Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/504

462 462 PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS. services in the cause of cheap publications of really good and standard works, have done much to counter- act the effects of cheap and pernicious literature. "The Cottage Library" has long been known all over England, and was one of the first shilling series of really good books published certainly the first in a neat form and with a neat binding, issued at this low price, and is still, in its extent and scope, unrivalled. Manchester was one of the first provincial towns in Eng- land to which the printer and bookseller came, for it must be remembered that the trades were for centuries almost synonymous. The art of printing is said to have been introduced here in 1 588, when Penny went through the kingdom with an itinerant press, but his plant was seized and destroyed by the fifth Earl of Derby. However, the innovation was effected, and the new art was firmly lodged. Manchester, nevertheless, in these early days was a place of such importance that a mere catalogue of the members of the trade would more than fill the few pages at our command. Among the booksellers of the last century we can only mention Haslingden, who published "Tim Bobbin" a book still famous ; the Sowlers, one of the descendants of whom started the Courier, under the editorship of Alaric A. Watts, in 1825, and the journal still enjoys a wide popularity ; Joseph Harrop, who originated the Manchester Mercury in 1752, published the " History of Man" in sixpenny numbers, but Harrop's well-known folio Bible was issued by his son and successor; the firm of Clarke Brothers amassed a large fortune in school books and sta- tionery ; and about the same time Banks and Co. were also doing an immense trade upon a thoroughly reprehensible system. Hayward ; who was their