Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/358

318 3i8 THE RIVINGTONS, THE PARKERS, memory was found most essential as a substitute for the current business documents. Messrs. Clowes commenced their printing establish- ment in a very small way, but soon progressed, and were among the first to use the steam press ; but as they were then in Northumberland Court, Strand, their neighbour, the Duke of Northumberland, brought an action against them for causing a nuisance, and eventually bought them out of their tenement, and Parker induced Clowes to purchase the lease and plant of a factory in Duke Street, Stamford Street, which had been started unsuccessfully by Applegarth, the inventor of the steam press. Here, undisturbed by neighbouring aristocrats, Parker became the manager of the business, and it prospered so exceed- ingly that he established a printing-press of his own in the immediate vicinity, and found it necessary to live in Stamford Street, where he made the acquaintance of Dr. D'Oyley, Rector of Lambeth, Dr. Mant, and a number of other influential clergymen, whose connec- tion with the venerable " Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge" eventually stood him in good stead. About the year 1828, the University of Cambridge found that the receipts from its Press were barely suf- ficient to cover the expenses, while at the .sister University, under the management of Collingwood and Mr. Joseph Parker, the annual returns were not only large, but increasing yearly. In this strait the Syndics applied to Mr. Clowes, who sent Mr. Parker down to inspect. The sensible manner in which he at once detected the faults of the establishment, and suggested improvements, led to his immediate engage- ment as advising printer at a salary of 200 ; and he