Banbury Chap Books | Page 6

No. 65, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1790, price sixpence, bound in gilt dutch paper binding, 105 and iii pages".
Numerous books were sold by Francis Power, No. 65, near the Bar, in St. Paul's Churchyard, London; his list comprises "Giles Gingerbread," "Tom Thumb's Folio," "The London Cries, taken from the Life," "The Lilliputian Auction," by Charley Chatter, "Nurse Truelove's Christmas Box," "New Year's Gift," "The History of Little Goody Two Shoes," new edition, "Adventures of a Bee," "The Little Lottery Book," "A Pretty Plaything for Children," "The Lilliputian Magazine," "The Picture Exhibition," "Lilliputian Masquerade," "Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards and Telling Fibs," "Pretty Poems by Tommy Tagg, for children three feet high," "A Pretty Book of Pictures, or Tommy Tripp's History," "The Drawing School by Master Angelo," "Poetical Flower Garden," "Tommy Trapwit's Be Merry and Wise," "Lecture upon Toys," 2 vols; "Pretty Poems for children six feet high," "The Museum," "Polite Academy," "Poetical Flower Basket," "Mother Goose's Fairy Tales," "A Spelling Dictionary, Rhetoric; Logic; Arithmetic; History; Chronology; Geography;" "Vicar of Wakefield." Most of the latter except "Vicar" formed a circle of the sciences licensed by approval of the King, each dedicated to a youthful nobleman, by "John Newbery." The size was "snuffbox," or waistcoat pocket (capacious in 1790, see "School for Scandal," etc., Costume, etc.) Documentary evidence and receipts in Goldsmith's handwriting, acknowledging various sums for writing the "Rhetorick," and others of the above exist. Goldsmith also did numerous Abridgements of the Old and New Testaments, Robinson Crusoe, Pamela, Clarissa Harlow, Sir Chas. Grandison, all in this juvenile series for J. Newbery.
[Illustration: 121 The Spider, from Bunyan's Divine Emblems.]
This was a most popular juvenile brochure, at end of eighteenth century. The early editions of J. Bunyan's Works, 2 vols, folio, had the Divine Emblems at end of vol 2, with quaint old woodcuts. These were industriously copied in reduced sizes, and published from 1d. to 6d., by various London and Provincial "toy book" manufacturers. The above is a solitary representative of the illustrations of one of these rare editions of "Bunyan."
[Illustrations: 122, 123
From Evans's Cock Robin. Frontispiece to Farthing Cinderella.]
[Illustrations: 131, 132
Tobacco Paper Cut and Tavern Sign. Very Early Ballad, D----l cut, etc.]
John Evans, 42, Long Lane, West Smithfield, circa 1791, brought out some singular little farthing children's books, printed on coarse sugar paper, also ballads, single-sheet songs, and "patters." One, "The tragical death of an Apple Pye, cut in pieces and eat, by twenty-five gentlemen, with whom all little people ought to be very well acquainted."
J. Drewey, Irongate, Derby, brought out some entertaining fables, in which the following woodcuts were used again.
Blocks used in Red Riding Hood.
[Illustrations: 141 - 146]
Blocks used in "Jack and the Giants" and "Tom, Tom, the Piper's son," etc. From John White's stock, at York.
[Illustrations: 151 - 1515]
Cuts used for "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son," etc.
[Illustrations: 161 - 166]
Cuts to "Whittington and his Cat."
[Illustrations: 167 - 1610]
John Evans issued "Cock Robin, a pretty gilded toy for either girl or boy," in which the early cut on page 12 was used. This rare edition has the following comical variation from the orthodox version:
"Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a pole, Wiggle-waggle went its tail, and p--p went its hole."
Very Early Cock Robin Set, from John White's York Stock.
[Illustrations: 171 - 1710]
That quaint divine Dean Swift of St. Patricks, Dublin, edited some curious poetry for "A Royal Primer," sqr. 32mo, published in the Seven Dials, of Dublin ("Rainbow Court").
"Ech, ech, my dear'y, and Ach, ach, my love. "There was a little man who had a little gun, and "There was a little maid who was very much afraid To get wed, wed, wed," etc.
This is long and curious, and was greatly altered and abreviated in early 19th Century Editions.
"The Royal Primer," from John White's York and Newcastle Stock.
[Illustrations: 181 - 1812]
From Dean Swift's Royal Primer, Dublin, circa 1770.
[Illustrations: 191 - 197]
From Evans's edition of Cinderella.
[Illustrations: 198 - 1911]
Very Early "Cock Robin" Series, "Postboy" by Bewick for a Newcastle Newspaper, "Wife Joan," etc., from J. White's Stock.
[Illustrations: 201 - 2015]
Early "Mother Hubbard:" J. Evans, Long Lane, circa 1770.
[Illustrations: 211 - 2110]
Early "Goody Two Shoes," "Jack and Jill," "Cock Robin," The Fables, early Bewick School.
[Illustrations: 221 - 2214]
All Evans's style of woodcut, Catnach, etc., all used at Rushers Banbury Press.
[Illustrations: 231 - 2311
Babes in the Wood. Blue Beard.]
Providing ourselves with a variety of pens and ink, we select two of the best and proceed to describe the Banbury Printer's old stock of cuts.
Banbury, Oxfordshire, was one of the chief provincial towns noted for its Children's Books, Chap Books, Battledoes, Reading Easies, etc., also for locally printed works, notably for two, viz., Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, and White and Beesley's workon Bees, thin 12mo volumes, boards, printed in a curious phonetic character, called "Rusher's Types." Rusher, printer of this town, had some ingenuity and