Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/9

 10 s. xii. JULY 3, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1909.

CONTENTS. No. 288.

NOTES : Miller Bibliography, 1 Hussey of Slinfold, 3 Francesco Casanova the Painter, 4 " Bombay Duck," 5 Chaucer's Allusions to Persius-Dolma Bagcha, Constan- tinople "Yamuyle," a Victual John Angel or Anger Lord Althorp in the House of Commons, 6 "Bring," Archaic Use Dark Boom in Photography Robinson Crusoe's Literary Descendants, 7. .

^QUERIES : Sir Francis Bacon on Tasting Robert Agassiz Herrick on the Yew, 7 Coleridge's Lectures on Shakespeare Authors of Quotations Wanted The Derby and the Weather Duels between Women The Duke of York and Miss Flood Munro of Novar Henry V.'s Corpse Rev. Jonathan Clapham, 8 Robert Newman, Engraver Derivation of Butterworth Benja- min Hanbury's Library " Volksbiicher " Astronomy in the Middle Ages " Branne and Water" Capt. George Farmer, 9' The Sailor's Consolation ' " What the Devil said to Noah," 10.

REPLIES : Words and Phrases in Old American News- papers, 10 Seething Lane James Ingram, President of Trinity College, Oxford, 11 'Abridgement of Calvin's Institution ' Gulix Holland Dr. Johnson's Watch Dr. Johnson's Uncle Hanged John Paul or Paul Jones, 12- Carlyle and Freemasonry " Governor of the English Nation" "All the world and his wife," 13 Green Dragon 'The Diaboliad ' John Slade, Dorset, 14 Sainte-Beuve on Castor and Pollux Margaret of Richmond J. Willme Comets " Stick to your tut," 15 The White Hen- Hugh Bullock Hangmen who have been Hanged Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, 16 Derivation oi Edinburgh Dew-Ponds, 17 Doctors in London during the Plague' If I Only Knew ' T. Truman, Bookseller- Prime Minister James Isaacson, M.P. Gainsborough, Architect Holbeck Postscript of a Woman's Letter, 18.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Mr. J. C. Francis's ' Notes by the Way ' ' Authors' and Printers' Dictionary 'Wilson's 'Art of Rhetorique.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

MILLER BIBLIOGRAPHY.

UNDERNEATH will be found a bibliography and notes of two Scottish publishers : ( 1 ) George Miller of Dunbar, 1771-1835, and <2) his son James Miller of Haddington, 1791-1865. Neither of these is mentioned in the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' They were pioneers of popular literature in publishing very early in the nineteenth century The Cheap Magazine, which was issued at the price of fourpence some twenty years before Chambers' 's Journal was started, and had a circulation not confined to Scotland, and averaging from 12,000 to 20,000 copies a month. Their line is represented in the publishing world of to-day by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, whose grandmother was a Miller of the same family. Many of the details here given are derived from Mr. Unwin' s own collection.

James Miller (born 20 March. 1725 ; died 27 June, 1789), the father of George, was
 * a general merchant," or " grocer," in Dun-

bar. Besides this, he managed a book- selling business with the help of his son George, who was apprenticed to him in 1788 ; but the father died before the appren- ticeship was out. The bookselling business began with James Miller, who was a brother of Mr. Unwin' s great-grandfather.

George Miller (born 14 Jan., 1771 ; died 26 July, 1835) was a general merchant and bookseller in Dunbar, having inherited both businesses from his father ; he was one of the pioneers in Scotland of cheap and in- structive literature. He established a cir- culating library at Dunbar in 1789, and started there in 1795 the first East Lothian press, which was removed to Haddington about 1804. " He appears to have con- tinuously resided at Dunbar, which was still frequently used as his imprint." The name of the firm was J. & G. Miller.

(Authorities. MS. ' Notes on the Miller Family,' by F. M. Gladstone, and 'Biblio- graphy of Works relating to Dunfermline and W. of Fife,' by Erskine Beveridge, 1901, p. xvii.)

James Miller (born 21 Dec., 1791 ; died 23 May, 1865), printer and author, was the eldest son of George, as already stated. His first training was in a writer's office in Dunbar, from which he was taken by his father to superintend the printing business, now transferred to Haddington. He began to write while still at school, afterwards contributed poems to The Cheap Magazine, and published much miscellaneous verse in later life, besides his prose histories of Dunbar and Haddington. The Haddington branch of the business succeeded at first, and he held, at one time, a seat in the Council of the town. But reverses came, and he gave way to intemperance. The drink habit grew, and overcame him finally, and his last years were passed in great destitu- tion. He died in Queensberry House, Edin- burgh, having been placed in that institu- tion through the kindness of some friends, and supported by a small annuity from the Literary Fund. James Miller, in his latter years, was known in Haddington under the sobriquet of " The Lamp."

(Authorities. MS. ' Notes on the Miller Family,' mentioned above, and Thos. Cowan's ' Sketch,' prefixed to ' Lamp of Lothian,' 1900.)

I now proceed to give a list of books published by the Millers, with dates.

[1799.] An account of a dreadful hurricane, which happened in the Island of Jamaica, in

the month of October, 1780 And of an awful

phenomenon called a Tornado, which took