THE KING’S PRINTERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18208, 2 October 1933, Page 10

THE KING’S PRINTERS

I OLD LONDON FIRM L WEALTH OF INTEREST i* King’s Printers—occupants of a buildg, letter lane way, where Dr. Johnson ten used to dine—printers since 1767 Britain’s Acts of Parliament —nowlays general publishers too —this is the m’of. Eyre and Spottiswoode, of which r. R. V. Cave, the general manager, Iked alter hit, arrival in Christchurch, in the course of an extensive overseas business tour J;H# described the office of; his.. firm as Without, but with a wealth of interest

’■ Tliere is .something in what ho says! For; instance, stowed away somewhere among the documents in the building tjiere is probably a part, if not the whole, of the original manuscript of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, which the firm published in its distant days.

“The manuscript might be found, if wo Jiad a real turn-out,” said Mr. Cave. “Rut you know wha,t these old buildings are—full ol rabbit-warrens !” It was in the early days of Ueorgo HI that the King’s I-rinters began printing all the Acts of Parliament. The King’s Printers are privileged to print Hie Holy Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, a right which they share with only two other printing pressesMie Oxford and Cambridge University presses. A London edition of the Bible u sure to be an Eyre and Spottiswoode print. f “The firm of Evve and Spottiswoode Jas founded by a man named Strahan, hose colleague, Mr. Eyre, subsequently became a partner, eventually giving his mime to the present firm. I "Strahan was a great friend and benefactor of - Dr. Johnson, whose beautiful old home m Gough Square is preserved frith loving care to-day. It is situated Jffthin lOGvds. of the office of the King's Printers, and that office, incidentally, rbeen kept- all down the years just it existed in those, far-off clays.” T “The very board room used to this j&yis the room which old Dr. Johnson. Having finished his day’s work, and tssiWy having visited the ‘Cheshire ieese,’ was accustomed to enter in order to dine with the founder of the flrip of Eyre and Spottiswoode. Prob ably Sir Joshua Reynolds accompanied tdm, for .Reynolds was a constant visitor to Gough Square. I’“Our activities by no means end with ([he Acts of Parliament, and the Bible 4iid the Prayer Book. For example, we Save, printed’ many tine editions de luxe *nd in the past few years have produced many interesting biographies. It is an <*ld h ouse, but it is keeping abreast of] modern times.”