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HISTORy OF PRINTING.

occasionally assuming the high tone and strno- ture of the Johnsonian period. To persons of eveiy description, but especially to young persons, the essays of this author are invaluable ; their first praise is, that they recommend, in a most fascinating manner, ail that is good and great ; and, secondly, they are in a high degree calculated to form the taste, and to excite a spirit of literary enthusiasm. — Drake.

1777, July 26. JTie Magazine of Antt ; or, Pitmire Journal. This work was the production of the rev. James Murray, of Newcastle-upon- Tyne, and printed by Mr. Angus. It consisted of five or six 8vo. sixpenny numbers ; the fifth number of which is embellished with an engraving of a harp, which was the first thing that Mr. Thomas Bewick, the celebrated wood engraver, executed after he returned from his fiist visit to London.

1777, Nov. 8. The rev. John Home (Tooke),» received the following sentence in the court of king's bench : to be imprisoned twelve months in the king's bench prison, and to pay a fine of £200 and find security for his good behaviour for three years, himselfin £400, and two sureties in £200 each, for publishing an advertisement, from the constitutional society, accusing the king's troops of barbarously murdering the Ame- ricans at Lexington. He pleaded his own cause. All the printers in whose papers this paragraph appeared, were served with writs.

1777. There were in this year in London, seven morning newspapers ; eight three times a week ; one twice a weelc ; and one weekly.

1777, Nov. 18. Died, William Bowver, j unior, of Red lion passage. Fleet-street, London,t the most learned and distinguished printer of modern times. He was born in Dogwell -court. White Friars, London, December 19, 1699, and received his education at merchant taylors' school, from whence he removed to St. John's college, Cambridge, where he continued till June, 1722. Soon after leaving college he entered into the printing business with his father. The principal attention to the executive, or mechanical part of the business, devolving on the father, and the correcting of the proofs being almost exclusively the business of the son. One of the first works which came out under his cor- rection was the edition of Selden's works, by Wilkins, in three volumes, folio. This was begun in 1722, and finished in 1726: and his great attention to it appeared in his drawing up an epitome of the piece, De Synedri*, as he read the proof sheets. He married, Oct. 1728, his mother's niece, Miss Ann Prudom, daughter of Mr. Thomas Prudom, citizen and fishmonger, who had been left, a few years before, by her

• In the St. Jamet'i Chronicle, Dec. 9, 1777, ■ppeaKd 4J1 excellent and humorous paper by the rev. Klichael tort, D.D., on Parson Home's petition to be pilloried.— For an account of Dr. Lort, who died Nov. s, 171K), see Nichols's Literary AnecdoteM, vol. II. p. 5i)4.

t In 17671 the office was removed from White Friars to Red Lion Passage, Fleet-street, where he styled himself " AacHiTECTDs ViaBoaDM." Over the door of the new olBce he placed a bust of Cicero.

father's will, under the guardianship of the eldn Bowyer. By her he acquired some frediold farms in Yorkshire, and one at NaTestock, in Essex. She died in 1731, when pregnaot with a third son. Of the two former sons, one died an infant, and the other survived his father. Mr. Bowyer married a second wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Bell, in 1747. She was originally his hoose- keeper; but in that situation was well known to, and highly respected by, his literary friends. She was a very extraordinary woman, and after he marriage she applied herself so closely to the advancement of her husband's business, thxl she, by her intense application to leaminf, arrived at last to a degree of capacity equal to the task of reading the proofs of the most learned works done in the office ; and it is but jnstiee to observe here, that her mental acquiremeDts wot only surpassed by her modesty. She died before her husband. In 1729, throu^ the fiieDdship of the speaker, Onslow, Mr. Bowyer was ap- pointed printer of the votes of the bouse of commons, an office which he held throngk three successive speakers, and for a space of nearly fifty years. In 1736 he was appointed printer to the society of antiquaries, ana elected a member. In 1706, he engaged in partneidiip with Mr. Nichols, who had been trained by him to the profession. The year following, be was appointed printer of the journals of the bomr of lords and rolls of parliament. Mr. Bowya wrote several curious tracts, and published im- proved editions of some valuable books. Hb publications are an incontrovertible evidence «( bis abilities and leaning: to which may be added, that he was honoured with the iHendshi; and patronage of the most distinguished peisog- ages of his age. For more than half a centoiy, he stood unrivalled as a learned printer ; sm some of the most masterly productions of this kingdom appeared from his press. To his litr- rarv and professional abilities, he added an ex- cellent moral character. His regard to religioo was displayed in his publications, and in tfcc cotirse of his life and studies ; and he was par- ticularly distinguished by his inflexible probitv, and an uncommon alacrity in assisting the neces- sitous. His liberality in relieving every specie of distress, and his endeavours to conceal his benefactions, reflect great honour on his menxny. Though he was naturally fond of retirement, and seldom entered into company excepting with men of letters, he was, perhaps, excelled by fe» in the talent of justly discriminating the real characters of mankind. He judged of the pet- sons he saw by a sort of intuition ; and his judg- ments were generally right. From a consciotis- ness of his literary superiority, he did not alwap pay that attention to the booksellers which was expedient in the way of his business. BeinK too proud to solicit the favours in that way which bt believed to be his due, he was often disappointed in his expectations. On the other hand, he fre- quently experienced friendships in cases where he had much less reason to have hoped for them : so that, agreeable to an expression of his own.