At John James’s death his foundry passed by purchase[421] into the hands of Mr. Rowe Mores,[422] a learned and eccentric antiquary and scholar, who had devoted himself, among other matters, to the study of typographical antiquities, a pursuit in which he received no little stimulus from the possession of a collection of punches and matrices, some of which were supposed to be as old as the days of Wynkyn de Worde. Whether any motive besides a pure antiquarian zeal prompted the purchase, or whether he held the collection in the capacity of trustee, is not known, but it {223} seems probable he had been intimately acquainted with the foundry and its contents for some time before James’s death. He speaks emphatically of it as “our” foundry, and his disposition of its contents for sale is made with the authority of an absolute proprietor. It does not appear, however, that during the six years of his possession any steps were taken to extend or even continue the old business, which we may assume to have died with its late owner. Mr. Mores found himself the owner of a vast confused mass of matrices, many of them unjustified, and others imperfect, which to an ordinary observer might have been summarily condemned as rubbish, but which he, with an enthusiasm quite remarkable, set himself to catalogue and arrange in order, considering himself amply repaid for his pains by the discovery of a few veritable relics of Wynkyn de Worde and other old English printers. The result of his labours he minutely relates in his _Dissertation_,[423] a work written, as he himself says, “to preserve the memory of this Foundry, the most ancient in the kingdom, and which may now be dispersed,” and intended as an introduction to the completed specimen of its contents. Despite its eccentric style and crabbed diction, the work, by virtue of its learning and acuteness, will always remain one of the most interesting contributions to the history of English typography. The condition of the foundry will be best described in its author’s own words. After giving a list of matrices lost,[424] and quoting a catalogue of the matrices of the learned languages in the foundry in 1767, written by James himself (which varies considerably from the Catalogue presented at the sale, to be given later on), he observes: “The specimen will show that several of the matrices are unjustified. This being but an accidental circumstance, does not in the least affect the goodness of the type, though it affects its appearance in _the casting_. The matrices were amassed at all events to augment the collection, and the operation of the file was suspended till a call for the type should make it necessary. So this defect is no more than a proof that the matrices have not been impaired by use.