85 
if it were only to interpret some of the family MSS., or to read 
aloud in boudoir or hall out of the folios of the neglected library. 
The paper concluded by an amusing allusion to the grand old 
Bibliopole of the epoch, Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, 
temp. Edward III. ; and a further reference to the part played by 
the Mendicant Friars, who ceased not to distribute good literature 
broadcast in appreciative English homes. In this work the 
influence of these worthy ecclesiastics on the nation was both 
healthy and satisfactory. Not only were the families living far 
away from large towns dependent largely on them for an 
acquaintance with the few books the home possessed, but the 
sparse library was chiefly augmented from the treasures they 
brought. They were the colporteurs of their day, and they 
brought with them on their journeys a wholesome literature, a 
progressive learning, a good example, and a living faith. They 
loved, and they lived for, their work. Their lives were none of 
the easiest, their self-denial was apparent to the minds of men, 
and as they plodded on they helped to mould the national 
character, to elevate and instruct the people, and make men 
ripe to receive those unparalleled blessings of intellectual light 
and wisdom which, through the aid of the printing press, were 
about to burst upon the world. 
An opportunity having been given for the inspection of the 
exhibits, 
Mr. Emery Walker next gave his lecture on ‘ Letterpress 
Printing and Illustration,’ of which the following is the 
substance :— 
He said, that although the term letterpress printing covered 
the whole field of work produced in the typographic press, 
the particular branch to which most of his observations 
would refer was that usually called book work, and he would 
only incidentally allude to jobbing—which comprised circulars, 
cards, posters, and commercial work generally. Type and 
paper, it was remarked, may be said to be to a printed book 
what stone, or bricks and mortar, were to architecture. They 
were the essentials, without which there could be no book 
in the one case and no architecture in the other. This was 
further illustrated by the lecturer remarking that it was not 
. paintings, carving, or decorations which had the first cousidera- 
tion, but the walls, floors and roofs. Printing, like all other arts 
and crafts, had its position and scope defined mainly by the 
mechanical conditions under which it was exercised, and it was 
only when it was carried on strictly with reference to these 
limitations that it was entitled to be considered an art at 
all. The lecturer, having touched upon several instances of 
