It is interesting to note, before passing to the consideration of the work of the Whittinghams, that several of the great English printing houses whose names are familiar to all readers of books run back far into the eighteenth century. The Rivington house was established in 1711, Eyre and Spottiswoode not much later, Longmans in 1724, John Murray in 1768, William Blackwood & Son in 1804, A. C. Black in 1815, to mention only a few of the more familiar. In many cases these firm names have been several times changed, but the firms have maintained continuous existence. CHAPTER V THE WHITTINGHAMS AND THE MODERN BOOK Charles Whittingham, the elder, founder of the business which is now known as the Chiswick Press, was born in 1767. He began work as a printer in 1789 on a very small scale. His first work was small job work such as cards, letterheads, billheads, and the like. It was not until 1792 that he did any book work at all. His first job was part of an edition of Young’s “Night Thoughts.” It was not uncommon at this time for publishers to parcel out a book among a number of small printers, giving to each a certain number of signatures. Like his great predecessor Day, Whittingham started out doing printing as badly as anybody else. The work which he did on his first book order shows all the vices of the time. Fortunately for the art, Whittingham was not content to remain a poor printer, although he must have been perfectly aware that he was such. He early made the acquaintance of William Caslon, from whom he bought type and from whom he not improbably received typographical suggestions. In 1798 he published a book of a sort much in vogue at that period, called “Pity’s Gift.” In choice of type, design of title page, and other regards this book shows a great improvement over the work of previous years. It was illustrated and was the beginning of the long series of illustrated books for which the house afterwards became famous. The illustrations, however, were poor in themselves and poorly printed. Here again Whittingham began on a level with his contemporaries, but by study and labor raised himself far above that level.