Banbury Chap Books Part 1

Banbury Chap Books.

by Edwin Pearson.

INTRODUCTION.

"Banbury Cakes," and "Banbury Cross," with its favourite juvenile a.s.sociations, with the Lady with bells on her toes, having music wherever she goes, are indissolubly connected with the early years not only of ourselves but many prior generations. In fact, the Ancient Cross has been rebuilt since the days, when in Drunken Barnaby's Journal, we are made familiar with the puritan "who hanged his cat on a Monday for killing of a mouse on a Sunday." The quaint old town and its people are rapidly modernizing; but they cling to the old traditions. Both in pictorial and legendary lore we have some Banburies of another kind altogether, viz., Banbury Blocks, or in plain English, Engraved Woodcut Blocks, a.s.sociated with the Local Chap Books, Toy Books, and other Histories, for which this quaint old Oxfordshire town is celebrated. The faithful description of the Blocks ill.u.s.trating this volume has led to numerous descriptive digressions, apparently irrelevant to the subject; it was found however that in tracing out the former history and use of some of the "Bewick" and other cuts contained in this volume, that the Literary, Artistic, Historical, Topographical, Typographical, and Antiquarian Reminiscences connected with the early Printing and Engraving of Banbury involved that of many other important towns and counties of Great Britain, and also America. A provincial publisher about the beginning of the present century would reflect more or less the modus operandi of each of his contemporaries in abridging or reproducing verbatim the immortal little chap books issued from the press of John Newbury's "Toy Book Manufactory," at the Bible and Sun (a sign lately restored), 65, Saint Paul's Church Yard, near the Bar.

This again leads to the subject as to who wrote these clever little tomes. In my "Angler's Garland," printed at the Dryden Press, 1870 and 1871, I fully announced my intention of issuing a reprint of the first edition of "Goody Two Shoes," but the intended volume was published by the firm at the corner, "Griffith, Farren, Okenden, and Welsh," now in the direct line of business descent from worthy and industrious John Newbery: Carman, Harris, Grant and Griffith. Mr. Charles Welsh of the present firm has taken a warm interest in the Antiquarian and Historical a.s.sociations of the Newbery firm. The premises have been lately rebuilt, the Sign and Emblems adopted by Newbery restored, and C. Welsh has reprinted "Goody Two Shoes" in facsimile, since which there has been added to it a Standard edition of Goldsmith's Works, edited by Mr.

Gibbs. I had the pleasure of making many researches respecting the old London publisher (Goldsmith's friend), John Newbery, respecting his Lilliputian Cla.s.sics, and I have been enabled to introduce several of the Quarto early editions to the firm, and have had great pleasure in writing and placing on record numerous facts and data, since utilized in the very interesting "Life of John Newbery, a last century bookseller."

The connection of Oliver Goldsmith's name is indissolubly a.s.sociated with the juvenile cla.s.sics industriously issued by Newbery. Dr. Johnson himself edited and prefaced several children's books which I have seen in the Jupp and Hugo Collections. The weary hours of adversity, through which "Goldie" pa.s.sed at Green Arbour Court, top of Break Neck Steps and Turn Again Lane--I remember them all well, and the Fleet prison walls too, when I was a boy--and in refuge at Canonbury Tower, near the village of Islington, these are the places where Goldsmith wrote for children. Sir Joshua Reynolds tells how, when he called on the poet at Green Arbour Court, he found the couplet:--

"By sports like these are all their cares beguiled, The sports of children satisfy the child."

see "The Traveller." He was surrounded by children in this unsavoury neighbourhood, where he had his humble domicile: a woodcut in Lumburd's Mirror depicts it very correctly. Bishop Percy, author of the "Reliques," called on him, and during the interview the oft repeated incident occurred of a little child of an adjacent neighbour, "Would Mr.

Goldsmith oblige her mother with a chamber pot full of coals!" Truly these were hours of ill-at-ease. The largest collection of the various relics of woodcuts used in the chap book literature, "printed for the Company of Flying Stationers, also Walking Stationers,"--for such is a portion of the imprint to be found on several of the early Chap Books printed at Banbury--is to be seen in the Library of the British Museum; but the richest collection of these celebrated little rarities of Toy Books is in the venerable Bodleian Library. Among the very interesting block relics of the past are the pretty cuts to Mrs. Trimmer's "Fabulous Histories, or The Robins:" these were designed by Thomas Bewick, and engraved by John Thompson, his pupil, who enriched Whittingham's celebrated Chiswick Press with his fine and tasteful work. A numerous series of little fable cuts by the same artist are to be found in this volume. One of the quaintest sets engraved at an early period by John Bewick (the Hogarth of Newcastle), are to "The Hermit, or Adventures of Edward Dorrington," or "Philip Quarll," as it was most popularly known by that t.i.tle a century ago. The earliest edition I have seen of Philip Quarll is as follows: "The Hermit, or the unparalleled sufferings and surprising adventures of Mr. Philip Quarll, an Englishman who was lately discovered by Mr. Dorrington, a Bristol merchant, upon an uninhabited island in the South Sea, where he lived above fifty years without any human a.s.sistance, still continues to reside, and will not come away,"

etc. Westminster: Printed by J. Cluer and A. Campbell, for T. Warner in Paternoster Row, and B. Creape at The Bible in Jermyn Street, St.

James's, 1727. 8vo, xii pp., map and explanation, 2 pp., and 1 to 26 appendix, with full page copper plate engravings. He was born in St.

Giles', left his master a locksmith, went to sea, married a famous w----e, listed for a soldier, married three wives, condemned at the Old Bailey, pardoned by King Charles II., turned merchant, and was shipwrecked on a desolate island on the coast of Mexico, etc. Other editions in the British Museum are 1750; 1759 (third); 1780 (twelfth); 1786 (first American edition, from the 6th English edition, Boston, U.S.A.); 1787 (in French); 1795 (seventeenth); 1807; and also in a "Storehouse of Stories," edited by Miss C. M. Yonge, 2 vols, 8vo (Macmillan, 1870-2), Philip Quarll (also Perambulations of a Mouse, Little Jack, Goody Two Shoes, Blossoms of Morality, Puzzle for a curious Girl), and others are given. The text is useful to refer to, as the originals are rare: the woodcuts of several of them are in this volume.

"Philip Quarll," Miss Yonge says, "comes to us with the reputation of being by Daniel Defoe; but we have never found anything to warrant the supposition. It must have been written during the period preceding the first French Revolution." There is also in the Museum an edition printed in Dutch in 1805.

In 1869, Mr. Wm. Tegg reprinted the Surprising Adventures of Philip Quarll, entirely re-edited and modernized, with only a frontispiece and vignette on t.i.tle as ill.u.s.trations. The quaint old cuts on next page probably ill.u.s.trated an early Newcastle, then York, and finally Banbury, edition of this oft published work.

_The Blocks designed and engraved by John Bewick, for "The Hermit; or Philip Quarll,"_ (_circa 1785._)

[Ill.u.s.trations: iv_1 - iv_6]

Tegg's edition of 356 pages, 12mo, is to be seen in the Reading Room of the British Museum, and gives the full text and history of these. This curious book would well bear representing with the original Bewick cuts, after the manner of the present Newbery firm, who have revived b.u.t.terfly's Ball, Gra.s.shopper's Feast, Goody Two Shoes, Looking Gla.s.s for the Mind, and contemplate others in the immediate future. Tegg in his reprint of the Book on Philip Quarll, states that he was born in St.

Giles' Parish, London, 1647, voyaged to Brazil, Mexico, and other parts of America, was left on an island, nourished by a goat, and other surprising adventures. Edward Dorrington communicates an account (see p.

1 to 94 inclusive) of how the hermit Philip Quarll was discovered, with his (E. D.'s) return to Bristol from Mexico, Jan. 3, 1724-5; but is about returning to Peru and Mexico again (p. 94). This is of both American and Bewick interest. Besides these representatives of this Chap Book, we are enabled to give in this collection impressions from the blocks of other editions fortunately rescued from oblivion and destruction.

BANBURY CHAP BOOKS.

"Old Story Books! Old Story Books!

we owe ye much old friends, Bright coloured threads in memory's wrap, of which Death holds the ends, Who can forget ye? Who can spurn the ministers of joy That waited on the lisping girl and petticoated boy?

Talk of your vellum, gold emboss'd morocco, roan, and calf, The blue and yellow wraps of old were prettier by half."

--Eliza Cook's Poems.

In 1708 John White, a Citizen of York, established himself as a printer in Newcastle-on-Tyne, bringing with him a stock of quaint old cuts, formerly his father's, at York, where he was Sole Printer to King William, for the five Northern Counties of England. He entered into partnership with Thomas Saint, who on the death of John White, at their Printing Office in Pilgrim Street, succeeded in 1796 to his extensive business as Printer, Bookseller, and Publisher. In this stock of woodcuts were some of the veritable pieces of wood engraved, or cut for Caxton, Wynken de Worde, Pynson, and others down to Tommy Gent--the curious genius, historian, author, poet, woodcuter and engraver, binder and printer, of York. We give some early examples out of this stock.

Thomas Saint, about 1770, had the honour of introducing to the public, the brothers Thomas and John Bewick's first efforts in wood-engravings, early and crude as they undoubtedly were. They are to be found in Hutton "On Mensuration," and also in various children's and juvenile works, such as aesop's and Gay's Fables. We give some of the earliest known of their work in this very interesting collection of woodcuts.

Some years ago a collection was formed of Newbury and Marshall's Children's Gift Toy Books, and early educational works, which were placed in the South Kensington Museum, in several gla.s.s cases. These attracted other collections of rare little volumes, adorned with similar cuts, many of which are from the identical blocks here impressed, notably the "Cries of York," "Goody Two Shoes," etc. They are still on view, near the George Cruikshank collection, and during the twenty years they have been exhibited, such literature has steadily gone up to fancy prices.

Charles Knight in his Shadows of the Old Booksellers, says of Newbury, (pp. 233), "This old bookseller is a very old friend of mine. He wound himself round my heart some seventy years ago, when I became possessed of an immortal volume, ent.i.tled the history of 'Little Goody Shoes.'

I felt myself personally honoured in the dedication." He then refers to Dr. Primrose, Thomas Trip, etc., and adds further on, "my father had a drawer full of them [Newbury's little books] very smartly bound in gilt paper." Priceless now would this collection be, mixed up with horn-books--a single copy of which is one of the rarest relics of the olden time.

Chalmer's in his preface to "Idler," regards Mr. Newbury as the reputed author of many little chap books for masters and misses.

Mr. John Nichols brings forward other candidates for the honour of projecting and writing the "Lilliputian histories, of Goody Two Shoes, etc.;" and refers to Griffith Jones and Giles Jones, in conjunction with Mr. John Newbury, as those to whom the public are indebted for the origin of those numerous and popular little books for the amus.e.m.e.nt and instruction of children, which have ever since been received with universal approbation.

The following are two of the identical cuts engraved by John Bewick, and used in the Newbury editions of Goody Two Shoes, London, 1769 to 1771.

[Ill.u.s.trations: 2_1, 2_2]

It will be seen on contrasting these cuts with the other two, on the following page, from early York editions, how wonderfully even in his early years Bewick improved the ill.u.s.trated juvenile literature of his day. No wonder when Goldsmith the poet had an interview with Bewick, that delighted with his cuts, he confessed to writing Goody Two Shoes, Tommy Trip, etc. Bewick's daughter supplied this information.

[Ill.u.s.trations: 3_1 - 3_3

_Early cuts to Goody Two Shoes._ _Bewick's frontispiece to Goody Two Shoes._]

Here are two early examples of Thomas Bewick. They were used in a York edition of "A Pretty Book of Pictures for little Masters and Misses, or History of Beasts and Birds by Tommy Trip," etc.

[Ill.u.s.trations: 4_1, 4_2

_Miss Polly Riding in a Coach, from Tommy Trip._ _The Student, from Tommy Trip._]

There was an American edition of Goody Two Shoes, and is very interesting indeed, having a woodcut frontispiece engraved by Thomas Bewick, and was printed at Worcester, Ma.s.s., U.S.A., by Isaiah Thomas, and sold wholesale and retail at his book-store, 1787. A copy of this little book sold in London for 1 16s.

We also give two other specimens from the J. Newbery editions of Tommy Trip and Goody Two Shoes, both engraved by John Bewick.

[Ill.u.s.trations: 4_3, 4_4

_The Student, from Tommy Trip._ _Margery, from Goody Two Shoes._]

The packmen of the past [see frontispiece of a pack-horse in First Edition only of Bewick's Quadrupeds, 1790] carried in their packs the ephemeral literature of the day, Calendars, Almanacks, and Chep-Books.

The Leicestershire p.r.o.nunciation to this day at markets is "Buy Chep"

for Cheap, hence the Chep-side, or Cheape-or Cheapside; otherwise derivation of Chap Men, or Running, Flying, and other mercurial stationers, peripatetic booksellers, pedlers, packmen, and again chepmen, these visited the villages and small towns from the large printers of the supply towns, as London, Banbury, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. The "History of John Cheap, the Chapman," "Parley the Porter," "Stephen of Salisbury Plain," and other favourite tracts, with John Bewick's and Lee's square woodcuts were written by the quaker lady, Hannah More, about 1777, and were first published in broadsheet folio.

Some were done by Hazzard, of Bath, others by Marshall, of Bow Lane, Aldermary Church Yard. A most curious collection of chap books did they print, reviving the quaint old "Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green," "Guy, Earl of Warwick," "Seven Champions," "Mother Shipton's Life and Prophecies," "Wise Men of Gothan," "Adam Bell," "Robin Hood's Garland,"

"Jane Sh.o.r.e," "Joaks upon Joaks," "Strapho, or Roger the Clown,"

"Whetstone for dull Wits," "St. George and the Dragon," "Jack Horner:"

and hundreds of ballads, garlands, carols, broadsheets, songs, etc., were in the collection.

The "Great A and bouncing B Toy Book Factory," was somewhere near Little Britain, the proprietor being John Marshall, who published the famous "Life of a Fly."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 5_1

_Block by Thomas Bewick._]

The "Memoirs of a Peg Top," "Perambulations of a Mouse," 2 volumes with cuts by John Bewick, and a number of other works, some by Mrs. Trimmer, under various pseudonyms, were published in Bow Lane, also many quaint broadsheets, the cuts of which are in this volume.

Hazzard, printer of Bath, who published many works for Dr. J. Trusler, with woodcuts by John Bewick, Lee, and others, also published the cheap repository tracts.