THE BALLANTYNE PRESS AND ITS FOUNDERS [Illustration: JAMES BALLANTYNE From the Picture at Abbotsford.] THE BALLANTYNE PRESS AND ITS FOUNDERS 1796-1908 [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO OFFICES OF OLD PAUL’S WORK] EDINBURGH BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. 1909 _PREFACE_ _At the Centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, in the year 1871, a sketch of the Ballantyne Press was issued, setting forth its close connection with him, and giving statistics of the Novels. But the story of the Press, its rise and vicissitudes under the control of James Ballantyne and Sir Walter, its progress and development, and its collapse and new birth, as gleaned from Lockhart’s “Life of Scott” and other sources, has not been given in a succinct form. For this purpose the late Mr. W. T. Dobson, for some forty years one of the principal Readers at the Press, gathered together considerable material which it has been thought might prove to be of general interest. The Press has therefore, with the assistance of Mr. W. L. Carrie, M.A., put the story into its present book-form._ PAUL’S WORK, _April 1909_. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE 1 II. REMOVAL TO EDINBURGH 15 III. THE BALLANTYNE BROTHERS 26 IV. SCOTT’S POETICAL ROMANCES 32 V. JOHN BALLANTYNE, PUBLISHER 42 VI. THE WAVERLEY NOVELS 62 VII. THE “GREAT UNKNOWN” 82 VIII. COMMERCIAL TROUBLES AND SUCCESSES—“THE WEEKLY JOURNAL” 98 IX. THE AUTHOR AND THE REVISER 118 X. LOCKHART AND THE BALLANTYNE CONTROVERSY 132 XI. THROUGH OLD PAUL’S WORK, CANONGATE 143 XII. END OF OLD PAUL’S WORK 152 XIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY—EARLY DECADES OF PAUL’S WORK 158 APPENDIX 181 ILLUSTRATIONS & FACSIMILES JAMES BALLANTYNE (_Photogravure_) _Frontispiece_ PAGE KELSO IN 1797 _To face_ 2 FIRST PAGE OF FIRST ISSUE OF “KELSO MAIL” ” 4 TITLE—“AN APOLOGY FOR TALES OF TERROR” 9 TITLE—“MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH BORUWLASKI” 11 PLAYBILL PRINTED BY JAMES BALLANTYNE IN KELSO 13