Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/484

442 442 PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS. North of England ; a position acquired, of course, in times of ecclesiastical supremacy, but still retained for centuries after the Reformation. When the cost and difficulty of transit were great, the country folk looked to their own capital cities to supply them with literary food, and the annals of bookselling at York go back to nearly as ancient a date as those of London ; and, in- deed, Thomas Gent, whom we select as our represen- tative of the York booksellers, might have figured in the earlier portion of our introductory chapter, had he not been reserved for a more fitting place here. Thomas Gent, though of a Staffordshire family, was born in Dublin, and was apprenticed by his parents, poor though industrious people, to a printer in that city. In 1710, after three years' brutal treatment from his employers, he ran away to London, where, as he was not a freeman of the city, he lived upon what he calls "smouting work" for four years, and then accepted a situation with Mr. White of York, who, as a reward for printing the Prince of Orange's declaration when all the London printers were afraid, had been created King's printer for York and five other counties. White must have enjoyed plenty of business, there being few printers out of London at that time " None," says Gent, " I am sure at Chester, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Preston, Manchester, Kendal, and Leeds." When Gent, terminating his long walk from London, arrived at York, the door was opened by " Mistress White's head maiden, who is now my dear spouse," but he had to wait nearly as long a time as Jacob served for Rachel before he could claim " my dearest." Gent was as happy in York as he could well be, was earning money and respected by all, when his