In 1851 Messrs. Clowes printed the official catalogues of the Great Exhibition, for which they specially cast 58,520 lbs. of type. They subsequently printed the catalogues of the Exhibitions of 1883-1886, and the Royal Academy catalogues, and have been connected from their inception with two works of a very different character, _Hymns Ancient and Modern_--the circulation of which has to be reckoned in millions--and the great _General Catalogue_ of the Library of the British Museum, for their excellent printing of which all 'readers' are indebted to them. William Clowes the elder died in 1847. He was succeeded by his son, William, who died in 1883; and a third William, a grandson, is one of the managing directors of the firm which in 1881 was turned into a limited liability company. But the chief honours of book production in London during the present century have been rightly awarded to the Chiswick Press. Charles Whittingham the elder was born at Calledon, near Coventry, in 1767, and was apprenticed to a printer of that city. As soon as his time was out he came to London, and set up a press in Fetter Lane, his chief customers being Willis, a bookseller of Stationers' Court, Jordan of Fleet Street, and Symonds of Paternoster Row. His beginning was humble enough, his chief work lying in the direction of stationery, cards, and small bills. His first important publisher was a certain Heptinstall, who set him to print new editions of Boswell's _Johnson_, Robertson's _America_, and other important works. This was enough to set him going, and in 1797 he moved to larger premises in Dean Street, Fetter Lane, and then began to issue illustrated books. In 1803 he took a second workshop at 10 Union Buildings, Leather Lane, and again in 1807 he moved to Goswell Street. In 1811 he took his foreman Robert Rowland into partnership, and shortly afterwards left him to manage the city business, while he himself set up a press at Chiswick and took up his abode at College House. Here he continued to work until his death in 1840. For a short time, from 1824 to 1828, he was joined with his nephew Charles, to whom at his death he left the Chiswick business. There is not much to be said of the work of the elder Whittingham. He confined his attention to the issue of small books, such as the _British Classics_, which he began to print in 1803. His books are chiefly notable for the printing of the woodcuts, which by the process known as overlaying, he brought to great perfection. His relations with the publishers were, however, none of the best. They accused him of piracy, and considered it to be against the best interests of the trade to issue small and cheap books. The productions of the elder Whittingham's press have, moreover, been largely overshadowed by those of his nephew.