William Nelson A Memoir 7

William Nelson A Memoir 7

outward aspect and illustration. At a later date, the “Chronicles of the

Schönberg-Cotta Family” constituted the first of a highly popular series

of books by the same author. The charming authoress who writes under

the initials A. L. O. E., the late Mary Howitt, Mrs. Traill, R. M.

Ballantyne, and other writers, figured on their list of authors. The

charming series of “Art Gift Books,” from the French of M. Jules and

Mme. Michelet, and M. Arthur Mangin--“The Insect,” “The Bird,” “The

Mysteries of the Ocean,” and “The Desert World,” as well as other works

of the same class--are illustrated in the best style of art. But it was

as caterers for the people, in an abundant supply of pure, high-toned

popular literature, and not as rivals of the great publishing houses

through which the most eminent writers appeal to select classes of

readers, that the Nelsons achieved their greatest success. In the

tribute paid to the worth of William Nelson by the Rev. Dr. Alison when

his life-work was finished, it is said: “His influence, and that of the

firm of which he was the head, has gone forth healthfully to the ends of

the earth. Religious principle, no less than skill and taste and

enterprise, has been in all their work as publishers of literature. No

man can measure the good which that incessant stream of excellent books

issuing from their press has done for the world. To a large extent they

have been for the multitude, rather than for the learned few.” But this

was the summing up of the work of a lifetime. Much had to be achieved in

its progress, step by step, ere such results could even be aimed at.

 

Under the energetic management of the young publisher the picturesque

tenement at the head of the West Bow, which had sufficed for his

father’s bookselling operations, soon proved inadequate for the growing

business. A neighbouring “land,”--as an entire pile of building in the

Old Town of Edinburgh is still called,--situated at the head of Blyth’s

Close, Castle Hill, with the palace of Mary of Guise in its rear, was

secured; and there the first steps were taken which ultimately developed

into the great establishments of Hope Park and Parkside. Machinery was

brought into use wherever available; and a well-organized division of

labour was introduced, until at length nearly every process, from the

initial type-setting to the final issue of the bound and illustrated

volume, was executed on the premises. The locality where this new

departure was made, preparatory to the great works at Hope Park, with

its hundreds of work-people, and its wholesale branches at London and

New York, is one rich in literary associations. Near by, on the northern

slope of the Castle bank, is the house of Allan Ramsay, poet and

bookseller; Blair’s Close, long noted among the most ancient nooks of

the Castle Hill, was the abode of Alison Cockburn, authoress of “The

Flowers of the Forest,” and of other plaintive as well as humorous

Scottish songs. To St. James’s Court, on the east side, James Boswell

brought Dr. Samuel Johnson, and entertained him in the house where he

had succeeded to the historian David Hume. There was an old-world

literary flavour about the place that gave a certain piquancy to the

start of the young adventurer deserting the classic grove for the

prosaic haunts of commerce.

 

The Rev. Dr. Simpson of Derby, already noted as an old schoolmate and a

life-long friend, refers in one of his letters to the lectures and

social entertainments provided at a later date for the numerous workers

in the Hope Park establishment, in which he was an active labourer. But

the interest taken by William Nelson in his employés was manifested at

an earlier stage. Lectures and social recreations had already been

instituted before the transfer of the works to Hope Park, in some of the

earliest of which the present writer bore a part. But with increasing

numbers, and more ample room, those instructive entertainments were

organized on an extensive scale, and are described in a memorandum of

Dr. Simpson, by whom many of the later lectures were given. His account

of them may find a fit place here, though in some points it anticipates

the narrative of later years. “The deep interest,” he remarks, “which

Mr. Nelson felt in his work-people, and his desire to promote their

well-being in every sense, conspicuously appear in the entertainments

which were from time to time got up for them. At first these were

chiefly in the nature of banquets or suppers, to which all were invited,

when they were regaled with the good things of this life in a judicious

but liberal manner. Along with this, however, he was careful to combine

moral and religious instruction, by securing addresses by one or two

clerical friends. By-and-by he provided for them occasional lectures on

subjects of varied interest. For those he got up, at considerable

expense and trouble, a series of illustrations which were shown on a

screen by the oxy-hydrogen light, the lecturer describing each picture

while it was before the eyes of the audience. This was, I believe, the

first introduction of this form of lecture, which has since become so

common. The pictures were reproduced from engravings by the photographer

of the establishment, Mr. Sinclair, and then hand-coloured with much

care and skill by Mr. Ramage, who devoted himself to the art-work

connected with the extensive business of the firm.

 

“The first of those illustrated lectures was on the transfer of

Napoleon’s remains from St. Helena to Paris. The second was on

Garibaldi’s invasion of Sicily and Italy, ending with his meeting with

Victor Immanuel, and hailing him as king of Italy. Afterwards a new

departure was made, and the lectures were chiefly devoted to the genius

and works of celebrated artists; the illustrations being transcripts of

the artists’ principal works. The first subject of this class was David

Scott, R.S.A., in connection with his illustrations of Coleridge’s

‘Ancient Mariner,’ subsequently reproduced by Messrs. Nelson in a

tasteful edition of the poem. The next lecture was devoted to the works

of Landseer; and to this succeeded similar illustrations of Hogarth,

Wilkie, Harvey, Leech, etc. Those lectures were greatly appreciated; the

large hall at Hope Park, in which they were given, being always crowded

to excess by the employés, their wives and families, supplemented by

friends invited by Mr. Nelson, including some who took an active part in

this generous effort for the social elevation of the working-classes,

such as Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Hannah; and their artist friends, Sir George

Harvey, D. O. Hill, James Drummond, and others. For each of those

lectures Mr. Nelson had prepared from twenty to thirty slides, which

were arranged in partitioned cases made for their safe keeping.” But

they perished, along with much more valuable property, in the disastrous

fire of 1878.

 

But only the initial steps towards the full development of the Hope Park

works, with their ingeniously devised machinery and systematic division

of labour, were possible at the Castle Hill establishment. Its

accommodation, though a great step in advance of that at the Bowhead,

was inadequate for such plans, and the numbers employed were

correspondingly limited. But the workmen were carefully selected; and

from the first the relations between them and their employer were

characterized by mutual respect and confidence. They recognized in him

one whose interest in their welfare was generous, and his sympathy that

of a friend. But his own attention to business extended to the minutest

details, and anything indicative of mere eye-service or sloth was

intolerable to him. An anecdote highly characteristic of him is thus

narrated on the authority of one who had been long in his

employment:--“Two navvies were engaged one day at Hope Park turning a

crank when Mr. William Nelson was passing. He paused for a moment and

looked at the men, who seemed to go about their work rather leisurely.

He then came forward to them, and asked, in a gruff manner, if they

could not work a little harder and turn the crank quicker. They answered

at once ‘they could not; it was a stiff job, and very fatiguing.’

‘Nonsense,’ he replied; ‘let me try.’ Seizing one of the handles, he did

try; but, after giving the handle two or three turns, desisted, for it

made the perspiration pour from him. Then he remarked, ‘Ay, just go on

as you’ve been doing;’ and, putting his hand into his pocket, added,

‘There’s half-a-crown between you.’ Many similar anecdotes might be

told. He liked smart, active workmen; but he did not willingly drive or

unduly press any one. He would at once rebuke any of his employés if he

considered they deserved it; but if afterwards he found he had acted

hastily or wrongly, he would apologize, even to the humblest worker, and

almost invariably with the apology there came a gift.”

 

It is not surprising that the relations between such an employer and his

workmen were something closer than those of the mere hireling. The

workmen who had shared in his first efforts in the Castle Hill

establishment followed him to Hope Park. Some of them, by their fidelity

and skill, contributed to the success of later years; and the veteran

survivors of that original staff were regarded by William Nelson to the

last as objects of exceptional favour.

 

Among those who thus migrated from the Castle Hill to Hope Park, one

claims special attention as a relic of the original Bowhead

establishment. James Peters has already been named. He was a man of good

education, and, what was rare in his day, had a familiar knowledge of

the French language. He was, moreover, a devout Presbyterian of the

early type, eschewing the Covenanting exclusiveness of his old master,

and holding faithfully to the National Kirk. His familiarity with the

scriptures was so great that he was accredited with knowing the entire

New Testament by heart, and quoting familiarly from much of the Old

Testament. He had been the trusted clerk, commercial traveller, and man

of all work: the entire staff for a time of the bookselling business

under the elder _régime_; and as the cautious ventures of its founder

gave way to the comprehensive schemes of a younger generation, he

watched their operations with many misgivings. Old Peters would have

furnished a study for Sir Walter Scott fit to have ranked alongside of

his Owen and Caleb Balderstone. He moved in all things with the

regularity of clockwork, and sternly resented in others the slightest

deviation from orderly business procedure or punctuality as to time. Mr.

Duncan Keith sums up his own early recollections of him with the remark

that “even John Munro, the beadle of Mr. Goold the Covenanting

minister’s kirk, stood in awe of him.” One day, contrary to all

precedent, he asked leave to go away a little earlier than the usual

closing hour. He reappeared next morning, and, addressing William, said,

“I wish you would tell your father I got married yesterday.” On inquiry,

he stated that he had just wedded the elderly dame with whom he lodged.

“It will be cheaper,” he said; “and we’ll get on weel enough thegither.

We hae been lang used to each other.” When in early days the plan of

book sales was in vogue, he was intrusted with the carrying out of one

of the ventures; but his ideas of orderly procedure were wholly at

variance with the novel experiment. He abruptly returned home the

following day, and would have nothing more to do with such work. His

loyalty to his young masters knew no bounds; but he could never quite

forget that they had been boys when he had the sole charge of the

Bowhead buith, or indeed feel it to be natural to speak of them

otherwise than by their Christian names. Duty clearly required him to

advise and warn them at every new step, so unlike the prudent thrift of

early days. If we could realize all the feelings of a sober old

brood-hen when the ducklings that she has hatched take their first

plunge into the mill-pond, and in spite of her clucking and pother sail