Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

Then follows that portion of the will which Dr. Chalmers deemed too indecent to print: “My further will & pleasure is and I Hearby Declare that the Device of Goods & Chattles as Above is upon this Express Condition that my Wife in Concert with my Exᵒʳˢ do Cause my Body to be Buried in a Conical Building in my own premises, Heartofore used as a mill which I have lately Raised Higher and painted and in a vault which I have prepared for It. This Doubtless to many may appear a Whim perhaps It is so--But is a whim for many years Resolve’d upon as I have a Hearty Contempt of all Superstition the Farce of a Consecrated Ground the Irish Barbarism of Sure and Certain Hopes &c. I also consider Revelation as It is call’d Exclusive of the Scraps of Morality casually Intermixt with It to be the most Impudent Abuse of Common Sense which Ever was Invented to Befool Mankind. I Expect some srewd Remark will be made on this my Declaration by the Ignorant & Bigotted who cannot Distinguish between Religion & Superstition and are Taught to Believe that morality (by which I understand all the Duties a man ows to God and his fellow Creatures) is not Sufficient to entitle him to Divine favour with professing to believe as they Call It Ceartain Absurd Doctrines & mysteries of which they have no more Conception than a Horse. This Morality Alone I profess to have been my Religion and the [Rule] of my Actions, to which I appeal how far my profession and practice have Been Consistant.”

And finally he gave to his executors each “6 Guineas to Buy a Ring which I hope they will Consider as a Keepsake.”

Some time before his death, being consulted by friends, who were aware of his opinions, as to how he would be buried, Baskerville said they could “bury him sitting, standing or lying, but he did not think they could bury him flying.”[43]

He was buried in the conical building, previously used as a mill, which he had raised higher and painted, and in a vault which he had prepared, at Easy Hill. The epitaph, written by himself, runs as follows:

STRANGER--
BENEATH THIS CONE IN UNCONSCRATED (_sic_) GROUND
A FRIEND TO THE LIBERTIES OF MANKIND
DIRECTED HIS BODY TO BE INHUM’D
MAY THE EXAMPLE CONTRIBUTE TO EMANCIPATE THY MIND
FROM THE IDLE FEARS OF SUPERSTITION
AND THE WICKED ARTS OF PRIESTHOOD

When Baskerville House was sold to a Mr. Ryland in 1789, the owner did not disturb the body, and it remained for nearly fifty years in comparative peace. During the Birmingham riots of 1791, Baskerville House was stormed, sacked, gutted, and burned. It was not, however, until alterations were made on the property for business purposes that Baskerville’s coffin was removed, and taken to a warehouse, where it remained for some time subject to visits from the curious, and even to scientific observations of the condition of the body. Mr. Ryland, ascertaining that a show was made of the remains, insisted that they should be suitably interred, and Mr. Marston, in whose shop the coffin had been placed, applied to the rector of St. Philip’s for permission to bury the body there. This was refused on account of Baskerville’s atheism, when Mr. Knott, the bookseller, said that he had a vault in Christ’s Church, and should consider it an honor to have Baskerville’s remains rest there, and they were there placed about 1829. Even here Baskerville’s body did not rest permanently, for the necessary extension of Birmingham caused Christ’s Church to be demolished, and his remains, which should have been placed in St. Philip’s Church by the side of his wife, being again refused interment there by the rector, were placed in one of the catacombs of the Church of England Cemetery at Warstone Lane. And so, finally, after being turned out of the garden at Easy Hill for a canal-wharf, exposed to neglect and ignominy in a plumber’s warehouse, interred by stealth in the vaults of Christ’s Church, and then again removed by the march of business, Baskerville’s bones at last found permanent rest in a quiet cemetery of the Church of England. It is in a spot remote, not easily discoverable, and where few are likely to see the stone, which has been transferred thither from Christ’s Church. The inscription upon it reads as follows:

IN THIS CATACOMB RESTS THE REMAINS OF
JOHN BASKERVILLE
THE FAMOUS PRINTER
HE DIED IN 1775, BUT THE PLACE OF HIS BURIAL
WAS UNKNOWN UNTIL
APRIL 12, 1893, WHEN THE OPENING OF THE
UNREGISTERED CATACOMB NO. 521
DISCOVERED A COFFIN, WHICH ON FURTHER
EXAMINATION WAS FOUND TO CONTAIN HIS BODY

What is it that makes the life and work of this middle-aged, vain, and silly Birmingham Englishman interesting to us? Why do we collect his imprints, and why do we talk about him? I think it is because he had the true artistic vision and courage. He conceived the idea of a perfect book, such as had not been printed in England. He did not grow into it. He did not make one book, and then a better one, and then a better one, until at last he achieved the beautiful book. He conceived the book as an artist conceives a statue before he strikes a blow with his chisel into the marble. It was wonderful that he should have done so. He had grown up in a manufacturing and mercantile business, making japan work for sale, and profiting by its sale. Most men never get out of the work and of the ideas of the work which they do until they are fifty years of age. He did. Why was it? I think, as I have said, it was because he had an artistic perception and conceived the thing which he was to do, and adhered to his conception. Everything shows that he wrought in the true artistic spirit: having conceived the thing to be done, he proceeded to do it. All his work was executed upon a hand-press. His printing-office was what we should call a private printing-office in his house. He cut the type; he made the ink and improved the press; he devised the paper; and from start to finish the work was his. Everybody who will do better work than anybody else must have this spirit and conception of the work he proposes, and must adhere to it, or he will not produce perfect work. It is this that makes Baskerville interesting to us, and makes the productions of his little private press treasures in the world of art.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District, pages 211, 221._

[2] _Autobiography of Alexander Carlyle, D.D._

[3] _Hutton’s History of Birmingham (1783), page 90._

[4] _Gough’s British Topography (1780), volume ii, page 306._

[5] _Hutton’s History of Birmingham, page 90._

[6] _Frivolous._

[7] _Testy._

[8] _Mark Noble, who was born in Birmingham in 1754. His father sold beads, knives, toys, etc., to the slave traders. In 1781 he was presented to two “starvation livings,” as he called them, in Warwickshire. He divided his interests then among his congregation, his books, and his farm. His writings were those of an imperfectly educated, vulgar-minded man. His ignorance of English grammar and composition rendered his books hard to read and occasionally unintelligible, while the moral reflections with which they abounded were puerile._ (_Dictionary of National Biography._)

[9] _Chambers’s Biographical Illustrations._

[10] _Edward Rowe Mores was a crusty, crabbed clergyman, who collected different founts of types, and obtained much information upon the subject of type-founding. He printed eighty copies of the book quoted above, and Nichols bought the whole of them. See Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes, volume v, page 389._

[11] _The Bookhunter (1885), page 67._

[12] _Reed’s Old English Letter Foundries, pages 269, 271, 277, 279._

[13] _Dent and Straus, John Baskerville, page 64._

[14] _Autobiography of Alexander Carlyle, D.D._

[15] _Straus, Robert Dodsley, page 272._

[16] _Dictionary of National Biography._

[17] _Straus, Robert Dodsley, pages 219, 273._

[18] _Lettres inédites de Voltaire (1857), page 254._

[19] _Reed’s Old English Letter Foundries (1882)._

[20] _Hansard’s Typographia (1825), page 311._

[21] _Hansard’s Typographia, page 723._

[22] _Ibid., page 717._

[23] _Reed’s Old English Letter Foundries, page 276._

[24] _Macaulay’s History of England, volume ii._

[25] _Harwood’s Classics, page 172._

[26] _Hansard’s Typographia, page 311._

[27] _Dibdin’s Library Companion, page 716._

[28] _Dibdin’s Library Companion (1825), page 47._

[29] _Dibdin’s Library Companion, page 613._

[30] _Straus, Robert Dodsley, pages 289-292._

[31] _Baskerville’s work was greatly admired on the Continent, especially in France. He was paid several very handsome compliments in Pierre Didot’s “Épître sur les Progrès de l’Imprimerie,” published in Paris in 1784; and in the notes to the poem attention is given to his method of printing and to his glossy paper,--“qui fatigue la vue.” To make such paper, says Didot rather loftily, “is not a secret, and if it ever becomes one, will not be worth finding out.” This opinion did not, however, prevent the Didots from attempting to imitate it._

[32] _Dibdin’s Greek and Latin Classics (1827), vol. ii, pages 555 et seq._

[33] _Harwood’s Classics, page 176. See also Dibdin’s Classics, volume ii, page 111._

[34] _Dibdin’s Library Companion, page 766._

[35] _Hansard’s Typographia, page 311._

[36] _Horne’s An Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, vol. i, page 253._

[37] _Bibliography of Printing, page 37._

[38] _Fitzgerald’s The Book Fancier, page 77._

[39] _Reed’s Old English Letter Foundries, pages 286, 287._

[40] _Ibid., page 332._

[41] _Theodore Low De Vinne’s Title-Pages as seen by a Printer (1901), pages 154, 155._

[42] _Reed’s Old English Letter Foundries, pages 134, 136._

[43] _Secular Review, September 8, 1877._

_FINIS_

_BASKERVILLE EDITIONS_

IN THE COLLECTION OF J. H. BENTON

_COLLECTION_

OF J. H. BENTON, U. S. A.

[_Numbers refer to Straus and Dent’s Bibliography_]

BASKERVILLE EDITIONS

_No._ _Date_ _Title_

7. 1757. VIRGIL. Opera. Royal 4to. _Plates by Hollar.
Map inserted._

8. 1757. VIRGIL. Opera. Royal 4to. _Extra illustrated._

15. 1758. MILTON. Paradise Lost. Imperial 8vo.

17. 1758. MILTON. Paradise Regain’d, Imperial 8vo.

20. 1758. [HUCKELL.] Avon. 4to. _Sig. K2 printed 2K._

22. 1759. MILTON. Paradise Lost. 4to.

23. 1759. MILTON. Paradise Regain’d. 4to.

31. 1760. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Long lines without borders.]
Imperial 8vo. _Finely executed painting on the
fore-edge. Price erased._

32. 1760. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Long lines with borders.]
Imperial 8vo.

38. 1760. [MALLET.] Edwin and Emma. Royal 4to.

40. 1761. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Double column without
borders.] Imperial 8vo.

43. 1761. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Long lines with borders.]
Imperial 8vo.

44. 1761. ÆSOP. Fables. 8vo.

45. 1761. JUVENAL AND PERSIUS. Satyrae. Royal 4to. _Two copies,
2d copy has plates by Hollar inserted._

46. 1761. CONGREVE. Works. 3 vols. Imperial 8vo.

48. 1761. ADDISON. Works. 4 vols. Royal 4to. _Two copies, one
not trimmed and in original boards._

52. 1762. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Long lines without borders.]
Imperial 8vo.

54. 1762. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. [Double column without
borders.] 12mo. _Two copies, each with Psalms
bound in._ _See_ Nos. 55, 56.

55. 1762. STERNHOLD AND HOPKINS. Psalms in Metre. 12mo.
_Bound at end of larger copy of No. 54._

56. 1762. TATE AND BRADY. Psalms. 12mo. _Bound at end of
smaller copy of No. 54._

59. 1762. HORACE. Opera. 12mo.

65. 1763. HOLY BIBLE. Cambridge. Imperial folio.

69. 1764. JENNINGS. On Medals. 8vo.

71. 1765. BARCLAY. Apology. Royal 4to.

75. 1766. VIRGIL. Works. By R. Andrews. In English. Imperial
8vo.

78. 1766. VIRGIL. Opera. 8vo. _No frontispiece._

86. 1770. HORACE. Opera. Royal 4to. _Manuscript errata inserted._

90. 1772. LUCRETIUS. De rerum natura. Royal 4to.

91. 1772. CATULLUS. Opera. Royal 4to.

92. 1772. CATULLUS. Opera. 12mo.

93. 1772. TERENCE. Comoediae. Royal 4to.

94. 1772. TERENCE. Comoediae. 12mo.

98. 1773. ARIOSTO. Orlando Furioso. 4 vols. Imperial 8vo.
_Errata in vol. 4._

99. 1773. ARIOSTO. Orlando Furioso. 4 vols. Imperial 8vo.
_Corrections in text._

102. 1773. SHAFTESBURY. Characteristics. 3 vols. Imperial 8vo.

104. 1773. LUCRETIUS. De rerum natura. 12mo. _Two copies._

105. 1773. SALLUSTIUS. Opera. Royal 4to.

109. 1774. SALLUSTIUS. Opera. 12mo.

UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD

113. 1763. NEW TESTAMENT, GREEK. Imperial 8vo. _676 pages._

SARAH BASKERVILLE

116. 1777. HORACE. Opera. 12mo. _No dedication._

ROBERT MARTIN

117. 1767. SOMERVILE. The Chase. Imperial 8vo. _This copy reads
“chace” on page 43._

_INDEX_

A

Adam, James, 16.

Addison, Joseph, works of, printed, 34, 46.

_Aesop’s Fables_, edition of, 34, 46.

Akenside, Mark, 36.

Aldus Manutius. _See_ Manutius, Aldus.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte, works of, printed with Baskerville types, 52.

Anderton, William, type-maker, 19.

Ariosto, edition of, for the Brothers Molini, 41-42.

B

Baldwin, R., London bookseller, buys remainder of edition of
Baskerville’s Bible, 31.

Banks, Sir Joseph, 16.

Bartolozzi, Francesco, 42.

Baskerville, John, birth and death, 1;
settles in Birmingham, teaches writing and practises stone-cutting, 2;
builds up great trade in japanned ware, 3, 4, 5, 6, 19;
his estate, Easy Hill, 4-6;
High Bailiff of Birmingham, 6;
his dress, 6, 8, 9;
his connection with Mrs. Eaves, marriage, death of son, 7;
his private character and habits, 8-9;
lack of education, 9, 10;
general remarks and quotations on his character and work, 11-19;
probable origin of his interest in printing, 19;
his statement of his purpose to improve the arts of type-founding and
printing, 20-22;
his tribute to Caslon, 20;
his type-making, 22-24, 27;
construction of presses, 24;
his improvement of printing-ink, 25-26;
his edition of Virgil, 27-29;
of Milton, 29-30;
of the Bible, 30-32;
of the Book of Common Prayer, 32-34;
of Addison, 34;
of _Aesop’s Fables_, 34-35;
of Rev. John Huckell’s _Avon_, 35;
his prices, 35;
reasons of the financial failure of his printing business, 35-36;
his Greek type, cut for the University of Oxford, 36-37;
notice of, by Dibdin, 37-39;
his quarto editions of the classics, 39-41;
prints Ariosto, for the Brothers Molini, 41-42;
his paper-making, 43-45;
does little binding, 45;
duration of his printing business, 45;
books upon which his fame rests, 45-46;
his influence upon the art of printing, 46-47, 57-58;
his efforts to sell his business, 48-50;
these efforts continued by his widow, 51;
sale to a French society, 51;
printing-press reëstablished at Kehl, for printing of Voltaire’s
works, 52;
business broken up and type scattered, 52-53;
Baskerville’s title-pages, 54-55;
provisions of his will, 59-60;
his tomb and epitaph, 60, 61;
successive removals of his remains, 61-62;
inscription over last grave, 62;
his artistic vision, 62-63;
list of his works in collection of J. H. Benton, 67-69.

Baskerville, Sarah, wife of John, 7, 9;
advertises her late husband’s business for sale, 51;
sells to a French society, 51.

Baskerville House. _See_ Easy Hill; _also_ Smart, Mr.

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, forms society for printing
Voltaire’s works with Baskerville’s types, 51.

Bedford, Dr. John, quoted, 12.

Bensley, Thomas, 39.

Berners, Juliana, her _Treatyse of Fysshinge wyth an Angle_ printed with
Baskerville’s types, 53.

Bible, edition of, 5, 21, 30-32, 46, 49, 55.

Birmingham, in the early eighteenth century, 1;
noted for freedom in religion and in industry, 1, 2.

Blanché, Augustin, quoted, on Baskerville’s improvement in paper-making,
43.

Boden, Nicholas, 18.

Bodoni, Giambattista, 58.

Bowyer, William, 13;
criticises Baskerville’s Greek type, 36-37.

Boydell and Nicol, press of, 53.

Bridgewater, James, buys some of Baskerville’s type, 51.

Brunet, Jacques Charles, 42.

Bulmer, William, 39.

Burke, Edmund, 36.

Burton, John Hill, quoted, 14, 15.

Bute, Lord. _See_ Stuart, John, 3d Earl of Bute.