Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/85

 PRIVATE PRESSES IN SUSSEX. 73 print it about the time he intended it to be de- livered, or possibly before, so that he might have a printed copy from which to preach. It is safe, therefore, to consider 1797 as the year in which this sermon was printed. In 1800 Hurdis issued his 'The favorite village: a poem. Bishopstone, Sussex. 1800. Printed at the author's own press.' This poem is a eulogy on his native village of Bishopstone, and comprises two hundred and ten pages. The title-pages of the above four works state that they were printed at Bishopstone. There is, however, one other work of James Hurdis which he issued anonymously, and which has neither date nor place of printing. The title runs : c A word or two in vindication of the University of Oxford, and of Magdalen College, in particular, from the posthumous aspersions of Mr. Gibbon.' According to the British Museum Catalogue this little quarto publication was written by Hurdis, and privately printed, the date being given as 1800 (?) ; and in the Dictionary of National Bio- graphy it is stated that this work was ' certainly printed at Bishopstone.' Considering these cir- cumstances it is justifiable to include this produc- tion among those privately printed at Bishopstone. The press was, therefore, in existence about four years, and, as far as can be traced, only the above- mentioned five books were printed there. These cannot be regarded as fine specimens of the printer's art, for they are printed on poor paper, with ordinary type, and the pages in a great number of instances have not been worked in anything like perfeft register. But a certain amount of credit