Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/102

74 74 THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES. "I found all I possess in small profits, bound by in- dustry and clasped with economy" The shop in Chiswell Street was now changed into a huge building at the corner of Finsbury Square, grandly styled the " Temple of the Muses ;" above it floated a flag, over the door was the inscription " Cheapest bookshop in the world," and inside ap- peared the notice that " the lowest price is marked on every Book, and no abatement made on any article." " Half-a-million of volumes " were said, according to his catalogue, " to be constantly on sate," and these were arranged in galleries and rooms, rising in tiers the more expensive books at the bottom, and the prices diminishing with every floor, but all numbered according to a catalogue, which Lackington compiled himself, and even the first he issued contained 12,000 volumes. During his first year at the "Temple of the Muses " he cleared 5000. In 1798, he was able to retire with a large fortune, and he again joined the Methodists, building and endowing three chapels for them, in contrition for having maligned them in his rambling Memoirs. Latterly he was fond of travelling, and made a tour of bookselling inspection through England and Scotland, seeing discouraging signs in every town but Edinburgh, "where indeed a few capital articles are kept." " At York and Leeds there were a few (and but very few) good books ; but in all the other towns between London and Edinburgh nothing but trash was to be found." In Scotland, he looked forward with great curiosity to seeing the women washing soiled linen in the rivers, standing bare-legged the while, and indeed this incident seems to have afforded him more gratification than any in his travels except the following: "In Bristol, Uxbridge,