WILLIAM CUMING, M.D. 49 



Body here is at all interested in their Preservation. I made sad 

 havoc among them in the Impression sent, you may if you 

 please compleat their Destruction." 



Early in 1774 the labours of Cuming and Gough drew to a 

 close. Folding and stitching the sheets and the carriage of the 

 published volumes from London to Dorchester had become 

 matters for serious consideration. With regard to the latter 

 point, Mr. Gould (a Dorchester bookseller) opines " that it will 

 be safer to have the Books packed up in Boxes of rough Deal, 

 than to send them in matting ; and " (was this Cuming's thrift ?) 

 " Care shall be taken to sell these Boards for as much as can be 

 got for them " (Cuming to Gough, February 4th, 1774). Anent 

 the disposal of the component parts of each copy in their right 

 order, Cuming found occasion (on July 4th, 1774) to rebuke 

 urban arrogance : "The Book I have been told is difficult to 

 arrange, but I cannot entertain an Idea of such superior 

 Abilities in London Booksellers, beyond their rural brethren, 

 as to think that they alofie are equal to it. Both Blandford and 

 Dorchester can boast of Booksellers that I think are just as 

 capable of it as those that live in the Strand or Covent Garden." 

 In several letters to Gough, Cuming recommended that a single 

 copy should be prepared before the spring assizes brought the 

 county gentlemen to Dorchester; and it appears that by 

 March 14th, 1774, this specimen of the completed work was on 

 view at Gould's shop. " Our Squires" (wrote Cuming five days 

 later) " were glad to hear the Book was near publication." On 

 May 9th, 1774, the first edition of Hutchins's "History of 

 Dorset" was ready for delivery to the subscribers. Ere that 

 day dawned people had awakened to a sense of the book's value. 

 "There was a time" (says Cuming to Gough on October 31st, 

 1772), "when we were obliged to sollicit Subscriptions with 

 great Earnestness, that time is over ... no fewer than 

 four SoUicitations since I began this Letter." Cuming regarded 

 it as "superior much to the History of any County yet 

 published"; adding: "How much that is owing to the 

 Abilities and Attention which you have e.xerted, we are all 



