Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

EDINBURGH
face to his facsimile reprint of this volume, published in
1S27, says — "This neglected and long-forgotten volume
proved to be a collection of those tracts which had been
published in or about the year 1508 ; and which,
mutilated and defective as it was, possessed an almost
inestimable value, and contained various compositions
nowhere else preserved, as being a book completely
unique, and as exhibiting unquestionably the earliest
productions of the Scottish press." ' It is known that
Chepman was a burgess of Edinburgh, and that, as well
as being a printer, he was in a good position as a
merchant in the city. He settled a chaplainry at the
altar of St John the Evangelist in an aisle which had
been built by him in St Giles' Church, and endowed the
chaplainry with an annual rent of twenty-three merks.
This aisle, built by Scotland's first printer, has recently
been restored by one who may also justly be styled
Scotland's first printer, as far as regards the publication
and dissemination of wholesome cheap literature — Dr
William Chambers, who has also erected a tablet to the
memory of Chepman. The tablet has the following
inscription, in which both the names of these ' first
printers ' are fittingly combined : ' To the memory of
Walter Chepman, designated the Scottish Caxton, who,
under the auspices of James IV. and his Queen Margaret,
introduced the art of printing into Scotland 1507 ;
founded this aisle in honour of the King and Queen and
their family, 1513, and died in 1532 ; this tablet is
gratefully inscribed by William Chambers, LL.D.,
1879.'
Thomas Davidson, the next Scottish printer, appears
in 1536. His first work seems to have been a Strena
or Latin poem, written on the occasion of James V. 's
accession to power in 1528. The only copy known of
this work is in the British Museum. John Scott, or
Skot, was, in chronological order, Scotland's next
printer, and he is supposed to have acquired the art in
St Paul's Churchyard and other places in London be-
tween 1521-1537, and he probably came to Edinburgh in
1538. In 1539 the king granted to Scott chambers on
the N side of Cowgate, at the foot of Borthwick's Close.
It is thought that some of Scott's productions gave rise
to an Act of Parliament in 1551-52 against printing books
without licence, there being among the books enumerated
Tragedies, as well in Latin as in Inglis tongue; probably
this was Lindesay's tragedy of The Cardinal. Scott
apparently did not pay any attention to this enactment,
for he appears to have been summoned before the Privy
Council ' for his demerits and faultes, ' a summons which
he took care not to obey. The next printer is Robert
Leyprevick, a contemporary of Scott, and who took an
opposite side from him in the Reformation contests.
In March 1564-65 Leyprevick received a licence to print
the Acts of Parliament, and also the Psalms of David in
' Scottis metir ' for seven years. This licence was renewed
in 1567-68 for twenty years, and again in April 1568, giv-
ing the exclusive right to print Ane buik eallit ye Inglis
Sybil imprentit of before at Geneva. But we do not find
that either these Psalms or Bible were issued by Ley-
previck, and in 1574 the Privy Council found it neces-
sary to levy a contribution of £5 from each parish in
the kingdom to enable Thomas Bassendyne to print an
edition of the Bible. He became bound under penalties
to deliver copies ' weel and sufficiently bund in paste or
timmer' for the sum of £4, 13s. 4d., the remainder of
the enforced contribution being detained to defray the
cost of collection. Having ' guid characters and prent-
ing irons,' the council thought the work, great as it was,
would go quickly on. The hope was not realised, for
Bassendyne found it necessary to petition for longer
time in 1576 ; and in the following year he was ordered
by the council to deliver up his printing-office and Bible
to Alexander Arbuthnot, who finished the work and had
it in circulation in 1579. The sale of this work was
rather enforced, for the council soon after enacted that
all persons worth £500 should possess a Bible in the
vulgar tongue, under a penalty of £10. After so far
overcoming its rudimentary stage, the art still made but
comparatively slow progress in Edinburgh till about the
EDINBURGH
middle of last century. Arnot, writing in 1779, says
regarding it, — ' Till within these forty years, the print-
ing of newspapers and of school-books, of the fanatic
effusions of Presbyterian clergymen, and the law papers
of the Court of Session, joined to the Patent Bible
printing, gave a scanty employment to four printing
offices. Such, however, has been the increase of this
trade, by the reprinting of English books not protected
by the statute concerning literary property, by the ad-
ditional number of authors, and many lesser causes, that
there are now no fewer than twenty-seven printing offices
in Edinburgh.' Even with that number of printers at
work, literature could hardly in the strict sense be much
more a source of employment at that time in Edinburgh
than in Glasgow, Perth, or some other Scottish towns.
It soon, however, acquired a new energy, and increased
with such a rapidity, as eventually to earn for the city
the name of Modern Athens, in compliment as much
from being a seat of learning and a source of literature,
as from the corresponding features of the city's situation
and surroundings. Among its earlier publishers was
Allan Ramsay, who published and sold his own songs
and his pastoral play of the Gentle Sliepherd, and was
among the first to establish a circulating library. Of
those who followed were Creech, Bell, Donaldson (father
of the founder of Donaldson's Hospital), Elliot, and
Constable, the first publisher of the Waverley Novels
and the Edinburgh Review ; still later, we come to the
well-known names of Blackwood and Black, who have
fully sustained the reputation of their predecessors for
enterprise and liberality.
Towards the end of last century and the beginning of
this, while Byron, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge,
and a host of others were making their splendid con-
tributions to English literature, there arose a society of
litterateurs in Edinburgh which soon became world-
famous, — Jeffrey, Cockburn, Wilson (Christopher
North), Dugald Stewart, James Hogg (the Ettrick
Shepherd), Leonard Horner (the founder of the School
of Arts), Abercrombie, Jameson, Lockhart, and many
others. These, though they might scarce compare
with their southern contemporaries, yet formed a lite-
rary body which had for its central point one of the
greatest authors of the age — Sir Walter Scott. The
earliest magazine of any note published in Edin-
burgh, above the status of a newspaper, was the Soots
Magazine, begun in 1739, which was followed by the
WeeMy Magazine in 1768. The latter magazine was,
in consequence of a legal dispute, ultimately divided
into two sections — the one a literary miscellany, the
other simply a newspaper ; and both continued to exist
for a number of years. The increased literary vitality,
however, led to the starting, in the early part of this
century, of the Edinburgh Review, a celebrated critical
and political journal, the earliest of the large quarterlies,
and the first great expositor of Whig principles. The
opening number was published on the 10th of October
1802. The idea of the Review originated with Sydney
Smith ; but Francis (afterwards Lord) Jeffrey became
editor ; and with them were associated Horner,
Brougham, John (afterwards Lord) Murray, and Dr
Thomas Brown. Among the names of later contributors
are those of James Mill, Hallam, Sir William Hamil-
ton, Hazlitt, Macaulay, and Carlyle. The projectors of
the Review found a publisher in Constable — ' to whom,'
says Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, ' the literature of
Scotland has been more indebted than to any other
bookseller.' The largest circulation attained by the
Edinburgh Review was 13,000 copies in 1813 ; and
Jeffrey, as editor, received at first £50, and afterwards
£200, for each number. The literary criticisms of the
Review were often prejudiced, but always able ; while,
as for its editor Jeffrey, Carlyle says, in 1876, 'it is
certain there has no critic appeared among us since who
was worth naming beside him. ' The fame of his organ,
however, stands highest as a political organ. The
publishing house of this Review has now been removed
to London. A rival to this followed in 1817, when Mr
William Blackwood issued the first number of the cele-
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