for the sum of £2323 10_s_.

Deighton had begun business in Cambridge about 1777 and removed to London in 1786; in 1795 he appears to have returned to Cambridge, where he established the bookselling firm that has since become Deighton, Bell and Co.

About this time the Syndics seem to have taken counsel of, or at any rate to have compared notes with, the Oxford University Press; a rough notebook, kept by Isaac Milner, one of the most active of the Cambridge Syndics, contains various memoranda concerning the Oxford method of management. Milner seems particularly to have discussed with Mr Dawson, of the Clarendon Press, the proper percentage of profit on the printing and selling of bibles. One of Milner's notes is reproduced here as being of interest not only in the history of Cambridge printing, but also in the history of business; it should be added that there is a note appended to the calculation explaining that "the 25 per cent., it is supposed, will nearly leave the proposed profit of £10 per cent. and pay all the wear and tear and salary of superintendence."

Richard Watts, the printer elected at Cambridge to succeed John Deighton in December, 1802, also appears to have had previous experience in Oxford, where he had conducted, and had a share in, a paper under Dr Manor, called the _Oxford Mercury_, in opposition to Dr Jackson's _Oxford Journal_. Immediately before his election he seems to have been agent for Mr Hamilton, a printer of Falcon Court, London.

A little more than a year after this appointment Cambridge received another offer of a secret for the process of stereotype printing. The inventor was the third Earl Stanhope, a remarkable man who, besides being prominent in political life, was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the author of _Principles of Electricity_, and the inventor of many devices including a microscopic lens, a new kind of cement, a calculating machine, an artificial tile for keeping out rain, a cure for wounds made in trees, an instrument for performing logical operations, and several improvements in the art of printing. Of these last the most important were the Stanhope press and an improved process of stereotyping: the Stanhope press was made of iron instead of wood and an ingenious mechanism made it possible to print a sheet twice as large as on the old wooden presses; the university bought two of these new presses, which are still in use at the present day.

The offer of the stereotype secret came to the university from Andrew Wilson, the London printer employed by Earl Stanhope. By a preliminary agreement of 20 April, 1804, Wilson was to receive for the space of 14 years one-third of the savings resulting from the employment of the stereotype process and was to act, in conjunction with Watts, as agent for the Syndics' bibles and prayer-books. The savings were to be calculated by arbitrators appointed by the respective parties.

This not very business-like arrangement naturally led to a dispute before long. As early as October, 1805, Milner seems to have had misgivings both about the scheme and about Wilson's competency, as the following entries in his notebook show:

Qy whether Wilson's declaration of 30,000 profits in 8 years be not a proof want of judgmͭ.

Qy whether Wilson be not an adventͬ--without judgment.

Hints to new Vice-Cͬ.

1. The system of talking _before_ them viz. Watts and Wilson.

The absolute necessity of others being informed in the stereotype art.

Watts talks of going to London again by Wilson's directions to see what chases and things he wants--and when I say he should not leave them, he says, Oh, there is no more in leaving them now than when he was ill--they are to be trusted.

Qy--Quid cogitant ille and Wilson.

Qy _x_ to agree with Oxfͩ? as a Stereotyper?

The supposition contained in the last cryptic note was well justified, as Wilson had in March, 1805, proposed to the Clarendon Press "to put the University in possession of the Art of Stereotype Printing"; later in the same year the Delegates, having resolved that "the University of Cambridge being in possession of the Art, it seems not only expedient, but necessary, that Oxford should be possess'd of the same advantages," entered into an agreement by which Wilson was to instruct their representatives in the stereotype processes for the sum of £4000[128].

In 1806 Wilson claimed that, as the introduction of stereotyping had enabled the Syndics to convert a warehouse into a printing-office for the sum of £1500 instead of building a new one at a cost of £4500, he was entitled by the agreement to his share of the saving of £3000 thus effected.

On 6 March, 1807, the university agreed to pay Wilson the sum of £865 16_s_ 9_d_ for the composition and two sets of plates of a bourgeois testament, a brevier testament and a nonpareil Welsh testament[129]; it being provided that the university should make for Wilson (from type supplied by himself) so many perfect plates towards octavo editions of Ainsworth's Dictionary and Johnson's Dictionary as should amount in value to the aggregate of Wilson's bill. Later in the same year the university definitely acquired the stereotype secret by a further agreement: £2000 was to be paid immediately, £1000 which had been previously advanced to Wilson was to become his property, and further sums were to be paid in accordance with the amount of the sales of bibles, testaments and prayer-books[130].

The following extracts, describing the outline of the stereotype process, are taken from Milner's notebook:

1. The pages as they come from the composers have been first well cleansed with a solution of American Potash--14 lb in 3 buckets of water.

2. They must then be gently dried by the fire and then _cool_ and a little oil of Turpentine is put on a plate with 2 parts sweet oil.... This mixture gets thick by time: The plate is then well done over with a little of this mixture by one of the small soft brushes like a painter's brush....

3. Then a _copper measure_ of the powdered calcined gypsum is taken--viz. about ½ or ¾ pint and the same quantity of soft water and they are put into a copper vessel and shaken exceedingly well together: and then the mixture is to be poured upon the types, there being first placed upon them an iron frame to form an Edge to sustain the fluid Gypsum and water.

4. Immediately, and without the least loss of time the short square brushes are now to be taken and you must work the Air out quickly with them and continue working till the gypsum is too fixed to allow of more working.

5. When so fixed that you can easily make an impression, that is, while the Plaster is softish, take off the upper frame and scrape clean all the elevated plaster. It will rise again above the level by and by; scrape again--and lastly as soon as it is so fixed that it is not easy to make a mark with yͬ nail, then lay it carefully upon a _soft frame_ (covered with a sort of cloth) and then take a piece of wood that nearly fits the cake, and gently thrust it so as to make it quit the frame; and then dress it with a knife and lay it between two pieces of marble to keep it from warping.

6. The types must now be cleaned by picking out any bits of gypsum left in the Interstices ... and lastly they must be brushed; and then done over again for a new mold.

7. The artist, Mr Austen, Engraver can dress and cure any little imperfection in the plates when cast.

8. The Gypsum requires about 2 hours for calcination; and is known to be right when you break the pieces, and see them moulded quite thro'--Matter of Experience.

9. The Gypsum should be broken with small bits about 2 ounces each.

10. and when calcined they are to be ground on a Stone....

11. When the moulds are made, and placed between the marbles ... they will be ready in 2 or 3 hours for baking....

12. They are to be baked being placed upright on stands like those for toasted bread--raised a little from the bottom of the furnace--About 2 hours or 2½hours will take the moulds....

Casting

The metal is precisely the Type metal. The Pots must be made quite as hot as the metal--or rather more--. Then the floating plate must be placed in the frame--and the cake or mould directly upon it with its face downwards: Then place upon the top the cover of the frame, and screw it down: and dip the whole in metal melted so that a match will light at it.--The melted metal will run in at those places made in the mould by the bits of brass--till all be full--and then remove the whole to be cooled on a tile in water with lime upon it--and as it cools and shrinks, supply with fresh melted metal.

The acquisition of this secret did not end the disputes with Wilson; the university in 1811 protested against payment of the bill referred to in the agreement of March, 1807, on the ground that Wilson had not supplied them with the type for Ainsworth's and Johnson's Dictionaries and that they were so prevented from selling the plates to him. No documents have been preserved to show how the case ended, but the following hypothetical case on which the university invited the opinion of counsel about this time may be quoted in conclusion:

Whether supposing A.B. to be acquainted with the secret mode of making stereotype plates, and supposing C.D. to know the mode now in general use, and whereas it is conceived that the secret is now no secret. Supposing A.B. to inquire of C.D. his (C.D.'s) mode of making the plates, and by his answers it appeared that he (C.D.) was acquainted with all the peculiarities of the secret, would A.B. be justified in telling C.D. that such was the secret?

Meanwhile, the Press buildings were growing. On the site of the White Lion Inn, bought in 1762, a warehouse had been built in 1786 and on 20 April, 1804, the Syndics instructed Mr Watts, with the assistance of Mr Humphreys, to "prepare a plan for altering the Warehouse into a Printing office." This building was described by Dyer, writing in 1809, as "a commodious brick building, situated in Silver Street, with a stereotype foundry adjoining" and, as has been already seen, it was claimed that this economical conversion was made possible by the introduction of stereotype printing.

The Syndics' relations with their printer at this time were not altogether happy. In 1808 two of the Syndics (Dr Milner and Mr Wood) were appointed to examine the Press accounts, since it was alleged that, in contrast to the average annual profit of £1500 for a number of years before 1802, Watts had shown no profit at all for five years. These charges were set forth in a pamphlet entitled _Facts and Observations relative to the state of the University Press_, to which Watts wrote a _Reply_. Watts resigned as soon as the enquiry was instituted and, when the examination of the accounts was completed in the next year, it was decided to elect a new printer. Apart from the various stereotype editions of the bible and prayer-book no books of great importance seem to have been printed by Watts.

His successor, John Smith, was elected in 1809 and held the office of printer for 26 years.

It was during this period that the University Press began to assume its present appearance[131]. By 1820 the existing buildings had become quite inadequate to the growing business of the Press and the Syndics recommended the university to purchase Mr James Nutter's estate in Silver Street for the sum of £5060. The following grace was accordingly passed by the Senate on 24 January, 1821:

Quum in Typographeo vestro, ex angustiis loci, multa detrimenta atque incommoda subinde exoriri soleant; quumque, in remedium mali istius, Preli Typographici Curatores pactionem inierint cum Domino Nutter, ut facultate a vobis impetrata, quasdam domos illius quinque mille et sexaginta librarum pretio redimerunt: Placeat Vobis, ut pactio ista rata ac firma habeatur, atque ut summa praedicta e cista communi, usibus istis destinanda, erogetur.

(Based on Willis & Clark, III. 132. Recent additions are marked----)

The property thus acquired was on the site of the ancient inn known as The Cardinal's Cap. Its boundaries are marked on the plan and in 1824, the Syndics of the Press, having taken the advice of an "eminent London Printer" (Mr Hansard), recommended that, as the existing buildings were "so dilapidated and so inadequate to the effectual conducting of the business," immediate steps should be taken towards extension. In the next year plans by James Walter for a new printing-house on the west side of the quadrangle and a printer's house in Mill Lane were approved by the Senate. These buildings were completed in January, 1827, the fitting of them being superintended by Thomas Hansard[132].

A more famous addition to the Press buildings is that associated with the name of William Pitt.

On 25 May, 1824, the following letter was addressed to the Vice-Chancellor (John Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi College) by the Marquess Camden, chairman of the London Pitt Club Committee:

Sir,

I have the Honor to inform you that I am just returned from a Meeting of the Committee appointed to consider of the disposal of the surplus of Money subscribed, many years ago, for the Erection of a Statue to the memory of Mͬ Pitt.

I am, now, authorized by that Committee to state to you, Sir, that which I had the Honor of personally communicating to you at Cambridge: 'the disposition of that Committee to recommend to a general Meeting of Subscribers to the Fund above-mentioned the Disposal of a considerable Sum of Money for the Erection of an handsome Building connected with the University Press at Cambridge;' but, as it will be necessary to state to the general Meeting how far the University is disposed to find and provide a proper Scite for the erecting such Building, near or opposite to Pembroke College, I now trouble you on that subject, and I request you will have the goodness to inform me how far I may be authorized to inform the General Meeting of the Disposition of the University to find and provide a proper Scite as above-mentioned for the erecting of an handsome Building, which the Committee is desirous should be erected on such a scale as to be a distinguished Ornament to the University, and tend to perpetuate the Name and Memory of Mͬ Pitt.

I have the Honor to remain, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, CAMDEN.

A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following resolution:

That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on the 11ᵗʰ instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University Press; such to bear the name of Mͬ Pitt. That the Committee be desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution this Resolution.

The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards Trumpington Street."

After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and staircase is evident:

It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts which they think should be ornamented.

Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between Mill Lane and Silver Street--a larger site than that on which Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated. The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of the Press quadrangle.

The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8_s_ 9_d_.

It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening on 28 April, 1833, abridged from _The Cambridge Chronicle_ (1 May, 1833), may also be given in conclusion:

The Pitt Press having been completed, Tuesday last was appointed for the Vice-Chancellor to receive the key of the building from the Marquis Camden and a deputation of the Pitt Committee.... Having arrived at the building the Marquis Camden, accompanied by the members of the Committee, proceeded into the grand entrance hall, and having invited the Vice-Chancellor to the door, spoke as follows:

"Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the University of Cambridge: The idea of connecting the name of Mr Pitt with the Press of that University to which he owed his education and so much of his fame, was met by all parties with enthusiasm. The University have displayed an activity and liberality in providing this magnificent site which could only have been prompted by an admiration for the character of Mr Pitt. The Committee, animated by a personal respect and affection towards their contemporary, have endeavoured to cause to be erected on this site, such a building as might prove an addition to the other great improvements already perfected in this place and which, from its peculiar destination, will unite the name of Mr Pitt with all those works of religion, morality, and science, which will in future emanate from it, and diffuse throughout the world the connexion of his name with erudition and learning....

Sir, you have caused this ceremony to be attended by all the undergraduates as well as by the dignitaries of the University. Let me call the peculiar attention of all to this ceremony, and allow me to impress on the undergraduates that we, Mr Pitt's contemporaries, have been witnesses of his uniting the closest study with the utmost cheerfulness, and, when not employed in solving the most abstruse problems, he has engaged the admiration of his friends and companions, by the liveliest sallies of wit and imagination. Let his example stimulate you to the greatest exertion during your residence in this place, so well calculated to provide for your instruction in every department of literature and science."[133]

The key was then presented to the Vice-Chancellor, who grew eloquent in his reply:

What more appropriate monument then could be erected to the memory of Pitt than this building, the chief purpose and object of which is to send forth to the world the Word of God; and could he, with prophetic eye, when residing in yon neighbouring college, whose proudest boast is to number him among her sons--could he have beheld such a structure, bearing his name, raised for such a purpose, and erected by such friends, even his own eloquence would have scarce sufficed to express the feelings of his heart. My Lord, the edifice with which you have adorned this University, and the illustrious name it bears, will add a fresh stimulus to our exertions in the dissemination of truth, the extension of science, and the advancement of religious knowledge; and I humbly trust that nothing will ever issue from these walls but such works as may conduce to the furtherance of these important objects....[134]

After which, the company, having printed off copies of the inscription on the foundation-stone from a press specially set up for the occasion, "went upstairs into the Syndicate Room, where they partook of a cold collation given by the Press Syndicate."

* * * * *

In the early part of his career, John Smith laboured under the difficulties arising out of the "dilapidated and inadequate" condition of the old Press buildings. The chief source of business continued to be the sale of bibles and prayer-books and agencies were arranged with Rivingtons, Baldwin & Co., and other London booksellers.