THOMAS GENT

1724-1778.
The name of Thomas Gent has obtained a wider celebrity than that of any other York typographer.* Author, printer, and artist;- his labours extended over more than half a century, and during that period many of the numerous productions of his pen, both in prose and verse, were printed at his own press, and embellished with engravings executed by his own hand. His works are, for the most part, below mediocrity, yet they possess a certain quaintness and eccentricity of character which are not without their charm. Some of his topographical publications are now of considerable value, as records of facts unnoticed by other writers, and containing descriptions of objects which have since disappeared.†
* See the Life of Mr. Thomas Gent printer, of York, written by himself, 8vo. London, 1832. The original MS. was found among a number of books from Ireland purchased by the late Mr. Thorpe, and was published under the editorial care of the late Rev. Joseph Hunter. It is entirely in Gent's handwriting, and has been recently added to his unrivalled collection by Mr. Hailstone, who has kindly allowed me the use of it. Numerous passages omitted by Mr. Hunter explain and illustrate many points of the character and conduct of Gent.
† Gent's performances, Mr. Hunter remarks, "were not, like too many modern books of topography, mere bundles of pillage from the works of ingenious and painstaking authors, but contained matter honestly collected, and not, before his time, made public by the press." Life of Gent, p. 190, note.

Gent was born in Ireland, where his parents, who were in humble life, had been long settled, although, he tells us, England was his father's native country.‡
‡ Mr. Charles Knight's lively and instructive notices of Gent, in his Shadows of the Old Booksellers, (8vo. London, 1865,) have to some extent anticipated my narrative of the events of his early life.

When about fifteen years of age he was put apprentice to Mr. Powell, a respectable Dublin printer. After he had served little more than half his time, he happened to meet with an old schoolfellow who told him that he intended to take his passage on board a ship which was bound for England, and Gent promised to accompany him. One reason for thus suddenly determining to abscond from his apprenticeship and desert his parents was the severe treatment he received from his master, who, he says, was never content though he worked ever so hard. But a secret and more urgent motive influenced him in wishing to leave Ireland. The well-favoured youth had inspired with the tender passion a damsel who had been one of his master's servants, and she had pressed her claims upon him with so much ardour and persistency that he was afraid of being drawn into a connection that would have been utterly ruinous to him.*
* MS. Life.

Without disclosing his intentions to his parents, and having but a few pence in his pocket, and no other clothing than his best suit which he had on his back, he secreted himself in the hold of the ship when on the eve of sailing from Dublin, and after a boisterous passage was landed at Park-Gate. Thence he made his way to London; having on his journey, both by sea and land, experienced many hardships and encountered many strange adventures.
It was in the month of August, 1710, that the young Irish printer first arrived in the great English metropolis. Of good person and pleasing address, with a moderate knowledge of the art he had been taught, he soon obtained employment. His first master was Edward Midwinter† of Pie Corner, Smithfield,‡ whose business lay chiefly in printing pamphlets and broadsides for the hawkers. With him Gent worked steadily for more than three years.
† He was the brother of David Midwinter, a well-known bookseller and publisher in St. Paul's Churchyard.
‡ Pie-Corner, West Smithfield, between Giltspur Street and Smithfield, noted chiefly for cooks' shops, and pigs drest there during Bartholomew Fair. See Cunningham's London, vol. ii. p. 662. "The single-sheeted Pie-Corner Poet, who comes squirting out with an elegy in mourning for every great person that dies," is noticed by Phillips in the preface to his Theatrum Poetarum, 1675.

[The royal martyr: or, the bloody tragedy of King Charles the First Who was barbarously murder'd by his own rebellious subjects the hypocritical Dissenters, before his palace gate at Whitehall, on the 30th of January, 1648. To the tune of, The King shall enjoy his own again. London: printed by Thomas Gent, 1711. {UNC-CH}]

Afterwards he worked for one or two other printers in London, and was then content to obtain smouting work, that is, "labouring here and there, without settlement." But he contrived to save out of his earnings as much money as enabled him to purchase a small stock of printing tools which he thought "might be of service to him when occasion should require." He still kept up his intimacy with his first master; and, after some months had passed, Midwinter mentioned to him that he had received a letter from Mr. White the printer of York, stating that he wanted a young man at the business. At that time Gent declined to make any engagement; but it happened that soon afterwards one Isaac, a travelling hawker, was at York, and gave so favourable an account of Gent that Mr White was induced to write again to Midwinter, offering the young printer 181. a year with board, washing, and lodging. This offer was too tempting to be refused, and, with Mr. Midwinter's approval, Gent decided to go to York.
He set off from London on Tuesday the 20th of April, 1714, and performed the journey to York in six days, walking the greater part of the way. His amusing account of his first introduction to the venerable York printer has been often quoted:—" The door was opened by the head-maiden, who is now my dear spouse. She ushered me into the chamber, where Mrs. White lay something ill in bed; but the old gentleman was at his dinner by the fireside, sitting in a noble arm-chair, with a good large pie before him, and made me partake heartily with him. I had a guinea in my shoe-lining, which I pulled out to ease my foot, at which the old gentleman smiled, and pleasantly said it was more than he had ever seen a journeyman save before."*
* Gent's Life, p. 19.

Gent passed a year at York in the service of old John White. "I lived as happily as I could wish (he says) in this family." What greatly contributed to his happiness was, doubtless, his successful courtship of Alice Guy, Mrs. White's fair hand-maiden, who was destined to be his future wife Unfortunately, when the year had nearly expired, an itinerant Irish printer, passing through York, maliciously revealed the secret of Gent having run away from his Dublin apprenticeship* This information lowered him in the eyes of his employers, and was probably the cause of his declining a renewal of his engagement when it was proposed to him. On the 15th of May, 1715, Gent left York, after an affectionate parting from the "lovely young creature" Alice Guy, whose charms had captivated others as well as himself, and especially his master's grandson, Charles Bourne.
* In the melancholy humour produced by this untoward circumstance, Gent "attempted to invoke the muses." The result of their inspiration was a poem of six-and-thirty stanzas, which is inserted in his autobiography. See Life, p. 22.

His desire to see his parents again took him to Dublin, where he was warmly welcomed. He readily found employment there, and might have settled permanently in his native city, had he not been persecuted by his old master Powell, who threatened him with legal proceedings for having absconded from his service. He therefore thought it prudent to leave Ireland privately once more, and having received a letter from his dearest at York, thither, "purely again to enjoy her company," he resolved to direct his course.
How long he remained at York, and whether he spent his time there in printing for Mr. White or in dalliance with the fair Alice Guy, is not recorded. In the year 1716 we find him again in London, carrying on a correspondence by letter with his "dear," and obtaining a livelihood by working for his former master, Midwinter.
In 1717 Gent was made a member of the Company of Stationers of London, at their spacious hall in Warwick Lane; and on the ninth of October in that year he was admitted to the freedom of the great city. It appears from the enrolment of his admission that he obtained these privileges by virtue of his service with Edward Midwinter, "citizen and stationer."*
* See Gent's Historia Compendiosa Anglicana, preface, p. 1, note.

Being now raised to the rank of a London citizen, he, somewhat ungratefully, turned his back upon the Midwinters, expecting to meet with more constant and profitable employment elsewhere. In this expectation he was disappointed. He had to take work at intervals, when he could get it, and was constrained sometimes even to labour at the press, as work at case was not so brisk but that there were enough of hands to perform it. At length he obtained an engagement in the printing-house of Mr. William Wilkins in Little Britain, who was the printer of the Whitehall Evening Post, and of several other London newspapers.† Here he wrought alternately at press and case. The offer of better work as compositor in the office of Mr. John Watts,† a printer in Covent Garden, induced him to leave Mr. Wilkins.
† Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 300.
† Mr. Watts was a printer of eminence, and the partner of Mr. Jacob Tonson. Lit. Anec. vol. i. p. 292. It was in the office of Mr. Watts that Benjamin Franklin worked, during his stay in London. Knight, p. 80.

He was on the point of accepting the offer of a partnership in a printing-house at Norwich, when a letter from his parents, telling him that they were very infirm and "extremely desirous to see him before they died," took him once more to his native country. Before he set off, he wrote a desponding letter to York, which appears to have been intended to convey to his dear Alice Guy the impression that she must no longer indulge the hope of his being able "to fulfil those tender engagements that had passed between them." Letters which he subsequently wrote to her, he acknowledges, were not "so amorously obliging as they ought to have been from a sincere lover." He did not stay long in Ireland, and on his return to London he was again employed in the office of Mr. Watts. Whilst Gent was working for Mr. Watts, who was the favourite printer of the Whig party, he became acquainted with Mr. Francis Clifton a printer who had set up a press and published a newspaper at the Old Bailey. As Clifton was a Roman Catholic the political tendency of his newspaper may be readily conjectured. Happening to want a hand, Gent indiscreetly ventured to assist him for a day or two. This being discovered, Gent says, was very ill interpreted, and lost him his place in Mr. Watts's office. Hence he was seduced by Clifton's offer of large wages to resolve "intirely to take his chance in his affairs."
Gent continued to work a considerable time for his new employer, who was constantly in difficulties, and was at length driven to place his goods within the liberties of the Fleet, and enter himself as a prisoner there. But he still carried on a brisk trade, supplying the "wide-mouthed stentorian hawkers" with the ballads and broadsides, by the sale of which they gained their livelihood; and such advantageous jobs flowed in upon him as gave him cause to be merry under his heavy misfortunes.
Gent gives an example of the dangerous character of the employment which his master occasionally undertook. The printing of certain anonymous letters, written by a person of distinction, was intrusted to Clifton, and Gent worked upon them both as compositor and at the press. When finished, the papers were packed up and placed under Gent's care, and he and his master took them in a coach to Westminster, where they entered a large sort of monastic building, and were ushered into a spacious hall. They were seated near a large table covered with an antique carpet of curious work, and a bottle of wine was placed before them. Whilst they were regaling themselves, a grave gentleman in a black lay habit entered the room and entertained them with pleasant discourse, concluding with a strict injunction that they should observe the utmost secrecy as to the work in which they had been engaged.
Gent afterwards discovered that the monastic building to which he and his master had been conducted was the Deanery at Westminster, and that their hospitable entertainer was Dr Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, who was already under the displeasure of the Government, although the prosecution against him for treasonable practices was not actually commenced.
Gent was not exclusively employed by Clifton as a compositor. He was sent to the Kingston Assizes, where "he carefully wrote down" reports of the trials of several of the prisoners, and sent them to his master in the Old Bailey, who got them composed till Gent should return "with determinate acquittals or condemnation."
At length Clifton had become so much involved in difficulties that Gent, by the persuasion of his friends, quitted his service, and resumed his employment under his old master, Midwinter, with whom he remained some time, as he says, "happy enough."
He was now able to save money out of his earnings. He purchased as many articles of furniture as would fill a larger room than the one he had hitherto occupied under Mr Franklin, watchmaker, in Fleet-Lane, and "found great comfort that he could live as he pleased whilst master of his own habitation." A friend "helped him to a good pennyworth" in the purchase of some founts of letters which had been used in printing Mist's Journal, and were designed for the furnace Mr. Mist, the editor, used him very courteously in the price that he set upon them, in regard of a paper which Gent had written, and was printed and sold, concerning his misfortunes, when he was prosecuted by the Government.* He added to his stock of type by purchasing a fount of pica almost new, and that he might occasionally do a job of his own he bought a little press. In all this he professes to have had in view the performance of the promise he had made to his dear at York, although it is obvious that he had discontinued his correspondence with her. He had the ambition to look forward to setting up for himself in London, and had already obtained an assurance of having business from some of the booksellers. So he went on increasing his stock of new type and other printing materials; but still he worked with Mr. Midwinter.
* In June 1719 Mr. Mist, the editor of the newspaper called Mist's Journal, was under recognizance to appear and answer in the court of King's Bench, on a charge of printing seditious and traitorous libels.

His imprudent connection with his late Jacobite master at length bore its fruits.
In January, 1721, Mr. Francis Clifton was taken into custody by a King's messenger upon a charge of printing a treasonable ballad on the birth of the young Pretender,* and the next day the messengers went to his house and took away his wife and the rest of his family, together with his press and papers.
* His birth took place at Rome on the 31st December, 1720.

At the same time both Gent and his employer Midwinter had incurred the suspicion of the Government. One night Gent had gone to rest suffering from a severe attack of illness. Soon after midnight, whilst he was asleep, his bedroom door was violently burst open by a King's messenger, who dragged him out of bed, helped him to dress himself, searched his pockets for papers, hurried him down stairs into the street, which was filled with constables and watchmen, and thrust him into a coach, which was ordered to drive towards Newgate. On their way the coach was stopped near St. Sepulchre's Church, and Gent was placed in a room of a public-house, and there closely watched and guarded. Presently he was amazed to see his master, Mr. Midwinter, brought in as a prisoner and left in the room with him. Soon after others were brought in, and amongst the rest Mr. Clifton also. From thence they were taken to Manchester Court,† a house at Westminster, on the banks of the Thames, which appears to have been at that time used for the temporary confinement of State prisoners.
† Now Manchester Buildings, on the site of Derby House formerly belonging to the Earls of Lincoln, and another large house belonging to the Earls of Manchester, very pleasant towards the Thames. Cunningham's Hand-book vol. ii. p. 513.

Here Gent was placed in an apartment alone, and "debarred from friends to see him, or the use of pen, ink, and paper, to write to them." Within a few days afterwards the rigour of his confinement was relaxed, and at the end of three days more, "as nothing could be proved against him, he was honourably discharged." Gent had reason to rejoice at his narrow escape. Not many months had passed since he stood near St. Sepulchre's Church in Newgate Street, and beheld a young brother printer drawn on a sledge to be executed at Tyburn for the offence of printing a seditious libel, which was adjudged to be high treason.*
* His brother printer was John Matthews, a youth of eighteen, who was tried and condemned at the Old Bailey. He was charged with printing and publishing a seditious and traitorous libel, entitled Vox populi Vox Dei, which asserted that the Pretender had an hereditary right to the Crown, and that all rights concur in him, and endeavouring to stir up the people to shake off the present arbitrary government. The persons on whose evidence he was convicted were two of his fellow-workmen who had been concerned in printing similar libels. On the 6th of November, 1719, the unfortunate youth was drawn on a sledge from Newgate to Tyburn, where he was executed pursuant to his sentence, except that the quartering of his body was dispensed with by the favour of the Government. The fate of Matthews excited much public sympathy. Six months afterwards one of the printers who were witnesses against him died, and was to be buried at Islington. A mob arose and obstructed the funeral, causing so great a tumult that the next night a detachment of the Foot Guards was sent from Whitehall to see the corpse buried and to preserve the peace.

When Gent regained his liberty, he resumed his efforts to improve his position in the world. His stock of goods having increased he moved into another house in Fleet Lane,† where he set up his press and letters in a light room that was adjoining to the garden of Fleet-prison, and here he printed and published several works, employing assistants occasionally. He was sanguine enough to imagine that he should soon be in a condition to invite his dear Alice Guy to share his prosperity in London.
But one Sunday morning news was brought to him that Alice Guy was married to his rival Charles Bourne. He was thunderstruck by this unexpected intelligence. He felt the blow the more severely as he could not but acknowledge that his own remissness was the cause. However, he soon recovered from the effects of "this great disappointment," and applied himself to business with increased diligence, sometimes working on his own account, and when work was scarce seeking it where it was to be had.
† Fleet-Lane ran parallel with that part of Fleet-ditch which was between Bridewell Dock and Holborn.

During his residence in London, Gent had frequently displayed his literary talents and his love of authorship, and his productions were from time to time committed to the press.
An abridgment, into one volume, of the recently published "Life of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner," was one of his labours whilst he was working for Midwinter.* His former master, Clifton, had printed for him a little book he wrote, entitled Teague's Ramble, "a satire on some of his craft who had used him unkindly."† To relieve his deep concern upon Alice Guy's marriage, his old vein of poetry flowed in upon him, and he gave some vent to his passion in a copy of verses which he entitled the Forsaken Lover's Letter to his former Sweetheart. He gave the poem to Mr. Dodd, a printer who had been friendly to him, and he sold thousands of them.
* The Life and most surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York Mariner. The whole three volumes faithfully abridg'd, and set forth with Cuts proper to the subject. London: printed by E. Midwinter, and sold by A. Bettesworth at the Red Lion in Pater-Noster-Row; and M. Hotham, at the Black-Boy on London Bridge. 1722. 12mo. pp. 376. [R. D.] Thirty wood-cuts on the letter press, rudely executed from Gent's grotesque designs.
† Printed A.D. 1719. Reprinted by Owen, Univ. Mag. vol. i. p. 194. MS. Life.

After he had a press of his own, he printed numerous Grub Street ballads, and other works of his own composition, which followed each other in quick succession. Among them he mentions, A Collection of Songs, proper for the Summer's Entertainment;A little book of Emblems;—A Preparation for Death;—The Bishop of Rochester's Effigy; with some inoffensive verses that pleased all parties. The few last dying words of Christopher Layer, a barrister, who was executed for High Treason, he made into a large speech, which had a great run.
In 1724 he printed a Latin Ode on the return of King George the First from Germany; entitled Ad Cæsarem Britannicum è Germania redeuntem Ode. Londini, typis Thomæ Gent in vico vulgo dicto Fleet-Lane, pro usu authoris ann. 1724.* This he undertook to oblige an old school-fellow who had studied physic in foreign parts, and commenced practising as doctor near the Minories. In the same year he printed and published a small volume, which, he says, was the last work he did of any great consequence in London. He describes it as a book of emblems in duodecimo, imitating the learned Hermenius Hugo of the Order of the Holy Jesus; and, " Mr. Hotham on London Bridge being partner, we ventured (he states) to print off a thousand, which at this time seem to be nearly sold off."† The following is the title of the work:—
* This is the only tract printed by Gent whilst in London of which he has recorded the title and impress. The library of the British Museum contains but a single example of the numerous Broadsides that issued from Gent's Fleet-Lane press. It is headed God's Judgments; or the Plague of Marseilles; and consists of a long string of doggrel verses, printed on coarse paper, within a border of rudely executed wood-cuts; no date or imprint. In the B. M. catalogue the verses are ascribed to "Thomas Gent a ballad writer." The terrible Plague of Marseilles happened in 1720, and a poem with that title "By a person of Quality," was published in 1721

[God's judgments shewn unto mankind. Being a true ... relation of the sufferings of the inhabitants of the city of Marseilles in France, now under the ... calamity of the Plage, etc. [In verse] Gent, Thomas. a Ballad Writer. [London? 1720] s. sh. fol.]
† Life of Gent, p. 143

DIVINE ENTERTAINMENTS: or Penitential Desires, SIGHS and GROANS of the Wounded Soul.
In two Books. Adorned with suitable cuts.
Have mercy upon me, O Lord! consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death. Ps. ix. 13.
LONDON: Printed for M. Hotham, at the Black Boy on London Bridge and T. Gent, near the Two Fighting Cocks * in Fleet Lane. 1724.†
12mo. pp. iv. 147. Table of Contents, 4 pages.
A wood-cut facing the title-page represents St. Agnes, with the lamb at her feet, and a shepherd's crook in her left hand. W. Pennock, F. Beneath the cut, "London, printed by Tho. Gent." Forty-five wood-cuts on the letter-press. The dedication to Her royal-highness the Princess of Wales is signed Thomas Gent.

In his preface, Gent adverts to the Pia Desideria of Herman Hugo,† and the English translation of that work by Edmund Arwaker,§ and he quotes the translator's remark that "Mr. Quarles ¶ had only borrowed the emblems to place them to a much inferior sense." But he omits to acknowledge how much he was himself a plagiarist from both Quarles and Arwaker. The illustrations of the two last books of Quarles's Emblems are engraved by Marshall and Simpson, and those of Arwaker's translation are executed on copper by Sturt. All are servile imitations of the plates of the Flemish artist Christopher à Sichem, which adorn the original work of Herman Hugo. The emblems used by Gent are represented in thirty-seven wood-cuts, each of which is accompanied by two or three pages of verses, paraphrasing the passage of Holy Scripture which is the subject of the emblem. None of the wood-cuts of Gent are from original designs. All are implicitly copied either from the prints in Hugo, or the imitations of them in Quarles and Arwaker, but most probably from the latter. The designs of the Flemish artist are sufficiently grotesque, but in the rude and coarse wood cuts of Gent the grotesque is exaggerated to the absurd and ludicrous.
* This was probably the sign of a tavern where a cock-pit was kept. Gent tells us that when he had his press in Fleet-Lane he was employed for some time "with bills for the cock-pit., which were done twice a week." Life, p. 140.
† I possess a copy of this work, which is exceedingly rare. Mr. Lilly, the eminent bookseller, never saw more than one copy of it.
† The original edition of Hugo's work was published in 1628 with this title:— " Pia Desideria Emblematis, Elegiis & affectibus S.S. Patrum illustrata. Authore Hermanno Hugone, Societatia Jesu. Ad Urbanum VIII. Pont. Max. Sculpsit Christophorus à Sichem, pro P. I. P. Typis Henrici Aertssenii, Antverpiæ. M.DC.XXVIII. The ninth edition is dated 1669.
§ Pia Desideria, or Divine Addresses, in three books. Written in Latine by Herman Hugo. Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A. 8vo. with 47 plates engraved by Sturt. London, 1686. Second and third editions appeared in 1690 and 1702.
¶ Emblems. By Francis Quarles. 12mo. London, 1643.

In the emblem which illustrates Psalm lxxiii. 24, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee," Gent has introduced a representation of York Minster, and in the accompanying verses he thus apostrophises the noble church under the shadow of which he was destined to pass the whole of his future life :*—

On Earth, what blessings can the soul desire,
Than being animated by Heav'n's Fire ?
And where can she expect true peace to find,
Unless the Altar cures her wounded mind?
Thrice happy Places! dedicate to prayer,
Where God is found, our drooping souls to chear!
What Heavenly comfort, what cœlestial smiles,
Attend those sacred† venerable Isles!
How beautiful the antient work appears,
The wondrous labours of preceding years!
Such symmetry, so glorious in each part,
As must, at once, inspire and win the heart;
While painted windows, most divinely done,
Disperse fair colours, by the glorious Sun.
Happy fair Ebor, in her graceful charms,
A sure retreat from all infernal harms:
There learned Shepherds of Christ's flock remain,
Whose Heav'nly Souls are free from spot or stain;
Who wisely search into the cause of things,
By tracing Nature in her hidden springs.
Who view the splendent host of orbs above,
How vast their circles, and how swift they move;
What power directs their everlasting line,
By turns to seek the centre or decline;
What Second Cause Heav'n's high command performs
In horrid tempests and convulsive storms,
When in a fearful gloom, the clouds arise,
Blue lightnings flash, and thunders burst the Skies:
Why cold the fluid element restores
A harder substance, yet of wider pores:
Or, what more nearly touches human kind,
The Pow'rs and Nature of immortal Mind;
Which, only conscious of its being, knows
Th' eternal Spring from whence that being flows.
How laws their force and sanctity obtain,
How far extend, and what they should restrain;
Whence flow the rules which they themselves obey,
And guide deluded Mortals the right way;
Whose blest pursuits produce serene delight,
Endear past labours, and to new invite.
These are the Reverend Clergy of this land,
Who do, my God! before thy altar stand;
Whose Eloquence, in most endearing strains,
Persuades the soul to throw off Satan's chains,
And, by the power of thy Glorious Name,
Restores lost virtue, putting sin to shame.
O Heav'ns! but how my wand'ring fancy moves!
The Soul, without thy steady guidance, roves:
Inflam'd with love, spur'd on by sweet desire,
Nothing but you she does on Earth require.
O let thy Glorious Eyes but look on Me;
For whom have I in Heaven, My God! but Thee?
Both Heav'n and Earth can nothing to me grant;
If wanting You, I every thing do want:
Riches and Honours are but mean and poor,
If thy sweet presence adds not to our store.
The fertile mines, the deep and pearly strand,
Sun, Moon, and Stars, what's all without thy hand?
Thou art my All, my Comfort, while on Earth;
For, without Thee, alas! what's Life, but Death?
O King of Angels, most divinely fair,
Heav'n is not Heav'n without thy Presence there.

*Divine Entertainments, p. 122.
† In York Minster.

This extract may serve as a specimen of the poetical effusions of Gent's early days, and will remove all doubt as to the authorship of the Divine Entertainments.
But neither this more important work, nor the demands of the unruly hawkers, sufficed to keep Gent's little press in constant employment, and he had occasionally to seek for work in other quarters. Mr. Henry Woodfall, who was the first of the race of eminent printers of that name, carried on business near Temple Bar. He readily accepted the offered services of Gent, who helped to finish the portion that Mr. Woodfall had taken from the booksellers, of a learned Dictionary composed of English, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Part of the same book had been undertaken by Mr. Samuel Richardson the printer in Salisbury Court, who employed Gent, on Mr Woodfall's recommendation, to finish his share of it. The "ingenious Mr. Richardson" had not then attained the high literary reputation he afterwards enjoyed as the author of Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison.
Gent was more fortunate than some of the printers who had been his employers. He seems, as Mr. Knight observes, to have exercised the happy faculty of combining profit with safety. His earliest master, Midwinter, again fell into adversity. About the beginning of the year 1723, whilst Gent was working for him, his circumstances became so much embarrassed that he found it necessary, in order to prevent a seizure of his goods for debt, to remove himself with his family and property to a place called the Mint, a district in Southwark which was then a sanctuary for insolvent debtors.
The last person for whom Gent worked before his final departure from London, was the widow of his late friend Mr. Dodd. In compliance with her husband's dying wish, Mrs. Dodd engaged Gent as an assistant in the management of her printing-business. He found her printing-office in great confusion, and worked hard to convince the widow that he was worthy of his hire. Whilst thus employed the susceptible young Hibernian had nearly fallen a victim to the charms of the fascinating widow. "Indeed (he says) she was a most agreeable person, and I thought her worthy of the best of spouses, for sure there never could be a finer economist, or a sweeter mother to her dear children. Her conversation, agreeably to her fine education, almost wounded me with love, and at the same time commanded a becoming reverence."
This day-dream was soon to be dissolved. Another widow stept in who had a prior claim. News was brought to him of the premature death of Charles Bourne of York, the husband of Alice Guy. "Your first sweetheart," his informant said to him, "is now at liberty, and left in good circumstances by her dear spouse, who deceased but of late."
Gent did not hesitate. Perhaps his former flame was at once rekindled. Perhaps the "good circumstances" of the recently made widow threw some weight into the scale. He made a disingenuous excuse to Mrs. Dodd for his sudden departure; had his goods privately packed up and deposited in a warehouse, ready to be sent to him when required; and hurried to York as fast as the stage-coach from the Black Swan in Holborn could convey him, which brought him to his destination in four days' time. Here he once more greeted his dearest Alice, who was much changed from the blooming damsel he had wooed ten years before. Although there was no need of a new courtship, propriety demanded a few weeks' delay, and some obstacles had to be overcome. But, when his goods had safely arrived from London, Gent obtained the widow's full consent, and their nuptials were celebrated in York Minster on the 10th of December, 1724, the same day that Dr. Lancelot Blackburne, late Bishop of Exeter, was there installed Archbishop of York.*
* Life of Gent, p. 149. Gent's beautiful niece, Mrs. Anne Standish, of whom he always speaks in terms of warm affection, thinking he was espoused before indeed he was, wrote to him from her father's house at Dublin on the 27th of October, congratulating him upon his happy settlement with a virtuous wife, and regretting that distance had hindered her from dancing at his wedding and getting gloves. Gent says that he answered the lovely damsel in the softest manner, and gave her a kind invitation to his marriage, which in all likelihood would be in a little time. She was then in a declining state of health, and only lived until the day after her uncle's marriage was actually solemnized. MS. Life, fo. 48.

Upon his marriage to the widow of Charles Bourne, Gent came into possession of all the property which had belonged to her first husband. "From the late condition of a servant (he exclaims) was I changed to be a master! From a citizen of London, so much esteemed for urbanity, I was become, through the virtue of twenty-seven pounds, the like at York."† This feeling of complacency did not long continue. He soon
† Life of Gent, p. 151. He obtained the freedom of the City of York, by purchase, in 1724.

discovered that the condition of a master was not without its troubles and anxieties. Even his union with the object of his early attachment was not productive of unalloyed happiness. He had married a widow, and he experienced the usual results of that bold adventure. He found her temper, he says, "much altered from that sweet natural softness and most tender affection that rendered her so amiable to him while he was more juvenile and she a maiden."*
Gent seems to have taken upon himself to exercise somewhat prematurely those rights of ownership which he was to acquire by his marriage. The newspaper, called the York Mercury, begun by Mrs. White, and continued by Charles Bourne, in conjunction with Thomas Hammond, Gent printed with a new title, and in his own name as the sole publisher, several weeks before he became the husband of Mrs. Bourne.
The following is the title of the first number issued by Gent:
Numb. I.
The ORIGINAL YORK JOURNAL, or WEEKLY COURANT, containing the most remarkable passages and transactions at home and abroad.
From Monday November 16.
to Monday November 23.1724.
Printed by Thomas Gent, and are to be sold at the printing office in Coffee-House-Yard, York; where advertisements are taken in.†
He had afterwards reason to repent of having dissolved the connection of the newspaper with Hammond,‡ the respectable bookseller, who had been one of the publishers from its commencement.
* Life of Gent, p. 152.
† A copy of No. I. which was presented to Sir Francis Freeling by Mr. William Blanchard, editor of the York Chronicle, is now in Mr. Hailstone's collection.
‡ "I found a newspaper printed, but utterly spoiled by being compiled by a mean-spirited, self-conceited Quaker, whom I discharged." Life of Gent, p. 156.

Gent entered upon his career in the Northern metropolis with a fair prospect of worldly success. He had no rivals in his business. He was the sole typographer in the city and county of York. No other town in England, north of the Trent, except Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had a printing-press or a local newspaper. But circumstances soon occurred which were converted by his irascible and impracticable temper into sources of permanent discontent and discomfort. At the outset he indiscreetly made an opponent of his wife's relative, Mr. John White of Newcastle; who naturally felt much aggrieved when he saw that, by her hasty marriage, the business and property, which had originally belonged to his father, were transferred to a stranger. " He had done (Gent says) all he could to prevent our marriage, and breathed forth little else than the most destructive opposition against us." By a little timely submission Gent might have conciliated his wife's " barbarous uncle," but to this he disdained to stoop, and the result was that, within a twelvemonth after the marriage, Mr. White determined to commence the business of a printer at York. He set up the sign of the Printing-press at an office near St. Helen's church in Stonegate; whence in the month of August 1725 he issued the first number of a weekly newspaper, to which he gave the title of " The York Courant." This, Gent says, " they cried up, and in the same breath ran down mine, with that eager bitterness of spirit which they had instilled into them." As years passed on other presses were set up both at York and elsewhere, and Gent had the mortification to find that his business gradually declined. As early as in the year 1728 he begins to complain of going back in the world, " the opposition by our unmerciful uncle" being still continued against him.
Unfortunately, Gent did not practise the art of ingratiating himself with the persons among whom his lot was cast. It appears from his own account of his daily walk and conversation, that he was in a constant state of antagonism with many of his neighbours and acquaintance. He indulges in using terms of coarse and unmeasured abuse, when speaking of persons whom he regards as having done anything offensive or injurious to him. On many occasions he exhibits an acerbity of temper and a grossness of language which are highly discreditable to him.
He continued, however, for more than forty years to exercise his calling with unceasing zeal and industry. Numerous are the works which during that period passed through his press. "Were any one to attempt," Mr. Hunter observes, to make a catalogue of them, he would find it a harder task than ever bibliographer performed." *
* Life of Gent, p. 207.

Perhaps the following notices of the productions of Gent's York press are a closer approximation to a complete account of them than any that has hitherto been published:—

I. THE TRUE FOUNDATION of a NATION'S GREATNESS. A SERMON preached at the Assizes at York, March 7th, 1724, before Mr. Justice Tracy,
By Thomas Clarke, M.A. Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, Rector of Escrick, and Master of the Free-School at Kirk-Leatham.
Published at the desire of the Gentlemen of the Grand Jury.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for Francis Hildyard, and sold by W. and J. Innys at the West End of St. Paul's Churchyard, and T. Longman at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row, London.
8vo. pp. 32. [E. H.]

[The Mutual Love between Christ and his Church, In Two Sermons, upon Canticles 2. V. 16. My Beloved is Mine, and I am His, &c. By Jonathan Rose, A.M., Vicar of Sedbergh in Yorkshire.

York: Printed by Thomas Gent, 1725, 16 pp., 48 pp. including 2 frontispieces and a separate title page for the second sermon. Collection of Frank J. Gent]

II. The ADVANTAGE of employing the POOR in useful Labour, and M1SCHIEF of IDLENESS, or ill-judg'd Business. In a SERMON preach'd at St. Mary's in Beverley, October 10, 1725. Before the Right Worshipful Edward Wilbert, Esq. Mayor; Joseph Bielby, Esq. Mayor Elect; Francis Boynton, Esq. Recorder; the Worshipful Aldermen, and Capital Burgesses of the said Town.
By Sam. Johnston, S.T.B. Vicar of St. Mary's, and Rector of St. Nicholas, united parishes in Beverley.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for Richard Mancklin, and sold by James and John Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London.
8vo. pp. 33. [R. D.]

[The duty of maintaining publick work-houses for employing the poor. A sermon preach'd in the parish-church of the Holy Trinity in Kingston upon Hull. On Sunday, called Quinquagesima, February 20, 1725/6. By William Mason, ... Bodleian]

III. A SPEECH deliver'd to the Worshipful and Ancient SOCIETY of FREE and ACCEPTED MASONS. At a Grand Lodge, held at Merchant's Hall, in the City of York, on St. John's Day, December the 27th, 1726.
The Right Worshipful Charles Bathurst, Esq. Grand Master.
By the Junior Grand-Warden

YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for the Benefit of the Lodge.
8vo. pp. ii. 15. [R. D.]
* Charles Bathurst, Esquire, was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1727. He was the last of the family of Bathurst of Clints, near Richmond in Yorkshire.
The speech is dedicated by its anonymous author to Daniel Draper, Esq. afterwards known to the world as the Counsellor at Bombay, whose beautiful wife was "the famous Eliza" of Yorick.†
† See Fitzgerald's Life of Sterne, vol. ii. ch. 10.

IV. TRUTH and SlNCERITY the CEMENT and SUPPORT of SOCIETY. An ASSIZE SERMON preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter's in York.
March 12th, 1726, before the Honourable Mr. Justice Reynolds.
By Thomas Perrot, M.A. Rector of St. Martin-cum-Gregory in York, Prebendary of Ripon, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable John Lord Gower.
Published at the request of the Gentlemen of the Grand Jury.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for Francis Hildyard; and sold by J. Osborn and T. Longman, at the Ship in PaterNoster-Row, and J. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London.
8vo. [B. C. L. K 4/34 10.]

The author of this sermon was a younger son of Andrew Perrot, esq. who was Lord Mayor of York in 1701, and a brother of Charles Perrot, esq. who filled that office in 1710. "On the 21st July, 1710," Thoresby notes in his Diary, "I was at the Lady Perrot's with her son, the parson, running over the library, which had been curious, of his grandfather and uncle, eminent in their generations, some of whose manuscripts and antique pamphlets* he presented me with. The Lady has been very fortunate in her sons, of whom one was Mayor of Hull the last year, and another is Lord Mayor this, as her husband had been in his time." She was styled Lady Perrot, according to a custom, long since discontinued, of giving that title for her life to the wife of a Lord Mayor of York. Her husband was the son of Dr. Richard Perrot, prebendary of Osbaldwick in the cathedral church of York, and Vicar of Hull. The Rev. Thomas Perrot died on the 12th June, 1728, in the 46th year of his age, and was buried in the church of which he was rector. Vitam vixit tempore brevem, pietate longam.†
* Several of these are described in the catalogue of Thoresby's Museum.
† Mon. Inscription.

V. ERASMI COLLOQUIA SELECTA; or The Select Colloquies of Erasmus, with an English Translation as literal as possible, design'd for the use of Beginners in the Latin Tongue.
By John Clarke, Master of the publick Grammar-School in Hull.‡
The third Edition.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and are to be sold by A. Bettesworth, at the Red Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, London.
M.DCC.XXVI. 8vo.

"In 1726, (says Gent,) I printed some books learnedly translated into English by Mr. John Clarke, schoolmaster in Hull; the columns of the two languages being opposite one to the other, for the greater ease of young tyros in learning, as well as those who had obtained some proficiency therein. Two editions I did of Erasmus."*
‡ See antea, p. 136 (refers to a book published for Clarke by Grace White).
* Life of Gent, p. 173.

VI. EUTROPII HISTORIÆ ROMANÆ BREVIARIUM, cum Versione Anglicâ, in qua, Verbum de Verbo, quantum fieri licuit, exprimitur, Notis quoque et Indice. Or,
Eutropius's Compendious History of Rome: Together with an English Translation as Literal as possible, Notes and an Index.
By John Clarke, Master of the publick Grammar-School in Hull, in pursuance of the method of teaching the Latin Tongue laid down by him in his Essay upon the education of Youth in Grammar-Schools.
The Second Edition.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and are to be sold by A. Bettesworth at the Red-Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, London. M.DCC.XXVIII.
8vo. preface, &c. 5 leaves not paged. Text, pp. 162, and Index. [R. D.]

Eutropii Historiae Romanae breviarium, cum versione Anglica, in qua, verbum de verbo, quantum fieri licuit, exprimitur, notis quoque & indice. Or, Eutropius's compenious History of Rome: together with an English translation ... By John Clarke ...

Edition: The second edition.

Imprint: York: Printed by Thomas Gent; and are to sold by A. Bettesworth ... London. 1728.

Physical Description: [12], 162, [3] p. 21 cm.

Added author: Clarke, John, 1687-1734, tr.

Schoolbook; Clarke's translation. [Stamford]

The sixth edition of this work was published in 1750 by the author's son, "W. Clarke, under the piazza at the back of the Royal Exchange."†
† Sold by J. Mace and G. Ferraby at Hull, Messrs Stabler and Barstow, and N. Bell, at York; and P. Hodges at Hereford.

VII. L. ANNÆI FLORI Epitome Rerum Romanarum cum Versione Anglicâ, in qua verbum de verbo, quantum per utriusque linguæ genium fieri licuit, redditur,
Or, A Compendious History of Rome, By L. Florus.
With an English translation as literal as possible.
By John Clarke, Master of the publick Grammar-School in Hull.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for Arthur Bettesworth, at the Red-Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, London: and sold by Thomas Hammond, jun. in York; and T. Ryles in Hull.
8vo. pp. iv. 217. No date. [R. D.]
[Names of towns, within the county of York, and county of the city of York, which are within the liberty of St Peter's in York. Alphabetically digested and distinguished in what riding and weapontake they lye. York: printed by Thomas Gent, 1729. {UNC-CH}]

VIII. The FOUNDATION of MORALlTY in THEORY and PRACTICE considered. In an examination of the learned Dr. Samuel Clarke's opinion concerning the original of Moral Obligation; As also of the notion of Virtue, advanced in a late book entituled An Inquiry into the original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue.
By John Clarke, Master of the public Grammar School in Hull.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and sold by A. Bettesworth, Bookseller in Pater-Noster-Row; T. Hammond, jun. in York; and T. Ryles in Hull, 1730. Price ls. 6d
8vo. pp. 112. [E. H.] [B. M. T/1760. 4.]

Mr. John Clarke was Master of the Grammar-School at Hull in the early part of the eighteenth century. He published numerous educational works, which were received with much favour and soon became very popular.
We have seen that as early as in the year 1718 he began to employ the York press, and that soon after Gent settled at York Mr. Clarke intrusted him with the printing of some of his books. The work which first brought the author into notice was An Essay upon the Education of Youth in Grammar-Schools, wherein the vulgar method of teaching is examined, and a new one proposed for the more easy and speedy training up of Youth in the knowledge of the learned Languages, with History, Geography, Chronology, &c. 12mo. London, 1720.* This was followed by An Essay upon Study, wherein directions are given for the due conduct thereof; and the collection of a Library proper for the purpose. 12mo. London, 1731.† Besides his editions of the classics already noticed Mr. Clarke published the following, with literal translations:—

C. Nepotis Vitæ excellentium Imperatorum.‡
Justini Historiæ Philippicæ.§
P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon.

* New editions appeared in 1730 and 1750.
† 2nd. ed. 1737. 3rd. ed. 1740.
‡ 8th ed. 8vo. London, 1754
§ Gent had printed an edition of tis work in 1732. Life, p. 182. 3rd. ed. 8vo. London, 1742.

And "with free and proper translations " the following:—
C.. Suetonii Tranquilli Duodecim Cæsares. 8vo. London, 1732.*
C. Crispi Sallustii Bellum Catilinarium et Jugurthinum.
* About 1730, "I printed Suetonius in Latin and English, for the aforesaid Mr. John Clarke of Hull in a demy octavo closely exhibited." Life of Gent, p. 181.

[C. Suetonii Tranquilli XII Cæsares cum liberâ versione, in quâ idiomatis Anglici ratio, quam maximè fieri potuit, habita est. Or, the lives of the twelve first Roman Emperors, writ by C. Suetonius Tranquillus. With a free translation, ... By John Clarke ... London [i.e. York]: printed for A. Bettesworth, and C. Hitch, 1732. {UNC-CH}]
He was also the author of

An Examination of the Notion of moral Good and Evil, advanced in a late book entitled the Religion of Nature delineated. 12mo. Lond. 1725.
A Pamphlet upon Moral Obligation, against Dr. Sykes.
An Examination of Dr. Middleton's Sketch or plan of an Answer to Christianity as old as the Creation, shewing the tendency thereof to the subversion of Christianity and all Religion.

In October 1732 Mr. Clarke had resigned the grammar-school at Hull in order to pursue his studies more closely, and employ his pen more effectually for the service of the public, but he continued to reside still in that place.† It is said that he afterwards removed to Gloucester, and that his death took place there on the 8th of May 1734.‡
† This announcement appears in the York Courant of Oct. 10th, 1732, quoted from a London news-letter.
‡ See an Address to the Literary and Philosophical Society at Kingston-upon-Hull, by Charles Frost, F.S.A. President of the Society. 8vo. Hull, 1831, p. 34.

IX. The NATURE and OBLIGATION of RELATIVE HOLINESS; A SERMON preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in York, 17th of November, 1728.
By Robert Knight, M.A. Vicar of Harewood, in the county of York.
YORK: Printed by T. Gent for F. Hildyard, and sold by J. Osborn and T. Longman at the Ship in Pater-Noster-Row; and I. Knapton at the Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard, London.
8vo. [B.C.L. K/4 2. 12.]

X. The ANTIENT and MODERN HISTORY of the famous CITY of YORK; And in a particular manner, of its magnificent Cathedral commonly called York-Minster. As also an Account of St. Mary's Abbey and other antient religious houses and churches; the places whereon they stood, what orders belong'd to them, and the remains of those antient buildings that are yet to be seen: With a Description of those Churches now in use, of their curiously painted windows, the inscriptions carefully collected, and many of them translated: The lives of the Archbishops of this See: The Government of the Northern Parts under the Romans, especially by the Emperors Severus and Constantius, who both dy'd in this City: of the Kings of England and other illustrious persons who have honour'd York with their presence. An account of the Mayors and Bayliffs, Lord Mayors and Sheriffs, (with several remarkable transactions not published before) from different Manuscripts, down to the third year of the reign of His present Majesty King George the Second.

A Description of the most noted Towns in Yorkshire, with the antient Buildings that have been therein, alphabetically digested for the delight of the Reader; not only by the assistance of antient writers, but from the observations of several ingenious persons in the present age.
The whole diligently collected by T. G.
Sold by Thomas Hammond,Jun. Bookseller in High Ouzegate; at the printing-office in Coffee-Yard, YORK: and by A. Bettesworth, in Pater-Noster-Row, London, M.DCC.XXX.
Small 8vo. Preface, pp. viii. Text, pp. 256. Addenda, list of subscribers, and errata, 7 pages.
The work is illustrated with two engravings; one, a view of the city from the south-west, and the other a plan of the city. On the letter-press of p. 158, is a well executed wood-cut of the Crucifixion, as depicted in the glass of the south-west window of the Minster.
In a later impression with the same title and pagination, Gent has printed some new matter and made several alterations and corrections. At p. 83, in his account of the archbishops he has introduced Sir John Harrington's story of the quarrel between Archbishop Sandys and Sir Robert Stapylton, and the manner in which the knight revenged himself upon the prelate, but he has erroneously applied the incident to Archbishop Harsnet.* To make room for this narrative on p. 83, Gent has omitted from p. 84 a woodcut of a celestial crown, and a Latin quotation, which appear in the earlier impressions. In other parts corrections are made, as at p. 97, where the repetition of the description of Mrs. Mathew's monument is expunged.
* Eboracum, p. 455

Gent's History of York was the first of his own works which he printed and published at York. He describes it as an almost unheard-of attempt to seek a living by recalling the dead, as it were, to life, to afford him that sustenance which the living seemed to deny him.† He had issued proposals of his design in the year 1729, and obtained a list of about 170 subscribers. He complains that some persons treated him with malice and ill-will, but the kindness and generosity of others made ample amends;‡ and when the book came out his joy was inexpressible to be told what a kind reception it had met with from persons of both sexes and all ranks and conditions.§ As a matter of necessity he admitted Thomas Hammond, whom he calls "the quacking bookseller," to be the publisher of the work on condition that he should have no part of the money received from subscribers; and they agreed that the impression, which Gent at first intended to be 500, should be augmented to 1000. He charges Hammond with having withheld from him certain MSS. which might have been useful. "The wretch (he says) reserved them for sale to Dr. Drake, my contemporary historian." ¶
† Life of Gent,p. 174.
‡ Preface, p. iii.
§ Life, p. 178.
¶ Ibid. p. 177.

The book contains much curious information not to be found in the Eboracum of Mr. Drake which was published five or six years afterwards.* In the preface, Gent with becoming modesty and good feeling thus contrasts the value of his own little work with that which his contemporary had then in hand: "Having got my materials almost ready, I communicated my design to a learned gentleman, desiring his assistance; who to my great, but pleasing surprise, had another of this nature, tho' far more extensive, as his capacity is superior. Yet without examining much further, the disagreement is perceived in the price, adequate to the largeness thereof which indisputably will be acceptable to the greater sort (as knowing the ability of that ingenious person) when the world will be obliged with it. While, in the mean time, this little piece may gently be dispersed, be agreeable in its kind as a pocket companion, and look'd upon as a fore-runner of an infinitely more noble performance."†
* Mr. Drake's well-known work did not Appear until 1736, but in the York Courant of Dec. 6, 1732, it is announced that proposals were published for printing by subscription Eboracum, or the History and Antiquities of the See and City of York, illustrated with near 100 copper-plates, which were to be had of the booksellers in York, or of the author, F. Drake.
† Preface, p. viii.

[The advantages of casting our bread upon the waters. A sermon preach'd at Scarborough, on Sunday the 31st of January, 1730-1, for the charity children there educated. By Stephen Clarke, ... York: printed by Thomas Gent; and to be sold by Mr Ryles, in Hull, 1731. {UNC-CH}]

XI. A PLAIN and HUMBLE ADDRESS to the Clergy and Ministers in
GREAT BRITAIN.
A SERMON occasioned by reading Mr. Bowman's Visitation Sermon at the Visitation held at Wakefield in Yorkshire.
ll. Cor. ii. 16. And who is sufficient for these things ?
Dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Legh, Vicar of Hallifax in the same County.
By a Lover of true Holiness, and real Christianity.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent; and sold by George Ferraby, Bookseller in Hull. M.DCC.XXXI.
8vo. pp. viii. 15. [J. R.]

XII. A SECOND PLAIN and HUMBLE ADDRESS to the Clergy of all
Orders in GREAT BRITAIN.
A SERMON from II. Cor. iii. 5. Occasioned by reading Mr. Bowman's Visitation Sermon at Wakefield, in Yorkshire.
By Philanthropos, Author of 'A Call to Reformation.'
Grandis Dignitas Sacerdotum; sed Grandis Ruina, si peccant. AQUINAS.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent; and sold by George Ferraby, Bookseller in Hull. M.DCC.XXXI.
8vo. pp. vi. 13. [R. D.]

XIII. ST. PAUL'S CHARGE. A SERMON preached in the Church of St. Michael le Belfreys, April the 7th, 1732, being Good Friday. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Children educated in the Charity Schools in the City of York.
By the Reverend William Elsley, A.M. Rector of Ryther, Prebendary of York,* and Subdean of Ripon.
Published for the Benefit of the said Charity-Schools.
YORK: Printed by Tho. Gent, and to be sold for the benefit of the Charity-Children.
8vo. pp. 22. [J. R.]
* He was collated to the prebend of Tockerington, 31st July, 1721.

XIV. THE CIRCLE SQUAR'D: or, An easy, exact, plain, and compendious method of finding the exact areas of all Circles and circular Bodies, by means of the due proportion of the Diameter of a Circle to its Circumference; and the square Root extracted without any Remainder.

By Thomas Baxter, Master of a private School at Crathorn, Cleaveland, Yorkshire.
LONDON: Printed for A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, at the Red-Lyon in Pater-Noster-Row, by whom they are to be sold; as also by T. Gent, of York; G. Ferraby of Hull and Beverley; and R. Austin of Ripon and Knaresbrough. M.DCC.XXXII. [Price 1s. 6d.]
8vo. pp. x. 35, with several diagrams. [R. D.]

The text of this tract is undoubtedly from Gent's press, although the London publishers have prefixed their own titlepage to this and other copies. "In 1732 (Gent says) I printed a book for Mr. Thomas Baxter, schoolmaster at Crathorn, in Yorkshire, intituled, The Circle Squared, but as it never proved of any effect, it was converted to waste paper, to the great mortification of the author."* His vexation did not tend to shorten the schoolmaster's life. By his will, made seven and forty years afterwards, he bequeathed 1001. to the rector and churchwardens of Crathorne, in trust to apply the interest towards teaching poor children, whose parents did not rent 51. a year.†
* Life of Gent, p. 182.
† Ord's Cleveland, p 493.

XV. The ANTIENT and MODERN HISTORY of the LOYAL TOWN of RIPPON:
[Introduc'd by a Poem on the surprising Beauties of Studley Park, with a description of the venerable Ruins of Fountains Abbey written by Mr. Peter Aram;‡ and another on the pleasures of a Country Life, by a Reverend young Gentleman.§] With particular accounts of Three of the Northern Saints in the seventh century, viz. St. Cuthbert who lies interr'd in the Cathedral at Durham; St. Wilfrid of Rippon; and St. John of Beverley. The famous Charters of King Athelstane, and other Monarchs, (given by them to the Church of Rippon) translated: The various times of rebuilding that Minster, since its first Foundation: Its present happy state; with the Arms, Monuments, and Inscriptions, alphabetically digested. An exact list of the Wakemen and Mayors of the Town, to this present year; interspersed with remarkable Accidents; The death of several eminent persons: In particular, some of the venerable Archbishops of this See, whose tombs are partly describ'd, with proper references to the History of York for their Inscriptions and Epitaphs, to which this is very supplemental.
Adorned with many cuts, preceded by a South West prospect (and a new plan) of Rippon.
Besides are added,
Travels into other Parts of Yorkshire.
I. Beverley, an account of its Minster: the Seal of St. John; the Beauty of St. Mary's; and a list of the Mayors of the Town, since incorporated.
II. Remarks on Pontefract.
III. Of the Church at Wakefield.
IV. Those of Leeds: with a visit to Kirkstal and Kirkham.
V. An Account of Keighley.
Vl. State of Skipton Castle, &c.
Vll. Knaresborough. Of the Church and its Monuments; St. Robert's Chapel, &c.
Vlll. Towns near York: as Tadcaster, Bilbrough, Bolton Percy, Howlden, Selby, Wistow, Cawood Church and Castle, Acaster and Bishopthorpe; Acomb, Nun-Monkton, and Skelton, &c. with their Antiquity and Inscriptions.
Faithfully and painfully collected by THO. GENT, of YORK.

‡ Mr. Peter Aram was the father of the ill-fated Eugene Aram, who in the year 1758 was convicted and executed at York for the murder of Daniel Clarke. In an autobiographical letter, written by Eugene Aram in the short interval between his sentence and the night preceding his execution, he states that "his father was of Nottinghamshire, a gardener, of great abilities in botany, and an excellent draftsman. He served the Bishop of London, Dr. Compton, with great approbation; which occasioned his being recommended to Newby in Yorkshire, to Sir Edward Blackett, whom he served in the capacity of a gardener with much credit to himself and satisfaction to that family, for above thirty years. Upon the decease of that Baronet, he went and was retained in the service of Sir John Ingilby of Ripley, Baronet, where he died respected when living and lamented when dead." (See Trial of Eugene Aram, York, 8vo. 1759.) Studley Park and Fountains Abbey are in the near neighbourhood of Newby and Ripley.
§ The Rev. John Mawer, A.M. several of whose works, which are noticed in the following pages, were printed by Gent. Peter Aram's Poem having been submitted to the criticism and correction of Mr. Mawer, that reverend young gentleman, whom Gent calls " Favourite of the Muses," was pleased to honour his collection with the Poem on a Country Life. See Preface to the History of Rippon, p. vi.

To which is subjoin'd, by the Author of The Country Life, a Letter to the Hon. John Aislabie, Esq.*:—
The Happy Reign; an Eclogue;† and a Latin Copy of Verses, with a Translation, on the Renowned Grotto of Queen Caroline.
YORK: Printed and sold at the Printing-office, over against the Star in Stonegate; as also by T. Hammond, Bookseller, in High-Ouze-Gate. Likewise by E. Routh in Rippon; J. Ross in Knaresborough; G. Ferraby in Hull; A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, at the Red Lion in Pater-Noster Row, London. M.DCC.XXXIII.
8vo. Preface, dated York, May 4, 1733, and Errata, pp iii.&endash;xvi.
Poetical Dedication to Mr. William Fisher, Gardener in chief to the Right Hon. John Aislabie, Esq. at Studley, 2 pages.
Studley Park, and The Pleasures of a Country Life, pp. 44.
The History of Rippon, pp. 45&endash;166.
A Journey into some parts of Yorkshire, with an Epistle to the Hon. John Aislabie, Esq. pp. 66.
The Happy Reign, an Eclogue, with Lines on her Majesty's Grotto, pp. 67&endash;73.
Advertisement of Books, List of Carriers who inn at York, and names of Subscribers, 7 pages.
Seventy-eight wood-cuts on the letter-press.
* On that earthly paradise, Studley Park.
† Imitated from Calpurnius Siculus, and inscribed to a person of honour.

An English Grammar Shewing the Nature and Grounds of the English Language in Its Present State, by Isaac Barker. York, Thomas Gent, 1733 [Found in Addall.com]

XVI. The PATTERN of PIETY: or TRYALS of PATIENCE. Being the most faithful Spiritual Songs of the Life and Death of the once afflicted JOB.

Shewing the abundant riches of that great and good man, in his family, goods, and cattle: the latter of which were destroy'd; all about him reduc'd; and he himself smitten with Boils, in the most deplorable condition. In all which poverty and miseries, as he never charg'd God foolishly; so it pleased the Divine Being not only to restore him again to his health, but to give him a double portion of his former plenty and prosperity.

PSAL. 126.

SCARBOROUGH: Printed by Thomas Gent, in the year of our Blessed Lord 1734.
12mo. pp. 24. Seven exceedingly rude and grotesque woodcuts on the letter-press. [J. R.] [E. H.]

This is probably the only specimen extant of the productions of Gent's Scarborough press. In his History of Hull* he thus speaks of having embarked in a printing establishment at that attractive and then fashionable watering-place: "
* P. 185, note.

I beg leave to mention as a memorial, that a printing-office was first set up by me in Scarborough about June 16th, 1734, in a house in Mr. Bland's lane, formerly called his cliff; a most pleasant situation, leading to the beautiful sands; and I hope, God willing, some time or other to print the antiquities of that delightful town and castle." In his autobiography, under the date of 1733, he says, "My nephew Arthur Clarke was sent with materials to furnish a printing-office in Scarborough; from which we had a fair prospect of the ocean. The gentry from the Spa used to visit us, to have their names, and see the playhouse bills and other work printed."* The undertaking, doubtless, proved to be a failure. His nephew Arthur Clarke was at that time in his apprenticeship, and, according to Gent's account of him, he was not at all qualified to afford him any useful assistance. His conduct during his service to his uncle was so unsatisfactory that Gent was heartily glad when his time was expired.† Clarke left York in 1736, and his subsequent career was far from respectable.‡
* Life of Gent, p. 182.
† MS. Life, fo. 59.
‡ Ibid. fo. 57.

XVII. MISCELLANEÆ CURIOSÆ: or Entertainments for the Ingenious of both Sexes.
For the months of January, February, and March 1734.
Containing, I. Enigma's. II. Paradoxes. III. Mathematical Questions. Suited both to beginners, and also to such as have made higher advances in these Studies.
Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musæ,
Quarum sacra fero ingenti perculsus amore
Accipiant: Cœlique vias et sydera monstrent,
Defectus solis varios, lunæque labores:
Unde temor terris: quâ vi maria alta tumescant
Objicibus ruptis, rursusque in se ipsa residant:
Quid tantum oceano properent se tingere soles
Hyberni, vel quæe tardis mora noctibus obstet.
VIRGIL, Georgic
YORK: Printed by Tho. Gent, in Coffee-yard, M.DCC.XXXIV.
8vo. pp. ii. 35. [E. H.]

XVIII. MISCELLANEA CURIOSA: or Entertainments for the Ingenious of both sexes. For the months of April, May, and June, 1734. Containing, I. Enigma's. II. Mathematical Questions. Suited to both beginners, and also to such as have made higher advances in those studies.
[The same motto.]
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and sold hy J. Wilford, behind the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London. 1734.
8vo. pp. iv. 34. [E. H.]

XIX. MISCELLANEA CURIOSA: or Entertainments for the Ingenious of both Sexes. For the months of July, August, and September, 1734. Containing, I. Enigma's. II. Mathematical Questions. Suited both to beginners, and also to such as have made higher advances in these studies.

YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and sold by J. Wilford, behind the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London; and by T. Hammond, in the Pavement, York. 1734. Price Six Pence.
8vo. pp. 40. [E. H.]

XX. MISCELLANEA CURIOSA; or Entertainments for the Ingenious of both sexes. For the months of January, February, and March, 1735. Containing, I. Enigma's. II. Mathematical Questions. Suited both to beginners, and also to such as have made higher advances in those studies.

YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, and sold by J. Wilford, behind the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London; and by Thomas Hammond, Bookseller, in the Pavement, York. 1735. Price Six Pence.
8vo. pp. 40. [E. H.]
The number for April, May, and June, 1735 (pp. 47), and that for July, August, and September, 1735 (pp.40), have similar titles. Canon Raine possesses a copy of the six numbers bound up in one volume, with four plates of mathematical diagrams, engraved on steel by John Turner.
This is an early, perhaps the earliest, attempt that has been made to establish a literary serial in a provincial town. That it was unsuccessful is shown by the following appeal, appended by the editor to the sixth number, which proved to be the last:—

Two years are now almost elapsed, since this Design was first set on foot, wherein there have been Six Numbers published, at the sole expence of the Editor. And as it cannot be supposed, but that he must be in disburse on that account, (besides his trouble of composing the Book, and distributing of it quarterly), he is perswaded that none of his Readers would desire him to continue it under the above-mention'd circumstances: He therefore now advertises them, that this it's probable will be the last, except they approve of it so far as to subscribe towards the Expence. He desires not to gain anything by the Undertaking, and is willing to give in his own labour: And if there are 60 persons to be found, who will each subscribe for half a dozen (or more if any one pleases) every Quarter as they are published (which will about defray the Charges of the Copper-Plate, Printing, Paper, &c.) it will be carried on as formerly. Such as are willing so to do, may send in their Names and Places of Abode, directed for the Author, to be left at Mr. Thomas Gent's, Printer, near the Star in Stone-Gate, York, post paid, any time before Christmass next.

A periodical publication, of which one-half consisted of long dull enigmas in verse and their interpretations, and the other half of dry and abstruse mathematical problems with their solutions, unvaried by any lighter or more amusing matter, had little claim to become popular or attractive. It is said that the projector and editor of the work was Mr. Edward Hauxley, master of the grammar-school attached to Kirkleatham Hospital in Cleveland; a charitable institution established in the year 1676 by Sir William Turner, knight,* the founder of the distinguished Yorkshire family of Turner of Kirkleatham.
* Lord Mayor of London in 1669.

[Miscellanæa Curiosa: bound volume; January 1734-September 1735.

York, Printed by Tho. Gent. 19.8 x 11.3 cm. Opie J32. Bodleian]

XXI. ANNALES REGIODUNI HULLINl: or, the HISTORY of the Royal and Beautiful TOWN of KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, From the Original of it thro' the means of its Illustrious Founder, King Edward the First; who (being pleas'd with its beautiful situation whilst hunting with his Nobles on the pleasant banks of the River) erected the Town Anno Dom. 1296. And from that remarkable æra, the vicissitudes of it are display'd, till this present year, 1735.

An the most remarkable transactions ecclesiastical, civil, and military.
The erection of churches, convents, and monasteries; with the names of their founders and benefactors: also a succinct relation of the De la Pole's family, from the first mayor of that name, to his successors, who were advanc'd to be Earls and Dukes of Suffolk.
The monuments, inscriptions, &c. in the churches of Holy Trinity and St. Mary.
The names of the Mayors, Sheriffs, and Chamberlains; with what remarkable accidents have befallen some of them in the course of their lives; Interspers'd with a Compendium of British History, especially what alludes to the Civil Wars, (for the better illustration of such things as most particularly concern'd the town in those troublesome times;) and since then with regard to the Revolution. Adorned with cuts.

Various curiosities in Antiquity, History, Travels, &c. Also a necessary and compleat Index to the whole.
Together with several Letters, containing some accounts of the Antiquities of Bridlington, Scarborough, Whitby, &c. for the entertainment of the curious travellers, who visit the North-east parts of Yorkshire.
Dî probos mores docili juventæ,
Dî senectuti placidæ quietem,
Oppido HULLINO date, remque prolemque et decus omne.
HOR. Car. Sæc.
Faithfully collected by THOMAS GENT, Compiler of the History of York, and the most remarkable places of that large county.
Sold at the printing-office, near the Star in Stone-Gate, YORK; by Ward and Chandler, Booksellers, in Scarborough, and at their shop in Fleet-street, London; by George Ferraby, bookseller, in Hull; at other places in the country; and by J. Wilford, behind the Chapter-house in St. Paul's Church yard, London. M.DCC.XXXV.*
Demy 8vo. Dedication and preface, pp. xi. Contents of the chapters and explanation, 3 pages. The History, pp. 201 Index, and advertisements of Books, 7 pages. Addenda, postscript, and List of Subscribers, 27 pages.

Besides eight wood-cuts of churches, &c. on the letter-press, Gent has embellished his work with six separate plates:—
1. The East View of Kingston-upon-Hull. Engraved and printed at the expence of Mr. Tho. Gent by John Haynes in Fossgate, York. Folded, to face the Title.
2. South-west prospect of the Holy Trinity Church in Kingston-upon-Hull. Tho. Fleming, sculpt. Folded, p. 13.
3. Plan of Kingston-upon-Hull. Folded, wood-cut, p. 82.
4. The Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, with St. Olave's Church, York. A view of the Minster and the Multangular Tower, in the upper corner. J. Haynes, sculp. Folded, p. 119.
5. The Equestrian Statue of King William III. E. Geldard, sculp. p. 200.
6. South-west View of Scarborough. Engraved at the expence of Mr. Tho. Gent by Jno. Haynes, Engraver and Copperplate Printer in York. In the upper corner, Serpentine stone found near the shore at Whitby, only headless. Folded, p. 11 of the addenda.

"In 1736, (Gent says,) I published my History of Hull: after which my publisher, Mr. Wilford, failed in London. I comforted instead of afflicting the man, under his heavy misfortunes, which he after gratefully remembered in mentioning my work in his 'Lives of Illustrious Personages,'† in folio, and generously ordered one of them to be given, as a present, as some small atonement (the utmost he was able,) for the loss that I had sustained by him."
* Gent's Histories of York, Rippon, and Hull are fully described in Upcott's English Topography, vol. ii. pp. 1356,1359, 1411
† Memorials and Characters, together with the Lives of Divers Eminent and Worthy Persons. Folio. London, 1741. [J. R.] See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. viii. p. 291.

John Haynes, who was employed by Gent to execute some of the embellishments of this work, was originally a schoolmaster, but he appears to have devoted himself to the arts of design and engraving before Gent published his History of York in 1730. There can be little doubt that the plan, and a view of the city, two plates inserted in that work, were from his hand. In December 1731 Mr. Haynes announced his intention "of imprinting upon copper-plate a new south-west prospect of the city of York with the platform of Knavesmire, which met with great encouragement from people of all stations, being generally approved of."† The print was published soon afterwards with a dedication to Sir William Milner, bart. and Edward Thompson, esq. the two members in Parliament for the city. It is a work of considerable pretension, the plate being 25 inches long by 19 inches wide. In the drawing all the rules of perspective are set at defiance, and the engraving, which Haynes intrusted to B. Cole of St. Paul's Church-yard, is exceedingly coarse.
Haynes made the drawings for the greater number of the plates in Drake's History of York, and some of them were probably engraved by him, but the artists chiefly employed by the historian were W. H. Toms and J. Basire.
A prospect of the Dropping-Well at Knaresbrough, as it appeared in the great frost of January 1739, was drawn and engraved by Haynes.‡
* Gent's Life, p. 187.
† The York Courant, Jan. 11, 1731-2.
‡ Gough's British Topography, 4to. p. 566.

Mr. Gough says that the Society of Antiquaries had a good drawing of St. Helen's church engraved by John Haynes, and that in 1744 he was employed by Lord Burlington to make drawings of some stupendous remains of Roman antiquity on the wolds of Yorkshire, which were afterwards engraved by Vertue.* As late as 1751 he made a survey and drawing of the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, with the elevation and ichnography of the green-house, stoves, &c.
* Gough's British Topography, p. 674.

In 1735 Haynes had his office in Fossgate. He afterwards lived in the Minster-Yard.

XXII. CRITICAL REMARKS on the EPISTLES, as they were published from several authentic copies by John Bebelius at Basil in 1531.
N.B. The common reading stands first. To which is subjoined Bebelius's text; together with such Authorities as favour it; which Authorities consisting of Manuscripts, Fathers, and printed Copies, near forty in number, are taken from Dr. Mill and others.

YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near the Star in Stonegate; and sold by the booksellers of York and Hull; by Mr.Bryson in Newcastle; Mrs. Waghorn in Durham; and J. Wilford behind the Chapter-House in St. Paul's Church-yard, London. M.DCC.XXXV. Price one shilling.
8vo. [B. C. L. Cat. vol. i. p. 82.]
The Rev. Mr. Benjamin Dawney was one of the subscribers to Gent's Historia Compendiosa Anglicana, published in 1741. On the 25th September 1743, Benjamin Dawney was ordained priest at Bishopthorpe, and licensed to serve the cure of Overton, near York, for the yearly stipend of 20l. to be paid to him by the vicar.

XXIII. AN EPISTLE humbly address'd to the right honourable The EARL of OXFORD, &c. With a Discourse on the Usefulness, and some proposals, of a Supplement to Bishop Walton's Polyglot Bible, with a Reconciliation of the Hebrew and Septuagint, and several Remarks on the Oriental Versions of the Scripture, particularly the Ethiopic, whereby some observable and difficult passages are illustrated.

An Address to the most illustrious University of Cambridge, soliciting the Honour of their assistance, and the benefit of their Public Library, for the better promoting of the above-mentioned Design.
YORK: Printed by Tho. Gent; and sold by Mr. Hildyard in Stonegate, York; Mr. Prevost in the Strand; Mr. Gyles in Holborn, London; and by Mr. Ryles in Hull.
Large 8vo. Discourse, pp. 3-41. Epistle, in verse, pp. 43-53. Dedication to Dr. Waterland, and Address, in verse, pp. 55-62. Two wood-cuts on the letter-press. [J. R.]

The author of this tract was the Rev. John Mawer, M.A. whose poem on the Pleasures of a Country Life* was printed by Gent with his History of Ripon in 1733. Before Mr. Mawer became acquainted with the York printer, he had published anonymously the following tracts:—
* Antea, p 172.

1. Verses to the Right Rev. Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Durham. With an Essay towards restoring the original texts of Scripture and reconciling the Hebrew and Septuagint, by the Oriental Languages, Fathers, &c. T. Payne, London, 1731. 8vo. pp. 27. [J. R.]
2. A Layman's Faith: being a Review of the principal Evidences of the truth of the Christian Religion, interspersed with several CURIOUS observations. By a Free-Thinker and a Christian. John White, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1732. 8vo. pp. xviii 64. [J. R.]
Mr. Mawer was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, when Dr. Bentley was master; and he complains that the college, having anticipated the succession of Fellows by making several pre-elections for two or three years before it came to his turn to be a candidate, and then dropping these pre-elections the very year appointed for him and his contemporaries to offer themselves for a fellowship when there was not one vacancy, they were thereby deprived of a common benefit, which could not well have happened had the successsion been continued as usual.* After his ordination he lived for several years at the village of Crathorne, in Cleveland; and he was, doubtless, a discontented curate when he penned these lines:—

A College ease most suits a studious mind.
There at our own dispose, with books unbought,
All needful furnisht, and a board unsought,
Each happy circumstance does sweetly join
At once, t'inspire and finish a design.
How much more grateful to the Muses these,
Than pasturing a flock for half a fleece,
In rustication and ignoble ease!
Where, was an angel for a pastor giv'n,
He'd hardly rise until he rose to Heav'n.†
* Epistle to the Earl of Oxford, p. 48, note.
† Ibid. p. 47.
† 8vo. pp. 3. [R. D.]

The design referred to by the poet is unfolded in the following prospectus, which Gent was employed to print.

XXIV. PROPOSALS for Printing, by Subscription, The BOOK of PSALMS, and SOLOMON'S SONG.
A specimen whereof will be given in the latter.
Intended for an Introduction to a Supplement to the London Poliglot Bible, (which, with a due provision for the expense, the Author hopes to see executed in a short time,) wherein the Hebrew and Greek Texts are establish'd and reconcil'd, all the various Readings exhibited at one view, and the English Version reform'd, according to the true sense of the original and genuine Text.
A Plan of which may be seen in the following Title page; and an account of which will be given in the preface to the Canticles.
I. This Work will make a large Vol. in Quarto.
II. Considering the difficulty of printing Oriental languages, and so many columns in a page, the price to subscribers cannot be set at less than two guineas the small paper, and three guineas and a half the large, which shall be red rul'd, and the best that can be got:
For the small paper, half a guinea to be paid at the time of subscription; half a guinea at the receipt of the Canticles, in sheets; and one guinea more at the receipt of the Psalms: For the large paper, one guinea to be paid at subscribing; one guinea at the receipt of the Canticles; and a guinea and a half at the receipt of the Psalms.
III. The Canticles are ready to be put to the press, (a specimen of which will be printed very shortly,) and the Psalms will be finish'd in a very little time: The whole will be printed as soon as a competent number of subscriptions shall be procured.
IV. If the subscription-money will answer it, a neater set of Ethiopic types, equal to those beautiful ones of Mr. Ludolf, shall be cast to print the ensuing work; which may be of great use for further designs.
] If the several honorable companies of Merchants, and others, will be pleas'd to encourage with their subscription, a second volume of the Psalms, for the use of the Eastern Christians, (for which the present work is also intended) in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Persic, with a Latin version; as the expence, and labour of carrying it thro' the press will be as great as of the first Vol. so the price of subscription must be the same, to be paid at the receipt of the first volume, half advanc'd, and the remainder at the receipt of the whole in sheets
N.B. The names of the subscribers and benefactors will be prefix'd to this work.
8vo. Two pages. [R. D.]

XXV. CANTICUM CANTICORUM SALOMONIS, Hebraicè, Græcè, Latinè, Æthiopicè, & Anglicè:

I. Textum Hebræum, juxta D. Masclefi methodum, à punctis aliisq; inventis Massorethicis liberum, pristinæ integritati, qucad fieri potuit, restitutum, cum variantibus omnibus uno intuitu conspiciendis.
II. Græcam LXX. Interp. versionem ex antiquissimo MS. Codice Alexandrino accuratè descriptam.
III. Collationem Vaticani omniumq; variantium Codicum, necnon fragmentorum veterum versionum, per columnam continuâ serie à latere alterius textûs dispositam.
IV. Latinam tvn o versionem Flam. Nobilii operi è SS. Patrum, et veterum Latinorum scriptis concinnatam, quæ itidem Æthiopicæ inservit, discrepantiis infra annotatis.
V. Æthiopicam ex clariss. Jobi Ludolfi recognitione accuratam versionem, cum notis ejusdem.
VI. Anglicam ad genuinum textum emendatam. Adjectis notulis inter se conciliandi studio Hebræos et Græcos, Textus originales restituendi tentaminis ergô,

Subscriptions may be taken by any noted bookseller in London, as most convenient to the subscriber, and by the booksellers of the two Universities and elsewhere: such as will undertake for, or engage any number of subscriptions, if they will be pleased to communicate their names and places of abode to the author, (who may be directed to according to the date hereof, or otherwise advertised of it,) they shall not be required to make the first payment till the receipt of the Canticles in sheets, with which one guinea for small paper, and two guineas for the large, will be required; and no books will be deliver'd without.
Crathorn, in Cleaveland,
Yorkshire, Jan. 5, 1735-6.
8vo. Two pages. [R. D.]

XXVI. OPPIAN'S CYNEGETICKS. Translated into English verse.
Duc age, diva, tuum frondosa per avia vatem.
Te sequimur: tu pande domos et lustra ferarum.
Huc igitur mecum quisquis percussus amore
Venandi, damnas lites, avidosque tumultus,
Civilesque fugis strepitus,—
NEMESIAN.

Suppeditant autem et campus noster, et studia
Venandi, honesta exempla, ludendi.
CIC. de Officiis.

Instar refectionis existimas mutationem laboris—lustrare
Saltus excutere cubilibus feras,—atque inter hæc
Pia mente adire lucos, et occursare numinibus.
PLIN. Panegyr. ad Trajan.

YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near Stonegate: and sold by T. Osborne, in Gray's Inn; F. Gyles in Holborn; and L. Gilliver, in Fleet-Street, near Temple Bar, London; Also by J. Hildyard, Bookseller, in York. M.DCC.XXXVI.*
8vo. pp. 24. An engraving of a hunting scene, with Oppian presenting his poems to the Emperor. [R. D.]

This translation, by the Rev. John Mawer, of the first book of the Cynegetica of Oppian is accompanied by an address from the author to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole, K.G. soliciting the great statesman's patronage of his work.† A brief memoir is appended, entitled "The Life of Oppian, from Athenæus, Eusebius, and Suidas, for the most part according to Bodin."‡
* In Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Art. Oppianus, this translation is noticed as "an English version of the 1st book, by J. Mawer;" but it is erroneously ascribed to the London press.
† 8vo. pp. 23. [R. D.]
‡ 8vo. pp. 3. [R. D.]

XXVII. A POEM humbly inscrib'd to the QUEEN, on Her Majesty's Birth-Day.
Vultus ubi tuus
Affulsit populo, gratior it dies,
Et soles melius nitent.
HOR.

Written in the year 1728, after an Imitation of Lucan, on the Siege of Gibraltar.
By the same.
Printed in the year 1736.
8vo. pp. 6. [R. D.] ;
The translator of Oppian was the author of this poem, of which Gent was the printer.

[God's love to those who have pity on the poor. Being a sermon from the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, and the eleventh verse. Written by John raine, near Barnard Castle. 1736. Bodleian]

[The necessary knowledge of the Lord's supper; and the necessary preparation for it, shewn from the words of its institution. In a sermon preach'd at the Cathedral of York, March 29th, 1727... By Thomas Sharp... The third edition. York: printed for John Hildyard, by Thomas Gent: are are to be sold by T. Longman; J. and P. Knapton; and C. Rivington, London, 1737. {UNC-CH}Bodleian]

XXVIII. CHRIST the BEGINNING and ENDING: or the MESSIAH'S GOODNESS and Future Glory the principal end of creating the World, and of the several Dispensations in it to Mankind 'till the Consummation.
A SERMON preached at the Visitation held in the Parish Church of Richmond, in the Diocese of Chester, May 6th, 1735.
By John Mawer, D.D.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent: and sold by Messieurs J. and P. Knapton, at the Crown in Ludgate Street, London; Mr. Hildyard, and Mr. Staples, in York; and Mr. Bryson, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. M.DCC.XXXVIII.
8vo. pp. vi. 24 [J. R.] [B. M.]

Prefixed is an address "To the very venerable and religious Society for propagating Christian Knowledge: And To the right honourable the Directors and all the honourable members of the East India, Turkey, and African Companies, &c. A Proposal for printing a Polyglot Book of the Psalms, according to the method of the Canticles, prepared for the press; and for sending a number of copies into the East; particularly to the Patriarch of Ethiopia." The address bears date December 5th, 1737, and was written at Middleton Tyas in Richmondshire, Dr. Mawer being then the vicar of that parish. Although he lived many years after the publication of this sermon, it may be doubted whether his version of the second book of Oppian's Cynegeticks, or his polyglot translation of the Song of Solomon, was ever allowed to pass through the press.
The author of the History of Richmondshire states that in the choir of the church of Middleton Tyas is placed a mural monument with the following inscription to the memory of a man " of whom (he says), shame on my ignorance, I never heard before :"—

"This extraordinary personage, (Dr. Whitaker adds,) who may seem to have been qualified for the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth, appears, notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the Christian religion, in however degraded a form, has long been professed in Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was long distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no other than that of old King Coyl."*
* Whitaker's History of Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 234.

The remarks of the historian have been characterised as flippant and unjust, there being no reason to suppose that Dr. Mawer was the author of his own epitaph. He was about the last person in the world to have composed this eulogy on his own character.†
† Notes and Queries, March 8,1851, p. 184.

The learned doctor was not, however, wholly free from family pride. In his letter to Sir Robert Walpole‡ he boasts of being able "when he looks back to his ancestors, to count, among his near relations, a prelate, who supported that dignity with as much magnificence and hospitality (not by his bishoprick only, tho' one of the best in the kingdom) as perhaps any bishop in this nation ever did. His great-grand-father (he states) maintained at his proper charge, a troop of horse for King Charles in the civil wars, for which he was seized by Cromwell at Durham, and suffered an expensive confinement; in which unhappy times the family lost and consumed a great estate."
‡ p.20.

XXIX. ANTHEMS, for Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight Voices. As they are now performed, In the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St. Peter, in York. In the Cathedral Church of Christ, and Blessed Mary the Virgin, in Durham: and, in the Cathedral Church of Blessed Mary the Virgin, in Lincoln. To which is prefix'd, A Table of the Preachers, and the times of their preaching, in the said Cathedrals.
Collected and sold by Thomas Ellway, Master of the Children of the Cathedral in York.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, in Coffee-Yard, near Stonegate, 1736.
12mo. pp. xix 132. [R. D.]
Facing the title-page are three small views of the cathedrals of York, Durham, and Lincoln, subscribed
Exprimit Ecclesias fidei candore nitentes.
Tho. Ellway. J. Haynes, sculp.

[The religious magazine: or the soul's harbour for divine entertainments. Containing pious verses on these following subjects. I. The breathings of an ardent spirit. ... By Simon Goakman. 1736. Bodleian]

XXX. THE LUCKY DISCOVERY, or the TANNER of YORK.
An Opera, as it was acted at the Theatre in York:
He who studies Nature's Laws,
From certain Truths his Maxims draws;
And those, without our Schools, suffice
To make Men Moral, Good, and Wise.
Mr Gay.
YORK: Printed for the author by Thomas Gent, near Stonegate, M.DCC.XXXVII.
8vo. pp. iii. 26. [E. H.]
Dedicated to the Gentlemen, Ladies, &c. of York.

The author of this opera was Mr. John Arthur, a member of the York Company of Comedians, then under the management of Mr Thomas Keregan, who had recently built a theatre for dramatic performances in "my Lord Irwin's Yard," on the north side of the Minster, probably near to the spot where the house of the Canons Residentiary now stands.* It appears from the dramatis personæ that the author acted a principal part in his own drama:—

Squire Modish - - - Mr. Ware.
Mr. Bark, the Tanner - - Mr. Marten.
Simon, his man - - - Mr. Arthur.

Mrs. Modish - - - Mrs. Keregan.
Mrs. Bark - - - - Mrs. Emmett.
Scene, York. Time of action, Time of representation.

In the following year The Lucky Discovery, or the Tanner of York, was represented on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, with the following cast:—

Squire Modish - - - Mr. Galway.
The Tanner of York - - Mr. Rosco.
Simon, his man - - - Mr. Hippesley.
Mrs. Modish - - Mrs. Kilty.
Mrs. Bark - - - - Miss Bincks.

* A few years earlier Mr. Keregan's company enacted plays at Mr. Banks's Cock-pit without Bootham-Bar.

The success of his opera was probably the means of introducing the dramatist to the London boards. He became an actor at Covent Garden Theatre, and was in great favour as the Clown in Harlequin-Sorcerer and other pantomimes. In April 1741, a short time after the death of Mr. Keregan, Arthur issued proposals† to the ladies and gentlemen of York, asking for subscriptions to enable him to provide a new and commodious theatre to be situate in some convenient part of the city, the model of those in London. He undertook to furnish new scenery and machinery, a complete orchestra, and superior wardrobe, and a company to be made up of London actors and a selection from travelling companies, "in which particular care should be had to their private life, that they might be as sociable off the stage, as entertaining on it." The scheme does not appear to have been favourably received. Mr. Arthur was afterwards for several years directing manager of the Theatre at Bath, where he died
† Dated London April 5, 1741. See Tate Wilkinson's Wandering Patentee vol, ii. p. 211.

XXXI. The SACRIFICE of the ALTAR ASSERTED: From Luke XXII. ver. 19, 20. Whence is shewn, First, That our blessed Lord, in the original Eucharist, devoted his natural body to the death of the Cross by a sacrifice of bread and wine, and instituted a perpetual remembrance of it. Secondly, That this remembrance, according to the doctrine of the ancient church, and of our Reformers in the first year of Edward VIth., of the first Liturgy of that King, and of the Articles, Homilies, and present Liturgy, is a commemorative Sacrifice. Thirdly, That this commemorative Sacrifice is in its very design and intention a propitiatory, that is, an expiatory Sacrifice.
The Whole, in five propositions, in answer to a book entituled, A plain account of the nature and end of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Together with an Answer to the observations of the right reverend the Bishop of Salisbury, in his Exposition of the XXXIX. Articles, against the propitiatory nature of the Eucharist; and of the reverend Dr. Brett,* in his collection of Liturgies, against the omission of the oblation, and the suppos'd consecrating by a rehearsal of the words of institution only, after the manner of the Papists, in the present form of administring the Holy Communion in the Church of England.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near Stonegate, for the Use of the Author. [Date cut off in binding.]
8vo. pp. iv. 86. Table of Contents, 4 pages. Several small wood-cuts on the letter-press. [J. R.]

* Thomas Brett, LL.D. rector of Betteshanger, co. Kent, author of A Dissertation on the principal Liturgies used by the Christian Church in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, Lond. 1720. Also, A collection of the different Liturgies, with a dissertation upon them, 4to.

XXXII. A VINDICATION of the CURATE of O———TON from the Calumnies of those who have represented his principles as tending to P———RY.
"To hear the reason of the case with patience and unprejudicedness, is an equity which men owe to every Truth that can in any manner concern them; and which is necessary to the Discovery of every kind of Error. How much more in things of the utmost Importance!" Dr. Clarke's Demonstration, &c.
YORK: Printed and sold by Thomas Gent, near Stone-gate: and also to be had of the Booksellers in City and Country. M.DCC.XXXVIII. [Price Four Pence.]
8vo. pp. 24. [E.H.] [B.C.L. Cat. vol. ii. p. 226.]

XXXIII. The RAREE SHOW: or, The Fox TRAP'T. An Opera. Written by Joseph Peterson, Comedian.
Encouragement's the very life of Art;
Stirs up the active mind, and fires the Heart.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near the Star, in Stone-Gate. M.DCC.XXXIX. [Price one shilling.]
8vo. pp. iv. 32. [R. D.]
A second edition was printed at Chester in 1740. [B. M.]
The author was a member of the York Company, and played the part of Sir Fopling Conceit in his own opera.

XXXIV. THE SHEPHERDS OPERA.
A rural Life's the seat of true content,
Serene, retir'd, our joys are permanent,
Strangers to Strife, Ambition, Envy, Fear;
We bless the fate which fix'd our happy Sphere.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near the Star in Stonegate. M.DCC.XXXIX.
8vo. pp. 32. [E.H.]

XXXV. A VOYAGE to RUSSIA: describing the Laws, Manners, and Customs, of that Great Empire, as govern'd at this present by that excellent Princess, the Czarina. Shewing the beauty of her Palace, the grandeur of her Courtiers, the forms of building at Petersburg, and other places: With several entertaining adventures, that happened in the Passage by Sea and Land.
Good unexpected, evil unforseen,
Appear by turns: So Fortune shifts the Scene.
DRYD. Virg.
To which is added, translated from the Spanish, A curious account of the Relicks, which are exhibited in the Cathedral of Oviedo, a city of Spain, the Metropolis in the principality of Austria: And what Indulgences are allow'd to those persons who most devoutly visit that Sanctuary.
Written and collected by Elizabeth Justice.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near the Star, in Stonegate, M.DCC.XXXIX.
8vo. Introduction, pp. vi. Names of subscribers, 4 leaves. Commendatory verses, 2 pages. Voyage, pp. 46. Account of Relicks, pp. 47-59. Proposals, &c. 3 pages. Fifteen wood-cuts on the letter-press. [R D.]

Elizabeth Justice, the author of this little work, was a resident of York when she intrusted it to the press of Gent. In the preface she gives an affecting narrative of the distressing circumstances which led her to leave her own country, and seek refuge in that remote part of the world of which she has published a really interesting description. That her case excited general sympathy in Yorkshire is manifest from her subscription list, which includes the names of many of the principal families of the city and county. Her husband Henry Justice, barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple, was the son of William Justice, a wealthy York attorney; whose elder brother Emanuel Justice, a York merchant, was Lord Mayor of that city in the year 1706. Mrs. Justice had been separated from her husband several years before she undertook the voyage to Russia. During her absence he obtained a painful notoriety by being committed upon a charge of stealing books from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, a short time after he had procured himself to be admitted a fellow-commoner there. After enduring six months' imprisonment before trial, he was arraigned at the Old Bailey, convicted of the felony, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. The unhappy man did not venture to return to England at the expiration of his sentence, but, it is said, took up his abode in one of the larger Flemish towns, probably Brussels, where he engaged in the publication of an edition of Virgil, in five volumes, which he issued from the Brussels' press between the years 1757 and 1767. This edition contains numerous engraved illustrations, which are well known to the collectors of curious prints. The fifth volume was dedicated to the Empress of Russia, who purchased most of the large copies to make presents of. Dibdin says that the editor was nearly ruined by the expenses of the work.
A second edition of The Voyage to Russia, by Elizabeth Justice, was published at London in 1746. She was the author of a novel, entitled "Amelia, or the Distressed Wife," probably the story of her own wrongs. She died in 1752.

XXXVI. The FAITHFUL PAIR, or VIRTUE in DISTRESS, a Tragedy. By John Maxwell, being blind.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, for the use of the author. 1740.
8vo. pp. 38. [B. M.]

XXXVII. HISTORIA COMPENDIOSA ANGLICANA: or, A COMPENDIOUS HISTORY of ENGLAND: Wherein is contained An Account of its Rulers, or Kings, from about the year of the Creation 2851, in the time of the prophet Samuel, to the year of Salvation 1741. Adorn'd with Portraitures, at length, of those Monarchs who have sway'd the British Sceptre since the Conquest: The History of the Kings of Scotland, from the Reign of Fergus, Anno Mundi 3618,' till King James the First united that Crown to the English Diadem: And an impartial account of the Roman Pontiffs, from St. Peter's Crucifixion, to the present Benedict XIV. who was lately elected.

A succinct HISTORY of ROME, from its Foundation by Romulus till the Fall of King Tarquin, occasion'd by the Rape of chaste Lucretia: An Account of the Consulate, Triumvirate, Higher and Lower Empires; the Removal of the Imperial Seat to Constantinople; Division of the Eastern and Western Empires; Dissolution of the former by the Turks; with the Rise of the Mahometans, and the Lives of their Emperors, to this day.

AN APPENDIX, relating to YORK, and those illustrious personages that have proved inestimable blessings to this extensive county: Particularly, a mournful tribute due to the ever-beloved memory of the late Right Hon. Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle; and likewise to the precious remembrance of the most incomparable Lady Elizabeth Hastings. A Review of the Churches in York, shewing their dimensions; with modern inscriptions and epitaphs over the graves of eminent persons of both sexes, who in life have been justly celebrated for hospitality, learning, virtue, temper, beauty, and piety. A further historical account of Pontefract, and its once stupendous castle, adorn'd with lofty towers; more than ever yet has been exhibited; with the various revolutions of its antient glory, and the surprising valour of its last most remarkable defenders. Also compleat indexes to the whole, illustrated with explanatory notes, describing remote parts of the earth; kings famous in ancient mythology; founders of states and monarchies; and many curious observations proper to entertain the learned and ingenious reader
Faithfully and diligently collected by Thomas Gent.
YORK: Printed and sold by the author. M.DCC.XLI.
Small 8vo. Poetical invocation and table of contents, 2 pages. Preface, dated Octob. 10, 1740, pp. xvi. Book i. pp. 1—109. Book ii. pp. 110—149. Book iii. pp. 150—253. Book iv. pp. 253—268. After the names of subscribers, 4 pages, is placed the title of the 2nd volume, as follows:—

Or a Comprehensive HISTORY of ROME. Interspers'd with the most remarkable transactions of the East; as also what happen'd in the Western parts of the world; particularly in the famous Island of Britain. The foundations of new Empires and Kingdoms: imperial and regal inscriptions on coins or medals; with short but pleasant accounts of several places in the universe, famous for arts and arms.
Together with additions and appendix, concerning worthy personages, viz. An Elegiac Pastoral on the late Right Honourable Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle: Stanzas to the precious remembrance of the most illustrious Lady Elizabeth Hastings: and affectionate memorials, inscrib'd to the shining virtues of several happy deceased, who proved inestimable blessings, deserving a glorious immortality. Likewise new remarks on the Churches of York, and other places, where some of their remains lie interred: An Account of Pontefract with its ecclesiastical buildings; and of its once famous but now ruinated Castle. The Lamentation over fair Adonis from the original Greek of Bion of Smyrna, which is also beautifully exhibited; and several curious observations, extracted from the most ingenious and learned writers, that are both profitable and delightful.
Vol. the IId. Diligently collected by Thomas Gent.

Dedication and contents of addenda, 2 pages. Book v. pp. 269—289. Book vi. pp. 289—301. Book vii. pp. 302—320. Book viii. pp. 320—346. Book ix. pp. 346—368. Addenda, pp. 369—376. A Description of David's Harp, 2 pages, is followed by the title of the appendix:—

APPENDIX: Containing the following Subjects, viz.
I. The holy life and pious death of St. Robert of Knaresborough, Yorkshire: with the dimensions and description of his chapel in the rock, near the river Nid. Likewise some antiquities of the town, church, and castle, &c.
II. The Lamentation of Venus for Adonis, translated from the Greek of Bion of Smyrna; which original, carefully corrected, is also exhibited to the learned reader.
III. A comprehensive account of the ancient town of Pontefract, in the aforesaid county, from the times of the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans: In particular of its once magnificent castle, as it stood in the Civil Wars, whilst gallantly defended by Colonel Morrice, Captain Paulden, and other valiant assistants, till the rendition of it to General Lambert: With an exact narrative, from an authentick Manuscript, of its ruin, and demolition, shewing what sums were expended for destroying the draw-bridges, levelling the battlemented walls, pulling down its stately gates, and overthrowing its lofty towers. Likewise a faithful account, from the most indubitable records, of the government of the town since the incorporation of it to the present time. With other historical affairs, carefully selected.
IV. Pater Patriæ: Being a pastoral Dialogue, mournfully occasioned by the much-lamented death of the late right honourable Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle: Wherein is humbly attempted the description of that beautiful palace of his lordship's erection; surrounded by shady groves, fair gardens, fine lawns, pleasant fountains, stately walls adorned with turrets, and numberless decorations to compleat the rural scene; which will give a lasting fame to the precious memory of that hospitable, just, and noble contriver, the ornament of his country.
V. Britain in Tears: or, England's pious Sorrow for the most lamented death of the late Queen Caroline.
VI. A Review of the Churches in York, alphabetically digested, with what remarkable monumental inscriptions have been placed over the deceased since the year 1730; except such as are conceived to have been already mentioned by any historian. The internal dimensions of each edifice; and the height of every turret or steeple. With a proper table to find the epitaphs, &c. and other curious matters. Particularly some late Lord-Mayors, Sheriffs, &c. to the year 1729; with public transactions in their times.
VII. Verses occasioned on viewing the picture of the King of Israel and Judah, as tho' playing on his harp.
YORK: Printed by Tho. Gent, in the year M.DCC.XXXIX.
Appendix, pp. 70. General Index, pp. xxxviii.
The volume contains sixty-eight wood-cuts on the letter-press.

XXXVIII. PIETY DISPLAYED in the Holy Life and Death of the antient and celebrated ST ROBERT, HERMIT at KNARESBOROUGH. Shewing, How he relinquished the hopes of an Inheritance as having been the heir of his Father, who was twice the Chief Magistrate of York; and lived abstemiously upon Herbs, Roots, &c. on the narrow banks of the River Nid; Near which in the Rocks are to be seen his solitary Cave and wonderful Chapel at this very day.
Collected from antient and authentic Records.

Quiquid Cœli ambitu continetur inferius ab anima humana est, quæ facta est, ut summum bonum superius possideret, cujus possessione beata fieret.
AUGUST. Sol. cap. 20.
YORK: Printed by Thomas Gent, near Stonegate.
18mo. pp. 24. [E. H.] A very rude wood-cut of St. Robert's Cave on the title-page, and twenty other woodcuts on the letter-press.*
* This is one of the chap-books "that formed a treasured part of the literature of the Yorkshire Dales-men." For a highly interesting aecount of St. Robert of Knaresborough, see Memorials of Fountains Abbey, By J. R. Walbran, F.S,A. ed. Surtees Soc. vol. i p. 166, note.

In the title-page of The Second Edition, with additions, adorn'd with cuts," a second motto is introduced:—
Macara aqrein aivna dvron esti ton en uyei vaiontos
i.e. Videre vitam beatam donum est Altissimi.
To see a Lifo that's pure and blest,
Is, sure, the gift of Heav'n confest.
12mo. pp. 24. [J. R.] The text of both editions is a reprint of The Holy Life and Pious Death of St. Robert of Knaresbrough, contained in the Appendix to Historia Compendiosa Anglicana.

Gent had not been a resident of York more than fifteen or sixteen years when the clouds of adversity began to gather around him. Various circumstances contributed to withdraw from him much of the patronage he at one time enjoyed. In 1736 Mr. Francis Drake issued from the London press his celebrated work 'The History and Antiquities of the City of York; and its superior pretensions threw the topographical productions of Gent into the shade. By the depreciatory and contemptuous manner in which Drake spoke of him in his preface to Eboracum, Gent was deeply offended, and in one of his subsequent works he thus sarcastically adverts to his contemporary's remarks:— "What adds, I conceive, to that glory to which I was ever far from aspiring, is the extraordinary commendation of an eminent writer, Francis Drake of the city of York, gent. F.R.S. and member of the Society of Antiquaries, London; who in his extensive performance, wherein I am esteemed as a contemporary historian, has not only explicitly mentioned me amongst the shining benefactors to the helpless youth of this city; a charity* which, if Heaven gives me ability, I hope to continue to my utmost verge of life, but has also in his copious preface, mercifully afforded Mr. T. G. the most laudable encomium, for endeavouring (by inventing, printing, and publishing the history of this famous city)† to support his family. Indeed a manifest truth, and the highest panegyric that I could possibly hope for, nor could I ever think so kind a remembrance in the least worthy of his learned pen."‡
* The Blue-Coat Boys and Grey-Coat Girls' Charity Schools, to which Gent was an annual subscriber.
† Gent might justly boast that he was the earliest labourer in the field of York topography:—
I was the first, the world may plainly see,
That wrote, and nam'd my work York History.
Approv'd, it sold, and printed lines express
My commendation by learned F.R.S. Judas Iscariot, p. 23.
‡ Hist. Compend. Anglic. preface, p. xv. At a later period of Gent's life, when he was in poverty and sickness, Mr. Drake had opportunities of showing him great kindness, for which he frequently expresses his gratitude.

In the following year Gent complains of want of employment. "Having but too much time to spare (he says), rather than be indolent I studied music on the harp, flute, and other instruments."§ In 1738 the failure of Alexander Staples, who had purchased the York printing establishment of Mr. John White, made an opening for Mr. Cæsar Ward, an able and enterprising bookseller and typographer, who soon became a favourite of the public and a formidable rival to Gent.
§ Life, p. 190.
To Mr. Ward's superior management of the York Courant, of which he became proprietor and editor in 1740, may be attributed Gent's determination to abandon the newspaper he had conducted since his first arrival at York.¶

¶ I have met with no specimen of Gent's newspaper later than No. 159, issued Aug. 27, 1728, a copy of which is in the library of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. He had then slightly altered his first title, and adopted the name of The Original Mercury, York Journal, or Weekly Courant. The paper was enlarged in size to 10 in. by 8 in, but reduced in number of pages from eight to four. No. 159 contains a column of York news, and two or three advertisements.

"Having printed (he says) the news for several years, for want of encouragement I was obliged to give it up about this time: I had studied and endeavoured to my utmost ability, to make it bear, but the strength of the Craftsman,* with my misfortunes, had now quite overcome me. I peaceably dropt into oblivion, without any ludicrous animadversions of my contemporary brethren."†
* Long extracts were printed weekly in the York Courant from the celebrated paper called The Craftsman, which was published in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole's Administration.
† Life, p. 191.
At this stage of his autobiography Gent introduces a long and querulous history‡ of the gross injustice which, as he supposed, was done to him and his wife, when they were ousted from the possession of a house in Stonegate which had been bequeathed to Mrs. Gent by her first husband.
‡ This narrative, which does not appear in the printed life, occupies nearly ten closely written folio pages of the manuscript.

The circumstances were briefly these. Charles Bourne, not long before his death, purchased the house in question, which was held under a lease, granted by a former prebendary of North Newbald in the cathedral church of York, for three lives, of whom two were then in being. But Bourne was not informed when he made the purchase that, some time previously, a succeeding prebendary had granted a reversionary lease to another person, the effect of which was to deprive Bourne and his successors of the right, which they would otherwise have been entitled to exercise, of renewing the existing lease. Bourne did not discover this fact until after he had paid his money. His widow abstained from imparting it to Gent until after they were married. When Gent ascertained that the house would pass irrecoverably from him and his wife, upon the death of "a weak old gentlewoman," the surviving life in their lease, he was beside himself with rage and disappointment. He fancied that the loss of this property would plunge him into irretrievable ruin. "With heavy sighs and bitter anguish," he exclaims, "did I bemoan our tottering condition." Poverty and its gloomy attendants constantly stared him in the face. He first attempted to prevail upon Mr. Alderman Read,. the lessee in reversion, to afford him some redress, and upon that gentleman's refusal, he poured out upon him all the vials of his wrath. He then applied to the Rev. Mr. Hitch, who had been appointed to the stall of North-Newbald, upon the death of the prebendary by whom the reversionary lease was granted. Mr. Hitch treated Gent with courtesy, but was unable to assist him. At length the dreaded event happened. In January 1740 "a heavy stroke of adverse fortune " befel him. The old lady died whose life was the last in the lease, and Gent and his wife had to relinquish possession of the house in Stonegate, which they once hoped would have been a refuge for them when they should have to quit Coffee-Yard, where he was only tenant from year to year.†
Whilst Gent was tormenting himself by brooding over imaginary wrongs, and engaging in disputes and controversies with his neighbours, an opportunity was afforded to him, which he unwisely neglected to improve, of being reconciled to his relative and former opponent Mr. John White of Newcastle, who at this time was one of the most respectable and flourishing printers and publishers in the north of England, and whose good offices might have been of great value to
Gent. In October 1741, Mr. White wrote to him as follows:

* John Read esquire, of Sandhutton near York, Lord Mayor 1719 and 1746.
† During the severe winter of 1739-40 the river Ouze was frozen over, and Gent was glad to gather a few pence by setting up on the ice a quasi press, and printing for sale on small broadsides some of his own wood-cuts and doggrel verses, to which he added the name of the purchaser. Mr. Hailstone possesses one specimen, and another is in the collection of Mr. Sumner, of Woodmansey, near Beverley.

Mr. Gent,
I some time since advised John Gilfillan that I would write to you about some black letter. Therefore as that sort of letter is now of little use, I desire that you would spare me 30 or 40 pound weight of the great primmer black, English black, pica black, small pica black, and long primmer black. There was a quantity of each sort design'd me by my father, but how I was prevented, knows not. It is of no use but now and then for a word; and as it is of no great value, I hope you will comply with my request, and I will pay you for it what John Gilfillan agrees to.
My poor spouse has been obliged to keep her bed, and is so very weak that I am of opinion she will not recover her strength again. I should take it kind if either you or your spouse would write to inform us of your health, and that there might be a friendsh