with such questions as the public health, the water supply, the disposal of the sewage, and other matters of public importance. Glasgow trials form a group. The collection of programmes of meetings and entertainments held in the City Hall, from 1865 to the present time, which was preserved and presented by Mr. Duncan Brown, hall-keeper, and has been securely bound in ten substantial volumes, is a piece of local history to which very few libraries possess a parallel. But it is impossible here to name the many items of local interest-personal, political, literary, ecclesiastical, or artistic-which the collection contains, and we leave it with the remark that it promises to become one of the largest and most complete of the provincial gatherings of local literature.

CHAPTER X.

Early Glasgow Printing - First Printing in the City-List of Glasgow Printers-The Brothers Foulis-Works on Scotland-The National Covenant—Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland -Scottish History, Topography, and Biography"The Black Acts"-Miscellaneous Scottish Books.

THERE remains for notice the third of the collections of a special kind which the Mitchell Library possesses. This is conveniently known by the name of "Early Glasgow Printing." By great good fortune a copy of what is believed to be the earliest piece of printing executed in the city was secured at a very early period of the library's existence. This is a tract of sixteen pages, bearing the following title :-"The Protestation of the Generall Assemblie of the Church of Scotland, and of the Noblemen, Barons, Gentlemen, Borrowes,

Ministers and Commons; Subscribers of the Covenant, lately renewed, made in the high Kirk, and at the Mercate Crosse of Glasgow, the 28, and 29, of November 1638. Printed at Glasgow by George Anderson, in the Yeare of Grace, 1638."

The title-page is adorned by a rude cut, the naked figure of a man. It has no apparent relation to the subject of the tract, and may have been a portion of a larger design. The first introduction of printing into Glasgow is a matter of so much local interest, that the following record from "Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1573-1642," may be permitted, although it is doubtless well known to many of our readers:

4 January, 1640. Ordaines the thesaurare to pay to George Andersone, printer, ane hundrethe pundis in satisfactioun to him of the superplus he debursit in transporting of his geir to this brughe, by the ten dollouris he gave him of befor to that effect, and als in satisfactioun to him of his haill bygane fiallis fra Whitsonday in anno 1638 to Mertimes last.

The distinction of being the first printing done in Glasgow has been claimed for a small book bearing date 1634, and with the following title :-"True Christian Love to bee Sung with any of the Common Tunes of the Psalmes [Col. 3-16, Let the Word of God dwell in you]." Printed by I. W. for John Wilson, and are to be sould at his shop in Glasgow, 1634. The general opinion, however, is that this was printed at Edinburgh by John Wriettoun, or Wreittoun, for the Glasgow bookseller.

The collection so appropriately and happily commenced with the earliest Glasgow print has now grown into very considerable dimensions. The annual report for 1884 states that "the department of Early Glasgow Printing' has received additions bringing up the number of volumes contained to about 820." All books printed in Glasgow before the commencement of the present century are included. It is believed that

most of the printers who exercised their calling within the city are represented by at least one of their productions. Materials are not as yet available for a complete list of these predecessors of our present typographers, but the following names are among them. The dates following the names are not intended to show either the beginning or the ending of the work of each respectively, but merely the date of the first book of each now in the library. A few of the names are those of publishers, not printers :

The pre-eminent name, whether for the excellence,

the accuracy, or the quantity of the work, is that of

Robert & Andrew Foulis. The reputation of the brothers is more than local, more than Scottish, more even than British; for their books are mentioned with respect by bibliographers the world over. Together with Baskerville of Birmingham, they most worthily upheld for many years the character and excellence of the provincial press. To whatever excellence of execution their successors in the art may have attained, the older work still holds its own in correctness of composition, in evenness of inking, in accuracy of register, and, in short, in all the qualities which render a well-made book a delight to its possessor and an object of envy to his friends. The following note as

to the Foulises may be acceptable :-

In

Robert Foulis was born in Glasgow, April 20th, 1707, and began his career as a barber's apprentice. On the suggestion of Professor Francis Hutcheson, whose lectures he had attended, he relinquished this occupation for that of publishing and bookselling, and in 1739 established a business of his own. In partnership with his brother Andrew (born, Glasgow, November 23rd, 1712) he put forth from his press numerous important works, including many choice and accurate editions of the Greek and Latin classics. addition to his eminence as a printer, Robert Foulis was famous for his efforts to establish in Glasgow an academy of the fine arts. This he instituted in 1753, and in 1776 an exhibition of the pictures and sculpture in connection with the academy was given in London. Many of the pictures had been purchased by Robert Foulis on the Continent, and were of considerable value. The most famous pupil taught in the academy, which proved on the whole unsuccessful, was David Allan, commonly called the Scottish Hogarth. Tassie, the medallist, also received the rudiments of his artistic education in the same school. Robert Foulis died on the 2nd of June, 1776, and Andrew in 1775. Andrew had been educated for the Church at Glasgow Uni

versity, but is not known, apart from the famous copartnery, for any special achievement. The business was continued under the name of R. & A. Foulis for a number of years after the decease of the original partners by Robert's son, Andrew.

The number of volumes in the library bearing the Foulis imprint is about 350, of which the following may be named :-

Phædri Fabulæ, ex editione Burmanni.

12mo. 1741.

1742.

Demetrius Phalereus de Elocutione. 8vo. 1743 (said to be the first book printed in Greek in Glasgow).

Pindar, Opera. 1744.

Sophocles, Tragœdiæ. 2 volumes.

1745.

Eschylus, Tragœdiæ. 2 volumes. 1746.

Relph (Josiah), A Miscellany of Poems. Printed by Robert Foulis for Mr. Thomlinson in Wigton. 1747.

Hamilton (William) of Bangour, Poems on Several Occasions. 1748. Cicero, Opera. 1749. 20 volumes, 18mo.

Euripides, Orestes. 1753. 8vo.

Simson (Robert), Elements of Euclid.

Homer, Iliad.

1756. 4to.

1756. 2 volumes, sm. fo.

Homer, Odyssey. 1758. 2 volumes, sm. fo.

Pindar [Opera]. 1757. 4 very small, but neat volumes.

Catalogus Librorum, A.[rchibald] C.[ampbell] D.[uke of] A.[rgyle].

1758. Sm. 4to.

Thucydides [Opera]. 1759. 8 volumes, 12mo.

Herodotus, Opera. 1761. 9 volumes. 12mo.

Xenophon, Opera. 1762-67. 12 volumes, 12mo.

Bell (John) of Antermony, Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to divers parts of Asia. 1763. 2 volumes, 4to.

Catalogue of Pictures, composed and painted chiefly by the most admired Masters by Robert Foulis. London: 1776. 3

volumes, 18mo. [printed in Glasgow].

Virgil, Opera, ex editione P. Burmanni. 1778. 2 volumes, sm. fo. The well-known folio editions of British Poets, including Pope, Thomson, Parnell, Gray, etc. (Milton's Paradise Lost is alone wanted to complete this set).

While the palm must be given to the Foulis house, the work of some others is but little inferior. Urie especially approaches closely the greater printers; indeed, so close is the resemblance between some of their books and his that it is difficult to avoid the idea