ERRABANT MARIA OMNIA CIRCUM 1726] [Illustration: THE CLARENDON PRESS. DOMINVS ILLUMINATIO MEA] The history of Messrs. Longmans may be said to commence with the birth of Thomas Longman in 1699. The son of a Bristol gentleman, he lost his father in 1708, and, eight years later, was apprenticed, on June 9, 1716, to Mr. John Osborn of Lombard Street, London. His apprenticeship expiring (he had come into the possession of his property two years earlier), we find him, in 1724, purchasing from his master, John Osborn (acting with William Innys as executors), the stock in trade of William Taylor, of the Ship and Black Swan in Paternoster Row. Readers of _Longman’s Magazine_ turn to Mr. Andrew Lang’s genial gossip, “At the Sign of the Ship,” without recalling the origin of the title. Henceforward the Ship carried the Longman fortunes as cargo, and the prosperity of the vessel is not yet ended. Messrs. Longmans have used nearly a dozen Marks, all of which have been suggested, like those of the Rivingtons, by the sign of their shop, which has now grown into a very imposing pile of buildings. Of these Marks we give two of the most artistic and interesting. As taking us back into a comparatively remote period in the history of printing and publishing in England, the Mark of the Clarendon Press, or, in other words, the arms of the University of Oxford, may be here cited. [Illustrations: WILLIAM PICKERING. ALDI DISCIP. ANGL. ALDI DISCIP. ANGL.] [Illustration: BASIL MONTAGU PICKERING. B M Pickering Aldi Discipulus Anglus] [Illustration: THE CHISWICK PRESS. HOPE WELL AND HAVE WELL CW]