Banbury Chap Books | Page 4

Newbury editions of Goody Two Shoes, London, 1769
to 1771.
[Illustrations: 21, 22]
It will be seen on contrasting these cuts with the other two, on the
following page, from early York editions, how wonderfully even in his
early years Bewick improved the illustrated juvenile literature of his
day. No wonder when Goldsmith the poet had an interview with Bewick,
that delighted with his cuts, he confessed to writing Goody Two Shoes,
Tommy Trip, etc. Bewick's daughter supplied this information.
[Illustrations: 31 - 33
Early cuts to Goody Two Shoes. Bewick's frontispiece to Goody Two
Shoes.]
Here are two early examples of Thomas Bewick. They were used in a
York edition of "A Pretty Book of Pictures for little Masters and Misses,
or History of Beasts and Birds by Tommy Trip," etc.
[Illustrations: 41, 42
Miss Polly Riding in a Coach, from Tommy Trip. The Student, from
Tommy Trip.]

There was an American edition of Goody Two Shoes, and is very
interesting indeed, having a woodcut frontispiece engraved by Thomas
Bewick, and was printed at Worcester, Mass., U.S.A., by Isaiah Thomas,
and sold wholesale and retail at his book-store, 1787. A copy of this
little book sold in London for £1 16s.
We also give two other specimens from the J. Newbery editions of
Tommy Trip and Goody Two Shoes, both engraved by John Bewick.
[Illustrations: 43, 44
The Student, from Tommy Trip. Margery, from Goody Two Shoes.]
The packmen of the past [see frontispiece of a pack-horse in First
Edition only of Bewick's Quadrupeds, 1790] carried in their packs the
ephemeral literature of the day, Calendars, Almanacks, and
Chep-Books. The Leicestershire pronunciation to this day at markets is
"Buy Chep" for Cheap, hence the Chep-side, or Cheape-or Cheapside;
otherwise derivation of Chap Men, or Running, Flying, and other
mercurial stationers, peripatetic booksellers, pedlers, packmen, and
again chepmen, these visited the villages and small towns from the
large printers of the supply towns, as London, Banbury, Newcastle,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc. The "History of John Cheap, the Chapman,"
"Parley the Porter," "Stephen of Salisbury Plain," and other favourite
tracts, with John Bewick's and Lee's square woodcuts were written by
the quaker lady, Hannah More, about 1777, and were first published in
broadsheet folio. Some were done by Hazzard, of Bath, others by
Marshall, of Bow Lane, Aldermary Church Yard. A most curious
collection of chap books did they print, reviving the quaint old "Blind
Beggar of Bethnal Green," "Guy, Earl of Warwick," "Seven
Champions," "Mother Shipton's Life and Prophecies," "Wise Men of
Gothan," "Adam Bell," "Robin Hood's Garland," "Jane Shore," "Joaks
upon Joaks," "Strapho, or Roger the Clown," "Whetstone for dull
Wits," "St. George and the Dragon," "Jack Horner:" and hundreds of
ballads, garlands, carols, broadsheets, songs, etc., were in the
collection.
The "Great A and bouncing B Toy Book Factory," was somewhere near

Little Britain, the proprietor being John Marshall, who published the
famous "Life of a Fly."
[Illustration: 51
Block by Thomas Bewick.]
The "Memoirs of a Peg Top," "Perambulations of a Mouse," 2 volumes
with cuts by John Bewick, and a number of other works, some by Mrs.
Trimmer, under various pseudonyms, were published in Bow Lane,
also many quaint broadsheets, the cuts of which are in this volume.
Hazzard, printer of Bath, who published many works for Dr. J. Trusler,
with woodcuts by John Bewick, Lee, and others, also published the
cheap repository tracts.
All the following little wood blocks were used in several toy books,
sometimes with Bewick's name on the titles, and done from 1787 to
1814, in Dutch flowery and gingerbread gilt paper binding, just like
Newbery series.
Early John Bewick Cuts.
[Illustrations: 61 - 66
Tommy Two Shoes. Robin Hood and Little John, pub. Wilson and
Spence, York. York Story Books, by Wilson and Spence, circa 1797.
Used in the Fables. Used in the Fables]
[Illustrations: 71 - 75
Cut by Lee, on the covers of Rusher's Penny "Banbury's." Two Blocks
from Valentine's Gift. 1797. Used by Wilson and Spence, York. Patty
Primrose.]
[Illustrations: 81 - 86
From Primrose Prettyface and her Scholars. Two Ballad Cuts, by
Green, of Knaresborough. Mrs. Winlove's Rise of Learning. The

Concert of Birds, from Tommy Tag.]
[Illustrations: 91, 92
Frontispiece to Tommy Playlove and Joseph Lovebook. Whitfield's
Tabernacle, Moorfields, or Spa Fields Chapel. (?)]
In Blade's Life of Caxton, the reader will find interesting examples of
the earliest woodcut blocks illustrating the quaint and rare tomes issued
by the Almonry, Westminster, also at Oxford. The Robin Hood
Garland blocks (circa 1680 or earlier), is one of the earliest provincial
blocks with a distinct history. We can trace them in varied collections
used by early London and Provincial printers, and in the London
Bridge printed Chap Book Literature.
Sutton, printer of Nottingham, issued a curious quarto volume of old
woodcuts. He