PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS, 477 One of the most famous booksellers and printers of the West of England was Andrew Brice, who was born in Exeter in the year 1690. He was educated in early life with a view to the ministry, but family misfortunes obliged him to become apprentice to Bliss, a printer in that city. Long before the ex- piry of his apprenticeship the improvident young printer married, and, being unable to support a wife and two children upon the pittance he received, he enlisted as a soldier in order to break his indentures, and, by the interest of his friends, soon procured a discharge. He commenced business on his own account, and started a newspaper, but, possessing only one kind of type, he carved in wood the title and such capitals as he stood in need of. Becoming embarrassed through a law suit, in which heavy damages were cast against him, he was obliged to bar himself in his own house to escape the debtor's gaol. He spent seven long years in this domestic confinement, but still continued to conduct his busi- ness with assiduity, and, as a solace, to compose a poem, " On Liberty," the profits of which enabled him to compound with the keepers of the city prison. After regaining his freedom his business largely increased, and, in 1740, he set up a printing-press at Truro, the first introduced into Cornwall ; the miners were, however, at that time in little need of literature, and he soon removed the types to Exeter. Among his chief publications were the "Agreeable Galliman- fly; or, Matchless Medley," a collection of verses chiefly the production of his own pen; the " Mob-aid," so full of newly-coined words that, in Devonshire, " Bricisms " were for long synonymous with quaint novelty of expression ; and the folio " Geographical 303
