Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/231

195 JOHN MURRA Y. 195 Brought forward " Companions of Columbus " ' ' Conquest of Grenada " ( ' Tour on the Prairies " <l Abbotsford and Newstead " <l Legends of Spain " Total ... ^9767 These sums of money having been paid, Mr. Bohn reprinted the volumes in a cheap edition. A law suit was of course the result, in which Murray's expenses ran up to 850, and Mr. Bonn's were probably as heavy. The question, however, was settled amicably, without being fought to the bitter end, and Irving received no more money from this side the Atlantic. Most of the famous men with whom Murray had been connected had by this time disappeared, many of them having shed their rays meteor-like, and having done the duty unto which they were created in a momentary flash. The seething excitement called into being by the throes of the first French Revolution had subsided, and there were neither readers left to appreciate true poetry, nor true poets remaining, with strength of voice left in them to bring back memories in passion-laden melodies of the troublous times they sprung from. All, on the contrary, was quiet and easeful a happy time for commerce, but a barren hour for art. Murray, skilled as any pilot in watching the direc- tion of the wind, turned his attention to the publica- tion of travels and expeditions the very books for a fireside afternoon, when the wind is howling outside, and the snow-storm beating on the windows and very soon Albemarle Street was as famous for its " Travels " as it had previously been for its " Belles^