Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/447

407 THOMAS NELSON, 407 tish worthies, and lies side by side with Hugh Miller. Thomas Nelson was distinguished not only by his energy and strict integrity, but by a generous hos- pitality of the genuine Scottish type. Even when his business was of very small dimensions, his old- fashioned dining-room was generally filled by the Scottish clergy, when any general meeting brought them to the metropolis. Messrs. William and Thomas Nelson, of course, continued the business, and we cannot, perhaps, con- vey a better idea of the magnitude to which the trade has in their hands extended than by giving a descrip- tion of their establishment in all its branches, and for this description we are indebted chiefly to Mr. Brem- ner's " Industries of Scotland." Taking printing, publishing, and bookbinding together, Thomas Nelson and Sons, of Hope Park, are the most extensive house in Scotland. They removed to their present establishment a quarter of a century ago, and were compelled, after a lapse of ten years, to build a new range of offices far exceeding anything of the kind in the city of Edinburgh, and probably unparalleled out of it. The main part of the building consists of three conjoined blocks, forming three sides of a square. Part of the surrounding ground is laid out as an ornamental grass-plot, and a new machine-room has been recently erected upon another portion. In the main building there are three floors ap- portioned to the various branches of the trade. Machinery is used wherever it is possible, and by its aid, and by a well-organized system of division of labour, the number of books manufactured is enor-