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[title page]

The Reviser Observed: The Last Volume of Sir Charles Grandison by Jocelyn Harris

Whitney's A Choice of Emblemes Revisited: A Comparative Study of the Manuscript and the Printed Versions by Mason Tung

Some Spellings of Compositor B in the Shakespeare First Folio by S. W. Reid

John Murray's Family Library and the Cheapening of Books in Early Nineteenth Century Britain by Scott Bennett

The Editorial Problem of Final Authorial Intention by G. Thomas Tanselle

Transcription of Manuscripts: The Record of Variants by Fredson Bowers

The Rôle of Formulas in the Dissemination of a Middle English Alliterative Romance by Hoyt N. Duggan

The Printing of A Faire Quarrell, Q2 by Gerald D. Johnson

Mr. Abel Boyer Stops the Press by G. L. Anderson

John Warburton as Antiquary and Collector: Evidence from the Sale Catalogue of his Collection by Michael D. Bliss

The Gentleman's Magazine in the Folger Library: The History and Significance of the Nichols Family Collection by James M. Kuist

[section]

Notes

Some Borrowings in Tristram Shandy: The Textual Problem by Melvyn New and Norman Fry

'For Friendship's Sake': Some Additions to Blake's Sheets for Designs to a Series of Ballads (1802) by Karen G. Mulhallen

Hazlitt, Reynolds, and the Edinburgh Review by Leonidas M. Jones

Walter Bagehot: Some New Attributions by Robert H. Tener

The Uncancelled Leaf of Shepherd's Memoirs of Carlyle by Rodger L. Tarr

Brissot De Warville and the Franco-American Press by Madeleine B. Stern

John Miller: First Transatlantic Publisher's Agent by James J. Barnes

Mrs. Stowe's Income from the Serial Version of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Susan Geary

Edna St. Vincent Millay's Afterthoughts on the Translation of Baudelaire by Joan St. Clair Crane

Additions and Corrections to the Second Edition of Donald Wing's Short-Title Catalogue by Clinton Sisson and Jeri S. Smith

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The Gentleman's Magazine in the Folger Library: The History and Significance of the Nichols Family Collection
by
James M. Kuist

"When this marvellous library is finally housed in the white marble building in Washington, it will arouse the enthusiasm of scholars. No one knows today exactly what it contains. There will be surprises innumerable. Hidden in the profound depths of this collection there will be, I am sure, much new material. . . ." A. S. W. Rosenbach, "Henry C. Folger as a Collector," Henry C. Folger, 18 June 1857 11 June 1930 (New Haven, 1931), p. 105.

Among the treasures hidden until now at the Folger Shakespeare Library is a set of the Gentleman's Magazine which for many years was maintained by the editors as a special file copy.[1] Evidence gathered from several collections of Nichols family documents and other sources makes it possible to trace the passage of this important run of volumes through successive generations of the family and through the subsequent owners, an English provincial book dealer and the Renaissance scholar Dr. T. N. Brushfield, into the hands of Henry C. Folger. The volumes in this collection contain extensive editorial annotation, including identifications of hundreds of the magazine's anonymous contributors. Tipped or bound into many volumes are manuscript letters, color drawings for the engraved plates, the original wrappers of monthly numbers, copies of pamphlets and booksellers' catalogues, and other materials related to the magazine's publication. Because this set of volumes served as the file in which the Nichols family collected such documentation, it possesses unique evidential value for scholarship on the history of the Gentleman's Magazine and constitutes a major source of information which has not hitherto been utilized in scholarship on the literary history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The connection between the Nichols family and the Gentleman's Magazine spanned three-quarters of a century. In 1778, John Nichols (1745-1826)

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purchased a half-interest in the proprietorship from the heir of Richard Cave, the founder's nephew.[2] David Henry remained the nominal editor until he officially made over the position and its salary to Nichols in 1791.[3] Nichols, however, had long since assumed most of the responsibilities of management, and it was fully appropriate that those who corresponded with him during the 1780's referred to the Gentleman's as "your magazine."[4] His son, John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863), joined the firm in 1796, and "among his duties, from an early age, was that of assisting in the editorship of this Magazine. . . ."[5] John Gough Nichols (1806-1873) entered the business in 1824. After his grandfather's death, he began "to take an active part in the editorial management of The Gentleman's Magazine, to which he had already been an occasional contributor" (Memoir, p. 5). The professional pattern of three successive generations in the Nichols family thus reflects a high degree of continuity, and after the death of John Nichols there was to be no lessening of the family's involvement in the affairs of the magazine. In 1833, in fact, Bowyer Nichols acquired all the shares in the proprietorship which had remained outside the family, though he left the editorial duties to his son and other associates.[6] J. G. Nichols edited the magazine alone from 1851 until the middle of 1856, when his father sold it to John Henry Parker (Memoir, p. 16). Although the family officially ended its association with the Gentleman's Magazine at that time, its identification with the history of this periodical could scarcely be terminated. Among the works first featured by Parker when he assumed control was J. G. Nichols' "Autobiography of Sylvanus Urban," a long account of the magazine up to 1754,[7] and today

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the scholar who wishes to study the history of the Gentleman's will find that the extant collections of Nichols family papers are among the primary resources.

John Nichols' entrance into the magazine's affairs is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the increasing number of references to him among the annotations in volumes at the Folger. Volume XLIX (1779) reveals with singular immediacy the early details of Nichols' part in publishing the Gentleman's Magazine, for throughout this volume his name and that of David Bond are written on the first pages of the sheets which they respectively printed. Bond had been printing the magazine for several years under his lease of David Henry's printing shop at St. John's Gate.[8] In June, 1778, Henry informed Bond that Nichols would be printing half of each monthly number until the lease expired in 1780, since Nichols now owned that proportion of the proprietorship. Because the control of folding and stitching had come to Nichols with the shares he possessed, he assembled the printed sheets; Bonds' copy had to be farmed out and his printing collected each month. For Nichols, the arrangement must have been inconvenient at best, and for Bond it was definitely undesirable. His annoyance led him to publish a pamphlet bitterly reproaching Nichols and Henry in 1781. Although the world was thus told how the printing was handled during this interval, few people besides the printers and their immediate associates would have known which sheets had come from which shop, and probably only the principals themselves would have cared to write down that information in a volume of the published magazine. The notations in Vol. XLIX at the Folger are in the handwriting of either John Nichols or his son, and they provide unique information about this episode.[9]

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Although annotations in the Folger volumes allow one to observe closely Nichols' emergence as the magazine's printer and editor, such evidence seems to have been supplied for the most part by his son. The frequent identifications of Nichols as the author of prefaces, editorial statements, and pseudonymous articles are usually in the handwriting of Bowyer Nichols, and he himself appears to have added only occasional annotation.[10] In view of his editorial habits, it is nearly inconceivable that Nichols did not keep a well-annotated file copy close at hand as he undertook the direction of this important periodical. His major study of Hogarth, his Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, and other characteristic works assumed their eventual length through his painstaking accumulation of notes in file copies over many years. However, no set of the magazine bearing the kind of annotation one imagines Nichols to have made was in his library or his son's or his grandson's when they were sold in the course of the nineteenth century, and no such set is known to exist today. One is left to speculate that John Nichols' personal collection of the Gentleman's Magazine was destroyed in the fierce fire which consumed his printing office and warehouses in 1808. The account of the fire which Nichols published in the magazine that year (pt. i [Jan.-June], pp. 99-100) does not specifically report the status of whatever editorial files he then maintained. If he kept a file copy in "the Dwelling-house, which, though it had an immediate communication with the other buildings, was providentially preserved from destruction," such a collection would have escaped the fire. "A considerable number of valuable books" were preserved because they were housed there, including "a single copy of several of the articles that formed the stock in trade, and a matchless collection of early printed

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News-papers, which Mr. N. had for many years with great trouble and expense been collecting and arranging." It is more likely, however, that his file collection of the Gentleman's Magazine would have been located for convenience of reference in the printing office, along with the materials for other works in progress, such as the new edition of the Anecdotes of Bowyer. "The whole of Six Portions of Mr. Nichols's Leicestershire and the Entire Stock of the Gentleman's Magazine from 1782 to 1807" were, like the revised Anecdotes, "irrecoverably lost." When Nichols' library was sold at auction after his death, the only set of the magazine it contained was a run of volumes beginning with that for 1808.[11] If Nichols' personal collection through the volume for 1807 was indeed destroyed by fire, his loss was soon alleviated through a bequest from Richard Gough (1735-1809), his closest editorial associate besides his son, and a man whose interests and habits were perhaps nearer his own than those of any other person.[12] Gough's will left to Nichols his "corrected" set of the Gentleman's Magazine.[13] Most and perhaps all of the first fifty-two volumes in the Nichols family collection at the Folger Library were drawn from this set which John Nichols inherited from Richard Gough.

The provenance of these volumes is established by the presence of Gough's bookplate and by annotation in his hand.[14] The bookplate appears

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in only twelve volumes,[15] but there are reasons to believe that it must once have been present in most of the others before Vol. LIII (1783). Those containing his bookplate belong to a group of forty-two[16] which have undergone a common rebinding, and in two of them (XXXIII [1763] and XLI [1771]) the bookplate has been covered by the front pastedown. Since there are annotations in his hand in all but three of the rebound volumes after that for 1752 (and in these three there is virtually no annotation[17]), it seems likely that his bookplate was removed or obliterated in the rebinding of most of these volumes. It was perhaps once present also in six volumes before that for 1752 which are in the rebound group but which (like those from the same period still bearing the bookplate) contain little or no annotation in his hand, perhaps because they were published during his youth.[18] Beginning in Vol. XXII (1752), Gough's volumes contain the kind of annotation which one might expect a reader with his interests to have made in his copy of each monthly number as it appeared. He devoted attention particularly to the monthly lists of births, marriages, preferments, and deaths. Notations in his hand provide additional information and correct inaccuracies, and the lists are routinely marked with an elaborate system of checks, crosses, and lines, usually with the same stroke and shade of ink as the notations. Certain notations indicate that he returned to the lists to add information later in the century.[19] Gough evidently shared John Nichols' view that one of the most valuable functions of the Gentleman's

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Magazine was its preservation of historical and biographical data,[20] and his efforts to verify and extend such data in his own volumes must have enhanced their value to the Nichols family. Gough's volumes also contain annotation of other kinds. He wrote comments on articles which interested him, particularly those on antiquarian subjects, often adding evidence or giving references to other publications in the field.[21] When his own articles and reviews of his works appeared in the magazine he of course devoted special attention to them, writing comments in his copy and carefully correcting typographical errors.[22] From time to time, Gough identified or guessed at the identities of other contributors.[23] Containing such pertinent and interesting additions, the early run of volumes from Richard Gough provided the Nichols family with a suitably substantial foundation for their own collection.

Various factors suggest that the volumes after that for 1782 in the Folger Library are a series maintained entirely within the Nichols family which escaped destruction in 1808. In 1783, John Nichols inaugurated a major change in the Gentleman's Magazine, nearly doubling the number of pages each month in order to accommodate an increasing body of

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contributed articles.[24] In effect, he began a new series, for, though the policy of numbering volumes on a yearly basis was continued, each volume was now to be bound in two parts with separate title-pages. Whatever holdings the Nichols family had in back numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine, it seems reasonable to assume that the family set aside an adequate supply of duplicate copies from 1783 onward. The similarity of the bindings in this run of volumes at the Folger suggests continuity of ownership. None of these volumes underwent the rebinding which characterizes those from Gough's library.[25] None contain his bookplate. They do contain, as the earlier volumes do not, tipped-in letters to the editor and color drawings which presumably only the managing staff would have had on file. More significantly, Gough does not appear to have annotated these volumes: one does not find his calligraphic traits in the written notations, and the informational lists are not marked in the systematic way Gough marked his volumes. On the other hand, beginning in the volume for 1783, marginalia in the hand of Bowyer Nichols is the principal annotative feature of the collection at the Folger. At least some of his annotation was probably added before 1808, for on the front free endpaper of Vol. LXXI (1801), part 1 (Jan.-June), he noted that his identifications of certain contributing writers were inscribed "at the time, or nearly so, of publication." That the Nichols family collection at the Folger ends with the last volume to be published in his lifetime (though the family sold the set eleven years later[26]) suggests that Bowyer Nichols was its custodian during much of the nineteenth century. Very likely he began to maintain his own file copies when he became involved in editorial activity at the turn of the century, and if his collection was not a complete one by 1808 it doubtless included at least a continuous run of volumes from 1783 onward. Whatever its composition, Bowyer Nichols' own collection of the Gentleman's Magazine would have escaped the fire which devastated many of his father's holdings, for Bowyer was then the occupant of the dwelling house "providentially preserved from destruction."[26a] No document has as yet come to light explaining why certain of the volumes (but not others) inherited by John Nichols from Gough were incorporated into the collection which eventually came to the Folger Library. In view of the available evidence, however, a plausible explanation is that after the fire in 1808 a run of annotated volumes beginning with LIII in the

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possession of Bowyer Nichols represented the family's most important file of the magazine; that Gough's earlier volumes superseded any held by the family; and that John Nichols passed these volumes to his son in order to establish within the family as substantial a file as possible.

The nature and scope of Bowyer Nichols' annotation indicate that he devoted considerable effort to increasing the documentary value of the set of volumes which the Folger now owns. J. G. Nichols evidently made use of the set also, especially towards the middle of the nineteenth century, when as managing editor he was in a better position than his father was to provide current information about authorship.[27] The occasional corrections of obituary information in volumes from this period appear often to be his.[28] His critical remarks on antiquarian articles in volumes from the eighteenth century reveal that J. G. Nichols examined earlier portions of the collection as well. Indeed, the initials JGN written on the blank side of an engraved plate, in a large youthful scrawl quite different from the neat hand of his adult years, suggest that he discovered the collection at an early age.[29] It is clear that he consulted it while he was writing the "Autobiography of Sylvanus Urban." His annotations on VII (1737), 400-402, are obvious preparations for his remarks on that passage.[30] John Nichols may have made similar use of this set in preparing his own historical account of the magazine, and the occasional notations in his hand are evidence that he did consult it.[31] The annotation of Bowyer Nichols, however, is far more extensive than that of his father and his son. Notations in his hand call attention to certain bibliographical irregularities in the

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volumes from Gough's library,[32] and his identifications of anonymous writers occur as early as Vol. VIII (1738).[33] Though some of his annotation appears to have been added earlier,[34] much of it dates from the 1840's and 1850's. Bowyer Nichols was then carrying forward the work, begun by his father, of assimilating the vast numbers of letters and documents in the family's possession towards the seventeen volumes called Literary Anecdotes and Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, the last two of which (published in 1848 and in 1858) he edited alone. The care which Bowyer Nichols devoted to this task is evident in the condition of letters and documents which have found their way into the extant collections of Nichols family papers. The Columbia University collection, for instance, contains scores of documents which he either transcribed or annotated. Some of these annotations can be dated from the middle of the nineteenth century.[35] That this work was coordinated with his annotation of the set of the Gentleman's Magazine now at the Folger is suggested by a statement which he inscribed at the front of many of these volumes.[36] The statement, nearly always dated in 1847, establishes that he had made an exhaustive effort to identify the contributing writers, and at least in volumes which had been published during his childhood his identifications must have been based largely on documentary evidence rather than on personal recollection. Although he was by no means able to identify all of the magazine's writers—there had been thousands

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of contributors, and most of them preserved anonymity[37] —his annotations concerning authorship are frequent and illuminating. Where possible, he reasoned out the adoption of particular pseudonyms or initials: "M. C. S. is Rev W. Bagshaw Stevens (probably Magd Coll. Socius)"; "L E is Samuel Pegge."[38] Bowyer Nichols also provided in many places the kind of annotation which Richard Gough and J. G. Nichols made in these volumes—corrections of fact, additions of detail, cross-references, occasional remarks. His annotation went beyond theirs, however, in the assimilation of evidence concerning the history of the Gentleman's Magazine, and it is to Bowyer Nichols that we are most deeply indebted for the evidential value of this set of volumes.

This was not, of course, the only set of the Gentleman's Magazine which belonged to the Nichols family. Until the early 1850's, they kept, indeed, another complete set, a collection of the magazine "from its commencement, 1731 to 1854 boards, uncut, rare in this state." The set was offered by Sotheby in a special auction of items from Bowyer Nichols' library in 1856, along with one other interesting run of volumes: "the New Series, edited by the Rev. John Mitford, John Bruce, Esq. F. S. A., and J. G. Nichols, F. S. A. 1834 to 1855, 44 vol. bound for convenience of reference in 22 vol., perfect."[39] Five other sets of the magazine were listed in the catalogue of the remaining portions of Bowyer Nichols' library after he died: one run of volumes from 1731 through 1782, one from 1808 through 1833, one from 1824 through 1838, and two from 1824 through 1845.[40] The set of the Gentleman's Magazine now at the Folger was not, however, offered for sale from Bowyer Nichols' library. It was not to be sold until, after the death of J. G. Nichols, the family released for purchase a vast body of manuscript and printed materials relating to the history of the Gentleman's which appears to have been accumulating for three generations—letters to the editor, manuscripts and proof sheets, newspaper cuttings probably connected with the magazine's informational lists. One finds few such collections in the catalogues of his father's and grandfather's libraries. Although, like other nineteenth-century Englishmen, members of the Nichols family

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evidently regarded their libraries along with their other possessions as capital to be converted into cash estates, they took care that certain portions should be inherited intact. The opening bequest in Bowyer Nichols' will conveys to J. G. Nichols "my Illustrated Copies of the Works respectively called 'The History of Leicestershire' and 'The Beauties of England and Wales' and also all my Works or Writings in Manuscript and Collections of Correspondence whether bound in volumes or otherwise. . . ."[41] In addition, J. G. Nichols was to choose any printed books he wanted from his father's "private library" up to a value of £2000. When his own library was sold it contained at least one presentation copy from his father's personal collection, and several notebooks of Bowyer Nichols now at the Bodleian were purchased from J. G. Nichols' library.[42] The collection of the Gentleman's Magazine which Bowyer Nichols had so carefully annotated thus passed into the keeping of his son along with other valued works. J. G. Nichols took possession of it as a unique collection of the magazine. Among the various sets listed in the catalogues of the libraries of John, Bowyer, and J. G. Nichols, this set is the only one advertised as containing annotation and inserted materials.

The collection passed from J. G. Nichols to Dr. T. N. Brushfield by a circuitous route. It was offered at auction by Sotheby as lot no. 774 on the third day's sale of J. G. Nichols' library in December, 1874.[43] The catalogue listed it separately from three other sets, which were offered

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on the seventh day of the sale.[44] According to the auctioneer's copy of the catalogue, it fetched £12, a modest price considering the intrinsic value of the set, but one of the higher amounts achieved during the auction.[45] Although Quaritch, Pickering, and other major London book dealers were present, the successful bidder was a man named Pratt, who bought items every day of the sale and was one of the major purchasers.[46] Pratt's name appears at only one other sale in the auctioneer's catalogues for this period. He bought a number of porcelains at the next auction after that of J. G. Nichols' library.[47] The infrequency of his attendance and the nature of his purchases suggest that Pratt was a dealer in old books and antiques who came to the London market to make occasional acquisitions suitable to the provincial trade. Though little information about him is available, two facts can be ascertained: in the mid-1880's, Pratt had a store on High Street in Guildford, Surrey; and at some time before June, 1882, Dr. Brushfield, who was at the time director of the Brookwood Asylum, near Guildford, bought this set of the Gentleman's Magazine from him.[48]

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The details of Brushfield's purchase of the Nichols collection are provided in a note which Dr. Brushfield tipped inside the back cover of Vol. I:

Gents Mag. At the sale of the Library of the late Mr ——— Nichols at Sothebys. Lot 774—consisting of the Gentlemans Magazine from its commencement in 1731 to June 1863, with Indexes ['to 1844' deleted].—(wanting vol 4 & 42). in all 218 vols. with "portraits and plates, and numerous MS. notes and portraits inserted" was purchased by a Guildford furniture dealer & for £ . He subsequently sold the Index vols . . . years after he had bought it. I saw some of the vols packed away in chests of drawers & misc. ['art' del.] art. of furniture.— No bookseller had seen it, he told me, — it was much in his way and would I purchase it—['I gave him' del.] I bought it, and it may be accepted as an evidence of its value when I state that on subsequently showing one of the vols to a bookbuyer for one of the largest 2nd hand book dealers, he offered me three times the price I paid for it— which I declined

It is fortunate for the modern scholar that Dr. Brushfield, apparently quite by accident, came across the Nichols collection in Pratt's shop within a few years of the Sotheby auction. Very likely, if Brushfield had not bought it, the set would have deteriorated badly or would have become dispersed. Brushfield, on the other hand, was an ideal custodian. Noting that the "Historical Chronicle" for April was missing from Vol. VI (1736), he inserted a fair copy of these pages.[49] As documentation of provenance, he tipped inside the front cover of Vol. I a slip quoting the Sotheby catalogue description of the set. Although he does not appear to have added his own annotation to these volumes, he did consult them closely enough to compile information about the numerous articles by Richard Gough which Bowyer Nichols had identified.[50] Dr. Brushfield recognized not only the authenticity of the collection but also its potential importance for scholarship about the Gentleman's Magazine. In the early 1880's, when Sir Laurence Gomme's massive Gentleman's Magazine Library began to appear, Brushfield let him know that the Nichols annotated volumes were available. Gomme was reprinting the articles from the Gentleman's which he considered most significant, and in his preface to the volume Dialects, Proverbs, and Word-Lore (1884) he acknowledged Brushfield's offer of help in establishing the identities of the writers whose work he selected.

After the death of Dr. Brushfield, the Nichols collection of the Gentleman's Magazine was once again offered to the public, this time by James G. Commin, a bookseller in Exeter. Presumably Commin had served Dr. Brushfield often enough during the previous thirty-odd years, while Brushfield was living nearby at Budleigh-Salterton. When Brushfield died (28 Nov. 1910), Commin purchased his entire library of 10,000 volumes from

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the executors and advertised it during 1911 in a series of five catalogues.[51] The annotated volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine from the Nichols family are listed in item no. 772 of the first catalogue.[52] Commin priced the collection at £25, more than twice the amount paid at the Sotheby auction, but the collection now included various related materials in addition to the volumes of the magazine proper. At some time, Dr. Brushfield had acquired independently of Pratt's run of volumes "5 thick 4to volumes of MS. obituary notices" compiled by Bowyer Nichols, a set so interesting to bidders at the Sotheby auction in 1874 that it had fetched £26.[53] He had also acquired, perhaps in part from Pratt,[54] "several thousand letters addressed to the editor principally from well known archaeologists." The volumes of obituary notices and the manuscript letters (stored in "a large tea-chest") enhanced the documentary richness of the collection, though the rather long description of this item in the catalogue called attention primarily to the provenance and the unique properties of the volumes of the magazine itself. The offering was altogether a very attractive one, and in the summer of 1911 Henry C. Folger responded by getting the collection for his own growing library.[55]

A century has elapsed since this set of the Gentleman's Magazine first passed from the Nichols family into other hands. While they maintained it, the set possessed for successive generations of the family considerably more than sentimental value. The early volumes, it is true, came from the library of an old family friend, but these were not to be filed away, like the run of volumes with uncut pages sold in 1856, in a passive state of preservation. Gough's volumes and those which were added to his became the central repository within the family for documentary information about this periodical. The annotations which members of the family were in a unique position to make they made in these volumes, and they returned to this set for reference when they wished to ascertain facts about

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the history of the Gentleman's Magazine. During the past century, this important collection has been virtually unnoticed in scholarship on the English periodical. Although Dr. Brushfield treasured it and Sir Laurence Gomme knew of it, the set has remained in obscurity, and its credentials have never been recognized clearly by anyone outside of the Nichols family. In its various bindings and with its assortment of different editions in the earliest volumes, this set appears to have little particular bibliographical significance, to be in fact like many another run of volumes currently available.[56] Retaining as it does, however, the significance of special editorial attention over so many years, the set of the Gentleman's Magazine in the Folger Library is unparalleled in authenticity and unequaled in its potential value to scholars.

Notes

[1]

The set in question includes all vols. through that for Jan.-June, 1863 (see n. 43, below). The next 11 vols. were added to those from the Nichols family by Dr. Brushfield. The rest of the Folger collection came from other sources. My research on the background of this collection has been generously supported by the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Folger Library, and the University of Wisconsin. I am grateful for this support and for the helpfulness of Dr. Michael Kassler, at whose suggestion I first examined the Folger volumes.

[2]

The details of this transaction are reviewed in my monograph The Works of John Nichols, An Introduction (1968), p. 8 ff.

[3]

The letter making this assignment is now at Columbia University, in Spec. MS. Coll. Nichols. Henry (d. 1792) did not date the letter, but the year is written at the top of the sheet, probably in the hand of Bowyer Nichols, who wrote on an attached leaf, "A Letter from Mr Henry to Mr Nichols Written not a great while before his Death." The letter is printed in Edward L. Hart's Minor Lives (1971), p. 234.

[4]

Typical of such letters are those in Nichols' Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century (1817-18) from George Steevens (V, 443), Joseph Warton (VI, 172), and Thomas Percy (VI, 567).

[5]

Gentleman's Magazine, CCXV (Jul.-Dec., 1863), 794. This obituary of Bowyer Nichols (pp. 794-798) was written by his son, J. G. Nichols. See the Memoir of the Late John Gough Nichols, F. S. A. (1874), p. 2, written by Robert Cradock Nichols (J. G. Nichols' brother).

[6]

For information concerning the proprietorship, see the Gentleman's Magazine, CCXV, 794. Bowyer Nichols' account-book, in which the names of various associate editors and contributors during this period are recorded, is now at the Bodleian (MS. Top. Gen. e. 34).

[7]

See CCI (Jul.-Dec., 1856), 3-9, 131-140, 267-277, 531-541, 667-677; and CCII (Jan.-June, 1857), 3-10, 149-157, 282-290, 379-387. J. G. Nichols is identified as author of this study in the Memoir of John Gough Nichols, p. 17.

[8]

Bond's arrangement with Henry and the new one with Henry and Nichols are reviewed in great detail in Bond's pamphlet referred to below: FRIENDSHIP Strikingly exhibited in a New Light, in LETTERS between Messrs. D. HENRY and J. NICHOLS, Managing Proprietors of the Gentleman's Magazine, and D. BOND, Late Printer of that Monthly Miscellany (London, 1781).

[9]

The similarity in stroke and shade of ink suggests that these notations all came from the same pen. They are phrased in the formula "Printed by" + name or initials of Nichols or Bond. They appear to have been scrawled hastily, perhaps sequentially, and the hand is not clearly identifiable. Though this vol. originally belonged to Richard Gough and presumably was in his library in 1779, the hand does not appear to be his (see n. 14, below). The notations do contain calligraphic traits of John and Bowyer Nichols. The capital P, formed typically with a line under the stem and an unattached loop above, is identical to that written in mid-nineteenth-century documents by Bowyer Nichols, and it is unlike the letter as formed by John Nichols. But the capital N is distinctly like John Nichols' and unlike Bowyer's: the middle stroke heavy and looped at the bottom, the final stroke a flourish sometimes curving downward to or beneath the line. When I have completed the systematic study I am now making of the entire range of annotation in these vols., it may be possible to assign these notations confidently.

[10]

The assignment of annotation is complicated by certain factors. Because most notations were written in the irregular spaces left on the printed page, the calligraphic traits of the writers did not always emerge. These traits naturally underwent modification as time passed, and in studying the manuscript letters of Bowyer Nichols, particularly, one notices such changes (see n. 34, below). A further complicating factor is that the Nichols men and Gough had rather distinct private and fair hands. And finally whereas each of the annotators had individual calligraphic traits, they shared others. In general, the hands of the Nichols men became increasingly neater, clearer, and smaller in stroke with each generation. Their writing tends to slant towards the right, though John Nichols' stroke is less slanted than his son's and less regular than his grandson's. John Nichols tended to run words together; Bowyer and J. G. Nichols usually did not. One annotation, in Vol. LV (1785), pt. ii (Jul.-Dec.), p. 835, is certainly his: in the obituary of Mrs. Anne Power, he added at the reference to her "friends" the phrase "(I was one)." Here, the words are run together and the note is signed. The identification of "J. R." as "Mr John Robinson" in XXXVII (1767), 499, seems to be in his hand (and the names are run together). The identification of him as "Eugenio" in L (1780), 20, is probably by Nichols himself, for the capital N is his (see n. 9, above). See also the attribution to him of the narrative on the London riots in 1780 (L, 369). The signature J. Nichols on nearly every other occasion appears to be in the hand of Bowyer Nichols, and most of the annotation in these vols. is at least probably the work of Gough, Bowyer Nichols, or J. G. Nichols.

[11]

There were two auctions, on 16 April and 8 May 1828 (a further portion of his library was sold with that of another gentleman on 5 May). The set of the Gentleman's Magazine was lot no. 716 in the Sotheby catalogue of the second auction. No annotation of these vols. is mentioned.

[12]

Letters now in the Nichols collection at Columbia University, which is largely composed of family papers, refer often to Gough's personal and professional activities. John Nichols' account of Gough and of their association (an autobiographical statement by Gough considerably enlarged through Nichols' additions, corrections, and commentary) appears in Literary Anecdotes (1812-1815), VI, 262-343, 613-626.

[13]

Some years before his death, Gough spoke of leaving Nichols his copy of the Anecdotes of Bowyer, "enriched by his own notes, and filled with the epistolary correspondence of many eminent persons, selected for the illustration of these 'Anecdotes'" (Literary Anecdotes, I, xii). He was concerned that Nichols would not have sufficient time for the projected Literary Anecdotes, and his annotated volume was meant to serve as a supplementary file copy for the project. Gough was deeply disturbed over Nichols' losses in the fire of 1808 (Literary Anecdotes, VI, 315). Thus far, I have found in Gough's papers no evidence of long-standing plans to leave Nichols his set of the magazine, but if indeed Nichols' own set was suddenly destroyed Gough would doubtless have recognized the importance of putting a well-annotated collection at his disposal. Gough's set of the magazine and his copy of the Anecdotes of Bowyer are mentioned jointly as a special bequest in Nichols' resume of Gough's will (Literary Anecdotes, VI, 330). Gough's set is described as "corrected" in the index to Literary Anecdotes (VII, 147).

[14]

I have identified Gough's hand primarily through his usage of raised letters in abbreviating words and of the device y=th (neither is a characteristic usage of John, Bowyer, or J. G. Nichols); and through his forming of the number 8. In Gough's hand, the latter begins at the upper right of the top loop and ends in a straight stroke which usually leaves the top loop unclosed. Bowyer and J. G. Nichols began the number at the upper left of the bottom loop, ending at the lower right of the top loop, usually leaving both loops unclosed; John Nichols usually formed the number 8 this way but closed both loops. Gough's number 5 and capital D are also usually distinct from those of the Nichols men. Gough's most distinctive writing is hurried and irregular in stroke, possessing no rightward slant like that of the Nichols men. He seems at times to have written in a fairer and smaller hand like that of J. G. Nichols. Certain notations on antiquarian matters in vols. from the eighteenth century are difficult to assign to either of the two annotators except where reference to recent activities of the Society of Antiquaries incline the balance toward Gough.

[15]

VIII (1738)-XI (1741), XIII (1743)-XVII (1747), XXXIII (1763), XXXVI (1766), and XLI (1771). On the bookplate in VIII is written "W. T. Stafford" in a hand I cannot identify. The notation may indicate where Gough acquired vols. published before he became a subscriber.

[16]

VII (1737)-XLI (1771), XLIII (1773), XLV (1775)-XLIX (1779), and LI (1781).

[17]

XL (1770), XLVI (1776), and XLVIII (1778). In the first of these, the only annotation I have found is the correction of one page reference in an index; in the second there are a few marginal checkmarks; in the third I have found no annotation at all.

[18]

VII (1737), XII (1742), and XVIII (1748)-XXI (1751).

[19]

Gough's later additions to the lists usually indicated the date of death. See, for instance, XXXI (1761), 284, where Gough noted, opposite a reference to the marriage of the Rev. Dr. Winchester, "[died] & his books were sold 1783."

[20]

Nichols' comments on the subject are to be found in his preface to Vol. LXIV (1794). In the historical sketch prefixed to Vol. III (London, 1821) of the General Index to the Gentleman's Magazine, he quoted the passage among those which reflected his attitudes about the magazine.

[21]

The earliest annotation certainly by Gough that I have found is a long comment written in the outer margin of XX (1750), 306, in reference to an antique vase on display in France. Gough took care to cross-reference articles which interested him—as the location of later topographical items noted in XXV (1755), 157. In the same vol., p. 104, he noted that a figure described by a contributor here had been displayed at the Society of Antiquaries in 1750. And on p. 360 he noted that a "correcter acct & drawing" were to be found in the number for "May. 1757. p. 220." See also, at the printed reference to Derby's edition of a commentary on the Four Evangelists, in XLVII (1777), 183, Gough's notation, citing Boswell's Life (1791), that Johnson had aided Derby in this work.

[22]

See, for instance, the corrections of typographical errors in the article by "D. H." in XXXIX (1769), 122. The article is not attributed to Gough at the Folger but the signature was his during this period (Literary Anecdotes, VI, 271). The anonymous review of Nichols' Alien Priories, XLIX (1779), 552-553, which is assigned to him by an annotator (probably Bowyer Nichols) was also corrected. The review of his own enlarged edition of British Topography, in L (1780), 377-380, was obviously read closely by the person who annotated it so carefully in the Folger copy—probably Gough, taking note of the reviewer's comments towards a revision of this work. The annotation of an article by "R. G." in XLVII (1777), 60-61, attributed to him (probably by Bowyer Nichols) in the Folger copy, is an interesting response by the author to his work and its reception. The typographical errors are corrected. In addition, a statement by "T. Cato" about the controversy aroused by the article is doubly recorded, once in a note written on a slip tipped to p. 61 (evidently copied by John Nichols from another source and sent to Gough), once by Gough himself in the margin.

[23]

See, for instance, the assignments (probably in his hand) of an article to John Thorpe, Esq., in XXIX (1759), 269; of a poem to Mrs. Rowe, in XXXIX (1769), 503; of an essay by "Q. E. D." to Dr. Franklin, in XLIII (1773), 441-445.

[24]

On Nichols' reasons for increasing the length of the monthly number, see his comments in the General Index, III, lix.

[25]

Twelve of the Folger volumes after LII have been rebound or repaired, but in material and workmanship these rebindings are distinct from that of the vols. from Gough.

[26]

When it was sold in December, 1874, the set ended with Vol. CCXIV (Jan.-June, 1863). See n. 43, below. Bowyer Nichols died on 19 October 1863.

[26a]

See the Memoir of John Gough Nichols, p. 2.

[27]

See, for instance, the identifications written in his hand in N. S. XLIV (Jul.-Dec., 1855), 562.

[28]

See, for instance, N. S. XXXVIII (Jul.-Dec., 1852), 111. Cf. Vol. XCIX (1829), pt. ii (Jul-Dec.), 279; and N. S. X (Jul.-Dec., 1838), 294 and 596.

[29]

The plate faces the Oct. titlepage in Vol. XLI (1771). For an example of his adult notations in eighteenth-century vols., see the comment signed JGN in XXXIX (1769), 439.

[30]

The passages marked with lines in the margins of Vol. VII are precisely those he quotes and cites in CCI (Jul.-Dec., 1856), 537. Furthermore, the notations (which are in his hand) represent his collation of this text of the speech with another text; a comparison of the reporting of speeches in the London and Gentleman's magazines is one of the subjects treated by J. G. Nichols in 1856.

[31]

For John Nichols' annotation of this set, see n. 10, above. His historical sketch (see n. 20, above) was published in 1821. Thus far, I have found in the Folger volumes only one passage where the annotation may represent John Nichols' research for the historical sketch: the preface to Vol. XLIV (1774). The pencilled notations here are nearly illegible and difficult to identify on calligraphic grounds. However, lines indicating that certain passages are to be run together and a note identifying the "late first magistrate" suggest that someone was preparing to make use of the preface in another context. Though Nichols does not quote the passage in the historical sketch, this is among the yearly prefaces which he singles out for comment, and he refers pointedly to the content of the marked passage.

[32]

See, for instance, his annotation in XXII (1752), facing p. [589] and in XXIV (1754) following plate 13 in the Baronets' Arms series at the end of the vol. Plates 14 through 24 in this series had been bound in the earlier vol.

[33]

On p. 232, a notation in his hand identifies William Guthrie as author of the anonymous article "The apotheosis of milton." The article appeared in several installments: 232-235, 469, 521-522; IX (1739), 20-21, and 73-75.

[34]

The annotation in Vol. LIV (1784), pt. ii (Jul.-Dec.), p. 557; Vol. LXI (1791), pt. i (Jan.-June), p. 485; and certain other places, is in a hand unlike that of the signed statement in numerous vols. (see n. 36, below) which Bowyer Nichols inscribed in 1847. Most of the annotation which can be assigned to him is in the latter hand. The annotation I call attention to here, however, is very similar to the hand in certain letters by Bowyer Nichols from the early 1820's now in the Columbia University collection. See also his comment in Vol. LXXI (1801) referred to above.

[35]

See, for instance, the MS memo on the accident in which John Nichols broke a thigh, part of which is a note by Bowyer Nichols dated 25 May 1849; the bound vol. "Tributes to the memory of J. Nichols.— 1826," which contains a list prepared by Sarah Nichols of writers alluding to the death of Nichols, brought up to 1846 by Bowyer Nichols, whose copy of the list rather than Sarah's original is in the vol.; the MS "A View of the Character of Mr J Nichols as it appeared to me when in 1799, he published his [ ] of Bishop Atterbury's Works. B Nichols 1858."

[36]

The statement, usually written on the recto of the front free endpapers, appears in most of the half-yearly parts from 1783 through 1819; in Vol. XCIII (1823), pt. i (Jan.-June); and in Vol. XCVIII (1828), pt. ii (Jul.-Dec.).

[37]

In a forthcoming book on the attention to literature in the Gentleman's Magazine during the eighteenth century, I discuss the articles and notes of about a thousand contributors, at least two-thirds of whom used pseudonyms or initials. As Richard Gough's favorite signature "D. H." (see n. 22, above) and Samuel Pegge the Younger's "L. E." illustrate, "initials" could be used as elusively as a pseudonym could; the signatures are really the terminal letters of their names.

[38]

I quote the identifications from the front free endpaper of Vol. LVI (1786), pt. i (Jan.-June), and from the back free end-paper of Vol. LXI (1791), pt. i (Jan.-June).

[39]

Catalogue of the auction of 11 and 12 July 1856, lots 15 and 16. At an earlier Sotheby auction of books from his library, in 1843, nothing relating to the Gentleman's Magazine was offered.

[40]

Sotheby catalogues of the auction of 24 May 1864 and 6 days ff., lot 337; and of the auction of 19 Dec. 1864 and 3 days ff., lots 1027-1029.

[41]

The will, which may be consulted at Somerset House, is dated 19 July 1860. It was sworn at the Stamp Office in July 1864.

[42]

The presentation copy, a specially printed biographical sketch of J. B. Swaine given by Swaine to Bowyer Nichols, was offered as lot 2506 in the Sotheby catalogue for the auction of J. G. Nichols' library in 1874. The notebooks in question, offered as lot 2610, were bought by the Bodleian at that sale (see the index of Western MSS., entry nos. 30499-30501, and also the marked Bodleian copy of the catalogue, Mus. Bibl. III. 8°. 636) and are now catalogued as MS. Eng. misc. d. 19-21.

[43]

"GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE from the Commencement in 1731 to June 1863, with INDEXES to 1844, 7 vol. (wanting vol. 4 and 42) portraits and plates, and numerous MS. notes and portraits inserted, 218 vol.; 141 vol. uniformly bound, half calf; Indexes, half russia; the others, variously bound." The information given here about the number of vols. is ambiguous. 213 separately bound yearly and half-yearly vols. of the magazine had been published up to July, 1863. The vol. for Jan.-June, 1863, was numbered CCXIV, but because for some reason the number CC had been left out of the sequence this was actually the 213th vol. (for a concise summary of information about the vol. numbers of this periodical, see the Library of Congress printed cards). Thus, 5 index vols. must have originally been included in the 218-vol. set. As the following discussion shows, Brushfield bought the set without these index vols. He acquired separately the four-vol. General Index and a one-vol. List of Plates (both works bear the book-plate of John S. Pakington); 5 vols. of MS obituary notices (see n. 52, below); and 11 additional vols. of the magazine, from CCXV (Jul.-Dec., 1863) through CCXXV (Jul.-Dec., 1868). These vols. and the 213 vols. of the magazine from the library of J. G. Nichols constituted the 234-vol. collection sold from Brushfield's library in 1911.

[44]

Lots 2322-2324. At two other Sotheby auctions of remaining portions of J. G. Nichols' library, in 1879 and 1892, numerous MS collections relating to the Gentleman's Magazine were offered, but no other sets of the magazine itself.

[45]

According to my notes on information in the auctioneer's catalogue, which is at the British Museum, only 19 of the 2860 lots fetched the same or a higher price. In the catalogues of other auctions from this period, one finds that sets of the Gentleman's Magazine were not infrequently offered, often more uniform and in better condition than the one Pratt bought. Perhaps this explains why the bidding stopped at £12.

[46]

He bought 93 lots for a total of £104. 17s. According to my notes, Quaritch (who bought 72 lots for £151. 9s. 6d.) and Walford (125, for £83. 18s.) are the two other purchasers most frequently mentioned in the auctioneer's catalogue.

[47]

Auction of the "property of a gentleman removed from Finchley," 14 Dec. 1874.

[48]

The information on Pratt's business is found in The Directory of Second-hand Booksellers and List of Public Libraries, British and Foreign, ed. James Clegg (1888), p. 9. According to the DNB, Brushfield, a doctor of medicine specializing in treatment of the insane, was appointed medical superintendent of Brookwood Asylum in 1865, while the institution was still being planned, and was there until his retirement in 1882, when he took up residence at Budleigh Salterton. In Vol. VI (1736) at the Folger, the fair copy of the "Historical Chronicle" for April (see n. 49, below) is accompanied by a letter to Brushfield from the copyist dated "B. A. | 2nd June 1882." If "B. A." means Brookwood Asylum, it is likely that the copyist was sending this material from there to Brushfield, already in retirement in Devon. Obviously, the set of the magazine had by then been in Brushfield's possession for at least a short time. The free endpapers of several vols. from the 1770's have retained the reverse impression of a letterhead: "Brookwood Asylum | Near Woking Station | Surrey 188." Woking is about 5 miles from Guildford. It would seem that Brushfield kept certain notes about the collection on paper with this letterhead, and, if so, he was studying these vols. at some time after 1880. His note on the provenance of the set (see below) suggests that several years had elapsed between Pratt's purchase, at the end of 1874, and his own.

[49]

Everything in the April number after p. 228 was missing, including the monthly lists.

[50]

Brushfield's notations about Gough's work are written on the lower portion of the sheet tipped inside the back cover of Vol. I.

[51]

Commin catalogues 274-278. General information about Dr. Brushfield's library and Commin's acquisition of it appears on p. 2 of No. 274.

[52]

Commin's description of this set is as follows: "A Complete Set from the commencement in 1731 to 1868, with four Index Volumes (1731-1818) and List of Plates, 1 vol. The Editor's (J. Gough Nicholls) own set, with additional plates inserted, and MS. notes, also 5 thick 4to volumes of MS. obituary notices, together 234 vols, half calf, some bindings rough. . . ."

[53]

The set (lot 1412) was bought by "Tovey," according to the auctioneer's copy of the Sotheby catalogue.

[54]

Among Pratt's acquisitions at the Nichols auction was lot 235, a bundle of autograph letters. More important lots of MSS, however, went to other bidders, including lot 1378, "a large bundle" of "Manuscripts, Antiquarian, Genealogical, Topographical, &c. including many Autograph Letters addressed to the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine (several with drawings)" bought by [Sandars] for £2. 7s.

[55]

The approximate date of purchase is derived from records at the Folger concerning acquisition ("ca. July 1911") of the manuscripts which came with the set of the magazine.

[56]

Although I have not collated the Folger volumes with other sets of the magazine, I have examined it in light of the analysis of various collated collections of the first 24 vols. provided in William B. Todd's "A Bibliographical Account of The Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1754," Studies in Bibliography, 18 (1965), 81-109. Except in a few scattered cases, the bibliographical features of the Folger set appear to duplicate the range of variations noted in Todd's analysis. Like most of the sets on which Todd reports, this one is made up of numbers representing several different printings or editions in the first three vols., with fewer variations thereafter.