Devon (England) -- Social life and customs; Wreyland (England)
of the work he printed fourteen copies only. The first volume was
finished in 1795, three more in 1796, two in 1797 and two in 1798, three
in 1799 and three in 1800, two in 1801, but only one in 1802, then two
in each of the next four years, 1803 to 1806, and the last volume in
1807, making six-and-twenty volumes altogether. On an average, there
must be about 500 pages to the volume, but they are troublesome to
count, as the numbering does not always run straight on. When there are
not any foot-notes, the page has twenty-six lines of about nine words
each; but on some pages the foot-notes rise to forty-one lines of about
twelve words each, with only one line of sermon at the top. Additions
and corrections are printed on separate slips of paper, and stuck in
very neatly at the proper places, like little folding-plates opening up
or down the page. Just at first the printing is erratic, but it soon
gets better and finally is pretty good. Of course, he had all the credit
of the printing; but much of it was done by Mary Hole, a servant in his
house. She died in 1808.
His own copy of his _System of Divinity_ is in my library here. The
volumes are still in their original boards, and fill a length of 3 ft. 8
in. upon the bookshelves. He pasted his press-notices into vol. i, and
added “Strictures on yᵉ preceding Review” and other notes of that sort.
And he interleaved the index (in vol. xxvi and part of xxv) and put in
references to the additions that he was always making to his work. In
1816 he made a fair copy of the index--which copy is also in my
library--“Intended as a Help to a future Edition, with the Additions
upon Revisal.” But that future edition never came.
In 1823, when he was eighty years of age, he went to work again, and
printed one more volume--_Divinity ... being improved extracts from a
System of Divinity_. Of this also there were fourteen copies only; and
one of them is in my library. It is uniform with his previous books, and
has about 540 pages altogether. It caused some stir, and led to an
enlarged edition in two volumes in 1825, and another in three volumes in
1827. But these editions were printed at Exeter in the ordinary way.
He sometimes used his printing-press for other subjects than Divinity;
and, when his son did something that he did not like, he printed a
pamphlet on the conduct of his son. But the son’s turn came, when he was
called upon to write a memoir of his father after his decease. He paid
him back in full.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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