The Ballantyne Press and its founders, 1796-1908

by Unknown

THE
BALLANTYNE PRESS
AND ITS FOUNDERS

JAMES BALLANTYNE

From the Picture at Abbotsford.

THE
BALLANTYNE PRESS
AND ITS FOUNDERS
1796-1908

ENTRANCE TO OFFICES OF OLD PAUL’S WORK

EDINBURGH
BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
1909

PREFACE

At the Centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, in the year 1871, a sketch of the Ballantyne Press was issued, setting forth its close connection with him, and giving statistics of the Novels. But the story of the Press, its rise and vicissitudes under the control of James Ballantyne and Sir Walter, its progress and development, and its collapse and new birth, as gleaned from Lockhart’s “Life of Scott” and other sources, has not been given in a succinct form. For this purpose the late Mr. W. T. Dobson, for some forty years one of the principal Readers at the Press, gathered together considerable material which it has been thought might prove to be of general interest. The Press has therefore, with the assistance of Mr. W. L. Carrie, M.A., put the story into its present book-form.

Paul’s Work, April 1909.

CONTENTS

CHAP.		PAGE
I.	Origin of the House	[1]
II.	Removal to Edinburgh	[15]
III.	The Ballantyne Brothers	[26]
IV.	Scott’s Poetical Romances	[32]
V.	John Ballantyne, Publisher	[42]
VI.	The Waverley Novels	[62]
VII.	The “Great Unknown”	[82]
VIII.	Commercial Troubles and Successes—“The Weekly Journal”	[98]
IX.	The Author and the Reviser	[118]
X.	Lockhart and the Ballantyne Controversy	[132]
XI.	Through Old Paul’s Work, Canongate	[143]
XII.	End of Old Paul’s Work	[152]
XIII.	Bibliography—Early Decades of Paul’s Work	[158]
	Appendix	[181]

ILLUSTRATIONS & FACSIMILES

James Ballantyne (Photogravure)	[Frontispiece]
		PAGE
Kelso in 1797	To face	[2]
First Page of First Issue of “Kelso Mail”	”	[4]
Title—“An Apology for Tales of Terror”		[9]
Title—“Memoirs of Joseph Boruwlaski”		[11]
Playbill printed by James Ballantyne in Kelso		[13]
Title—“Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” (Kelso, 1802)		[19]
Title—“Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border” (Edinburgh, 1803)		[23]
St. John Street	To face	[24]
John Ballantyne (Photogravure)	”	[42]
Sir Walter Scott, Bart. (Photogravure)	”	[62]
Title—“Waverley”		[63]
The “Great Unknown”	To face	[82]
A Page of the MS. of “Waverley”	”	[96]
Old Wooden Press at Paul’s Work (Photogravure)	”	[106]
Title—“Life of Napoleon Buonaparte”		[129]
Corrected Page-Proof of “Life of Buonaparte”		[131]
John Gibson Lockhart, LL.D. (Photogravure)	To face	[132]
Old Paul’s Work (Photogravure)	”	[143]
Entrance to the Offices of Old Paul’s Work		[145]
Window in Paul’s Work of the Present Day	To face	[156]
Desk used by Sir Walter Scott in Paul’s Work		[185]
Sir Walter Scott’s Chair in Paul’s Work		[187]