A fresh arrangement was therefore proposed by which Bathurst should pay ready money for books printed and the university should not be required to advance money to carry on the business.
Another source of trouble both to the Press and to Bathurst during this period was a second attack made by Baskett, the king's printer, upon the rights of the university.
In 1741 the Syndics had printed for Bathurst an Abridgement of the Laws of Excise, and on its publication Baskett obtained an injunction to stop its sale. Litigation dragged on until 1758, when the Court of King's Bench decided in favour of the university, declaring that it was entrusted with "a concurrent Authority to print Acts of Parliament and Abridgements by letters patent of K. Hen. VIII and K. Charles I."
Dyer says of Bentham that "he was not eager after money in the way of business, but rather ambitious of printing Works that would do him credit. He had a great taste for Gardening and a turn for humour. He was an amiable man, as all the Benthams were; and was the only Bentham of the family that was not in orders. There were six brothers, who all used to assemble at the Prebendal-house in Ely at Christmas."[109] Joseph was an alderman of Cambridge and lived in a house adjoining the Press in Silver Street, the whole group of buildings forming "a sort of Quadrangle or Square." This house had belonged to Matthew Stokes, Registrary from 1558 to 1591, and Cole refers to the arms ("carved very handsomely and very large") over the chimneypiece in the parlour[110].
Of the books printed by Bentham the most sumptuous is The History of Ely Cathedral by his brother, James Bentham, a large volume illustrated with many engravings and published in 1765.
Other illustrated works of some interest are Zachary Grey's edition of Samuel Butler's Hudibras (1774) with a "set of new cuts" by Hogarth and Cantabrigia Depicta (1763)[111]. There may also be noted a Latin version of Pope's Ode on St Cecilia's Day and a succession of Seatonian prize poems by Christopher Smart; a volume of Odes (1756) by William Mason; Roger Long's Astronomy (1744); Robert Masters's History of the College of Corpus Christi (1752); a Latin version (anonymously published) of Gray's Elegy by Christopher Anstey and W. H. Roberts, Provost of Eton: and many editions of the classics, including Squire's Plutarch de Iside et Osiride (1744), Taylor's Demosthenes (various years) and Richard Hurd's Horace (1757).
In 1715, when James Gibbs presented his design for "the Publick Building at Cambridge," his plans included provision for the printing-house above the Registrary's office in the southern wing; and it has been therefore inferred that the printing-house in Silver Street was not adequate to the needs of the university[112]. Only a portion of Gibbs's scheme (the Senate House) was carried out and in 1762 the Syndics of the Press, seeking fresh accommodation, purchased a house, called The White Lion, which probably stood on the south side of Silver Street, facing the old Press. This was the first step taken in the acquisition of the present site.
Bentham continued in office until 1766 and well maintained the typographical reputation of the Press, but a more famous name is that of John Baskerville. Originally a writing-master at Birmingham where, from 1733 to 1737, he was teaching at a school in the Bull Ring, he afterwards took up, with great success, the trade of japanning and in 1750 began his experiments in type-founding. He set his mind to the improvement of type, press, paper, and method of printing:
It is not my desire (he wrote in the preface to his Milton, 1757) to print many books, but such only as are books of Consequence, and which the public may be pleased to see in an elegant dress, and to purchase at such a price as will repay the extraordinary care and expense that must necessarily be bestowed upon them.... If this performance shall appear to persons of judgment and penetration in the Paper, Letter, Ink, and Workmanship to excel; I hope their approbation may contribute to procure for me what would indeed be the extent of my Ambition, a power to print an Octavo Common-Prayer Book, and a Folio Bible.
This ambition was fulfilled by Baskerville's getting into touch with the university. In 1757 he sent a specimen of type to a friend at Cambridge, explaining that