To carry out this scheme in the first instance required a complete acquaintance with the text, a clear idea of the sequence of events, an ingenious head to plot out the work, and no small amount of purely mechanical skill to bring it to a successful result.
Nicholas Ferrar himself planned the whole Concordance, and also superintended his nephews and nieces while they did the work; but the system adopted may well be given in the words of the old manuscripts. A large room was set apart purposely for the work, and called “the Concordance room,” which was all coloured over
with green, pleasant colour, varnished for the more pleasure to their eyes, and round the upper part of the walls were sentences written, suggested by each person of the family and some good friends, such as “Glory be to God on high,” “Prosper Thou, O Lord, the work of our hands,” “Innocency is never better lodged than at the sign of labour,” “The industrious man hath no leisure to sin; and the idle man hath no power to avoid sin.”
In this room Mr. Ferrar “every day spent one hour in contriving the Concordance, and directed his nieces that attended him in what manner they should cut the pieces out of the Evangelist, and so, and so, to lay them together as to make and perfect such a head or chapter. When they had first cut out those pieces with their knives or scissors, then they did neatly and exactly fit each verse that was so cut out, to be pasted down on sheets of paper; and so artificially they performed it, that it looked like a new kind of printing, when it was finished; so finely were all the pieces joined together, and with great presses for that purpose, pressed down upon the white sheets of paper.”
Even this description scarcely conveys an
adequate impression of the labour involved, for in many cases only two or three words are taken out of one Evangelist, and added to the account given by another.
And, besides the letterpress, every page is supplied with engravings, relating to the subject in hand; and when, as often happened, they could not find an engraving to suit exactly, parts of different prints were combined, so as to make a suitable illustration; and so cleverly is this “splicing” carried out, that it is almost impossible to be sure where the pictures join.
It will give some idea of the work if a few details are given from the volume under consideration. In one place the narrative is composed of five verses from St. Matthew, seven from St. Mark, and four from St. Luke; but there are forty-four separate cuttings pasted in; in another case seventeen verses required fifty-three cuttings, and in another, fifteen verses from the four Evangelists are inserted with thirty-four cuttings.
But even when whole verses, or perhaps whole chapters, could have been put in entire (as would occur in the discourses related only by St. John), the Miss Collets did not save themselves trouble if the appearance of the page could be improved.
Some of the most attractive sheets are those where each line has been cut out, and pasted in again in the original sequence, but with open spacing, so as to occupy the full page. In one case fifty-six lines have been treated thus, in another fifty-eight, in another fifty-one, where each passage might have been inserted entire.