In 1760 Walpole wrote to Zouch, in reference to an edition of Lucan, 'Lucan is in poor forwardness. I have been plagued with a succession of bad printers, and am not got beyond the fourth book.' It was published in January 1761, and in the following year appeared the first and second volumes of _Anecdotes of Painting in England_, with plates and portraits, and having the imprint, 'Printed by Thomas Farmer at Strawberry Hill, MD.CCLXII.' Then another difficulty appears to have arisen with the printers, and the third volume, published in 1763, had no printer's name in the imprint. The fourth volume, not issued till 1780, bears the name of Thomas Kirgate, who seems to have been taken on in 1772, and held his post until Walpole's death. Between 1764 and 1768 the Strawberry Hill press was idle, but in the latter year Walpole printed in octavo 200 copies of a French play entitled _Cornélie Vestale, Tragédie_, and from that time down to 1789 it continued at work at intervals, its chief productions being _Mémoires du Comte de Grammont_, 1772, 4to, of which only 100 copies were printed, twenty-five of which went to Paris; _The Sleep Walker_, a comedy in two acts, 1778, 8vo; _A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole_, 1784, 4to, of which 200 copies were printed; and _Hieroglyphic Tales_, 1785, 8vo. Next to the press of Horace Walpole, that of George Allan, M. P. for Durham, at the Grange, Darlington, must be noticed. The owner was an enthusiastic antiquary, and he used his press chiefly for printing fugitive pieces relating to the history of the county of Durham. The first piece with a date was _Collections relating to St. Edmunds Hospital_, printed in 1769, and the last a tract which he printed for his friend Thomas Pennant in 1788, entitled _Of the Patagonians_, of which only 40 copies were worked off. The productions of his press were very numerous, but of no great merit. Allan was his own compositor, and gave much time to his hobby; but his printer appears to have been a dissolute and dirty workman, who caused him much annoyance and trouble. Altogether it may safely be said that Allan's press cost him a great deal more than it was worth. Another of those who tried their hand at amateur printing was Francis Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, who started a press at his rectory at Fersfield. Here he printed the first volume of his _History_ in 1736, and also the _History of Thetford_, a thin quarto volume, in 1739. But the result was an utter failure. The type was bad to begin with, and the attempt to use red ink on the title-pages only made matters worse. The press-work was carelessly done; and it is not surprising to find that the second volume of the _History_, published in 1745, was entrusted to a Norwich printer.