Chapter II: Cambridge Books, 1521-1750 153 (4)

Deighton had begun business in Cambridge about 1777 and removed to London in 1786; in 1795 he appears to have returned to Cambridge, where he established the bookselling firm that has since become Deighton, Bell and Co.

About this time the Syndics seem to have taken counsel of, or at any rate to have compared notes with, the Oxford University Press; a rough notebook, kept by Isaac Milner, one of the most active of the Cambridge Syndics, contains various memoranda concerning the Oxford method of management. Milner seems particularly to have discussed with Mr Dawson, of the Clarendon Press, the proper percentage of profit on the printing and selling of bibles. One of Milner's notes is reproduced here as being of interest not only in the history of Cambridge printing, but also in the history of business; it should be added that there is a note appended to the calculation explaining that "the 25 per cent., it is supposed, will nearly leave the proposed profit of £10 per cent. and pay all the wear and tear and salary of superintendence."

Richard Watts, the printer elected at Cambridge to succeed John Deighton in December, 1802, also appears to have had previous experience in Oxford, where he had conducted, and had a share in, a paper under Dr Manor, called the _Oxford Mercury_, in opposition to Dr Jackson's _Oxford Journal_. Immediately before his election he seems to have been agent for Mr Hamilton, a printer of Falcon Court, London.

A little more than a year after this appointment Cambridge received another offer of a secret for the process of stereotype printing. The inventor was the third Earl Stanhope, a remarkable man who, besides being prominent in political life, was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the author of _Principles of Electricity_, and the inventor of many devices including a microscopic lens, a new kind of cement, a calculating machine, an artificial tile for keeping out rain, a cure for wounds made in trees, an instrument for performing logical operations, and several improvements in the art of printing. Of these last the most important were the Stanhope press and an improved process of stereotyping: the Stanhope press was made of iron instead of wood and an ingenious mechanism made it possible to print a sheet twice as large as on the old wooden presses; the university bought two of these new presses, which are still in use at the present day.

The offer of the stereotype secret came to the university from Andrew Wilson, the London printer employed by Earl Stanhope. By a preliminary agreement of 20 April, 1804, Wilson was to receive for the space of 14 years one-third of the savings resulting from the employment of the stereotype process and was to act, in conjunction with Watts, as agent for the Syndics' bibles and prayer-books. The savings were to be calculated by arbitrators appointed by the respective parties.

This not very business-like arrangement naturally led to a dispute before long. As early as October, 1805, Milner seems to have had misgivings both about the scheme and about Wilson's competency, as the following entries in his notebook show:

Qy whether Wilson's declaration of 30,000 profits in 8 years be not a proof want of judgmͭ.

Qy whether Wilson be not an adventͬ--without judgment.

Hints to new Vice-Cͬ.

1. The system of talking _before_ them viz. Watts and Wilson.

The absolute necessity of others being informed in the stereotype art.

Watts talks of going to London again by Wilson's directions to see what chases and things he wants--and when I say he should not leave them, he says, Oh, there is no more in leaving them now than when he was ill--they are to be trusted.

Qy--Quid cogitant ille and Wilson.

Qy _x_ to agree with Oxfͩ? as a Stereotyper?

The supposition contained in the last cryptic note was well justified, as Wilson had in March, 1805, proposed to the Clarendon Press "to put the University in possession of the Art of Stereotype Printing"; later in the same year the Delegates, having resolved that "the University of Cambridge being in possession of the Art, it seems not only expedient, but necessary, that Oxford should be possess'd of the same advantages," entered into an agreement by which Wilson was to instruct their representatives in the stereotype processes for the sum of £4000[128].

In 1806 Wilson claimed that, as the introduction of stereotyping had enabled the Syndics to convert a warehouse into a printing-office for the sum of £1500 instead of building a new one at a cost of £4500, he was entitled by the agreement to his share of the saving of £3000 thus effected.

On 6 March, 1807, the university agreed to pay Wilson the sum of £865 16_s_ 9_d_ for the composition and two sets of plates of a bourgeois testament, a brevier testament and a nonpareil Welsh testament[129]; it being provided that the university should make for Wilson (from type supplied by himself) so many perfect plates towards octavo editions of Ainsworth's Dictionary and Johnson's Dictionary as should amount in value to the aggregate of Wilson's bill. Later in the same year the university definitely acquired the stereotype secret by a further agreement: £2000 was to be paid immediately, £1000 which had been previously advanced to Wilson was to become his property, and further sums were to be paid in accordance with the amount of the sales of bibles, testaments and prayer-books[130].

The following extracts, describing the outline of the stereotype process, are taken from Milner's notebook:

1. The pages as they come from the composers have been first well cleansed with a solution of American Potash--14 lb in 3 buckets of water.

2. They must then be gently dried by the fire and then _cool_ and a little oil of Turpentine is put on a plate with 2 parts sweet oil.... This mixture gets thick by time: The plate is then well done over with a little of this mixture by one of the small soft brushes like a painter's brush....

3. Then a _copper measure_ of the powdered calcined gypsum is taken--viz. about ½ or ¾ pint and the same quantity of soft water and they are put into a copper vessel and shaken exceedingly well together: and then the mixture is to be poured upon the types, there being first placed upon them an iron frame to form an Edge to sustain the fluid Gypsum and water.

4. Immediately, and without the least loss of time the short square brushes are now to be taken and you must work the Air out quickly with them and continue working till the gypsum is too fixed to allow of more working.

5. When so fixed that you can easily make an impression, that is, while the Plaster is softish, take off the upper frame and scrape clean all the elevated plaster. It will rise again above the level by and by; scrape again--and lastly as soon as it is so fixed that it is not easy to make a mark with yͬ nail, then lay it carefully upon a _soft frame_ (covered with a sort of cloth) and then take a piece of wood that nearly fits the cake, and gently thrust it so as to make it quit the frame; and then dress it with a knife and lay it between two pieces of marble to keep it from warping.

6. The types must now be cleaned by picking out any bits of gypsum left in the Interstices ... and lastly they must be brushed; and then done over again for a new mold.

7. The artist, Mr Austen, Engraver can dress and cure any little imperfection in the plates when cast.

8. The Gypsum requires about 2 hours for calcination; and is known to be right when you break the pieces, and see them moulded quite thro'--Matter of Experience.

9. The Gypsum should be broken with small bits about 2 ounces each.

10. and when calcined they are to be ground on a Stone....

11. When the moulds are made, and placed between the marbles ... they will be ready in 2 or 3 hours for baking....

12. They are to be baked being placed upright on stands like those for toasted bread--raised a little from the bottom of the furnace--About 2 hours or 2½hours will take the moulds....

Casting

The metal is precisely the Type metal. The Pots must be made quite as hot as the metal--or rather more--. Then the floating plate must be placed in the frame--and the cake or mould directly upon it with its face downwards: Then place upon the top the cover of the frame, and screw it down: and dip the whole in metal melted so that a match will light at it.--The melted metal will run in at those places made in the mould by the bits of brass--till all be full--and then remove the whole to be cooled on a tile in water with lime upon it--and as it cools and shrinks, supply with fresh melted metal.

The acquisition of this secret did not end the disputes with Wilson; the university in 1811 protested against payment of the bill referred to in the agreement of March, 1807, on the ground that Wilson had not supplied them with the type for Ainsworth's and Johnson's Dictionaries and that they were so prevented from selling the plates to him. No documents have been preserved to show how the case ended, but the following hypothetical case on which the university invited the opinion of counsel about this time may be quoted in conclusion:

Whether supposing A.B. to be acquainted with the secret mode of making stereotype plates, and supposing C.D. to know the mode now in general use, and whereas it is conceived that the secret is now no secret. Supposing A.B. to inquire of C.D. his (C.D.'s) mode of making the plates, and by his answers it appeared that he (C.D.) was acquainted with all the peculiarities of the secret, would A.B. be justified in telling C.D. that such was the secret?

Meanwhile, the Press buildings were growing. On the site of the White Lion Inn, bought in 1762, a warehouse had been built in 1786 and on 20 April, 1804, the Syndics instructed Mr Watts, with the assistance of Mr Humphreys, to "prepare a plan for altering the Warehouse into a Printing office." This building was described by Dyer, writing in 1809, as "a commodious brick building, situated in Silver Street, with a stereotype foundry adjoining" and, as has been already seen, it was claimed that this economical conversion was made possible by the introduction of stereotype printing.

The Syndics' relations with their printer at this time were not altogether happy. In 1808 two of the Syndics (Dr Milner and Mr Wood) were appointed to examine the Press accounts, since it was alleged that, in contrast to the average annual profit of £1500 for a number of years before 1802, Watts had shown no profit at all for five years. These charges were set forth in a pamphlet entitled _Facts and Observations relative to the state of the University Press_, to which Watts wrote a _Reply_. Watts resigned as soon as the enquiry was instituted and, when the examination of the accounts was completed in the next year, it was decided to elect a new printer. Apart from the various stereotype editions of the bible and prayer-book no books of great importance seem to have been printed by Watts.

His successor, John Smith, was elected in 1809 and held the office of printer for 26 years.

It was during this period that the University Press began to assume its present appearance[131]. By 1820 the existing buildings had become quite inadequate to the growing business of the Press and the Syndics recommended the university to purchase Mr James Nutter's estate in Silver Street for the sum of £5060. The following grace was accordingly passed by the Senate on 24 January, 1821:

Quum in Typographeo vestro, ex angustiis loci, multa detrimenta atque incommoda subinde exoriri soleant; quumque, in remedium mali istius, Preli Typographici Curatores pactionem inierint cum Domino Nutter, ut facultate a vobis impetrata, quasdam domos illius quinque mille et sexaginta librarum pretio redimerunt: Placeat Vobis, ut pactio ista rata ac firma habeatur, atque ut summa praedicta e cista communi, usibus istis destinanda, erogetur.

(Based on Willis & Clark, III. 132. Recent additions are marked----)

The property thus acquired was on the site of the ancient inn known as The Cardinal's Cap. Its boundaries are marked on the plan and in 1824, the Syndics of the Press, having taken the advice of an "eminent London Printer" (Mr Hansard), recommended that, as the existing buildings were "so dilapidated and so inadequate to the effectual conducting of the business," immediate steps should be taken towards extension. In the next year plans by James Walter for a new printing-house on the west side of the quadrangle and a printer's house in Mill Lane were approved by the Senate. These buildings were completed in January, 1827, the fitting of them being superintended by Thomas Hansard[132].

A more famous addition to the Press buildings is that associated with the name of William Pitt.

On 25 May, 1824, the following letter was addressed to the Vice-Chancellor (John Lamb, Master of Corpus Christi College) by the Marquess Camden, chairman of the London Pitt Club Committee:

Sir,

I have the Honor to inform you that I am just returned from a Meeting of the Committee appointed to consider of the disposal of the surplus of Money subscribed, many years ago, for the Erection of a Statue to the memory of Mͬ Pitt.

I am, now, authorized by that Committee to state to you, Sir, that which I had the Honor of personally communicating to you at Cambridge: 'the disposition of that Committee to recommend to a general Meeting of Subscribers to the Fund above-mentioned the Disposal of a considerable Sum of Money for the Erection of an handsome Building connected with the University Press at Cambridge;' but, as it will be necessary to state to the general Meeting how far the University is disposed to find and provide a proper Scite for the erecting such Building, near or opposite to Pembroke College, I now trouble you on that subject, and I request you will have the goodness to inform me how far I may be authorized to inform the General Meeting of the Disposition of the University to find and provide a proper Scite as above-mentioned for the erecting of an handsome Building, which the Committee is desirous should be erected on such a scale as to be a distinguished Ornament to the University, and tend to perpetuate the Name and Memory of Mͬ Pitt.

I have the Honor to remain, Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
CAMDEN.

A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following resolution:

That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on the 11ᵗʰ instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University Press; such to bear the name of Mͬ Pitt. That the Committee be desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution this Resolution.

The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards Trumpington Street."

After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and staircase is evident:

It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts which they think should be ornamented.

Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between Mill Lane and Silver Street--a larger site than that on which Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated. The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of the Press quadrangle.

The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8_s_ 9_d_.

It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening on 28 April, 1833, abridged from _The Cambridge Chronicle_ (1 May, 1833), may also be given in conclusion:

The Pitt Press having been completed, Tuesday last was appointed for the Vice-Chancellor to receive the key of the building from the Marquis Camden and a deputation of the Pitt Committee.... Having arrived at the building the Marquis Camden, accompanied by the members of the Committee, proceeded into the grand entrance hall, and having invited the Vice-Chancellor to the door, spoke as follows:

"Mr Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen of the University of Cambridge: The idea of connecting the name of Mr Pitt with the Press of that University to which he owed his education and so much of his fame, was met by all parties with enthusiasm. The University have displayed an activity and liberality in providing this magnificent site which could only have been prompted by an admiration for the character of Mr Pitt. The Committee, animated by a personal respect and affection towards their contemporary, have endeavoured to cause to be erected on this site, such a building as might prove an addition to the other great improvements already perfected in this place and which, from its peculiar destination, will unite the name of Mr Pitt with all those works of religion, morality, and science, which will in future emanate from it, and diffuse throughout the world the connexion of his name with erudition and learning....

Sir, you have caused this ceremony to be attended by all the undergraduates as well as by the dignitaries of the University. Let me call the peculiar attention of all to this ceremony, and allow me to impress on the undergraduates that we, Mr Pitt's contemporaries, have been witnesses of his uniting the closest study with the utmost cheerfulness, and, when not employed in solving the most abstruse problems, he has engaged the admiration of his friends and companions, by the liveliest sallies of wit and imagination. Let his example stimulate you to the greatest exertion during your residence in this place, so well calculated to provide for your instruction in every department of literature and science."[133]

The key was then presented to the Vice-Chancellor, who grew eloquent in his reply:

What more appropriate monument then could be erected to the memory of Pitt than this building, the chief purpose and object of which is to send forth to the world the Word of God; and could he, with prophetic eye, when residing in yon neighbouring college, whose proudest boast is to number him among her sons--could he have beheld such a structure, bearing his name, raised for such a purpose, and erected by such friends, even his own eloquence would have scarce sufficed to express the feelings of his heart. My Lord, the edifice with which you have adorned this University, and the illustrious name it bears, will add a fresh stimulus to our exertions in the dissemination of truth, the extension of science, and the advancement of religious knowledge; and I humbly trust that nothing will ever issue from these walls but such works as may conduce to the furtherance of these important objects....[134]

After which, the company, having printed off copies of the inscription on the foundation-stone from a press specially set up for the occasion, "went upstairs into the Syndicate Room, where they partook of a cold collation given by the Press Syndicate."

* * * * *

In the early part of his career, John Smith laboured under the difficulties arising out of the "dilapidated and inadequate" condition of the old Press buildings. The chief source of business continued to be the sale of bibles and prayer-books and agencies were arranged with Rivingtons, Baldwin & Co., and other London booksellers.

Of the books printed by Smith the most notable are the editions of classical authors for which the "Great Porson Greek" type was used. This fine fount had been cut under Porson's direction by Austin, of London, with the assistance of Richard Watts and was used for various editions of the Greek tragedians by Blomfield, Monk, and Scholefield.

In 1824 the King expressed his gracious pleasure that the newly discovered MS of Milton should be printed at the University Press and a new fount of pica type (weighing 12 cwt.) was specially ordered from Messrs Millar, of Edinburgh, for the purpose[135].

In 1827 the Syndics, having again taken counsel of eminent London printers and booksellers (Charles and John Rivington, Mawman, Baldwin, Hansard, Gilbert), resolved upon the expediency of appointing "a Superintendent of the concerns of the Press in all its departments, immediately under the Vice-Chancellor and General Syndicate," and, while no charges were brought against the technical quality of Smith's printing, there seems to have been a general feeling that he was not adequate to the control of the whole business. Smith's _Observations relating to the Affairs of the Press_ (16 March, 1829) throw an interesting light on the difficulties with which he had to contend. He begs to observe, for instance,

that many of the works brought to the Press are in the most unprepared state possible ... the consequence is, that when proof-sheets are sent to the respective Authors, the work is much cut-up, and subject to continued Overrunnings and Corrections.... The Authors, for the most part being Gentlemen of the University engaged with Pupils during Term-time, furnish their Copy in detail--loosely written--and frequent suspensions of MS, which necessarily occasions great delay and inconvenience.... The Gentlemen of the Press Syndicate must be aware (tho' a London Printer cannot, unless he witnessed the operation) that the Examination-Papers which of late years have abundantly increased, must from their nature have retarded all regular work in the Composing Room. These papers could only be executed by Workmen competent and accustomed to Mathematical and Greek Composition; and my best Mathematical Compositors are those who have been brought up and trained in our own Office: London Workmen having in several instances left the Office, rather than undertake the Composition of such Works[136].

Smith also claims a development of the bible business:

I had the honour of being elected Printer at the close of 1809--at that time the number of Presses employed did not exceed eight: the number increased in 1812 and 1813 to thirteen. At this period, and on to 1815 and 17 increased and increasing Orders flowed in from the British and Foreign Bible Society and also (through Messrs Rivingtons) from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge....

The fact is, that from 1813 to 1815 the demand for Bibles etc was such, that had the same quantity of work to be executed been required to be finished in the manner in which the same books are now printed, they would not possibly have been done with the means the Press then possessed--"Send up the Books in gatherings" (i.e. divisions) was the repeated order of the Bible Society--"and we will spare you the trouble of booking off etc, etc." Many thousand copies were thus supplied which were never properly dried....

Finally, a statement is presented showing an average annual profit of £3191 from 1809 to 1827.

The Syndics, however, adhered to their view and invited Mr Clowes, of London, to examine the Press; Clowes sent his overseer, John William Parker, and in February, 1829, was appointed Superintendent of the Press at a salary of £400 a year on the understanding that, while he himself should execute the London business which the appointment involved, the actual superintendence at Cambridge should be deputed to Parker.

Parker infused new life into the business: he introduced improved methods of book-keeping, bought new types and hydraulic presses, installed an apparatus "for warming the Press buildings by means of heated air," and in 1832 established a depository for the sale of Cambridge bibles and prayer-books at his house in the Strand.

When John Smith retired with a pension in 1836, Parker was appointed printer in his place, visiting Cambridge for two days every fortnight; the bible business continued to expand and in 1838 Parker could offer fifty-six different editions of the bible and prayer-book. One bible calls for special comment: on 10 January, 1835, King William IV wrote to the Marquess Camden from the Pavilion, Brighton, suggesting that there should be printed at Cambridge, as at Oxford, a certain number of bibles for presentation to sovereigns visiting the country. The Chancellor conveyed the suggestion to the Syndics who unanimously agreed "that in obedience to His Majesty's command a quarto Bible with marginal references be immediately put to press"; 250 copies, printed on Imperial paper, were to be reserved for purposes of presentation and one copy was to be struck off on vellum for the King himself; larger editions were to be printed on ordinary paper for general sale and Parker was instructed to order a special fount of English type.

Reductions in the cost of bibles were also effected and the Royal Commission of 1850-52 remarked upon the great reduction of price between 1830 and 1850 "attributable to improved machinery and to better arrangements in the establishment." One of the most important of these improvements was the introduction of steam-power for printing, the Syndics resolving on 13 June, 1838, "that it appears expedient to introduce machinery into the Pitt Press."

For many years, however, the Bible Society stoutly refused to purchase books printed by steam presses.

Apart from the great advances made in the actual processes of printing during this period, Parker's work is also of great importance in the development of Cambridge publishing.

As has been already noted, Parker established a publishing house in the Strand in 1832 and besides acting as agent for Cambridge bibles, he included in his catalogue the greater part of the educational books printed at the Press. The stock-books kept at Cambridge show that the bulk of the editions were delivered to Parker's warehouse in London or to Deighton's in Cambridge and the names of both firms frequently appear on title-pages. University publications, together with classical, mathematical, and theological text-books and treatises, predominate in the list and the names of such scholars as Blomfield, Babington, Colenso, Donaldson, Hare, Monk, Paley, Scholefield, Shilleto, Trench, and Whewell are to be found amongst the authors.

In 1844 it was proposed to reprint a number of standard works in theology and general literature "in order to provide against the loss which the want of full employment for the Workmen frequently occasions." It was hoped that by such an undertaking "the University would not only be enabled to secure regular occupation for their Printing Establishment, but would, also, acquire a copyright-interest in certain important Works which would ultimately prove a permanent source of income." Out of a long list three titles were chosen for publication: Stillingfleet's _Conferences and Tracts_, Cosin's _History of the Canon_, and Knight's _Life of Erasmus_.

Not all the books printed, of course, can be regarded as the publications of the Syndics of the Press. Some were printed to the order of an author or bookseller or society (e.g. the Parker Society); others were private ventures of Parker himself (such as his series of _Popular Literature_ including _Linnaeus and Botany_, _Smeeton on Lighthouses_, _Cuvier and Natural History_, _Sir Joseph Banks and the Royal Society_); but others were definitely the property of the university, as the following minute of the Syndics of 25 May, 1838, shows:

At a meeting of the Syndicate held this day it was agreed, that the following be the form of an imprint for the New Edition of Wilson's Illustrations etc of the New Testament and that the same be adopted as the imprint in all such editions of books as shall be retained as the property of the University

Cambridge, printed at the Pitt Press,
by J. W. Parker, Printer to the University

and again in 1850 it was ordered that it should be stated on the title-page whether the book was printed for the author, editor, or publisher.

Towards the end of Parker's career in Cambridge, there was a distinct decline of business; the extension of the right of printing bibles to the Scottish printers in 1842 led to "the forced production of inferior editions which gradually lowered the prices of those of better quality produced in England." The Syndics, in a report to the Senate in 1849, while declaring the management of the previous 20 years to have been most satisfactory, found themselves faced by two alternatives for the future: either a large outlay upon new types and stereotype plates, or the placing of the establishment upon a reduced footing--and the second course was recommended.

The condition and extent of the Press in 1852 is summarised in the statement prepared by the Syndics for the Royal Commission.

There were at this time eighteen Syndics, who met once a fortnight during term; by a grace of 1752 five (of whom one must be the Vice-Chancellor or his deputy) constituted a quorum and the average attendance was 7-9/23.

The printing-office contained frames for 70 compositors, presses for 56 press men, and 8 printing machines, requiring about 50 men and boys to work them; a 10-horse steam-engine, 2 boilers, twining lathe, forge, and circular saw; one steam power milling machine, hydraulic and screw hot presses employing about 100 men and boys in all. The machinery was claimed to be "good of its kind." There was provision also for "any number of Readers, Observers, Warehousemen and Boys, necessary to carry on, get up, complete, and deliver the greatest amount of work which could at any time be done."

The two financial privileges enjoyed by the Press were the 'drawback' of 1½_d_ a lb. on the paper duty and the Government annuity of £500, less income tax[137].

The business of the Press was defined as consisting of the printing of bibles, testaments, and prayer-books; of printing work for the university and colleges; of printing books edited for the Syndics; of book and job printing for the members of the university; of printing works published by the Parker and other learned societies; and of "such Book work, as, subject to the 'Imprimatur' of the Vice-Chancellor, may be offered by Publishers and other connexions of the Press."

Finally, the Syndics declared that it did not appear to them that any change of management could produce greater profits than were at that time realised.

Parker retired in 1854 and, in spite of the serious fluctuations in the bible trade, the first half of the nineteenth century must be regarded as a period of expansion in building, in machinery, and in business. For the first time the chief servant of the Syndics was a man with an intimate knowledge of the book trade, who served the university as publisher as well as printer. The assumption by the Syndics themselves of the full responsibilities of a publishing firm was reserved for the later half of the century.

VIII

THE LATEST AGE

In spite of the statement of the Syndics quoted at the end of the preceding chapter, the University Commissioners of 1850-52 reported their opinion that

it is only by associating printers or publishers in some species of co-partnership with the University, or by leasing the Press to them, that any considerable return can hereafter be expected from the capital which has been invested in it ... we are satisfied that no Syndicate, however active and well chosen, can replace the intelligent and vigilant superintendence of those whose fortune in life is dependent upon its success.

Accordingly, on the resignation of Parker, the Syndicate recommended that the university should enter into partnership with "Mr George Seeley of Fleet Street, London, Bookseller, and Mr Charles John Clay, M.A. of Trinity College and of Bread Street Hill, London, Printer," and the grace for the deed of partnership was passed on 3 July, 1854.

The control of the printing thus came into the hands of Mr Clay, whilst Mr Seeley received the sole agency for the sale of Cambridge bibles and prayer-books; Mr Seeley, however, retired two years later and Mr Clay entered into a fresh agreement with the university.

The period of Mr Clay's management was one of great expansion. At the end of his first ten years of office it was estimated that the Press produced about four or five times as much as when he first undertook the management; in 1876, and again in 1886, the Syndics reported to the Senate that the business had attained a considerable magnitude and that large additions had been made to the machinery and plant.

Increase of business naturally demanded increased accommodation and in 1863 a foundry was built upon the site of some old cottages in Black Lion Yard. Eight years later new machine-rooms and warehouses were built on the site of Diamond Court, leading out of Silver Street, and a still larger addition was made in 1877-78, when a three-storied building was erected in the south-west corner of the quadrangle. The most recent additions are the extensions of the warehouse and machine-room on the Silver Street side and the red brick building (containing the syndicate room and secretarial offices), which forms the south side of the quadrangle[138].

In 1882 Mr John Clay, son of Mr C. J. Clay, was admitted into the partnership with the university and from 1886 to 1904 Mr C. F. Clay was also associated with it. Mr John Clay became university printer on his father's retirement in 1895 and held the office until his death in 1916, when the partnership was dissolved and the present printer, Mr J. B. Peace, Fellow of Emmanuel College, was appointed. From 1917 to 1919 the Syndics also employed the services of Mr Bruce Rogers, whose distinguished work as a printer is well known on both sides of the Atlantic. One of the best known figures in the Press in the later half of the nineteenth century was that of Alfred Mason. His remarkable personality dominated the counting-house for a long period and when he died in 1919 he had been for 65 years in the service of the Press.

The present buildings of the Press include machine-rooms, containing large quad royal and quad demy perfectors, revolution presses, and single cylinder machines; a foundry comprising a stereotyping department, an electro-moulding room, an electro-battery room, and two finishing rooms; type storerooms, composing-rooms, and monotype-rooms; an art department for lithographic, half-tone, and other process work; and the warehouse, where the finished sheets are stored ready to be sent away for binding. Every month an average of 40 tons of printed matter leaves the Press to be delivered to London binders.

Printing is done in a wide variety of languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Pali, Coptic, Sanskrit, Hausa, Syriac and Amharic, and the type catalogue makes a volume of about 200 pages.

Perhaps the greatest fame of the Cambridge Press rests upon its mathematical typography. To glance at a page, say, of _Principia Mathematica_ is to realise a little--but only a little--of the minute care and skill required of the compositor, the press-reader, and the machine-minder in the production of such a book. It may be permissible here, perhaps, to quote one recent tribute from the preface to Professor E. W. Brown's _Tables of the Motion of the Moon_, printed in 1918 for the Yale University Press:

The reading of the proof has been almost entirely directed to the detection of errors in the manuscript. That this has been possible is due to the remarkable record of the Cambridge University Press which in setting up over five hundred quarto pages of numerical tables has allowed less than a dozen printer's errors to pass its proof-readers and has, in addition, frequently queried our own mistakes. Few sheets have required a second proof and in the actual use of the Tables, as finally printed, for the calculation of the ephemeris for two years, no error of any kind has been detected.

On the retirement of Mr George Seeley in 1856, Messrs Hamilton, Adams & Co., of Paternoster Row, were appointed as agents for the Syndics' books[139]. This arrangement, however, does not seem to have been satisfactory, as the name of a new agent--George Cox--appears in the following year; a further change was made in 1862 when the firm of Rivingtons became agents for Cambridge books; finally, when this agreement came to an end, ten years later, the Syndics reported to the Senate that "acting on the advice of Mr Clay" they had decided "not to appoint other Agents, but to conduct their London business in an office of their own, under the superintendence of a paid Manager" and that they had agreed "to take a Lease of convenient premises in Paternoster Row."

The beginning of the Syndics' career as London publishers--in the strict sense of the term--must therefore be assigned to the year 1872. At that time the number of books published by the Syndics--apart from bibles and prayer-books--was very small. Among them, however, may be noted the first volume of Mullinger's _The University of Cambridge_, published in 1873, the first instalment of a monumental work which remained uncompleted at the author's death in 1917.

In 1874 an important step was taken, the Syndics deciding to publish a series of editions of Greek, Latin, French, and German authors designed for use in schools and especially for candidates for the Local Examinations. This was the beginning of the Pitt Press Series, which now includes over 300 volumes, and such editions as Sidgwick's _Virgil_ and Mr Verity's _Shakespeare_--to name but two out of many--have become familiar to many generations of schoolboys.

The Syndics' catalogue for 1875 (a pamphlet of 16 tiny pages) reflects the beginnings of schoolbook publishing: it opens with some nine volumes in the Pitt Press Series; then follow Scrivener's _Paragraph Bible_, Scholefield's _Greek Testament_ and several theological works including Isaac Barrow's _Works_ in nine volumes; there are five editions of Greek and Latin authors, among them being Paley and Sandys's _Private Orations of Demosthenes_ and Heitland's _Cicero pro Murena_; mathematics and physics claim nine books, including Kelvin and Tait's _Elements of Natural Philosophy_; history is represented by Mullinger's first volume, already referred to, and Mayor's edition of Baker's _History of St John's College_; of law books there are three, including Whewell's edition of _Grotius de Iure Belli ac Pacis_; and the list ends with a few catalogues and university examination papers.

In 1877 the publication of another important series was begun--_The Cambridge Bible for Schools_. The general editor was Dr J. J. S. Perowne, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, and the first volume to appear was Maclear's _St Mark_.

Originally designed for school use, the series soon attained a wider public. It was begun before the publication of the Revised Version and at the very time when the controversy was raging in Scotland which resulted in the suspension of Robertson Smith from his professorship at Aberdeen; when the series was finally completed by Sir George Adam Smith's _Deuteronomy_ in 1918, many of the older volumes had already been replaced or revised. On the death of Bishop Perowne in 1904 _The Times_ referred to the series as one which had "done more to spread accurate Biblical knowledge among English-speaking people than any book except the Revised Version."

The agreements between the university presses and the two companies of revisers for the publication of the Revised Version had been completed, "after much careful consideration as well as protracted negotiation," in 1873.

Three years earlier the New Testament company had held the first of its 407 meetings in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. The company included the most distinguished theologians of the time--Hort, Westcott, Lightfoot, Ellicott, Scrivener, W. F. Moulton--and at first an average of only seventeen verses was revised in the daily session. Later, however, progress became a little more rapid and the revision was completed on 11 November, 1880. The Revised New Testament was published jointly by the university presses in 1881 and the Old Testament three years later. The secretary of the Old Testament company was W. Aldis Wright, for more than 30 years a Syndic of the Cambridge Press.

By 1890 the catalogue of the Syndics' publications had grown considerably, not only by additions to the Pitt Press and other Series, but by the publication of larger works on literary and scientific subjects, such as Robertson Smith's _Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia_, Willis and Clark's _Architectural History of the University of Cambridge_, Maitland's edition of _Bracton's Note Book_, and Jebb's _Sophocles_.

Cayley's _Collected Mathematical Papers_, in thirteen volumes, were published between 1889 and 1897, and have since been followed by similar collections of the mathematical and scientific work of Kelvin, Rayleigh, Reynolds, Stokes, Sylvester, Tait, and other scholars. Meanwhile, larger publishing premises were found to be necessary, and in 1884 the London office was moved to Ave Maria Lane; with the growth of business these premises similarly became inadequate and the lease of the present offices in Fetter Lane was bought by the university in 1904.

One of the most important of the Syndics' undertakings towards the end of the last century was _The Cambridge Modern History_. Lord Acton had been elected Regius Professor of Modern History in 1895 and early in 1896 the Syndics approached him with a view to the compilation of a great English universal history. In his report of 15 July, 1896 Lord Acton wrote:

Universal history is not the sum of all particular histories, and ought to be contemplated, first, in its distinctive essence, as Renaissance, Reformation, Religious Wars, Absolute Monarchy, Revolution, etc. The several countries may or may not contribute to feed the main stream, and the distribution of matter must be made accordingly. The history of nations that are off the line must not suffer; it must be told as accurately as if the whole was divided into annals....

and later in a more detailed report:

It will be necessary to prescribe exact limits and conditions, and to explain clearly what we desire to obtain, and to avoid. We shall avoid the needless utterance of opinion, and the service of a cause. Contributors will understand that we are established not under the meridian of Greenwich, but in longitude 30 West; that our Waterloo must be one that satisfies French and English, Germans and Dutch alike.... Ultimate history we cannot have in this generation; but we can dispose of conventional history and show the point we have reached on the road from the one to the other.... If History is often called the teacher and the guide that regulates public life, which, to individuals as to societies, is as important as private, this is the time and the place to prove the title....

The essential elements of the plan I propose for consideration are these:

Division of subjects among many specially qualified writers.

Highest pitch of knowledge without the display.

Distinction between the organic unity of general history and the sum of national histories, as the principle for selecting and distributing matter.

Proportion between historic thought and historic fact.

Chart and compass for the coming century.

Lord Acton, however, did not live to carry out the work and the editorship was entrusted to Sir A. W. Ward, Sir G. W. Prothero, and Sir Stanley Leathes.

The first of the volumes of text appeared in 1902 and the whole work was completed by a general index published in 1912.

This plan of co-operative history has been adopted by the Syndics in several other branches of learning: _The Cambridge History of English Literature_ was completed under the editorship of Sir A. W. Ward and Mr A. R. Waller in 1916, and other works in progress are _The Cambridge Medieval History_, _The Cambridge History of India_, _The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy_, and _The Cambridge Ancient History_.

Another important undertaking was the publication of the eleventh edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ in 1911.

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Short of summarising the forty-five main subject-headings of the current catalogue, it would be difficult--as well as invidious--to enter into further detail concerning the modern publications of the Cambridge University Press. It may suffice to note that in the years immediately preceding the war the average annual output of new books, exclusive of journals, was 150. This figure excludes, of course, the various editions of Cambridge bibles and prayer-books: at the present time there are, apart from the various styles of binding, 26 different editions of the Authorised, and 19 of the Revised Version; 19 editions of the English, and 6 of the Scottish prayer-book; of the latter, as of the new Canadian prayer-book, the Syndics are the sole publishers.

During the war both the printing and publishing businesses suffered from shortage of personnel, of metal, and of paper. Two hundred and fifty-two servants of the Syndics joined His Majesty's forces and of these forty-one were killed, or died, on service.

In conclusion, it may be remarked that the method of the government of the Press by a body of Syndics appointed by the Senate of the university has, with certain important modifications, persisted since 1698.

The constitution of the Syndicate has been more than once revised--notably in 1782 and 1855--and the length of a Syndic's tenure of office varied from time to time. The present body consists of the Vice-Chancellor (_ex officio_) and fourteen Syndics; the term of appointment is seven years and two Syndics retire each year. The first permanent secretary, Mr R. T. Wright, formerly Fellow of Christ's College, was appointed in 1892; on his retirement in 1911 he was succeeded by the present secretary, Mr A. R. Waller, of Peterhouse.

The Syndics employ a staff of about 280 in Cambridge and of 110, under the management of Mr C. F. Clay, at their publishing office in Fetter Lane; their current catalogue contains the titles of some 2500 books bearing the _imprimatur_ of the university.

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Such, in brief summary, is the measure of the development of Cambridge printing since John Siberch set up his press at the sign of the _Arma Regia_ in 1521.