Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/96

70 70 THE BOOKSELLERS OF OLDEN TIMES. tious attack of asthma, which sadly interrupted him in discussing the arrangements, and he was eagerly offered an annuity of 250. The arrangement was made by Walker, a partner with Robinson in this transaction. Walker soon called to inquire after his friend's illness, " Thank you, much better," said Wol- cot, " I have taken measure of my asthma, the fellow 'is troublesome, but I know his strength and am his master." Walker's face grew longer, and when he rejoined his wife in the next room, the doctor heard a shrill, feminine expostulation, " There, you've done it> I told you he wouldn't die !" He outlived all the parties concerned, and was in his own case, perhaps, scarcely justified in originating the famous saying, " that publishers quaff champagne out of the skulls of authors." This over-eager parsimony was not in any way due to Robinson ; his generosity to his authors was well known, and his house became a general rendezvous for the literary men of the day, who were heartily welcome whenever they chose to turn up, provided always that they did not come late for dinner. After Robinson's death in 1801, his son and brother carried on the business, but met with reverses, principally through loss of stock at a fire ; but the wonderful prices that were realized at the auction, consequent on their declared bankruptcy, fairly set them afloat again. One bookseller, alone, is said to have invested .40,000 at the sale, and even the copyright of Vyse's Shilling Spelling Book was sold for 2,500, with an annuity of fifty guineas a year to the old schoolmaster Vyse. James Lackington, in his Memoirs and Confessions has left plenty of material, had we space, for an