Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/490

448 44 PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS. Murray, which are said at that time to have achieved an annual sale of 100,000 copies. What Burdekin's efforts in his masters' service were, we can gather from the fact that he rode his favourite horse 30,000 miles in search of orders, which in a short time doubled the receipts of his employers. Soon he joined Spence in an old-established business, and eventually became senior partner of the firm. His trade extended to forty miles round York, and for fifty-five years he continued to sell, and in a lesser degree to publish, such books as might suit the inhabitants of the three ridings. We have seen that Gent describes his dear's uncle White as having heaped up riches as the only New- castle printer. He could, however, scarcely have been the only printer there, for we find that even when Charles I. made Newcastle his headquarters he brought with him Robert Barker, who had, as we have elsewhere noticed, enjoyed certain patents under the two preceding monarchs. If there were no previous printers at Newcastle in Barker's time, one, at least, must have started very shortly afterwards, for in 1656 we find the death of " James Chantler, bookseller," recorded, and in those times the booksellers were mainly supplied from local sources. From Chantler's time we find that books and stationery were the staple commodities of Tyne Bridge, and for nearly a couple of centuries the " brigg " has been a favourite resort of the trade. We. find the names of Randell, Maplisden, Linn, and Akenhead occurring in the list of the Newcastle Stationers' Company ; and at the close of 1746 John Goading printed the first number of the Newcastle General Magazine. " For too long," said the preface, " had the northern climes been deprived of a repository