“ It happened also that Hughes, Ballantyne’s chief workman, had been trained in one of the foremost printing-houses of the time, and was capable of using his materials to the best advantage; and this, joined to James Ballantyne’s excellent taste in the selection of type, contributed to the production of the ballads in a style of typographical perfection worthy of the most eminent printers before him. ”

“ Sir Walter Scott in his eagerness to purchase land for his Abbotsford estate, and to fill the mansion with antiquarian and historical curios, brought together with persevering industry and at great cost, was continually in need of money to carry out his plans. Abbotsford eventually became a show-place, and at the same time a kind of hotel, where the greatest men of Europe were proud to be received and to partake of his hospitality. ”

“ It is an unwritten tradition that such knowledge of anonymous authorship is never [87] carried outside the printing-house, although the manuscript might be well enough known to the compositors; and there have been instances in which attempts to pry into secrets of this nature have been made. Though suspected and sometimes taxed with the authorship of the novels, before the fact was made publicly known, Scott’s invariable reply to those who asked his reason for concealment was that it was his humour. ”

“ Ballantyne was an amiable woman of simple habits, and the children were pleasant and well-mannered. Her death affected him so much that for some time he was unfit for business, and his health was impaired. He was never the same buoyant, happy man again. Scott writes regarding this event: “I received the melancholy news that James Ballantyne has lost his wife. With his domestic habits the blow is irretrievable. What can he do, poor fellow, at the head of such a family of children! ”

“ He seems to have been ashamed in some measure of this mercantile speculation, as all the arrangements were kept a profound secret—Scott being always considered the mere patron and friend of the Ballantynes. He evidently thought he would derive profit from a business guided by a man of knowledge like himself, and confounded the aspirations of an author with the expectations of a merchant. ”

“ Ballantyne’s well-merited fame for elegance and accuracy as a printer soon extended in the marts of literature, and the encouragement which he received from the booksellers of London and Edinburgh induced him to remove to this city about the year 1802 ”

“ Having reason to believe that the Workmen in the Printing Office at Paul’s Work are in the habit of Abstracting Sheets of New Books in the progress of Printing,—more especially those of the Original Works of the Author of ‘Waverley,’—Notice is hereby given, that the most effectual steps are taken to detect those offending in this manner; and the utmost Punishment of the Law will be executed on those proved guilty of so flagrant an offence. ”

“ They formed a convenient resting-place in his daily journeys to and from Parliament Square, and contained a store of his favourite black-letter volumes. No doubt, also, considering the extreme degree to which party spirit was carried in those days, he would find himself pleasantly free from the band of Edinburgh Whigs who frequented Constable’s premises in the Old Town.
But the publishing firm in Hanover Street, begun in pique, was never prosperous. Scott’s goodness of heart led him to help on many books which he ought to have known [45] could never be successful. ”

“ He says further that “the printing business, which was James Ballantyne’s legitimate work, was always prosperous, and we can say with equal confidence from what we have ascertained through our own experience, and that of friends, that his printing-office was decidedly the most ably and carefully managed for all ends with which its customers had to do in Edinburgh.” And Mr. R. P. Gillies, in his “Recollections of Sir Walter Scott,” [44] observes regarding James Ballantyne: “A character of more sterling integrity, or more friendly disposition, never existed. ”

“ On the 21st September 1832 Sir Walter Scott died, and four months later James Ballantyne followed him to that bourne “where the petty politics of terrestrial powers no longer inflame men’s minds, and the sound of discord and disagreement is not heard.” ”

“ The Bannatyne Club and its books took their initiative from George Bannatyne, a merchant of Edinburgh, who, during a time of great pestilence in 1568, retired to a secluded house in Forfarshire, and there employed his enforced leisure in making a collection of old Scottish poetry, which might otherwise have perished. “Bannatyne’s manuscript,” says Scott, in a Memoir written for the Club, “is in folio form, containing upwards of eight hundred pages, very neatly and closely written; and designed, as has been supposed, to be sent to press.” ”

“ What think you of a complete edition of British poets, ancient and modern?” This work he proposed to edit for thirty guineas a volume. The publishers did not quite respond to his views in the matter, as the booksellers refused to admit into the series certain poets whom the editor was insisting upon, and the scheme was abandoned. But it is interesting to know that, if not so complete in all respects as Scott would have desired, a Library Edition of the British Poets, begun in 1853, was issued from Paul’s Work in forty-eight demy octavo volumes, [36] in every respect worthy of its reputation. ”

“ This edition of 1000 copies was sold within five weeks. A second of 2000 followed immediately, and a third and fourth, each of 1000, appeared in October and November of the same year. The mystery in which the author had chosen to shroud himself, and the high literary character of the work, had meanwhile given rise to an intensity of interest and speculation hitherto unparalleled in the history of literature. Scott was pressed by his few friends who were in the secret to own the authorship, and take to himself the laurels which were being freely handed about. ”

“ It is expected of us, not only that we should be eloquent, but that we shall be new; not only that we should be correct, but that we shall be striking; and that our lucubrations should promise to combine originality with the humour of Addison, the learning of Cumberland, and the pathos of the Man of Feeling. ”

“ After James Ballantyne’s removal to Edinburgh, he continued to edit the Kelso Mail for about three years, when the pressure of the printing-office compelled him to relinquish the editorial chair. He was succeeded by his youngest brother, Alexander, who conducted the paper with marked ability and success for the next twenty years. Alexander ultimately came to Paul’s Work, and was made a partner in the firm in 1829. [12] He was a good musician, and Sir Walter Scott, several times in his “Journal,” tells us how much he enjoyed his playing upon the violin and the flageolet. ”

“ In the early days of Paul’s Work, however, it was very necessary.
The formes of type and the paper being ready, the pressmen put the formes on the press-bed, and after “making ready” the pages of type to ensure a uniform impression and colour on the printed sheet, proceeded to work off the formes. In the early days of last century, before the advent of the steam-printing machine, the work of the hand-pressmen must have been a constant strain on their physical powers. A “token” of 250 sheets per hour was the ordinary output ”

“ Double proof-sheets were regularly printed. One was forwarded to the author by Ballantyne, and the alterations which it received from Scott were copied by him upon the other proof-sheet for the use of the [86] printers; so that even the corrected proofs of the author were never seen in the printing-office. In this way the curiosity of such eager inquirers as made minute investigations was baulked, though the authorship was an “open secret” with many of the compositors. ”

“ Scott was always incurring expenses, often heavy expenses, for other people. Thus, when Mr. Terry, the actor, became lessee and manager of the Adelphi Theatre, London, Scott became his surety for £1250, while James Ballantyne became his surety for [102] £500 more, and both these sums had to be paid by Scott after Terry’s failure in 1828. Such obligations as these, however, would have been nothing when compared with Sir Walter’s means, had all his bills on Constable been duly honoured, and had not the printing firm of Ballantyne & Co. ”

“ Ballantyne in the palmy days of the Waverley Novels, and printed off several of the impressions of that immortal series of fictions. He well remembered Sir Walter Scott, who made frequent visits to the office where Mr. Tofts, then a very young man, was engaged; and he had also vivid recollections of Jeffrey, Lockhart, Sydney Smith, and the other great guns of the Edinburgh Review. He was the first man who superintended a steam printing-machine in Scotland—it was, if we remember rightly, on the first introduction of one of these valuable aids to book-making in Messrs. ”

“ Liesvelt was condemned and beheaded at Antwerp, because in the annotations of a Bible he had edited and printed, it was said that ‘the salvation of mankind proceeds from Christ alone!’ A number of old playbills also adorn the walls, some of these having portraits framed along with them, such as that of Mackay as Bailie Nicol Jarvie, Mrs. Siddons as Lady Randolph, and Mr. Liston as Dominie Sampson. One old playbill is shown of the Kelso Theatre, printed by Ballantyne at the Border Press, before Scott induced him to remove his printing-office to Paul’s Work, Edinburgh. ”

“ While the manuscript of the novels was usually transcribed by the Ballantynes, this one was copied by George Stillie, a clerk at Paul’s Work. He died a few days after James Ballantyne in 1833. His brother James was in the service of John Ballantyne in Hanover Street, and, on the failure of that business, was employed at Paul’s Work. James Stillie was afterwards a bookseller in Edinburgh for many years, and his shop in George Street was the resort of book-collectors from all parts of the kingdom—including Mr. Gladstone when he came to Edinburgh. He lived to a great age, and died in August 1893. ”

“ This objection mainly rested on the assertion that James Ballantyne had not been trained as a printer, but it need count for little. Neither Caxton nor Chepman, nor yet Baskerville, all of them celebrated typographers, received the education of a printer; and of how many printer-capitalists of the present day can it be said that they have been subjected [140] to the technical training of a skilled workman? This, however, may be better answered from some notes by Dr. Robert Chambers, a printer and a publisher, [43] who personally knew both Scott and the Ballantynes. ”

“ After some years of failing health, John Ballantyne retired to a villa which he had built near Kelso, and here he was frequently visited by Sir Walter. On one of these occasions, the latter revived a long-forgotten project of their early connection in business, and offered his gratuitous services as editor of a Novelists’ Library, to be printed and published for the benefit of his friend. ”

“ John Street, long after the Canongate had been deserted by its courtly occupants, continued to be the residence of a few of the rural and city gentlefolk. In this retired spot, only a few years previously, lived the eccentric Lord Monboddo, who is said to have anticipated the “evolution” theory. Lord Monboddo’s daughter was one of the loveliest women of her time—the “fair Burnet” mentioned by Burns in his “Address to Edinburgh.” A tenement at the top of the street contained the abode of Smollett when in Edinburgh. ”

“ We are much mistaken if a similar difficulty has not been felt by most periodical essayists. The first appearance before the public is like the entrance of a bashful person into a ceremonious company, and in both cases the French proverb applies, Ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte. And how often have we seen such a person, qualified both to entertain and [50] enjoy society, suffering during a whole evening under the too acute feeling of some awkwardness or inadvertent solecism, which he supposes himself to have committed on his first entrance. ”

“ For one thing, a centralising movement had been going on for some time. Many literary men were finding it necessary to live in London for library and other consulting facilities, and the work naturally followed with the editors and the contributors. The Edinburgh Review, for example, which had been printed for a number of years at Paul’s Work, was removed to London, for the convenience of the editor.
Other causes also were at work. The population of Edinburgh and Leith about the time of Scott’s birth in 1771 was probably not more than 70,000 ”

“ Six days sufficed to exhaust the edition, which consisted of as many thousand copies. This work attained a popularity not inferior to that of its predecessors. It was while correcting the proof-sheets of this novel that the author took to fabricating mottoes for the chapter headings. One day John Ballantyne, who was sitting beside him, was asked to hunt for a certain passage in Beaumont and Fletcher, and as he did not succeed, “Hang it, Johnnie,” said Scott, “I believe I can make a motto sooner than you will find one.” ”

“ The following obituary notice appeared in the Scotsman of January 19, 1833:—
“It is with feelings of sincere regret that we have to announce the death of our able and excellent contemporary and friend, Mr. James Ballantyne. His health for several months past has been very delicate, and he expired on Thursday at noon, rather unexpectedly by his friends, as he had fallen into a soft sleep in the morning, after a night of painful suffering from a vomiting of blood, with which he had of late been visited. ”

“ Lapse of time, enlargements of premises, removals, and changes of several kinds incident to an old business, have led to the loss of records which would have been of great value in a chapter of this kind. Apart from the works of Sir Walter Scott—of which we give a chronological list, we can only hope to describe a few of the books printed by James Ballantyne & Co. in the earlier decades of Paul’s Work. ”