With the issue of the second volume the number was increased to 1500.
The Seasons were printed on June 19th, 1744, in octavo. There were 1500 errata in the work, and a special charge of £2, 4s. was made for 'divers and repeated alterations.'
Among the miscellaneous writers whose works were passed through the elder Woodfall's press was the Rev. John Peters, against whom he entered an account, dated July 17th, 1735, for printing Thoughts concerning Religion, 4to, 16 sheets. This gentleman was a literary shark, ready to devour any unprotected morsel that came in his way. The work above mentioned, and another printed by Woodfall in 1732, called A Letter to a Bishop, were afterwards discovered to be from the pen of Duncan Forbes, and were published in an edition of his works printed in Edinburgh and London in 1751. A lawsuit was at once commenced by George Woodfall and John Peters against the publishers of Forbes' works, the name of Messrs. Rivington being prominently mentioned, and the defendants, in their answer, stated that the two works in question were well known to have been written by Duncan Forbes, and that the MS. was in the possession of his family.[14]
This little incident, taken in conjunction with Henry Woodfall's connection with E. Curll and the letters of Pope, and the story told by Thomas Gent of the printing of The Bishop of Rochester's Effigy, shows that he was a worthy disciple of Iago in the matter of money-getting.[15]
Mention of Thomas Gent leads naturally to a study of the provincial press of this period. This is a much more difficult matter than it has been hitherto, as presses were established not in three or four places only, but in almost every town of any size. The history of provincial printing has never yet been written, and the task of tracing out the various printers and their work would be long and arduous. All that is attempted here is to give a sketch of the earlier and more important presses, adding in an appendix a chronological list of the places in which printing was carried on before 1750.
In the previous chapter it has been shown how the munificence of Bishop Fell and Francis Junius furnished the University of Oxford with an unusually large stock of excellent letter of all descriptions, so that it was in a position to do better work than any other house in the kingdom. Its productions, during the first twenty years of the eighteenth century, were in every way worthy of its reputation, and some of them deserve special mention.
In 1705 Hickes's Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus was issued in three large folio volumes of great beauty. The work required many unusual founts, and these were mainly furnished from the bequest of Junius.
In 1707 the University published Mill's Greek Testament, which Wood in his Athenæ Oxonienses (vol. ii. p. 604) says had been begun in 1681 at Bishop Fell's printing-house near the theatre. The double pica italic used in this was a grand letter. Both the foregoing works were ornamented with handsome initial letters, and head and tail pieces engraved by M. Burghers, probably the first engraver of the day in this country. Many classical works were also produced in the same sumptuous manner, notably Hudson's edition of the Works of Dionysius,1704, which it is difficult to praise too highly. The copies measured nearly eighteen inches in height, the paper was thick and good; the Greek and Latin texts were printed side by side, with notes at the foot, yet ample margins were left. In fact it is one of the finest examples of English printing of this period to be met with.
Cambridge was sadly behind her sister University. Neither Reed in his Old English Letter Foundries, nor Mr. Allnutt in his valuable articles on Provincial Presses, has anything to say of it. Cornelius Crowndale was the University printer at this time, but beyond an edition of Eusebius in three folio volumes, issued in 1720, no notable book came from his press, little in fact beyond reprints in octavo and duodecimo of classical works for the use of the scholars, and repeated editions of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer, full of errors, and so badly printed that the less said about them the better. We may notice, however, an edition of Butler's Hudibras, edited by Zachary Grey, in two octavo volumes, with Hogarth's plates, and two books by Conyers Middleton, Bibliothecæ Cantabrigiensis ordinandæ methodus, 1723, and A Dissertation concerning the Origin of Printing in England, 1735, both in quarto.
Among the earliest provincial presses at work in the beginning of the eighteenth century was that at Norwich, where Francis Burges was established in the year 1701. Thomas Tanner, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, sent John Bagford a broadside, printed by that printer, a list of the clergy that were to preach in the cathedral at Norfolk from November 1st, 1701, until Trinity Sunday following. In a MS. note at the foot Tanner says:—