Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/392

352 35 2 EDWARD MOXON. to our old clock in the passage, as if he did not keep time, and yet he had made her no appointment. She takes it out every moment to look at the minute hand. She lugs us out into the field, because there the bird- boys cry out 'You, pray, sir, can you tell us the time ?' and she answers them punctually. She loses all her time looking to see what the time is ! I heard her whispering just now 'so many hours, minutes, &c., to Tuesday ; I think St. George's goes too slow.' . . . She has spoilt some of the movements. Between ourselves, she has kissed away the ' half-past twelve,' which I suppose to be the canonical hour in Hanover Square." On the 3Oth July they were married. Lamb, as long as he lived, regarded them with almost paternal affection, and, at his death, left Moxon his treasured collection of books. Meanwhile the illustrated edition of Rogers's " Italy" was in preparation, and with a view to its publication Moxon moved to Dover Street, Piccadilly. Rogers spared no cost in the production of what was intended to be the most beautifully illustrated volume that had ever been published. ; 10,000 was spent on the illustrations and the engraving of them. There were fifty-six engravings in all by Turner, Stothard, and other eminent artists. Turner was to have received fifty pounds apiece for his drawings, but at one time the whole speculation threatened to turn out a failure, and he then offered the bard the use of them for five pounds each instead. To match this luxurious volume the illustrated edition of Rogers's " Poems" was brought out, at a further cost of ^5000, with seventy-two engravings by Turner, Stothard, Landseer, Eastlake, &c., and, in spite of the enormous outlay on the two works, their increasing popularity