Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/95

69 THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES. 69 John Cuthel, James Nunn, J. Lea, Lackington, Allen and Co., and others. The vignette which ornamented their books was a Beehive, with the inscription of "Associated," and thus they got the title of the "As- sociated Busy Bees." Two of the principal booksellers towards the end of the last century, require, from the magnitude of their business, a somewhat lengthier notice. George Robinson, born at Dalston near Carlisle, received his business training under John Rivington. In 1764 he started as a wholesale bookseller in Pater- noster Row, and, by 1780, he could boast of the largest wholesale trade in London. Nor were the higher branches of his calling neglected, and in the purchase of copyrights he rivalled the oldest esta- blished firms. Among his publications we may men- tion the Critical Review, the Town and Country Mag- azine, and the New Annual Register ; the Modern Universal History (in sixty volumes), the Biographica Britannica, and Russell's Ancient and Modern Europe ; Bruce' s Travels and the Travels of A nacharsis ; the illustrated works of Hogarth, Bewick, and Heath ; and the lighter productions of Macklin, Murphy, Godwin, Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Radcliffe, Dr. Moore, and Dr. Wolcot For the Mysteries of UdolpJio Mrs. Radcliffe received five hundred guineas, the largest sum that had at that time been- given for a novel, and Peter Pindar (Dr. Wolcot) made a still better bargain for his poems. They had already acquired a prodigious popularity, and in selling the copyright a question arose, as to whether they should be purchased for a lump sum or an annuity. While the treaty was pend- ing Wolcot was seized with a violent and rather ostenta-