224
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. SEPT. 20, 1913.
Patronage will undoubtedly ensure my success :
but I am far from hoping that you, Madam, will
give your Royal Sanction to a performance that
has no other merit to plead than ill-judg'd, tho'
Affectionate industry of a fond mother. If I have
attempted a task for which Nature never de-
signed me, it is just that disappointment should
teach me humility and wisdom, and I bow without
repining to the stroke."
The appeal was entirely successful. Queen Charlotte, who could speak only German, sent for Mary Collyer, who could speak only English, and therefore did not answer the summons. The obvious exposure of the deception probably reflected on James Dodsley as the principal bookseller asso- ciated with its publication. The title-page of the book is remarkably condensed, the imprint coming high on the page, so as to follow the words, " Attempted from the Oerman of Mr. Gessner."
George Nichol, who received a legacy of 1,OOOZ. from James Dodsley, his predecessor, made some important changes at "Tully's Head." The second-hand book trade be- came the principal feature of the business, .and at least for twenty years, as the King's Booksellers, G. & W. Nichol were the lead- ing firm. How much the Royal Library was indebted to the zeal of George Nichol is not clear. Edwards ( ' Lives of the Founders of the British Museum ') does not mention his name, but we know he was the purchas- ing agent at the principal sales ; and Dibdin ('Reminiscences,' pp. 348, 352) accurately re- presents Nichol' s position :
" Although it may be said to have been a divided Allegiance between the King and the Duke of Roxburghe, yet not only did he neglect neither, but "won and secured the attachment of both."
Perhaps the firm's greatest achievement in second - hand book - trading was the cataloguing of the Roxburghe Library. Although Evans was the auctioneer, and '" little Bill of Evans's " (i.e., William Upcott) had worked with wild enthusiasm, the impresario of this memorable sale was George Nichol. Beloe and Dibdin have told almost all we want to know of it, but we must regret that it was not the custom of i-he times to provide detailed descriptions of the rarer items. What a perpetual feast of delight this Catalogue would be if it re- sembled the Huth Catalogue in the fullness of its essential particulars !
As publishers the firm gained consider- able eminence, the result of their connexion with BoydelPs magnificent undertakings the Milton and the Shakespeare. I have before me acknowledgments of subscriptions
- f or the first - named work signed by both
the firms, so presumably the expensively
produced volumes were a joint risk. A still
greater tie united the two houses. George
Nichol married Alderman John Boydell's
niece Mary, sister of Josiah Boydell, and
her association with the building recently
demolished is an interesting memory.
Another reference to her husband, and I can conclude my note with some hitherto unpublished matter relating to her. Of G. & W. Nichol's correspondence I have, amongst various papers, a draft of a letter to George Canning, without date, in which they ask that the accompanying proof should be carefully read, as they have printed from the newspaper reports, with possibly many inaccuracies.
" But they shall now be happy to have all the Amendments followed, the press being standing, for certainly the speeches will then appear with the accuracy which they deserve."
George Nichol retired from business in 1825, and died in 1828 in his eighty-eighth year. For many years he lived " above the shop," and Dibdin (' Reminiscences,' pp. 348) gives some idea of his surroundings :
" Mr. Nichol had a sort of veneration for the dust which had settled round about him, and upon his books, in this quiet back-retreat. He told me he once caught the maid-servant bringing in the whole apparatus for a resolute dusting bout ; but enjoined her, on the penance of ' peine forte et dure,' not only to retreat, but never to think of entering the room again in her dusting accoutrements."
On his retirement his library was sold by auction, and a vellum copy of the Mazarin Bible was purchased by Messrs. Arch for Henry Perkins at 504Z. His son William Nichol, long a partner, ultimately pur- chased the business of W. Buhner & Co., the Shakespeare Press, and receives some notice in Dibdin' s ' Library Companion.'
Of Mary Nichol's correspondence ad- dressed from this house in Pall Mall, I have recently secured a very large collection. The letters are not all interesting, but the few brief extracts I have made are best prefaced with a letter that affords some information on this heroine of the book trade. I have not attempted either to rectify all its faults or to ascertain the identity of the writer. Old Ford, Jany. 7th, 1836.
g IRj The print which I herewith enclose is a rude representation of a remarkable event, in the Life of the late Mrs. Nichol (wife of Mr. N., Bookseller of Pall Mall) when Miss Boydell. At the point of time Mr. Elliot, a young surgeon, attempted to shoot her in Princes' Street [now Wardour Street], Leicester Square. For which desperate act he was tried at the Old Bailey,
