“I have put the last hand to my Great Primer, and have corrected fourteen letters in the specimen you were so kind to approve, and have made a good progress in the English, and have formed a new alphabet of Two-line Double Pica and Two-line Small Pica capitals for Titles, not one of which I can mend with a wish, as they come up to the most perfect idea I have of letters.” He then details his scheme for obtaining absolutely correct texts of the works he is about to print, as follows:― “ ’Tis this. Two people must be concerned; the one must name every letter, capital, point, reference, accent, etc., that is, in English, must spell every part of every word distinctly, and note down every difference in a book prepared on purpose. Pray oblige me in making the experiment with Mr. James Dodsley in four or five lines of {271} any two editions of an author, and you’ll be convinced that it’s scarcely possible for the least difference, even of a point, to escape notice. I would recommend and practise the same method in an English author, where most people imagine themselves capable of correcting. Here’s another great advantage to me in this humble scheme; at the same time that a proof sheet is correcting, I shall find out the least imperfection in any of the Types that has escaped the founder’s notice. I have great encomiums on my Specimen from Scotland.” The concluding sentence of this letter probably refers to the public announcement of the forthcoming quarto _Virgil_,[548] put forward about this time, together with a specimen of the type. This most interesting document, a very few copies of which still exist, is in the form of a quarto sheet, headed, “_A Specimen by John Baskerville, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Letter Founder and Printer_.” It displays the Roman and Italic of the Great Primer fount, and is remarkable not only as a piece of exquisite printing,[549] but as the first known specimen of the famous Birmingham foundry. The following letters refer principally to the progress and completion of the _Virgil_:― _Baskerville to R. Dodsley._ Birmingham, 20th December 1756.