62. The " Natural History " And " Antiquities " Of " Selborne, " [Two lines] With " Engravings, And An Appendix. " [Quotations] London: " Printed by T. Bensley; " For B. White And Son, at Horace's Head, Fleet Street. " M,DCC,LXXXIX.

"B. White" was Benjamin, next older brother of Gilbert, and one of the chief publishers of books relating to natural history. His interest in this book, therefore, must have been more than usually great, an assumption justified by its typographical appearance. It may, perhaps, be truly said that, with the possible exceptions of Clarendon's History and Percy's Reliques, it is the only work in our series having special artistic merit.

Thomas Bensley was one of the first English printers to turn his attention to printing as a fine art; and he may be reckoned, with Bulmer, chief among the reformers of the art. As Dibdin says, in the Bibliographical Decameron, he "completed the establishment of a self working press, which prints on both sides of the sheet by one and the same operation—and throws off 900 copies in an hour! This really seems magical. It is certainly without precedent." It was, no doubt, with intent that Benjamin White gave the printing of this book into such hands, and something of the sumptuousness which afterward in Macklin's Bible and Hume's History of England made Bensley famous may be seen in this work.

Our chief interest in the volume, as a piece of bookmaking, centers in the illustrations, engraved by Peter Mazell and Daniel LerpiniÈre. These comprise a vignette on the title-page to The Natural History, with a line from White's own poem, "The Invitation to Selbourne"; seven plates, one, the large folding frontispiece, which is said to contain portraits of four of White's friends; and a vignette on the title-page of The Antiquities. They are all from drawings by a young Swiss artist named Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, who settled in London in 1778, and was much employed in topographical work.

White's references to him in various letters give us quite an insight into the details of making this delightful book. Writing to Rev. John White, August 12, 1775, he says:

"Mr. Grimm, the Swiss, is still in Derbyshire; and is to continue there and in Staffordshire 'til the end of the month. I have made all the inquiry I can concerning this artist, as it much behoves me to do. Mr. Tho. Mulso, and Brother Thomas, and Benjamin, and Mr. Lort have been to his lodgings to see his performances. They all agree that he is a man of genius; but the two former say that he does hardly seem to stick enough to nature; and that his trees are grotesque and strange. Brother Benjamin seems to approve of him. They all allow that he excels in grounds, water, and buildings. Friend Curtis recommends a Mr. Mullins, a worker in oil-colours. Grimm, it seems, has a way of staining his scapes with light water-colours, and seems disposed much in scapes for light sketchings; now I want strong lights and shades and good trees and foliage."

The inquiries seem, in the end, to have been satisfactory, and by May the fifth of the next year the young man had been engaged. An entry in The Naturalists' Journal, under date of July 8, 1776, records: "Mr. Grimm, my artist, came from London to take some of our finest views."

On August 9, 1776, he says:

"Mr. Grimm was with me just 28 days; 24 of which he worked very hard, and shewed good specimens of his genius, assiduity, and modest behaviour, much to my satisfaction. He finished for me 12 views. He first of all sketches his scapes with a lead-pencil; then he pens them all over, as he calls it, with india-ink, rubbing out the superfluous pencil-strokes; then he gives a charming shading with a brush dipped in indian-ink; and last he throws a light tinge of water-colours over the whole. The scapes, many of them at least, looked so lovely in their indian-ink shading, that it was with difficulty the artist could prevail on me to permit him to tinge them; as I feared those colours might puzzle the engravers; but he assured me to the contrary."

In a letter to Mr. Samuel Barker, November 1, 1776, we find:

"In 24 days Mr. Grimm finished for me 12 drawings; the most elegant of which are 1, a view of the village and hanger from the short Lithe [the large folding frontispiece]; 2, a view of the S. E. end of the hanger and its cottages, taken from the upper end of the street; 3, a side view of the old hermitage, with the hermit standing at the door, [the vignette on the title-page]: this piece he is to copy again for Uncle Harry; 4, a sweet view of the short Lithe and Dorton from the lane beyond Peasecod's house. He took also two views of the Church [opposite pp. 315, 323]; two views of my outlet; a view of the Temple-Farm [opposite p. 342]; a view of the village from the inside of the present hermitage; Hawkley hanger, which does not prove very engaging; and a grotesque and romantic drawing of the water-fall in the hollow bed of the stream in Silkwood's vale to the N. E. of Berriman's house. You need not wonder that the drawings you saw by Grimm did not please you; for they were 3s. 6d. pieces done for a little ready money; so there was no room for softening his trees, &c. He is a most elegant colourist; and what is more, the use of these fine natural stainings is altogether his own, yet his pieces were so engaging in India-ink that it was with regret that I submitted to have some of them coloured...." The plates bear the legend, "Published Nov^r. 1. 1788 as the Act directs, by B. White & Son."

The work appeared anonymously at the end of 1788, but it is dated the next year. It was sold for one guinea, in boards. Fifty copies were printed on large paper, with the plate on page 3 in colors. Although it seems to have sold well, it was the only edition issued during the author's lifetime. White wrote to a friend in 1789: "My book is still asked for in Fleet Street. A gent. came the other day, and said he understood that there was a Mr. White who had lately published two books, a good one and a bad one; the bad one was concerning Botany Bay ['A Voyage to New South Wales,' by John White (no relation), published in 1790], the better respecting some parish."

The index, which White described when he was making it as "an occupation full as entertaining as that of darning of stockings," was criticised for not being full enough, a criticism applicable to every edition issued since the first.

Quarto

Collation: 1 l., v., 468 pp., 7 ll. Seven plates.