Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/81

 'PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.' 69 numbers. Its retail price, however, we know was eighteenpence, so that even at double such a price there was a handsome margin of profit. Braddyl's defence strikes us as being quite open and straightforward, and if it was true, as there seems no reason to doubt, that Ponder was at one time a prisoner in the King's Bench for debt, and that Braddyl had helped to get him out of his difficulties, it speaks well for the printer's gener- osity after the bitter attack that Ponder had made on him in the fourth edition of the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and certainly confirms Dunton's good opinion of him. The E. Horton mentioned by Braddyl was, without doubt, Edward Horton, the printer, and the execution referred to possibly had something to do with the printing of one or other of the editions of the ' Pilgrim's Progress.' It is rather difficult to understand which of the editions is referred to in these documents. Ponder's statement suggests that it was an edition in the press in 1688, and Braddyl in his reply mentions the events as having taken place nine years before, which would confirm Ponder's state- ment. There is an edition, the eleventh, which bears the date 1688, and it was the first edi- tion illustrated with c cuts.' On the other hand, Awnsham Churchill and Nicholas Boddington give much later dates, the first saying that it was 'about' 1690, and the second that it was in 1692 or 1693 that he bought the edition. In the face of this, it would be rash to say that it was the 1688 edition that came from Braddyl's press. HENRY R. PLOMER.