Piccadilly bookmen: memorials of the house of Hatchard;

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on Hbrary shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http : //books . google . com/|

i

^^^^^H

B6fc3S.( J

J&flifaaib ffollrgE iLibrarg

I

t /

I

I

PICCADILLY BOOKMEN

*^

JOHN HATCHARD.
(1768-1849,)

^

PICCADILLY BOOKMEN:
MEMORIALS OF THE
HOUSE OF HATCHARD

BY ARTHUR L. HUMPHREYS

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR AND SOLD BY
HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY. 1893

Busti

NOV 13 !H93

Er3WIN SHEPHERD,

AN EXCELLENT FELLOW

WHO FOR FORTY YEARS HAS BEEN FAITHFULLY AND

GRACEFULLY CONNECTED WITH 1 87 PICCADILLY

AND

WIIH WHOM IT IS MY FORTUNATE LOT TO BE ALLIED

IN CARRYING ON THE BUSINESS COMMENCED

BY

JOHN HATCHARD.

PREFACE.

TF the Bookseller were not such a dull dogy
or at any rcLte^ had not the reputation for
being stich a Dryasdust^ he might sometimes
venture into print without fear of being
called a vulgar fraction. Bttt the reminis-
cences of the Bookseller are generally reserved
for his garrulous friends to whom he
unburdens himself in the intervalsy when he
is not harassed by the bargain hunter, or the
cares of watching ,the outside stall. He
thinks the world of books the only world
worth living in, and like the character of the
happy man — with a variation of Dyers

lincy —

* His shop to him a kingdom is.*

Therein he is content, his conversation is
of books and abounds in * barn-door flights of
learning' He is placid and stoical. The
keynotes of his philosophy rest tcpon a love

vi PREFACE,

of books and the men who buy them. He is
seldom rich^ but, for some unknown reason,
is much envied.

In the following pages an attempt has
been m^ade to write the Memorials of a
place which it is not presumptuous to call a
social rendezvous. Before the days of Clubs
the booksellers shops were used as such.
Hatchard s was one. If John Hatchard had
written his autobiography complete, it might
have further preserved his name and that of
many others whom he knew. It was worth
doing, but he was too modest. All he left be-
hind were the few autobiographical fragments
which I have included. The 7'emainder of
the book is compiled from a great . variety of
sources^ including the reminiscences of those
who rem^ember his personality^ habits, &c.
I must very gratefully thank Mrs. Hudson for
the loan of papers and books which belonged to
her grandfather, John Hatchard.

A. L. H.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

A Hundred Years Ago . . . . . i

John 'Qowdltr— Reform or Ruin ? — A Fragment
of Autobiography — On trial to Mr. Bensley — Bolt
Court — Honest Tom Payne — The Kingfs Mews —
Beloe, Cracherode, and others — Commencing
business alone.

The Booksellers of a Past Day . . .14

Tom Payne again — Thorpe and Rodd — The
Giant Collectors — The Pursuits of Literature — The
Cracherode Collection — Michael Johnson — Tom
D avies— O sbome — D odsley — D illy — Old Piccadilly
Bookshops — Gifford and Wolcot — The Antifacobin
and the Intercepted Letters — William Upcott — * Blue
Stockings ' — Beloe's characters.

The Piccadilly of the Past . . . .27

Old Burlington House — The Albany —Macaulay,
Byron, and ' Monk ' Lewis — The White Horse
Cellars— Sir F. Burdett— *The Pillars of Hercules'
— A Piccadilly Highwayman — * Old Q.' — St. James'
Church.

Patrons and Friends 33

Established at No. 173 — Early Ventures —

Macaulay — Hannah More — Zachary Macaulay —

Great Days in the history of Bookselling — Queen

Charlotte as a Book-buyer — Keate of Eton — Dr.

Heberden — Richard Heber— Archbishop Howley —

George Ginning— R. H. Froude — ^William Wilber-

force — The King v, John Hatchard.

b

viii CONTENTS.

PAGE

Publisher and Author 50

Lord Beaconsfield — Isaac Disraeli — Laureate
Pye— Crabbe's Early Works— Scott and Crabbe—
Important Undertakings— Sydney Smith's Testi-
mony — The Royal Horticultural Society — The Out-
inian Society — John Hatchard's Personality —
Afternoon Naps — Gladstone and his Pamphlets —
Kingsley of Chelsea — The Duke of Wellin^on —
The Quarto Hamlet of 1604— Tupper's Pedestrian
Verse — Charles Mayne Young — Liston and Mat-
thews—Thomas Hatchard — Deaths of John and
Tljomas Hatchard— Henry Hudson — To-day.

Biographical and Genealogical Notes . .76

Obituary Notices 78

Final Memorials 82

James Fraser — Alfred Taylor — Charles Tilt —
William Tunbridge.

Index . .89

List of Illustrations,

PAGE

^ PORTRAIT OF JOHN HATCHARD to face Title.
"No. 173 PICCADILLY . . . . „ 33
-PORTRAIT OF THOMAS HATCHARD „ 65

MEMORIALS

OF THE

HOUSE OF HATCHARD

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The Snuffy Davy of the future, standing
before his favourite stall in tattered . coat
and baggy trousers, will ransack the penny
or twopenny box, the wood for which
is yet a sapling, and find a small octavo
pamphlet, stitched, but without covers, en-
titled, ''Reform or Ruin : Take your Choice f
. ... By John Bowdler, Esq. London :
Printed for John Hatchard, No. 173 Picca-
dilly. i79T' The snuffy one will carefully
examine the pamphlet to see that it con-
tains the dedication to the Archbishop of
Canterbury (known only to bibliographers
and snuffy ones) and then attach it to
his ever-increasing collection of tracts re-

B

2 HATCHARDS

lating to that most remote but attractive
period— the Eighteenth Century.

The pamphlet now rarely finds a
purchaser, for the authors name sounds
no more interesting than the patronymics
Barlow or Blifil, and there is a note of
frenzy detected in the title which none
but an enthusiast would betray. Yet this
little booklet is written in a forcible style
to point out the evils of the last fin-de-
sihle period.

The author, John Bowdler, the father
of a more notorious Thomas Bowdler,
succeeded in circulating a phenomenal num-
ber oi Reform or Ruin in the years 1797-8,
and, as far as we can now gather, John
Hatchard, as the publisher, reaped a good
harvest long before Mr. Walter Besant
commenced his campaign against Barabbas.
At any rate, Hatchard, who had recently
established himself in Piccadilly as a
publisher and bookseller, found this to be;
his lucky hit.

I

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 3

The whole purpose of the pamphlet
was towards a superlative degree of re-
spectability. Its tone was quite ' of the
centre,' and, if John Bowdler had been a
curate, he might at a later period in his
career have founded a Bishopric. But
' those whom the gods love die early,' says
the ' Delectus' {or the key thereunto) ; and
though great things were expected of J. B.,
he joined the majority, leaving a son,
Thomas, to carry on the good work of
being himself eminently respectable, and
making all around him of his own way of
thinking.

With what faithfulness Thomas fulfilled
his father's wishes we see in his famous
mutilated Shakespeare, and the melancholy
precedent set up thereby for a successive
legion of Bowdlerisers.

It is interesting for present purposes that
some of the early account books and mis-
cellaneous papers of Hatchard the First
have been preserved. These papers go

4 HATCHARDS

back to the school sum - book of John
Hatchard, dated 1780, on the blank unused
pages of which he has, at a much later
period, and after the manner of * paper-
sparing ' Pope, entered several interesting
little biographical details. Much else that
bears upon incidents in the life of John
Hatchard, and the character of the shop
which he conducted, may be learnt by
reading between the lines of his early
Ledger. From this, and some other stray
papers, I shall give extracts and make
notes.

The sum-book and manuscript multi-
plication-table book were preserved for
private memoranda for about sixty years,
and on the last few pages of this, a plain
penny or twopenny exercise-book, he
entered, at what date we are not sure,
but with apparent full cognisance of his
power to move forwards, some autobio-
graphical notes expressing a probability
that such details would be required after

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

his decease. That he possessed the es-
sentials for success may be well understood
when I say that when he commenced busi-
ness in 1797 he had only five pounds of
his own, but in 1849 he died worth nearly
a hundred thousand.

The memorandum referred to, the first
part of which is written in a youthful
hand, and probably at an earlier period
than the last, is as follows : —

'John Hatchard was born between twelve
and one o'clock in the morning, October the 17th,
1768, Admitted into the Grey Coat Hospital,
March the 26th, 1776. Went on trial to Mr.
Bensley, Printer, of Swan Yard, Strand, January
the 7th. Not liking the trade, came away
January Z8th, 1783. Went on trial to Mr.
Ginger June the 17th, 1782, and was bound
September i8th, 1782. Was bound to Mr.
Clarke, Dyer, October 17th, 1782, at Dyer's
Hall, Great Elbow Lane, Dowgate Hill, to be
a Freeman of the City of London

'Apprenticeship expired October i8th, 1789,
which was served duly and truly, and on the
19th my friends congratulated me (at my father's
expense ; a good supper and flowing bovvj of

6 HA TC HARDS

punch, with some good songs, toasts, and senti-
ments). On the 26th day of the same month
was situated as shopman with Mr. Payne, Book-
seller, Mews Gate, Castle Street, St. Martins.
On the 2nd day of December, 1789, I took up
my freedom at the expense of my father, which
cost about five pounds. The nth day of July,
1790, was married to Elizabeth Lambert (daughter
of Thomas and Elizabeth) of the parish of
St. John the Evangelist, at which church the
celebration was perform'd by the Rev. Mr. Scott
the curate on a Sunday morning, and now,
having come to man's estate, I have only to
hope for the blessing of God, long life, health,
prosperity, and happiness

* I quitted the service of Mr. Thomas Payne
30th of June, 1797, and commenced business for
myself at No. 173 Piccadilly, where, thank God,
things went on very well, till, my friends desiring"
me to take a larger shop, I then did so, I think
June 1 801, at No. 190 in the same street, by
purchasing the lease for twenty-four years for a
thousand guineas, half paid at the time, and the
other half at two years from Midsummer, 1 801,
when I hope and trust to find and realise great
benefit from the same in due time.

* N.B. — When I commenced business I had
of my own a property less than five pounds.

/! HUNDRED YEAHS AGO

but God blessed my industn', and good men en-
couraged it.

^ Dates of Engagefnents.

' With Mr, Ginger, apprentice, seven years and
four months.

'With Mr. Payne, shopman, seven years and
eight months.

'In business for myself, from June 30, 1797,
to 1839, forty-two years.'

Here, then, in Hatchard's own words,
is a fragment of autobiography which I
purpose to add to from a variety of
sources, and continue the narrative of the
firm he founded down to more recent
times, indicating how a business, almost
unique m character, has been carried on,
and the support which very many dis-
tinguished people have granted to it in
the past, and the many more who do the
same at the present day.

The first statement of interest which
we hear of in connexion with young
Hatchard is his going in 1 782 ' on trial
to Mr. Bensley,' who was a famous printer

8 HATCHARDS

then occupying a court off the Strand, but
who later moved to Bolt Court, the pre-
mises just vacated by the genius of Fleet
Street Dr. Johnson. At the time when
young Hatchard went on trial to Bensley,
Dr. Johnson was living at 8 Bolt Court
(since destroyed by fire).

Hatchard does not seem to have
attached himself to Bensley, for he only
remained three weeks when Mr, Ginger,
a Bookseller and Publisher, took him as
apprentice. Ginger kept a shop in Great
College Street, Westminster, and was, in
all probability, a friend of Hatchard's
father, the families being neighbours in
the old-fashioned district of Westminster
Abbey. Ginger having found a vacancy
in his limited establishment for Hatchard,
he was apprenticed, and served for a
period of seven years until 1789. His
employer, from all that can now be
gathered of him, was a worthy man, and
had a good connexion with Westminster

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

School and the Royal Society, and it was
at this place that young Hatchard first
began a series of acquaintances which so
much assisted his business in later years.
At the expiration of his term with Ginger,
Hatchard had probably gained experience
and knowledge sufficient to please his
proud father, who, thinking apparently that
his son had outgrown the limits of Mr.
Ginger's estabhshment, and that he was
fitted for something better, he, on the day
after his term with Ginger had expired, goes
to the expense of 'a good supper and
flowing bowl of punch, with some good
songs, toasts, and sentiments.' *

The best experience was now in store
for young Hatchard, for a few days after
this supper and merrymaking he goes as
shopman to Tom Payne, the famous book-
seller of Mews Gate.

* This is the only occasion, as far as recorded in
John Hatchard's life, when he gave way to right merry
jollity. He was too industrious to ever give much time

lO

HA TC HARDS

Thomas Payne, who, by the way, must
not be confused with Paine the Atheist,
had commenced business in the early part
of the Eighteenth Century in an obscure
place called Round Court near the Strand,
from thence he moved about 1755 to the
place now known only by name as Mews
Gate, and which was contingent upon the
King's Mews, a site now occupied by the
National Gallery. It is said that it was
Tom Payne's idea first to issue and circu-
late second-hand Catalogues, for whereas
Sales of Books by Auction had taken
place much earlier, the Sales of books by
the private circulation of Catalogues had
never been properly worked before Payne's
time. If this be so, the book-collecting
world should annually meet and drink to
the health of ' Honest Tom Payne,' who
must have been the means of bringing
much happiness to the many enthusiastic
book-collectors of that day.

We are told that the shop was in the

A HUNDRED YEAJiS AGO

shape of the letter L, and was the first
that obtained the name and reputation of
being a Literary Coffee House and Book-
seller's combined. No print of the place
exists, but it must be pictured as a place
sombre and gloomy as to its exterior, its
interior known only to the illustrious literati
of the day, who cracked their jokes and
gave way to infinite merriment in the re-
tiring-room of their host, just as one reads
of erudite members of the Roxburghe Club,
who ' met joyfully, dined comfortably, chal-
lenged eagerly, tippled prettily, divided re-
gretfully, and paid the bill most cheerfully.'

Here, at Tom Payne's, there met
Beloe, Cracherode, and the many other
bibliophiles and scholars of the period.

The value of the experiences gained
by young Hatchard at Payne's shop can
hardly be over-estimated. Here he was
brought in connexion with the best book-
buyers in a great book-collecting period.
His gracious and willing manner brought

12 HATCHARDS

him all the friends he required, and in
his laudable desire to get on he was en-
couraged all round. A little further on, in
saying something of the booksellers of a
past day, I shall refer again to Payne's shop,
when it will be seen what an important
place it was at the close of the last century.

During the time that Hatchard re-
mained at the Mews Gate he lived close
by at Monmouth Court, Whitcomb Street,
forming associations both in and out of
business. To one of the latter it was
that he owed the principal financial assis-
tance essential to enable him to make a
start, with further loans *from J. Penn, Esq.,
Henry Hoare, Esq., and others.'

In the memorandum-book he enters,
under date July ist, 1797:

*Took a shop lately occupied by Mr. White,
173 Piccadilly, subject to pay 31/. \os, goodwill
and 40/. per annum/

Then follow the names of other bene-
factors, and a note which points to an

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO 13

unusual amount of good feeling existing

between his former employer and himself:

*Mr. Payne's civility very great/

So far I have traced the progress
of Hatchard from his commencement at
Bensley s to the proud day when he fixed
his name over a door in the finest street
in London ; confident in his own qualifi-
cations for success, and with good training
from excellent masters, he had little to
fear, for he had a line of his own to take,
and throughout his career he doggedly
stuck to that particular line, and quickly
gathered round him a very wealthy
clientele. I shall now give some few facts
as to the other bookshops of the period,
with some special reference to those with
which John Hatchard, then aged twenty-
nine, was brought in contact .

14 HATC HARDS

THE BOOKSELLERS OF A
PAST DAY.

But I have hardly done justice to the
memory of Thomas Payne. Much scat-
tered material exists for use, and Payne
seems to repay a little research. He was
the forerunner of Thorpe and Rodd, two
of the greatest booksellers this century has
seen in London, but these, too, are also
forgotten. There were, indeed, giants in
those days for book distribution such as
we have not among us now.

*The few old fellows,' says Beloe, 'that
are yet left chuckle at the recollection of
the numerous and cheerful meetings which
used to take place at Honest Tom
Payne's at the Mews Gate, and at Peter
Elmsley's in the Strand. In these places
of resort, at a certain period of the after-

SOME GREAT BOOKMEN

noon, a wandering scholar in search of
pabtdum might be almost certain of meet-
ing Cracherode, George Steevens, Malone,
Windham, Lord Stormont, Sir John Haw-
kins, Lord Spencer, Porson, Burney, King of
Mansfield Street, Townley, Colonel Stanley,
and various other bookish men.'

Payne's was the great resort of the
princely buyers of books. Of ' Honest
Tom ' we are told that he was ' warm
in his friendships as in his politics, a
convivial cheerful companion, and unalter-
able in the cut and colour of his coat,
he uniformly pursued one object, fair
dealing ! ' No doubt John Hatchard was
proud to be the right hand man of such
an one, and to render service as well
to the distinguished men who met day
after day. All this was long before the
AthenEEum Club was founded, and when
the Coffee House, as known to us
through Dryden and Addison, had fallen
out of vogue or into thorough disrepute,

1 6 HA TC HARDS

then the bookshop as a centre of intelli-
gence was used as the literary man's club*
Mathias in his Pursuits of Literature says :

*0r must I as a wit with learned air
Like Doctor Dewlap to Tom Payne's repair,
Meet Cyrill Jackson and mild Cracherode,
'Mid literary gods myself a god ? '

« « « « «

* Hold ! ' cries Tom Payne, * that margin let me

measure.
And rate the separate value of the treasure ;
Eager they gaze — well, sir, the feat is done,
Cracherode's Poetae Principes have won/

Here there is a picture of the savants
of the last decade of the last century as
they met at the Mews Gate with all the
airs peculiar to men of learning. In his
notes in the passage quoted above Mathias
is anxious to make clear that though
Dr. Dewlap stands for 'any portly divine/
the reader will supply one to his fancy.
Cyrill Jackson is the Dean of Christchurch,
exemplary for his diligence and learning..
Cracherode is the Reverend Clayton Mor-

SOME GREAT BOOKMEN

daunt Cracherode, a wealthy parson, and
the owner of a very choice library of
Classical books, famous for their wide mar-
gins and excellent preservation, and now
lodged in the British Museum. Cracherode
must be regarded as one of the most truly
great book collectors, and one of the most
ardenr that the clerical profession has ever
claimed, which is saying a good deal, for
the clergy have ever been good bookmen.
Cracherode's tastes lay in the direction of
Books, Medals, Prints, and Drawings. In
the letters of Samuel Denne, the writer
says of Cracherode, ' Whilst I resided at
Vauxhall, above forty years ago, I have often
seen him at Tom Payne's literary coffee-
house He was a rich man and a

mature scholar. His passion for collecting
was strong even in death ; and whilst he
was in his last extremity Thane was buying

prints for him at Richardson's In his

final visit to Payne's shop he put an Edin-
burgh. Terence into one pocket and a large

i8 HATC HARDS

Cebes into the other, and expressed an
earnest desire to carry away Triveti AnnaleSy
and Henry Stevens Pindar in old binding/
John Hatchard's good friend and em-
ployer died February 2, 1799, at the mature
age of fourscore and two more. His epitaph
by his son and successor shall be put down
here, so that everything may be done to
keep the memory green of good old honest
Tom Payne :

^Around this tomb ye friends of learning bend !

It holds your faithful, though your humble friend !

Here lies the literary merchant Payne,

The countless volumes that he sold contain

No name by liberal commerce more carest

For virtue that became her votary's breast.

Of cheerful probity, and kindly, plain.

He felt no wish for disingenuous gain ;

In manners frank, in manly spirit high.

Alert good nature sparkled in his eye ;

Not learned, he yet had learning's power to please.

Her social sweetness, her domestic ease.

A son, whom his example guides and cheers.

Thus, guards the hallo'd dust his heart reveres;

Love bade him thus a due memorial raise,

And friendly juistice penned this genuine praisq/

SOME CHEAT BOOKMEN

Beloe points out that there was, in
his day, a ready disposition among literary
men to interchange communications which
may be mutually useful, to accommodate
one another with the loan of books, to point
out sources of information, and carry on a
pleasant, friendly, and profitable commerce.
He then adds that the best means of cement-
ing literary friendship occurs in the shape
of eminent booksellers, and to prove this
there are abundant facts. Michael Johnson.
the father of the iamous Dr. Samuel John-
son, was one of the early types of this class
of bookseller. He worthily maintained and
carried on his business in a provincial town,
and made his place a resort and lounge for
all who cared for literature in the Cathedral
town of Lichfield.

By some it will be remembered that the
first meeting of Boswell with Johnson oc-
cured in Tom Davies' bookshop in Russell
Street, Covent Garden. Here Johnson is
reported to have talked much, and some-

\

20 HATC HARDS

times, in moments of apparent abstraction, j

would ejaculate some pious sentence. It j

appears that Mrs. Davies was a very pretty
woman, as Churchhill had said, * that Davies
hath a very pretty wife/ And Johnson,
muttering to himself, *lead us not into
temptation,' used, with waggish and gallant
humour, to whisper to Mrs. Davies, *You,
my dear, are the cause of all this.'

Johnson's experiences of Booksellers were
very varied. He had not quite the same
opinion of Osborne that he had of Davies.
But probably poor Osborne could not afford
the extravagance of a pretty wife like Tom
Davies. The story is well known how, when
Johnson was earning the most miserable
pittance as a Cataloguer for Osborne, he fell
out with his employer, and, knocking him
down with a folio, called him a blockhead.
* Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat
him,' was the Doctor's version of the story
afterwards.

In Pall Mall, Na 51 (neariy opposite

OLD BOOKSELLERS

Marlborough House) late in the Eighteenth
Century, Robert Dodsley kept his shop,
called 'The Tully's Head.' Here, too, would
meet Johnson and Burke, Young and Aken-
side, Walpole, Warton, and others.

Boswell, good friend to the booksellers,
speaks of 'my worthy friends and book-
sellers, Messrs. Dilly, in the Poultry, at
whose hospitable and well-covered table I
have seen a greater number of literary men
than at any other except that of Sir Joshua
Reynolds.'

Scott first met Byron in Murray's rooms
at Albemarle Street, and Gibbon first met
Porson at Peter Elmsley's in the Strand.

When John Hatchard set up in Piccadilly
in 1797 he had several competitors, though
none that touched quite the nature of his
business. Debrett had succeeded Almon,
and Wright and Ridgway were close by.
At Wright's shop, which was almost next
door to Hatchard's, there occurred the fa-
mous encounter between Gifford and Wolcot.

22 HATC HARDS

Gifford, the editor of the Anti-Jacobin^ wrote
an Epistle to Peter Pindar, ending with the
lines :

* Thou can'st not think, nor have I power to tell,
How much I scorn and loathe thee, so farewell/

Wolcot, greatly incensed at a form of
insult which he himself largely practised,
waited for his libeller near Wright's shop,
and, seeing him enter, struck him on the
head with a stick. A scene ensued which
has become a matter of history. How Wol-
cot was pitched into the gutter has been well
told by Mr. Wheatley and others before him.

Wright's shop was at 169, and was a
Political house. It was here that the Anti-
Jacobin newspaper first appeared, and the
Intercepted Letters of Bonaparte were first
published. Hatchard's ledger entries of the
time show the immense sales that the Inter-
cepted Letters had, and the morning of
publication was as memorable as years later
was a new volume of Macaulay's History
or Dickens' Novels.

William Upcott, the industrious compiler
of a valuable topographical book, records,
among his youthful recollections when he was
assistant at a neighbouring shop in Picca-
dilly, the visits to the various neighbouring
bookshops of Burke, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan,
Grattan, George Steevens, Malone, Canning,
Dr. Burney, Dr. Parr, Bishop Montagu,
' and a variety of literary ladies.' These last
were the ' Blue Stockings ' of the period,
against whom nothing worse could be said
than that ' they read the British Mercury
and the Anti-Jacobin.' Dr. Stillingfleet,
whose blue worsted stockings gave the name
'Blue Slocking' to the surcesfiors of Mrs.
Montague's coterie, died within a few doors
of where Hatchard first commenced business.

But though Hatchard was at first only
one of a group of competing booksellers, he
saw that in what was then, as now, the
principal West-end thoroughfare, there was
room for more than one bookselling business,
and he had sufficient self-confidence to per-

24 HA TC HARDS

suade himself of the probability of outliving
a good many of his competitors. At the
present day Ridgway is the only one re-
maining contemporary with the period of
commencement Many famous book^ops
of a past day have risen and set in this same
region, and at one time there were just about
as many bookshops as there are Clubs now.
Beloe, already referred to, has given a long
list of them all, and, soured spirit that he
was, very little does he say in favour of any
one. He satirizes Murray, not without a note
of irony, as a * superb ' bookseller. Cadell as
the * opulent ' bookseller, and this was cer-
tainly just, for Cadell had been most fortunate
in his purchase of copyrights, and perhaps
none but Beloe ever had a word against him.
Faulder of New Bond Street, Egerton of
Whitehall, Edwards of Pall Mall, and
Hatchard, stand for others of Beloe s cha-
racters in the pages of the Sexagenarian.
He calls Edwards the 'exotic' [not erotic)
bookseller. From his father he had inherited

OLD BOOKSELLERS

a training as a bookseller and as a book-
binder, and he is reported to have been the
inventor of the rather pretty art of painting
landscapes on the external leaves of a book,
which only became visible when unfolded to
a certain distance. Beloe adds, ' Be the
above as it may, the son was the first person
who professedly displayed in the metropolis
shelves of valuable books in splendid bindings,
and, having taken a large house in one of the
most frequented and fashionable streets, it
soon became the resort of the gay morning
loungers of both sexes. At the same time,
also, invitation was held out to students and
scholars and persons of real taste of the
opportunity of seeing and examining the
most curious and rare books, manuscripts,
and missals.'

Another notable contemporary, not left
unnoticed by the Sexagenarian, was Gardner
of Pall Mall, called the 'Snuffy' bookseller.
Gardner had received an University edu-
cation with a view to taking Holy Orders.

26 HATCHARDS

He appears to have been disappointed as
to preferment, and took to bookselling as
a final resort, but even this did not offer
sufficient consolation to save him from
suicide.

THE PICCADILLY OF THE PAST

THE PICCADILLY OF THE PAST.

Piccadilly in the year 1 797 differed in
many points from that of to-day. In Mr.
Planchd's Recollections, published in 1872,
we are told that, on the night of January ist,
1807, he walked down Piccadilly and found
' the most magnificent street in London
radiant with gleams of brilliant and unex-
pected light.' This, which to-day would
seem a fitting description of the most per-
fected form of electric light, has reference
in fact to the then new illuminant, gas.
The old prints so familiar to collectors re-
present the old wall in front of Burlington
House, and the rumbling, heavy- wheeled
waggons making their si uggish journeys
westward along the Reading road.

The Albany, that unique and curiously-
secluded place, brought John Hatchard many

88 HATCHARDS

patrons. Here lived, in 1814, Lord Byron,
and here he wrote his Lara. George Can-
ning, a regular patron of Hatchard*s, lived
at A 5 in 1 8 1 o, and many years later the
familiar figures of Thackeray and Macaulay,
also occupants of Albany Chambers, might
have been seen crossing the road for an
occasional visit to a book-shop familiar to
them from their youth.

Macaulay, as is well known, wrote a great
part of his History in the Albany, from
1843-6. Henry Luttrell and * Monk ' Lewis
were also occupants of chambers in the
same bachelor quarter.

A little further West, but within a stone's
throw, at the 'White Horse Cellars,' might
be seen and heard each day, and almost
every hour, the cheerful coach-horn, blown
by a genuine guard sitting behind a genuine
coachman, and about to take a journey, not
around the park, but past milestone after
milestone, village, hamlet, and town, into
the far West of England. The 'Three

THE PICCADILLY OF THE PAST z^

Kings' inn stood where No, 75 now stands,
and which became later the book-shop of
John Camden Hotten. At the gateway
were two pillars, which were believed to be
relics of a famous house of a former day.*

Never, perhaps, has Piccadilly been the
scene of so much excitement as on that
memorable occasion when, in April 18 lO,
Sir Francis Burdett was taken to the Tower.
On June 22 following he was released, and
another scene, almost more exciting than
the previous one, took place.

Conspicuous in all early references to
Piccadilly is the inn known as ' The Pillars
of Hercules.' This sign was frequently
used on the inns at the outskirts of towns
and cities. When Squire Western came to
London he stopped at the Piccadilly ' Pillars
of Hercules,' which was standing as late
as 1797, and perhaps later, so that John
Hatchard was a contemporary householder
with the illustrious person, name unknown,
•Wheatley.

30 HATC HARDS

who kept this inn and entertained Sheridan.
Close to the * Pillars of Hercules ' stood
the Turnpike, west of which there were a
few cottages ; but the road, even at this
spot, suggested a receding town and the
entrance upon the country. Not so many
years before the period now described Horace
Walpole says that, as he was sitting in his
dining-room in Arlington Street one night
at eleven o'clock, he heard a loud cry of
' stop thief!' He found that a highwayman
had attacked a post-chaise in Piccadilly,
not forty yards from his house, and that
the man had escaped.

Among very many famous residents of
Piccadilly during John Hatchard's period
there should be mentioned Lord Byron, who
lived at 139, and probably wrote the Siege
of Corinth there. Before him, in part of
the same house, had been that notorious
pleasure-seeker, the Duke of Queensberry,
who lived till 18 10 in the most unblushing
pursuit of his coarser delights. It is re-

THE PICCADILLY OF THE PAST

corded again and again how the infamous old
profligate would sit in his balcony and watch
the stream of human beings that passed be-
neath his gaze. No sooner did he spy a
lady to his fancy than a servant, always
kept in readiness for the purpose, was sent
in pursuit. Mr. Andrew Lang has said it
is part of the moralities of Piccadilly to re-
member that ' Old Q.', sitting in his balcony
under his parasol watching the women with
his one wicked old eye, had been that gay
young Lord March, who ' never knew
Mrs. Bernstein but as an old woman ; and
if she ever had beauty, hang me if I know
how she spent it' *

The stories of ' Old Q.' are too numerous
to touch upon here, but many have been
narrated in the scarce little volumes called
The Piccadilly Ambulator, or Old Q., con-
taining memoirs of the private life of that
ever-green votary of Venus, by J. P. Hur-
stone, Esq. A coloured frontispiece shows
* Thackeray, Virginians.

32 HATC HARDS

• _^ _^

him with his green parasol, his bine coat
and rosette, sitting at ease on his balcony-
peering through his eyeglass.

Scott, in one of his early visits to London
in 1803, stayed at what is now 96 Piccadilly.
Later he stayed at 25 Pall Mall, 85 and
86 Jermyn Street, and at Long's Hotel in
Bond Street. Many of these places remain
almost entirely unchanged. The Albany,
for instance, has altered very little, and
St. James's Church hardly at all, even from
the time when John Evelyn went to St.
James's and entered in his diary, Dec. 16,
1684, that he had been to see the * New
Church at St. James's.'

Here now rest all that remain of
' Old Q.' himself, Tom D'Urfey, Arbuthnot,
the wit and physician ; Gillray, the cari-
caturist; Mark Akenside, and many more.

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

PATRONS AND FRIENDS.

In the midst of such literary and his-
torical associations, John Hatchard, as we
have seen from the entry in his memorandum
book, took up his abode in 1797. He was
then twenty-nine years old, a young man of
exemplary piety, shrewd sense, and pos-
sessed by a determination to succeed. He
had already had fifteen years' experience of
book-selling, seven years and four months
with Mr. Ginger, of Westminster, and seven
years and eight months with Mr. Payne.
His first shop at 173 was immediately east of
the Egyptian Hall, a dimly lighted, sombre-
looking place, now occupied by a saddler.
He seems to have found one assistant
sufficient for his requirements, and entries
appear: — George, his wages, 2/. \2s. 6d.,
which is a monthly payment. We have no

34 HATCHARDS

portrait of John Hatchard earlier than the
one which is here inserted, nor have we
one of his wife, who, as far as is known,
took no part in the business.

The other premises occupied at various
times by Hatchard were all on the same
unfashionable side of the street. He was
first at 173, then in June, 1801, he moved
to 190, and later to 187, where the business
is to-day carried on. This side of Picca-
dilly, though least favoured by pedestrians,
has always (with one notable exception)
been the side for Booksellers and Publishers,
and those who did not rely upon a casual
business, but who had a good connection.
In the autobiographical notes left behind by
Hatchard, he says — after reminding us of the
to him substantial financial results of Reform
or Ruin, and that this was his starting point
— that he was appointed Publisher of the
Christian Observer^ and the Reports of the
Society for Bettering tlie Condition of the
Poor. The famous periodicals of that day,

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

35

many years previous to the days of the
Edinburgh and Quarterly, were the Gentle-
man's Magazine, the European Magazine, the
Monthly Review, and the Christian Observer.
This last circulated largely among what then
had got to be called the Clapham sect, so
well described by Sir James Stephen, and
later by Mrs. Oliphant. Foremost among
the Clapham sect were Wilberforce, Gran-
ville Sharp, Clarkson, Zachary Macaulay,
and 'Bobby' Inglis. These and very many
more of the same body were patrons of
Hatchard in the early days.

Macaulay, when only little Tom, and
the son of his father, was accustomed to
visit Hatchard's and make his precocious
purchases. Readers of Trevelyan's Life of
Macaulay will remember the many stories of
Hannah More, and her various endeavours
after the intellectual training of the young
historian. Scarcely a letter does she write
to his father, Zachary, but what it includes
some message of advice to Tom. It was

36 HATCHARDS

her frequently expressed wish that Tom
would get his books at Hatchard's. When
he was six years old, she writes : * Though
you are a little boy now, you will one
day, if it please God, be a man, but long
before you are a man I hope you will be
a scholar. I, therefore, wish you to pur-
chase such books as will be useful and agree-
able to you then, and that you employ this
very small sum in laying a tiny comer-stone
for your future Library.* A year or two
afterwards she thanks him for his ' two
letters so neat and free from blots. By this
obvious improvement you have entitled
yourself to another book, you must go to
HatcharcTs and choose. I think we have
nearly exhausted the epics, what say you
to a little good prose } Johnson's Hebrides
or Walton's Lives, unless you would like a
nice edition of Cowper's Poems or Para-
dise Lost f Later, in 1812, she is again
writing to his father : * I do not find he
(T. B. M.) has been to Hatchard*s for a

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

37

book yet. He could not determine his
choice when here. He is not to be circum-
scribed in anything within two guineas ; but
I wish he would condescend to read a Httle
prose. '

It may not be generally known that
Macaulay's first printed work appeared in
the form of a practical joke in the pages
of the Christian Observer, which Zachary
Macaulay at that time edited, and Hatchard
published. Macaulay, while profoundly res-
pecting his father, chafed at the restriction
which forbade the reading of novels in the
home at Clapham, and he therefore ad-
dressed an anonymous letter to the Editor
of the magazine praising Fielding and other
Eighteenth Century writers. His father
incautiously inserted this letter, to the
horror of many subscribers, and doubtless
to the intense amusement of young Tom.
We are also told of Macaulay acting as
index-maker to his father and John
Hatchard. When the 13th volume of the

38 HATCHARDS

■ ■ - — I - — — ■

Christian Observer was being prepared for
the press, the boy, then aged fourteen, drew
up in his Christmas holidays an index to
the book, which may be found in all copies
of that volume. Years after this Macaulay
wrote of ' index- makers in ragged coats of
frieze, the very lowest of the frequenters of
the coffee houses of Dryden, Swift,' &c.
Some measure of intimacy existed all along
between John Hatchard and Macaulay, and
when on one occasion the two met on
the Clapham stage, Macaulay confided to
Hatchard his purpose of writing a history
of England.

In the annals of bookselling there are
recorded some famous field days, when the
literary world has been worked up to the
greatest pitch of excitement and expectation
pending the publication of some new work.
Such days have been those already referred
to when the Intercepted Letters were issued,
when a new work by Dickens or George
Eliot was . expected, or the publication days

PATSONS AND FJilMNDS

of Eiidymion and the Revised Bible. But
perhaps none has exceeded December
17th, 1855, when the third and fourth
volumes of Macaulay's History were issued.
Hatchard had on his books some three
hundred or more subscribers who had
entered their names in anticipation. These
numbered several members of the Royal
family, Cabinet Ministers, Bishops, Deans,
and other dignitaries of note. In addition,
there came hundreds of stray purchasers
who had not entered their names. In six
months the publishers had sold eighteen
thousand copies.

It may now be interesting to follow the
above remarks with notes upon the many
other distinguished people whose names are
recorded as regular patrons of the place.
It was Hannah More's wish, expressed
when a girl at her Somersetshire home,
that she should be able, when she arrived
at womanhood and authorship, to 'live in a
cottage too low for a clock, and to go to

40 HA TC HARDS

London to see Bishops and booksellers.'*
She got her ambition satisfied, and was well-
known at Hatchard's, both personally and
as a correspondent. In a long letter to
Dr. Beadon, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
written in 1801, relating to the good work
which she and her sisters carried on near
Cheddar, she says that the only books
used for teaching are those * to be had of
Hatchard.' It must be remembered that
John Hatchard was Hannah More's early
publisher and bookseller. She commissions
him to do all kinds of work, and finds him,
no doubt, an useful and amiable friend to
have in town. In a letter to Sir W. W.
Pepys, she says, * I shall desire Hatchard
to send a specimen of my very profound
and learned half-penny and penny lucru-
brations as a present to your Servants Hall,
hoping, however, that you will condescend

* Another version says she was wont to make a
carriage of a chair, and then call her sister to ride with
her to see Bishops and booksellers.

PATRONS AND FHIENDS

to cast an eye over them yourself,' This
looks as if Mrs. Hannah was anxious for
the spiritual welfare of Sir W. W. Pepys
as much as for his servants.

Again, in 1819, she addresses a letter
to Sir Alexander Johnstone, asking him
'whether I ever took the liberty to present
to your elder children my Hints for the
Education of a young Princess, if I have not,
will you have the goodness to desire Mr.
Hatchard to send you a copy from the
author, which I shall beg them to accept.
Please to mention the third edition, as I have
just added at the beginning a sketch of the
character of the Princess Charlotte of Wales.'

In the earliest ledger of Hatchard we
find a page allotted to the purchases of
her Majesty Queen Charlotte, wife of
George III., who had been graciously
pleased to favour Hatchard from his first
commencing business. She buys L'Histoire
de France, 5 vols. Baxter's Dying Thoughts,
and many copies of what is entered as A

42 HATCH ARDS

Statement of Facts. This was a curious
little tract by Dr. Glasse, Vicar of Hanwell,
upon an eccentric woman supposed to be
of noble birth, found near a haystack in
Somerset. Altogether the account of Queen
Charlotte shews her Majesty to have been a
book-buying woman, though not of the type
of Queen Elizabeth, Mary, Queen of Scots,
or what we are told of Lady Jane Grey.
Queen Charlotte bought liberally, and upon
religious books she was most lavish. Smith
On the Prophets was a favourite, and was
purchased twelve copies at a time. She
minds not the scandal of Wraxall, but pays
for *two volumes boards/ fourteen shillings.
Her Majesty also bought books of religious
consolation, and in 1799 appears to have
been much interested in Natural History.

To show the interesting character of the
business, some further extracts from the
early Ledger may be given. John Keate,
Esq., Eton, has a page allotted to him and
purchases, in 1799, Shakespeare, 9 vols.,

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

12™', i/. 8j. ; Paley's Evidences, two vols.,
twelve shillings ; The Pleasures of Hope, six
shillings; Cowper's Poems, small paper, eight
shillings ; Francis' Horace, four volumes,
thirteen shillings: White's Etymolo^cal Dic-
tionary, twenty-one shillings. He, like
many others, appears to have used John
Hatchard's shop as a place for letters to be
addressed, for an entry occurs, ' P*"" postage
of double letter from Bath, 2s. iid.' In a
short time old Keate has run up an account
of 23/. 2s. lid., which he quickly discharges.

The Reverend Clayton MordauntCrache-
rode buys the Anti-Jacobin to the amount
of twenty-eight shillings. But this ledger
says no more of the purchases of this lover
of wide margins.

The Reverend W. Beloe finds An Essay
on the Smoke of London, worth is. td. to
him in 1797. He also buys Mitford's Greece
and the Anti-facobin.

Dr. Heberden, the famous physician, who
lived in Pall Mall, and occupied a house

44 HATCHARDS

rebuilt upon the site of one used by Nell
Gwyn, buys medical books, of course, and
has thrown in for light reading Rumford's
Essay No. lo, price 2s. 6^., and Colquhoun
On the Police. Richard Heber, brother of
the Bishop, and the greatest bibliomaniac
that ever lived, buys everything, a victim to
an absolutely insatiable passion for books in
duplicates and triplicates. He even borrows
a guinea, and has entered by his amiable
bookseller, * Cash for gloves, two shillings/

Archbishop Howley buys copy-books un-
sparingly in 1797, and for literature. The
Parents^ Assistant, and Mrs. M ore's Stric-
tures on Female Education.

An interesting account is that of the
purchases of George Canning from 1797-
1798. There is a tradition that Canning
knew Hatchard as a youth when he was
at Ginger's, and that he, like so many
others, stuck to him all along.. Canning was
probably living at 4 St. James' Square when
he purchased the books enumerated below.

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

He buys pamphlets by Burke, many of
which were issued by Hatchard. Frank-
lin's Works, The Jacobites Lamentation,
Johnson's Works, twelve volumes, and many
more. All Canning's speeches were pub-
lished about this time by Hatchard, and the
'Cicero of the British Senate' was probably
a very frequent visitor.

The Rev. R. H. Froude, Vicar of Dart-
ington, Devon, grandfather of Mr, J. A.
Froude. and father of Richard Hurrell
Froude, requests that his parcels be sent ' by
Exeter Waggon,' and, trusting to the security
of that conveyance, he orders Sermons by
Robert Hall and Sydney Smith, Syme's
Embassy to Ava, Laing's History of Scotland,
and much more.

One name has yet to be mentioned, that
of William Wilberforce, perhaps the most
frequent visitor of any yet named. Wil-
berforce appears to have used the place,
like Keate and some others, to have his
letters addressed there. Writing to Zachary

46 HATCHARDS

Macaulay on January 7, 181 5, he says, *I
have had last, not least, a Haytian corres-
pondent. Two days ago I received a note
from Hatchard telling me that a letter had
come for me of eighty-five ounces, and was
charged 37/. lOi*., and that he refused it.
It was explained by a letter from the Post
Office, which very handsomely, under the
peculiar circumstances of the case, let me
off for a peppercorn of 75"., which I shall
gladly pay.' A visit of Mrs. Wilberforce is
also on record, where she is down as having
borrowed 10^. bd. An occasion when per-
haps her housekeeping money had run short.

Besides the authors and other famous
people named already, there would meet
here, for purposes other than book purchase,
a number of political, social, and literary
magnates.

In 1817a troublesome case of libel, which
resulted in Hatchard being arraigned and
tried, occurred owing to some error remain-
ing uncorrected in the Report of the African

PATRONS AND FRIENDS 47

Institution. As in many other cases of libel,
the publisher himself was the scapegoat for
the delinquencies of others. At the trial, an
account of which was separately issued,* many

*(....* The King v, John Hatchard for a libel on
the Aides-de-camp of Sir James Leigh, &c.' 18 17.
Pages 54, 55.)

A Report of

The Trial

of

The King v. John Hatchard

for

A Libel on the

Aides-de-Camp of Sir James Leigh,

Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands,

and the

Grand Jury of the Island of Antigua,

as published in the

Tenth Report of the Directors of the African Institution,

In the

Court of King's Bench,

Before Mr. Justice Abbott, and a Special Jury,

On February 20, 181 7,

Together with

Mr. Justice Bayley's Address in Pronouncing the

Sentence of the Court

Taken in Shorthand by Mr. Gurney.

LONDON :

Printed for Whitmore and Fenn, Charing Cross.

1817.

48 HATCH ARDS

well-known men of the time came forward
and spoke up unhesitatingly for Hatchard.
This enabled him to get off more lightly
than he otherwise would have done. Wil-
berforce enters in his Journal, * As soon
as the mistake was known the publication
was suppressed, but the opportunity could
not be wasted, and the cause was pushed to
trial, and Hatchard, the publisher, was found
guilty, as we expected. We, of course, shall
prevent his suffering.'

The name of the real libeller was never
given up, and Wilberforce remarks, * He
seems a little disposed to regard himself
as a Saint in our Calendar, though poor
Hatchard has been a Martyr.'

The following extract from his Counsel's
appeal is not without interest and amuse-
ment :

* . . . . Now Mr. Hatchard, the Bookseller, he
wants no introduction to this place ; he is one of
the most respectable of the Tradesmen in the
metropolis. He has been carrying on a business,
always attended with peril and danger, in a manner

PATRONS AND FRIENDS

49

I

to exempt him (until the Legislative Body of

Antigua have ordered him to be prosecuted), not
only from prosecution, but from reproach. Look
at the shelves of his warehouse, the contents of
them are calculated to promote and increase
science and useful knowledge, to enlarge the sphere
of the moral fitness of mankind, and I will venture
to say that no man who will go out a purchaser
from his shop can make a selection which has not
the object of making him a better man than he
was before the purchase. This is the man to-day
brought before you for publishing a Libel on the
Grand Jury of the Island of Antigua, an unnamed
and undesignated individual, a not-to-be-found
individual. I am obliged to take liberties with
language to describe the anomalous condition of

men not-to-be-found This man of virtue

and integrity is supposed to have published this
with a view to traduce the character, either of the
Grand Jury in its aggregate character, or some one
of eight individuals who fill the character of Aides-
de-camp of Sir James Leigh.'

Serjeant Buzfuz could have done no better.

so HATCHARDS

PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR.

Lord Beaconsfield, referring to the early
work of his father as a literary man, and the
publication of his work On the Abuse of
Satire, says that he, Isaac Disraeli, was
indebted for the success of this book to
Uhe warm personal friendship of Mr. Pye.*
Then, after a rather superfluous explanation
as to who Mr. Pye was, Lord Beaconsfield
says, * in those days when literary clubs did
not exist, and when even political ones were
very limited and exclusive in their character,
the booksellers' shops were social rendezvous.
Debrett's was the chief haunt of the Whigs,
Hatchard's, I believe, of the Tories. It was
at the latter house that my father made the
acquaintance of Mr. Pye, then publishing
his translation of Aristotle's Poetics, and so
strong was party feeling at that period, that

LAUREATE PYE

one day walking together down Piccadilly,
Mr. Pye, stopping at the door of Debrett,
requested his companion to join, adding
that if he (Pye) had the audacity to enter
more than one person would tread upon
his toes.'

Pye was at this time at the height of his
fame, and a frequent visitor to Hatchard's.
He does not appear to have been much of a
book buyer, but as Poet Laureate (he had
succeeded Warton in 1790) he was perhaps
entitled to a good many indulgences.

On October 8 he sends, according to
the muchnquoted Ledger, a copy of The
Inquisitor, a two-volume book of which he
was probably the anonymous author, to Mr.
Disraeli, and about the same date he is
charged a good round sum for advertise-
ments. Evidently The Inquisitor was a
favourite child of this much-abused Laureate.
Lord Beaconsfield, mindful of the verdict of
his day upon H. J, Pye, says, in the account
already referred to, that although the literary

52 HATC HARDS

sympathy between his father and Pye was
complete, he possessed *an elegant turn of
mind, rather than one of that energy and
vigour which a youth required for a com-
panion at that moment'

Besides the poetical works of Pye,
Hatchard had dealings with a poet whose
name is still much respected.

In 1799 Crabbe left his former publisher,
and opened a correspondence with Hatchard,
from whom he received sufficient encourage-
ment to prepare for publication a volume of
miscellaneous poems, which, owing to the
criticism of a friend, were withheld, and the
first volume issued by Hatchard for Crabbe
appeared in 1807. It contained The Parish
Register y Sir Eustace Grey^ The Birth of
Flattery^ and other minor pieces.. The sale
of this volume was very large, and his son
says that ' two days after Jeffi^ey's article in
the Edinburgh Review Mr. Hatchard sold
off the whole of the first edition of these
poems.' The minor poet of to-day is distri-

SCOTT AND CRA3BE

I

buted in the same way, 'only more so.' With
him all copies are sold before publication.

Among congratulatory letters is one from
Mrs. Burke, whose husband was one of the
first to encourage the poet, atid another from
Sir Walter Scott, who writes very appreciat-
ingly of the poet whose fame had come so late.
' I should certainly have availed myself,'
writes Scott, ' of the freemasonrj' of author-
ship to address to you a copy of a new poetical
attempt which I have now upon the anvil,
and esteem myself particularly obliged to Mr.
Hatchard, and to your goodness, acting upon
his information, for giving me the opportunity
of paving the way for such a freedom.'

It would seem that as soon as the volume
of poems was ready Hatchard sent a copy
to Sir Walter Scott, and though the reply
of the great novelist is missing now, we
know from Lockhart that it contained some
flattering expressions, which being duly com-
municated to Crabbe, he addressed Scott in
reply as follows :

54 HATCHARDS .

* To Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh,

'Merstofiy Grantham^ i^th October y i8 12.

*Sir, — Mr. Hatchard, judging rightly of the
satisfaction it would afford me, has been so obliging"
as to communicate your two letters, in one of which
you desire my Tales to be sent ; in the other you
acknowledge the receipt of them ; and in both you
mention my verses in such terms that it would
be affected in me were I to deny, and I think
unjust if I were to conceal, the pleasure you give
me. I am indeed highly gratified.

*I have long entertained a hearty wish to be
made known to a poet whose works are so greatly
and so universally admired, and I continued to
hope that I might at some time find a common
friend, by whose intervention I might obtain that
honour, but I am confined by duties near my home^
and by sickness in it. It may be long before I be
in town, and then no such opportunity might offer.
Excuse me then, sir, if I gladly seize this which
now occurs to express my thanks for the politeness
of your expressions, as well as my desire of being
known to a gentleman who has delighted and
affected me, and moved all the passions and feelings
in turn, I believe — envy surely excepted, certainly
if I know myself, but in a moderate degree. I
truly rejoice in your success, and while I am enter-
taining, in my way, a certain set of readers, for the

SCOTT AND CKABBE

55

I

I

I

most part, probably, of peculiar turn and habit, I
can with pleasure see the effect you produce on
all. Mr. Hatchard tells me that he hopes or
expects that thousands will read my Tales, and I
am convinced that your publisher might, in like
manner, so speak of your ten thousands ; but this,
though it calls to mind the passage, is no true
comparison with the related prowess of David and
Saul, because I have no evil spirit to arise and
trouble me on the occasion, though, if 1 had, I
know no David whose skill is so likely to allay it.
Once more, sir, accept my best thanks, with my
hearty wishes for your health and happiness, who
am, with great esteem, and true respect, Dear Sir,
your obedient Servant. , gjsorof, Crabbe.'

Scott's reply to this communication cannot
be produced. Mr. Crabbe appears to have,
in the course of the year, sent him a copy
of all of his works, 'ex dono auctoris.'

Then conies a charming correspondence
{fully given by Lockhart), and in one letter
Scott, having referred to himself ' fagging
as a clerk ' — he was a Clerk to the Supreme
Court — the reference draws the following
reply from Crabbe : —

S6 HATCH ARDS

* To Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh.

* My dear Sir, — Law, then, is your profession —
I mean a profession you give your mind and time
to — but how * fag as a clerk ?' Clerk is the name
for a learned person, I know in our Church ; but
how the same hand that held the pen of Mar-
mion, holds that which a clerk fags, unless a
clerk means something vastly more than I under-
stand — is not to be comprehended. I wait for
elucidation, know you, dear sir, I have often
thought I should love to read reports ; that is,
brief histories of extraordinary cases, with the
judgments. If that is what is meant by reports,
such reading must be pleasant ; but, probably, I
entertain wrong ideas, and could not understand
the books I think so engaging. Yet I conclude
there are histories of cases, and have often thought
of consulting Hatchard whether he knew of such
kind of reading, but hitherto I have rested in
ignorance. * Yours truly, 'Qeorge Crabbe/

In the Life of the Poet, young Mr.
Crabbe j^ives an instance of his father's love
of books, and his homely ways under the
roof of his publisher and bookseller. Mr.
Crabbe says, ' calling one day at Mr.
Hatchard's, in Piccadilly, he (Mr. H.) said

' Look round,' and pointed to his inner
room, and there stood my father reading
intently, as his manner was, with his knees
somewhat bent, insensible to all around
him. How homelike was the sight of that
venerable white head among a world of
strangers. He was engaged, and I was
leaving town ; . . . . after a short, cheerful
half-hour we parted,'

Though Hatchard from the commence-
ment sold all kinds of books, his place was
famous in the early days as a pamphlet shop.
Before the days of so many daily papers and
magazines the pamphlet held a much more
important place in literature than it now
does. Hatchard provided special accommoda-
tion for a great array of pamphlets, prominent
among them being Reform or Ruin, which
had been ' boomed ' so well, the separate
speeches of Canning, various pamphlets
by Burke, the Marquess Wellesley, Henry
Thornton, and William Wilberforce. Among
the many successful books issued were Sher-

58 HATCHARDS

wood's History of the Fairchild Family^
Marshairs Extracts from F^nilon, The
Maxims of Theresa Tidy, Thornton's Family
Prayers y The Lectures of Henry Blunt, Vicar
of Chelsea, The Peep of Day, and the very
successful series of books which followed, all
by Mrs. Mortimer. Various works of Arch-
bishop Sumner, Miss Jewsbury, Caroline
Fry, Bishop Oxenden, Martin Tupper, and
very many more. As already stated, nearly
all Canning's publications bore Hatchard's
name, and when Gladstone, *a young man
of unblemished character, .... the rising
hope of stern and unbending Tories,' pub-
lished his book on Defence of the Church in
1838, Hatchards name was considered to
convey such weight as a Church house that
the imprint of 187 Piccadilly appeared along-
side that of Murray. In later years, when a
young and exuberant author offered Hatchard
a child's book containing the lines —

* The animals went in one by one.
Dash it, says Noah, they'll never be done,'

SYDNEY SMITH.

59

he scornfully rejected the book, and pointed
triumphantly to his Catalogue with its array
of Trimmers, Sherwoods, and Hannah Mores.

The facts hitherto stated have referred
almost entirely to the first twenty years or
so of Hatchard's Piccadilly career. I shall
deal now in the pages which follow with
perhaps the most prosperous period the
house experienced. Hatchard, having suc-
ceeded in forming profitable associations with
wealthy authors and bookbuyers of the day,
was enabled to offer better payments for
manuscripts, and rival in his bids many of
the largest houses.

Sydney Smith, who could hardly have
written the following unless he had some
personal acquaintance with the shop, com-
menced an article in the Edinburgh Revien}
in 1810 on Public Schools with the following
words : ' There is a set of well-dressed
prosperous gentlemen who assemble daily at
Mr. Hatchard's shop, clean, civil personages
well in with the people in power, delighted

6o HATC HARDS

with every existing institution, arid almost
with every existing circumstance, and every
now and then one of these personages writes
a little book, and the rest praise that little
book, expecting to be praised in their turn
for their own little books, and of these little
books thus written by these clean, civil per-
sonages, so expecting to be praised, the
pamphlet before us appears to be one/

This amusing passage suggests two possi-
bilities. First, the antiquity of log-rolling,
and, secondly, that some of the bookshops
Sydney Smith was accustomed to visit were
not all as * Mr. Hatchard's ' was — and is — the
meeting-place of * clean, civil personages.*

While speaking of the place in the early
days as a rendezvous, it may be appropriate
to mention the fact that ' The Royal Horti-
cultural Society' received its first definite
organization on the 7th of March, 1804, *^t ^
meeting held at the house of Mr. Hatchard,
the Publisher, in Piccadilly.' Among those
who then met and inaugurated that flourish-

THE OUTINIAN SOCIETY

ing Society were John Wedgwood, Andrew
Knight, the Earl of Dartmouth, and Charles
Greville. It is a matter of tradition, amount-
ing almost to a certainty, that a room now
used for despatching orders was once a
private parlour set aside for such gatherings
as met when the Horticultural Society was
first started. Here, too, bishops and clergy
of the Low Church Party, stimulated by the
teaching of Wilberforce and Hannah More,
seceded from the Bible and the Sun, Riving-
ton's house in St. Paul's Churchyard, and
came westwards to the house more in sym-
pathy with their tenets.

In 1818, when Hatchard was at No. 190
Piccadilly, an amusing society was started at
his house to promote marriage. It was, in fact,
an early instance, if not the first, of a Matri-
monial Agency.* Hatchard seems to have
been much mixed up in this, and lent his pre-
mises and his initials — discreetly withholding
his name^for the purposes of the Society.
* The Society called itself ' The Outinian Society.'

62 HATCH ARDS

It appears that it occurred to some one of
the good people who met at Hatchards, that
much might be done by promoting matches,
and convening meetings for the purpose for
inquiring into the suitability of the contracting
parties, or supplying information to members
which would help them to make their choice.
It was, indeed, to determine, as Mr. Oscar
Wilde would have put it, whether they had
'pasts' or whether they had * futures.' As
far as can be judged from the very guarded
remarks made in their scarce-published trans-
actions, a more absurd society never existed.
At the bottom, and notwithstanding its pro-
testations to the contrary, it could have had no
other motive than idle or mercenary curiosity.
It existed but a short time, during which
several meetings were held in Hatchard's
parlour, and, after tea and buns had been
handed round, the meeting proceeded to
discuss and deplore the stoical apathy to
marriages, as in the modern instances of
Newman Noggs and George Chuzzlewit.

r

THE OUTINIAN SOCIETY

H

The veil of anonymity thrown over the
whole proceedings is very amusing-. The
'X. Y. Z.s,' the 'Onlookers,' and the 'Friends
to the Society,' who make pitiful appeals to
'J. H.' to admit them to membership after
the ranks have been filled, and there are no
more vacancies, are not the least funny part
of the proceedings.

Strangest of all is that Hatchard should
have lent his initials and his premises to a
Society every bit as absurd in its object as
' The Social Linen-Box Committee,' or the
' United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin
and Crumpet Bakery and Punctual Delivery
Company.'

John Hatchard was in appearance the
very acme of respectability. He always
dressed in a semi-clerical style as he thought
befitted his connexion. The portrait pro-
duced here is by a pupil of Lawrence, and is
accomited a very accurate and good likeness.

One who remembers his personal appear-
ance says, ' He was invariably dressed in

64 HATC HARDS

black. His coat was of the style of a
Bishop's frock coat, waistcoat buttoning to
the throat, with an entirely plain front, and
knee breeches and gaiters/ The same cor-
respondent refers to the very numerous visits
of Church dignitaries to the place, and the
deferential manner invariably shown them.
Hatchard was never above speaking to boys
who brought loads of books, encouraging
them to be industrious, and never to be
afraid of work. Another friend refers to the
b?g neckerchief worn round his neck, the
fashion of the day, and to his unvarying and
gracious manner, and his patience under a
martyrdom to gout. For many years, off
and on, the Hatchard family resided in a
portion of the house at 187 Piccadilly; for
many years, also, they were associated with
Clapham.

In the days of its founder the shop was
very ill lit, only oil lamps being used. In
the centre by the fireplace was a table, upon
which were placed the daily papers, The

i

4

THOMAS HATCHARO.
('794- '858. 1

AFTERNOON NAPS.

H

Morning Herald, The Morning Chronicle.
and the Times. There were also some old-
fashioned chairs to match the customary
■ occupants. All this was considered a part of
the business, and as much care as possible
taken not to disturb the slumbers of those who
fell into the hands of Morpheus. Several
well-known men used to meet daily round
the fire or the fireplace and discuss their
favourite topics, sitting until they could bore
one another no longer. Outside the door
might be seen another instance of Hatchard's
philanthropical zeal. Here was a bench to
accommodate the flunkeys who rode on the
platforms behind their masters' carriages.
The two last-named features of the shop, the
fireplace and the outside bench, have, after
being relinquished for many years, again
been continued.

From an early date regular use was made
of the place to receive subscriptions for chari-
table purposes. The origin of this part of
the business might probably be traced to a

66 HA TC HARDS

suggestion made by Wilberforce, or some
such character, that Hatchard should solicit
subscriptions from the well-to-do folks when
he saw them.* Thus grew an useful agency
for the distribution of charity money, and the
position which John Hatchard held among
philanthropists was such that large sums
of money were lodged with him without
acknowledgment, but with instructions to
distribute. Another similar agency was also
carried on for the public good, namely, an
educational registry for governesses to obtain
employment. So well was this directed, and
such care shown in the recommending of
well- qualified people, that although this kind
of thing has been discontinued for many
years, frequent applications are made to-day,
applicants relying entirely upon the security
of a recommendation from Hatchard's.

* After the Battle of Waterloo, contributions for the
Waterloo Subscription were received by * Mr. Hatchard,
190 Piccadilly, and Mr. Mortlock, 250 Oxford Street* —
See Mortiing HercUdy 14th August, 18 15.

Mr. Gladstone was a visitor to the place
from about 1830 to 1840, purchasing pam-
phlets pretty extensively. He is reported to
have been taciturn and unapproachable in
manner, handing in a list of pamphlets on a
slip of paper, and even then demanding ten
per cent, or threatening to go elsewhere.
There is no record of his ever having
occupied a chair, or even condescended to
refer to any subject except the list of pam-
phlets with which he came ready armed.
Once, it is true, when some copies of the
great book on the Vatican were to be sold,
he ventured, after long absence, to call and
put everybody right as to the binding of
the volumes. They had been described as
.'in half morocco.' He called the binding
' skiver.'

Byron refers to ' Murray's four o'clock
visitors.' Crabbe or another might have re-
ferred to the almost more homely gatherings
at old Hatchard's at the same hour. One
who is best remembered as a daily visitor

68 HATC HARDS

was Rev. Charles Kingsley (father of a more
famous Charles). He came regularly to read
the paper, bringing his three sons — Charles,
Henry, and George — with him.

When the old Charles Kingsley died, the
author of Westward Ho ! wrote to his eldest
son at school :

*My darling boy. Poor Grandpapa is dead,
and gone to heaven. You must always think of
him lovingly, and remember this about him, and
copy it, that he was a gentleman^ and never did in
his life, or even thought, a mean or false thing,' etc.

The Duke of Wellington, the Duke as he
was always called, would come on horseback,
and, dismounting, would walk through to the
back room, where, seated upon a chair, still
preserved, he would, in a very business-like
manner, state his requirements. When the
Library of the Duke's brother was sold at
Evans' Auction Rooms in Pall Mall, where
now stands the Carlton Club, the Duke sent
several open commissions for books which he
wished secured. Among these was a shilling

THE 'i6d4' hamlet.

69

pamphlet by A. G. Stapleton, with the late
owner's notes in pencil. This was put up at
IS. %d., and ultimately knocked down for 93/.
to Hatchard, the under-btdder being Sir
A. Alison. The Duke, though very much
astonished at the price such a mere fragment
had fetched, yet admired the obedience to
his orders, which were carte blanche to buy
the pamphlet. It was some time in the
'fifties' when a well-known Scotch family
sent up for sale a copy of Hamlet, which
proved to be the quarto edition of 1604, of
which only two other copies are known to
exist. After some negotiation between the
old bookseller Lilly and Hatchard, the copy
found a resting-place in the famous collection
of Mr. Huth. The copy is described as
being in the finest possible condition, and it
is specially notable as never having passed
through public auction.

Among successful authors who dealt with
Hatchard, Martin Tupper must not be al-
together omitted, for Tupper's books had an

70 HATCH ARDS

enormous, though, if merit be considered, a
most unaccountable sale. Rickerby, a printer
in the City, had produced the first series
of Proverbial Philosophy in 1838, but as
Rickerby was more a printer than a pub-
lisher, T upper sought a better- known man,
and for the second series of the book and
many subsequent editions he had dealings
with Hatchard, receiving annually, as he
himself tells us, 500/. to 8ch3/. a-year, 'and
in the aggregate having benefited both them
and myself — for we shared equally — by some-
thing like 10,000/. a-piece.' Tupper seems
to have got on very well with both John
Hatchard and his son Thomas ; but when
they were dead his lines seem not to have
fallen in such pleasant places, and a little
quarrel, such as publisher and authors had
in the past, and still engage in, ensued.
Tupper withdrew his books from the house
to Moxon. The fact was that Tupper
thought that by going to Moxon his pedes-
trian lines might break into a trot if placed

PYEf TVPPER!

in Moxon's Catalogue beside those of Alfred
Tennyson, for whom he was then pubhshing.
Tupper, as is pretty well known, could not —
or would not — disguise his love of praise and
his inability to brook any adverse criticism
He is delighted to relate 'when that good
old man, Grandfather Hatchard, more than
an octogenarian, first saw me he placed his
hand on my dark hair and said, with tears in
his eyes, " You will thank God for this book
when your hair comes to be as white as
mine." Let me gratefully acknowledge that
he was a true prophet. When I was writing
the concluding Essay of the first series, my
father (not quite such a true prophet as old
Hatchard) exhorted me to burn it, as his
ambition was to make a lawyer of me.'

One may well have thought that Pye
had provided enough weak poetry for one
publisher, but for Pye and Tupper together
one can hardly find apology sufficiently
ample. Had Robert Montgomery joined,
and made the trio, it would have been the

72 HA TC HARDS

last straw, which neither the reputation of
Hatchard or any other mortal publisher could
have survived.

If poets and bishops visited the place,
so also did actors. Charles Mayne Young
frequently lodged in the neighbourhood, and
was often out walking after an early break-
fast. He called one Monday morning and
inquired the name of the curate who had
on the preceding day read the lessons at
St. James* Church. He then requested to
have a Bible handed to him, and, in the
middle of the shop, he first imitated the
sing-song tones of the offending curate, and
then, in his fine, trained, sonorous voice, he
showed how the scriptures should be read in
churches. Liston, the famous Paul Pry of a
past day, was another frequent visitor at a
period when he had retired from the stage,
and was living at 14 St. Georges Place,
near Hyde Park Corner. Both Charles and
Fanny Kemble, and Charles Matthews, were
regular frequenters of the place, and in later

THOMAS HATCHARD.

73

times Hatchard's Is well known in the best
dramatic circles. Other occasional visitors
were Rev. W. Harness, Bishop Blorafield,
and the Countess of Blessington.

Hardly any reference had yet been made
to Thomas Hatchard, who joined his father
in business, and conducted it in person for a
considerable time. In appearance he is re-
called as attired in a blue dress coat with
velvet collar, gilt buttons, white cravat, yel-
low waistcoat, and brown nankeen trousers.
Kind-hearted and pious, he answered perhaps
more to Dr. Johnson's description of Tom
Davies, as a gentleman who sold books.
Thomas Hatchard was so loyal a subject
that it is said he rarely sat down to a family
dinner without drinking to the Queen's
health, saying, at the same time, ' God bless
her.' John Hatchard died at Clapham,
June 21, 1849, in his 8ist year. His will
contained a large number of legacies to chari-
ties. Thomas Hatchard died at Brighton,
November 20, 185S.

74 HATCHARDS

For many years previous to 1880 Mr.
Henry Hudson, a great grandson of John
Hatchard, most successfully conducted the
business. Though he died prematurely, he
already proved himself to be possessed by
many of the fine qualities of his ancestor.
He was amiable, gracious, most watchful of
the interests of the business with which he
was so conspicuously connected, and always
alert and jealous for its exceptional prestige.

The * civil personages well in with people
in power,' referred to by Sydney Smith as
frequenters of the place fifty or sixty years
ago, have never deserted their favourite
bookshop, but from generation to genera-
tion has been handed down a reputation for
intelligence and straightforward dealing.

At the present day the business stands
perhaps higher than it ever stood. Freed
from all narrowness and bias, it is directed
with the view to point to the best sources for
studying modern thought and action. For
so long has Hatchard's served a good pur-

TO-DA y.

pose in this way that it now has become a
recognised resort for all who seek information
about books old and new. Political and
social in its connexions, its social prestige
perhaps takes precedence of the strictly
political. Here may be seen, at one time
or another during the season, almost all who
are known within the precincts of the town.
Mr. Du Maurier might find opportunities for
studying the American g^irl tourist, and find
her vivacious and bright when discussing her
favourite author ; or he might see £,a Belle
AnUricaine in her most attractive of all
forms, as the young wife of the English
nobleman or squire.

Here, too, meet cliques and 'sets' of
quite the smartest types, with handshakes that
puzzle the recorder of manners and fashions.
Here, too, at various times, may be seen
Cabinet Ministers, club gossips, great talkers,
great actors, great sportsmen, and young
authors — surreptitiously inquiring for their
own productions.

76 HATC HARDS

BIOGRAPHICAL & GENEALOGICAL

NOTES.

The earliest traces of the Hatchard family
in England are found in Hampshire and
Dorsetshire, and, in the last-named County,
several branches of the family still reside.
Lower says that the surname Hatchard is
equivalent to the Achard of Domesday.

One Nicholas Hatchard, of Romsey,
Architect, appears in Hampshire marriage
licences as marrying Ann Goddard, of
Broughton, spinster, at Romsey, 6 Novem-
ber, 1732. This is, perhaps, the earliest
date to be found with the name spelt as it
now is.

The first London member of the family
is believed to have been Thomas Hatchard,
born October 1730, and who died 26 Feb-
ruary, 1818.

Another one, Henry Hatchard, obtained

GENEALOGICAL.

a Royal Academy medal for a bust in the
year 1797.

The arms borne by Bishop Goodwyn
Hatchard were the arms of an old family
named Achard, once Lords of Aldermaston,
but believed to be extinct in the male line.

The pedigree inserted is an outline only,
but serves as an orderly record of those of
the Hatchard family most nearly associated
with 187 Piccadilly. No complete pedigree
of the family has ever been published, and
what is inserted here represents the fugitive
material most easily accessible.

In the Gentkmans Magazine for August
1849, p. 210, will be found a lengthened obit-
uary of John Hatchard. As all the points of
interest which it contains have been repro-
duced in one place or the other in this little
volume, I shall not reprint it here. Of some
others of the Hatchard family who have not
received an equal share in the body of this
little book, 1 purpose to give references and
quotations to biographical sources.

78 HATC HARDS

OBITUARY NOTICES.

Death of Mr. Hatchard.

* Our obituary of this day (says the Guardian^ Nov.
17, 1858), contains an announcement of the death of
Mr. Thomas Hatchard, the eminent publisher of Picca-
dilly. One who knew him well writes that he was a man
of earnest, unostentatious piety; as a master kind and
liberal, ever treating those under him with the greatest
consideration ; there was no house in the same business
where it was considered a greater privilege to be. His
charity was unobtrusive ; but, blessed with affluence, he
was the humble means of distributing largely the bounty
bestowed upon him to a large circle of poor of every
grade. By these his loss will be severely felt, and by no
class of persons more than that much neglected and too
often despised, the poor governess, to whom, following
the example of his father, he always showed the greatest
sympathy and regard.*

Illustrated London NewSy Nov. 20, 1858.

John Hatchard (the Second), Vicar of

Plymouth.

* The important vicarage of St. Andrew's, the mother
church of Plymouth, is vacant by the death of the Rev.
John Hatchard, after an incumbency of forty-six years,
during the last nine of which he has been a confirmed

OBrrUARY NOTICES. 79

invalid. Mr. Hatch ard's predecessor was the Rev
John Gundy, who succeeded Dr. Mudge, the contem-
porary and friend of Dr. Johnson. The incumbencies
of the three vicars extended over a period of 147 years.
The living is in the gift of the Church Patronage Society,
and is of about \oool. a-year in value, but will now pro-
bably be reduced by one-half. It has a population of
fully 18,000 attached to the church and its chapel-of-
ease, with very indifferent accommodation for the poor.'
Guardian, Dec. 8, 1869.

Death of the Bishop of Mauritius.
' On the 28th Feb., at Mauritius, of fever, Thomas
Goodwin Hatchard, D.D., Lord Bishop of Mauritius,
late Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford, in the 53rd year
of his age. Friends will kindly accept this intimation
(by telegram).' — Ttmes, March 30th, 1870.

Death op a Colonial Bishop.
' Our obituary column yesterday contained the name
of one of the most recently consecrated colonial bishops,
the Right Rev. Thomas Goodwin Hatchard, D.D.,
Bishop of Mauritius, who died in his distant diocese on
the jSth of February last, from an attack of fever, in the
53rd year of his age. He was a member of the well-
known family who have so long been connected with
Clapham by residence, and as Church publishers with
Piccadilly. A son of the late Mr. Thomas Hatchard, of
Chichester Terrace, Brighton, he was born in the year
1818, and was educated at King's College, London,

8o HATCHARDS

whence he proceeded to Brasenose College, Oxford,
where he took his Bachelor's Degree in 1841, and pror
ceeded M.A. in 1845. Having been ordained in 1840
by the Bishop of Winchester (Dr. Sumner), he was ap-
pointed in 1846 to the rectory of Havant, Hampshire,
which living he held until 1856, when he was transferred
to the rectory of St. Nicholas, Guildford. This latter
preferment he only resigned about a year and a-half ago,
on his nomination to the Bishopric of the island of
Mauritius, to which he was consecrated in the early part
of 1869. The late Bishop belonged to the Moderate
Evangelical school of religious thought. He was inde-
fatigable in his duties as a parochial clergyman, and in
his new sphere of action was thoroughly justifying the
high hopes which had been entertained of him, when he
was so suddenly struck down by the fever which carried
him off. He married the eldest daughter of Dr. Alexan-
der, the first Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem.'

Times ^ March 31st, 1870,

(Also recopied in Guardian^ April 6th, 1870.)

Death of the Bishop of Mauritius.

*A telegram was received on Saturday, announcing
the death by fever, on February 28th, of the Rev*
T. G. Hatchard, D.D., Bishop of Mauritius. He was
consecrated on February 24th, 1869, and had personally
presided over his see only eight months. He leaves a
widow and six children, and a numerous circle of re-
latives to lament his loss. His death will be keenly felt
in his diocese, where his piety, energy, and warm-
heartedness had ab-eady begun, under Gk)d, to leave
their mark.' Record^ March 28th, 1870.

(Also repeated in the Guardian^ March 30, 1870).

FAMILY.

THOlVl

\ They were probably the parents of: —

^ iring his name. Born 17th Oct., 1768 ;

mai_

)PHIA.

matric. 20th May, 181 2, aged 18 : of
1824, until his death, ist Dec, 1869;

3rd May, 1 8 15, Elizabeth Goodwin;
one son and three daughters : —

born 1 8th September, 1 8 1 7 . Brasenose
th February, 1859. Rector of Havant,
s, 1869, ^^^^ death, 28th of February,
iid issue four sons and three daughters.

:

Surgeon. Had issue three sons and

Thomas Goodwin Hatchard.
Thomas Goodwin Hatchatd, 1817 to 1870, Bishop of
Mauritius, son of Thomas Hatchard the publisher
(d- 13th Nov. 1858), and grandson of John Hatchard,
was born at 11 Sloane Street, Chelsea, on i8th Sept.
1S17, and educated at King's College, Londoa He
matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, as Thomas
Goodwin Hatchard on nth April, 1837; graduated B. A.,
1841, MA. 1845, and D.D. 4th Feb., 1862. He was
curate of Windlesham, Surrey, from 1842 to 1S44;
Domestic Chaplain to the Marquis of Conyngham from
1845 to 1869; Rector of Ha vant, Hants, from 1846 to
1856 ; and of St. Nicholas, Guildford, Surrey, from
185610 1869. He belonged to the moderate Evangelical
School. As a parochial clergyman he was indefatigable
in his duties. He died of fever in the island of
Mauritius, aSth Feb. [870. He naarried, rgth Feb.
1846, Fanny Vincent Steel, second daughter of the
Right Rev. Michael Solomon Alexander, Bishop of
Jerusalem. She died at Cannes, 7th Dec. 1880.

Books by the Bishop and his wife : —

1. TIte German Tret, a Moral for the Young. 1851.

2. Tlie Mowerkt Gathered, a Brief Memoir of Adelaide

Charlotte Hatchard, his daughter. 1858.

3. Sermons. 1847-62.

Mrs. Hatchard published : —

1. Eight yean' Experience of Mothers' Meetings. 1871.

2. Prayers for Little Children. 1872.

3. Mothers' Meetings, and Him' to Organize Them. 1S75.

4. Mothers of Scripture. 1875.

5. Thoughts OH the Lord's Prayer. 1878.

6. Prayers for Mother^ Meetmss. 1S78.

82 HATCHARDS

FINAL MEMORIALS.

With such scant biographical data as are
now available, some reference must be made
to those who, having been employed in the
firm in their earlier years, have succeeded in
other spheres, or are in any way deserving of
being remembered.

James Fraser, the publisher (but not
the founder) of Erasers Magazine^ was in
his youth an assistant at Hatchard's. Fraser
became famous as the recipient of a sound
thrashing from the hands of Grantley Berke-
ley. Dr. Maginn had published in Fraser^s
a fierce review of a book by Grantley
Berkeley. The author, thirsting for ven-
geance, determined to find out the writer,
and for this purpose he betook himself to the
bookseller ; but not knowing Fraser person-
ally, and fearing he might thrash the wrong
man, he employed Simmonds, the hallkeeper

JAMES FRASER.

83

at Crockford's to inquire for a book called
Bolofusticabilus on the Divimty of the Human
Race, 'while,' says Grantley Berkeley, 'I and
my brother Craven, who wished to be present
at the transaction, waited in Conduit Street.'
The faithful Simmonds returned with a
description of Fraser, and Berkeley proceeded
at once to see Fraser himself. ' A quick,
scrutinizing glance showed me a young man,
or, at least, a man between thirty and forty,
and apparently in the prime of life and
strength. He was showily got up, in short,
looked like a thriving Regent Street trades-
man approaching to a self-conceited swell.
.After refusing to give up the name, I at once,
with my fist, knocked him down on his desk,
whence on his recovering he snatched at
some weapon close behind him. I never
knew what it was, but, seizing him by the
collar, hurled him into the middle of his
shop, where, on his refusing to rise, and on
my brother handing me a racing whip he had
brought for my use, I gave him a severe

84 HATCH ARDS

flogging, which concluded in the gutter of the
street/ Eraser's death is believed to have
been greatly hastened by this chastisement.
Fraser was Carlyle's first publisher, and
the story of his dealings between the author
and the infatuated Fraser, ' with his dog's
meat tart of a magazine,' is told in Froude's
Life of Carlyle.

Alfred Taylor. Until quite recently
Mr. Alfred Taylor was a familiar figure in
the park on horseback. The principal part
of his life had been spent at Hatchard's, and
whatever of interest there was in his person-
ality — and there was, indeed, a good deal —
he himself would willingly attribute to his
training and experience at 187 Piccadilly.

Mr. Taylor occupied a prominent posi-
tion under both John and Thomas Hatchard,
and though it is nearly thirty years since he
retired to enjoy his leisure from business, his
memory is still cherished by several who
received his friendly attentions.

His mind was clear and his memory

CHARLES TfLT.

8S

excellent almost up to the end, and the
writer of this Httle book, in which IVIr.
Taylor took so much interest, has sorely
to regret that his friend did not live to
correct the proofs and render other help
which he alone was able to. He died
27 December, 1892, at 48 Victoria Road,
Kensington, aged 82.

Charles Tilt, whose imprint on tiny
title-pages is familiar to many, was also an
assistant in the early part of the century.

The following is taken from the Gentle-
man s .

' Sept. 28. At Bayswater, aged 64, Mr.
Charles Tilt, formerly a publisher in London,
but of late years a resident at Bath. A local paper
speaks thus highly of him: — -"Mr. Tilt was not
only 'a well-known' publisher, but one whose taste,
judgment, and liberality could never be questioned.
The various elegant and valuable publications
brought out under his care were not only very
conspicuous, in their day, for artistic beauty, but
were made acceptable to the public at an unwonted
moderate cost. Success crowned his extensive and
thoughtful enterprise, and, after some years of

86 HATCHARDS

devotedness to trade, he withdrew from its toil ;
but not to be idle, for his business-like ability
never forsook him. For a while he travelled on
the Continent, abode some time in Italy, and
visited Egypt and Syria. Under the modest guise
of a book for * young persons,' he published a
pleasant, and, what is more, an instructive little
volume entitled The Boat and Caravan^ which gives
a good and graphic account of his tour in the two
last-named countries. Subsequently, Mr. Tilt took
up his residence in Bath, and became connected
with many of our benevolent and religious institu-
tions ; to these he was a generous contributor, and
in most cases, in their behalf, he was an active,
intelligent, and indefatigable worker. How much
the 'Tottenham Fund' of 2184/. owed to his
zealous exertions is only known to those who, like
himself, were deeply engaged in rearing that friendly
testimonial of regard to the memory of departed
worth. Of Mr. Tilt it may be said that, wherever
he was located, he was known and highly esteemed
as an active and most useful member of society.
He filled many positions of trust, and always with
great advantage to those for whom he laboured,
and to whose concerns he gave his disinterested
and able exertions." '

*Wtlliam Tunbridge. Nov. 29, 1874. At
his residence, Walworth, aged 76, Mr. William

/

WILLIAM TUNBRIDGE.

8?

Tunbridge, assistant of Messrs. Hatchard. The
deceased, who was one of the oldest and most
respected members of the trade, entered the
service of Mr. Hatchard fifty years and three
months ago, and during the whole of this long
time so acquitted himself as to gain the respect
and esteem not only of the three generations
of his employers, but of the whole trade. Mr.
Hudson, the present head of the house, writing
to the Editor of the Bookseller, says : " He died
suddenly, but painlessly, at his home yester-
day, Sunday morning. He had just passed his
76th birthday, and was here on Friday at work,
though evidently failing fast, and we believe he
died of old age, causing weakness of the heart. I
need hardly say that he was with us to the last by
his own special desire. He never recovered the
toss of his only son in the spring, who was confi-
dential clerk in a large City house trading with
Brazil, where his knowledge for both fluent writing
and speaking of French, German and Portuguese,
secured him a very large income. Our old friend
was our warehouseman, our head collector, and
also kept all the collecting cash accounts, a triple
responsibility which few could have borne and
worked so clearly and well to the last, and which
he could never give to any one else." '

Bookseller, Dec. 1874.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H

H ^H

Abbott, Mr. Justice, 47.

^^1

Achard Surname, 76,

Canning, C, 33, 2S, 44, 4S> ^^^^|

Akenside, Mark, 21, 32.

"^^B

Albany (The), 27, 33.

CaHyle, Thomas, 84. ^^H

Albemarle Street, 31,

Catalogues, Early issues, 10. ^^^H

Alexander, Bishop, 80, 81.

Ctbe^, ^H

Ahson, Sir A, 6g.

Charlotte, Princess, 41. ^^^|

^_ Almon, bookseller, 21.

Charlotte, Queen, 42. ^^H

^L Antigua, 47, 49.

Cheddar, 40. ^^^H

^H Anti-Jacobin ( T^e), 22, 23.

Christian Observer [ 7»e), 34, ^^H

^H Arbuthnot, John, 32,

^^H

^H Aristotle's Poetics, 50.

Churchill, Charles, the poet, ^^H

^H Arlington Street, 30.

Clapham, 73, ^^^H

■

Clapham Sect (The), 35- ^^H

^r Bath, 85.

Clarke, a dyer, •-,. ^^H

Bayley, Mr. Justice, 47.

Clarkson, W., 35. ^^H

Beaconsfield, Lord, 50, jr.

Con^gham, Marquis of, 81. ^^^H

Beadon, Dr., 40.

Crabbe, G„ ^i, 55, 56, 6?- ^^H

Beloe, Rev. W., 1 1, ig, 24, 43.

Cracherode, Rev. C. M., ii, ^^^H

^H Bensley, the printer, 5.

'So ^^H

^^ Berkeley, Craven, 83.

^H Crantky, 8z.

Dartmouth, Earl of, 61. ^^^H

Davies, Tom, 19, 73- ^^H

^H Blomfield, Bishop, 73.

Mrs. Thomas, 20. I^^^^l

^H ' Blue Stockings,' 23.

Debreti, bookseller, 21, 50. ^^^H

^H Bolt Court, 8.

Denne, Samuel, [7. ^^^H

^H Bonaparte, 22.

Dilly, bookseller, ^^^H

^H Boswell, James, ig, 21.

Disraeli, B., 50, SI. ^^^^^^H

^H Bowdler, John, 1, 3.

Isaac, 50, ^^^^^H

^^H Thomas, 2, 3.

* Doctor Dewlap,' 16. ^^^^^^^^H

^H Brighton, 73, 79.

Dodsley, Robert, ^^^^^^H

^H British Mtrcvry, 33.

Du Maurier, Mr., 75. ^^^^^^H

^^H Burdett Riots, 29.

D'Urfey, Tom, 33. ^^^H

^H Burke, Edmund, 21, 23.

^^H Mrs. Edmund, 53.

Edinburgh Review, 35, 52 ^^^H

^^1 Burlington House, 27.

Edwards, bookseller, 24 |^^^H

^^1 Bumey, Dr. C, 15, 23,

Egerton. bookseller, 24. ^^^^^^^H

^H Byron, Lord, 21, 28. 30, 67.

Elizabeth, Queen, ^^^^^^^^^

90

INDEX,

Elmslcy, Peter, 14, 21.
Eton, 42.

European Magcusine^ 35.
Evans' Auction Rooms, 68.
Evelyn, John, 32.

Faulder, bookseller, 24.
Fox, C. J., 23.
Eraser, James, 82.
Froude, J. A., 45.

„ Rev. R. H., 45.
Fry, Caroline, 58.

Gardner, bookseller, 25.

Gentlematis Magazine^ 35.

Gibbon, Edmund, 21.

Giflford, W., 21.

Gillray, 32.

Ginger, bookseller, 5, 7, 8, 9,

33-
Gladstone, Mr., 58, 67.

Glasse, Dr., of Hanwell, 42.

Goddard, Ann, 76.

Grattan, Henry, 23.

Great College Street, 8.

Great Elbow Lane, 5.

Greville, Charles, 61.

Grey, Lady Jane, 42.

Greycoat School, 5.

Guildford, 79, 81.

Gundy, Rev. John, 79.

Gumey's Shorthand, 47.

Gwyn, Nell, 44.

Hamlet^ * 1604,' 69.

Harness, Rev. W., 73.

Hatchard, Adelaide Char-
lotte, 81.

Hatchard, Henry, 77.

Hatchard, John, passim,

Hatchard, John, of Ply-
mouth, 78.

Hatchard, Nicholas, 76.

Hatchard, Thomas, 70, 73,
76, 79.

Hatchard, T. G., 77, 79, 81.
Havant, Hants, 80, 81.
Hawkins, Sir John, 15.
Heber, Richard, 44.
Heberden, Dr., 43.
Hoare, J., 12.
Hotten, John Camden, 29.
Howley, Archbishop, 44.
Hudson, Henry, 74, S7,
Hurstone, J. P., 31.
Huth, A. H., 69.

Inglis, * Bobby,' 35.
Intercepted Letters (Tke\ 22,

38-

Jackson, Cyrill, 16.
Jermyn Street, 32.
Jewsbury, Miss, 58.
Johnson, Michael, 19.
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 8, 19,

20, 21, 73, 79.
Johnstone, Sir A., 41.

Keate of Eton, 42, 43.

Kembles, The, 72.

King, of Mansfield Street, 15.

King's Mews, 10.

Kingsley, Charles, of Chelsea,

68.
Knight, Andrew, 61.

Lambert, Elizabeth, 6.
Lambert, Thomas, 6.
Lang, Andrew, 31.
Leigh, Sir James, 47, 49.
Lewis, * Monk,' 28.
Lichfield, 19.
Lilly, bookseller, 69.
Liston, actor, 72.
London :

The Albany, 27, 32.

Albemarle Street, 21.

Arlington Street, 30.

Bolt Court, 8.

London :

Burlington House, 27.

Great College Street, 8.

Great Elbow Lane, 5,

Greycoat School, S'

Jermyn Street, 32.

King's Mews, 10.

Mews Gate, 6, 12, 14.

Monmouth Court, 12.

New Bond Street, 34, 32.

Pall Mall, 30, 24, 25, 32.

Piccadilly, passim.

The Poultry, 21.

Round Court, 10,

Kusseli Street, Co vent
Garden, 19.

St. James's Church, 32.

Swan Yard, 5.

Three Kings' Inn, 28.

Vauxhall, 17-

Strand, 14.

Whitehall, 24.
Long's Hotel, 32.
Luttrell, Henry, 28.

Macaulay, Lord, 28, 35, 36,

37, 38.
Macaulay, Z., 35, 46.
Maginn, Dr., 82.
Malone, Edmund, 15, 23.
Mary Queen of Scots, 42,
Mathias, 16.
Matthews, Charles, 72.
Mews Gate, 6, 12, 14.
Mitford's Greece, 43.
Monmouth Court, 12.
Montagu, Bishop, 23.
Montague, Lady M. W., 23.
Montgomery, R., 71.
Monthly Review, 35.
More, Hannah, 35, 39, 40, 61.
Mortimer, Mrs., 58.
MoJtoD, publisher, 70.
Mudge, Dr., 79.
Munay, publisher, 21, 24.

Oliptiant, Mrs., 35.
Osborne, Thomas, 2Q.
Outinian Society, 61.
Ox en den. Bishop, 58.
Oxford, 80.

Pall Mall, 20, 24, 25, 33,

Parr, Dr., 23.

Payne, Thomas, 6, 7, 9, 10,

II, 14, 18,33.
Peep 0/ Day {The), 58.
Penn, J., 12.

Pepys,SirW. W., 40, 41.
Peter Pindary 21, 22.
Piccadilly, passim.
Piccadilly Ambulator, 31,
' Pillars of Hercules,' 29.
Pindar, Ed, Stevens, 18.
Pitt, William, 23.
Planche', J. R., 27,
Plymoutli, 78.
Person, Richard, 15, 21.
Pursuits 0/ Literature, 16.
Pye, H.J., 50, SI, 71.

Quarterly Review, 35.
Queensberry, Duke of, 30, 32.

Reform or Ruin, 1.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 21.
Richardson, printseller, 17.
Rickerby, printer, 70.
Ridgway, bookseller, 21, 24.
Rivington, 61.
Rodd, bookseller, 14.
Romsey, Hants, 76.
Round Court, ra
Royal Horticultural Society,

60.
Royal Society, 9.
Roxburgh Club, 1 1.
Russell St., Covent Garden,

92

INDEX,

Scott, Rev. Mr., 6.

Scott, Sir Walter, 21, 32, 53,

54,56.

Sharp, Granville, 35.

Shendan, R. B., 23, 30.

Sherwood, Mrs., 58.

Smith, Sydney, 59, 60, 74.

Snuffy Davy, i.

Society for Bettering the Con-
dition of the Poor, 34.

Spencer, Earl, 15.

Squire Western, 29.

Stanley, Colonel, 15.

Stapleton, A. G., 69.

Steevens, George, 15, 23.

Stephen, Sir James, 35.

Stillingfleet, Dr., 23.

Stormont, Lord, 15.

Sumner, Dr., 58, 80.

Swan Yard, Strand, 5.

Taylor, Alfred, 84.
Tilt, Charles, 85.
Tennyson, Alfred, 71.
Terence^ 17.

Thackeray, W. M., 28, 31.
Thane, 17.

Thornton, Henry, 57.
Thorpe, bookseller, 14.
Three Kings' Inn, 28.

Townley, Colonel, 15.
Triveii Annales^ 18.
*Tully;s(The)Head,'2i.
Tunbridge, W., 86.
Tupper, Martin, 58, 69, 70, 71.

Upcott, William, 23.

Walpole, Horace, 21, 30.
Warton, Thomas, 21, 51.
Waterloo Subscription, dT.
Wedgwood, John, 61.
Wellesley, Marquess, 57.
Wellington, Duke of, 68.
Westmmster School, 9.
Wheatley, H. B., 22.
Whitehall, 24.
Wilberforce, W., 35, 45, 48,

57, 61.
Wilde, Oscar, 62.
Windham, 15.
'White Horse Cellars,' 28.
White, Mr., 12.
Whitmore & Fenn, 47.
Wolcot, John, 21.
Wraxall, Sir N., 42.
Wright, bookseller, 21.

Young, Charles M., 72.
Young, T., 21.

THE END.

London : Strangeways, Printers,