Of his first introduction to typography, we quote the following account given by Hansard on the authority of Alexander Wilson’s son and grandson:[526]— {259}
“While he was thus passing his time in a manner which he considered comfortable for one at his first entrance upon the world, a circumstance accidentally occurred which gave a new direction to his genius, and which in the end led to an entire change of his profession. This was a chance visit made one day to a letter-foundry with a friend, who wanted to purchase some printing types. Having seen the implements and common operations of the workmen usually shown to strangers, he was much captivated by the curious contrivances made use of in prosecuting that art. Shortly afterwards, when reflecting upon what had been shown him in the letter-foundry, he was led to imagine that a certain great improvement in the process might be effected; and of a kind too, that, if successfully accomplished, promised to reward the inventor with considerable emolument. He presently imparted his idea on the subject to a friend named Baine, who had also come from St. Andrews, and who possessed a considerable share of ingenuity, constancy and enterprise. The consequence of this was, the resolution of both these young adventurers to relinquish, as soon as it could be done with propriety, all other pursuits, and to unite their exertions in prosecuting the business of Letter Founding, according to the plan which had been contemplated with a view to improvements. After some further deliberation, Mr. Wilson waited upon his patron, Lord Isla, to whom he communicated his views, and the design of embarking in this new scheme; and derived much satisfaction from his Lordship’s entire approbation and best wishes for his success.
“Mr. Wilson and Mr. Baine then became partners in the project, and having taken convenient apartments, applied with great assiduity to the different preparatory steps of the business. At an early stage they had proofs of difficulties to an extent which had not been anticipated, and which, had their magnitude been foreseen, would probably have altogether deterred them from their attempt. But although they found their task grow more and more arduous as their experience improved, it may yet be mentioned, as a fact which bespeaks singular probity of mind, that they never once attempted to gain any insight whatever through the means of workmen employed in any of the London foundries, some of whom they understood could have proved of considerable service to them.”
Of the precise nature of the improved system of founding by which the two young Scotchmen proposed to prosecute their undertaking, the narrative given by Mr. Hansard affords no information. It has been suggested by some that it was no other than that of stereotyping by a method similar to, or better than, that attempted a few years earlier by Ged. But whatever it may have been, further experiment failed to justify the scheme as one of practical utility, and the two partners, who had by this time quitted the metropolis and returned to {260} St. Andrews, determined to abandon it and to fall back on the ordinary method of manufacturing type. “In their attempt to prosecute this speculation,” continues Mr. Hansard, still quoting the narrative furnished him by Dr. Wilson’s successors, “they found themselves in a more sure, though still in a difficult track, and in which they had no guide whatever but their own talent of invention and mechanical ability; and it was by the aid of these that they carried things forward until, at length, they were enabled to cast a few founts of Roman and Italic characters: after which they hired some workmen, whom they instructed in the necessary operations, and at last opened their infant letter-foundry at St. Andrews in the year 1742.”
The Scotch printers were not slow in showing their appreciation of the convenience afforded them by the establishment of a foundry in their midst, and from the first Messrs. Wilson and Baine appear to have received liberal encouragement in their new venture. They added steadily to the variety of their founts, and finding the demand for their type on the increase, not only in Scotland, but in Ireland and North America, they decided in 1744 to remove from St. Andrews to a more convenient centre at Camlachie, a small village a mile eastward of Glasgow.
In 1747 the claims of their Irish business necessitated the residence of one of the partners in Dublin.[527] Mr. Baine was selected by lot for the duty, and accordingly departed for Ireland, leaving Mr. Wilson at Camlachie. Two years later the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Baine quitted the business to make an independent venture in type founding.[528] {261}
Left to himself, Mr. Wilson actively prosecuted his business, and although no specimen of the foundry is known to exist, either during the partnership between Wilson and Baine, or, indeed, during the entire period of its location at Camlachie, its productions very shortly attained some considerable celebrity.
“During his residence at Camlachie,” says Mr. Hansard, “Mr. Wilson had contracted habits of intimacy and friendship with some of the most respectable inhabitants and eminent characters in that quarter, among whom may be particularly reckoned the professors of the University of Glasgow and Messrs. Robert and Andrew Foulis, the University printers.[529] The growing reputation of the University Press, conducted by these latter gentlemen, afforded more and more scope to Mr. Wilson to exercise his abilities in supplying their types; and being now left entirely to his own judgment and taste, his talents as an artist in the line to which he had become devoted became every year more conspicuous.”
“When the design was formed by the gentlemen of the University, together with the Messrs. Foulis, to print splendid editions of the Greek classics, Mr. Wilson with great alacrity undertook to execute new types, after a model highly approved. This he accomplished, at an expense of time and labour which could not be recompensed by any profits arising from the sale of the types themselves. Such disinterested zeal for the honour of the University Press was, however, upon this occasion, so well understood as to induce the University, in the preface to their folio Homer,[530] to mention Mr. Wilson in terms as honourable to him as they had been justly merited.”
Of this magnificent work—one of the finest monuments of Greek typography {262} which our nation possesses—it is sufficient to say that if the reputation of Alexander Wilson depended on no other performance, it alone would give him a lasting title to the distinction accorded to him in the preface, of “egregius ille typorum artifex.”[531]
