“To the Hon’ble Horace Walpole, Esq., Member of Parliament, in Arlington Street, London, this:
EASY HILL, BIRMINGHAM, 2 Nov. 1762.
“SIR,—As the Patron and Encourager of Arts, and particularly that of Printing,[563] I have taken the Liberty of sending you a Specimen of Mine, begun ten Years ago at the age of forty-seven, and prosecuted ever since with the utmost Care and Attention, on the strongest Presumption, that if I could fairly excel in this divine Art, it would make my Affairs easy or at least give me Bread. But alas! in both I was mistaken. The Booksellers do not chuse to encourage Me, though I have offered them as low terms as I could possibly live by; nor dare I attempt an Old Copy till a Law Suit relating to that affair is determined.
“The University of Cambridge have given me a Grant to print their 8vo and 12mo Common-Prayer Books, but under such Shackles as greatly hurt me. I pay them for the former twenty and for the latter twelve pounds ten shillings the thousand; and to the Stationers’ Company thirty-two pound for their permission to print one edition of the Psalms in Metre to the small Prayer Book; add to this the great expense of Double and treble carriage, and the inconvenience of a printing house an hundred Miles off. All this Summer I have had nothing to print at Home. My folio Bible is pretty far advanced at Cambridge, which will cost me near £2000 all hired at 5 per cent. If this does not sell, I shall be obliged to sacrifice a small patrimony which brings me in £74 a year to this business of Printing, which I am heartily tired of and repent I ever attempted. It is surely a particular hardship, that I should not get Bread in my own country (and it is too late to go abroad) after having acquired the Reputation of excelling in the most useful Art known to mankind; while everyone who excels as a Player, Fiddler, Dancer, &c., not only lives in Affluence, but has it in their power to save a Fortune.
“I have sent a few Specimens (same as the enclosed) to the Courts of Russia and Denmark, and shall endeavour to do the same to most of the Courts in Europe; in hopes of finding in some of them a purchaser of the whole scheme, on the Condition of never attempting another Type. I was saying this to a particular Friend, who reproached me with not giving my own Country the Preference, as it would (he was pleased to say) be a national Reproach to lose it: I told him nothing but the greatest Necessity would put me upon it; and even then I should resign it with the utmost reluctance. He observed the Parliament had given a handsome Premium for a great Medicine; and he doubted not, if My Affair were properly brought before the House of Commons, but some Regard would be Paid to it. I replied I durst not presume to Petition the House, unless encouraged by some of the Members, who might do me the honour to promote it; of which I saw not the least hopes or probability. Thus, Sir, I have taken the Liberty of laying before you my Affairs without the least Aggravation; and humbly hope your patronage: To whom can I apply for {279} Protection, but the Great who alone have it in their power to serve me? I rely on your candour as a Lover of the Arts and to excuse this Presumption in your most obedient and most humble servant
JOHN BASKERVILLE.
“P.S.—The folding of the Specimens will be taken out by laying them for a short time between damped Papers. N.B.—The Ink, Presses, Chases, Moulds for Casting, and all the apparatus for Printing were made in my own shops.”[564]
The folio Bible[565] referred to in this letter has always been regarded as Baskerville’s magnum opus, and is his most magnificent as well as his most characteristic specimen. It duly appeared in Cambridge in 1763, in a beautiful Great Primer type, fully meriting the applause which it evoked. It had been preceded in 1760 by some very elegant editions of the Book of Common Prayer,[566] all published at Cambridge in his capacity of University printer.
After the publication of the Bible, Baskerville wearied of his profession of printing, disheartened alike by the poor pecuniary returns for his labours, and the unfriendly criticism pronounced in various quarters upon his performances. Despite the splendid appearance of his impressions, the ordinary English printers viewed with something like suspicion the meretricious combination of sharp type and hot-pressed paper which lent to his sheets their extraordinary brilliancy.[567] They objected to the dazzling effect thus produced on the eye; they found fault with the unevenness of tone and colour in different parts of the same book, and even discovered an irregularity and lack of symmetry in some of his types, which his glossy paper and bright ink alike failed to disguise.
That these strictures were not wholly the result of prejudice and jealousy, a careful examination of Baskerville’s printed works in the light of the modern {280} canons of fine printing will prove. Even his warmest admirers, like Fournier,[568] tempered their praise with some reservation; while hostile critics, like Mores, summarily denied him a place among letter-cutters at all.[569]
Of the prejudice rife against Baskerville at this time, an amusing anecdote is preserved in a letter of Benjamin Franklin to our printer, dated 1760:—
“CRAVEN STREET, LONDON, 1760.
“DEAR SIR,—Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some have entertained against your work. Soon after I returned, discoursing with a gentleman concerning the artists of Birmingham, he said you would be a means of blinding all the readers of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being too thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read a line of them without pain. ‘I thought,’ said I, ‘you were going to complain of the gloss of the paper some object to.’ ‘No, no,’ said he, ‘I have heard that mentioned, but it is not that; it is in the form and cut of the letters themselves, they have not that height and thickness of the stroke which makes the common printing so much more comfortable to the eye.’ You see this gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I endeavoured to support your character against the charge; he knew what he felt, and could see the reason of it, and several other gentlemen among his friends had made the same observation, etc. Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his judgement, I stepped into my closet, tore off the top of Mr. Caslon’s specimen, and produced it to him as yours, brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining it, since he spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive the disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the several founts, showing me everywhere what he thought instances of that disproportion; and declared, that he could not then read the specimen, without feeling very strongly the pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that time the confusion of being told, that these were the types he had been reading all his life, with so much ease to his eyes; the types his adored Newton is printed with, on which he has pored not a little; nay, the very types his own book is printed with (for he is himself an author), and yet never discovered this painful disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours.
“I am, etc.,
“B. FRANKLIN.”[570]
This occasion for the above interesting letter, was an application made by {281} Baskerville in 1760 to his friend, Dr. Franklin, to assist him in London to sound the literati there respecting the purchase of his types. This attempt failing, a few years later Dr. Franklin undertook a similar good office in Paris,[571] and with a similar result. “The French,” he wrote in 1767, “reduced by the war of 1756 were so far from being able to pursue schemes of taste, that they were unable to repair their public buildings, and suffered the scaffolding to rot before them.”
Having lost all spirit for the printing business, Baskerville, about 1766, declined to pursue it except through the medium of a confidential agent, and the following notice, issued about this period, announced this decision to the public:—
“Robert Martin has agreed with Mr. Baskerville for the use of his whole printing apparatus, with whom he has wrought as a journeyman for ten years past. He therefore offers his services to print at Birmingham for Gentlemen or Booksellers, on the most moderate terms, who may depend on all possible care and elegance in the execution. Samples, if necessary, may be seen on sending a line to John Baskerville or Robert Martin.”[572]
After a retirement of three years, Baskerville resumed work in 1769, completing between that period and the time of his death his fine series of the 4to classics, which bear the marks of unabated genius even in declining days; and suffice, had he printed nothing else, to distinguish him as the first typographer of his time.