A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



utter falsehood, and thereupon, under a ' general 

 warrant ' issued by Lord Halifax, Wilkes and 

 Kearsley were arrested and lodged in the Tower, 

 charged with a libel on the king ; but on being 

 brought before the Lord Chief Justice on a writ 

 of habeas-corpus their arrest was declared 

 illegal and they were discharged, and each of 

 them subsequently recovered damages against 

 Lord Halifax for illegal arrest and seizure of 

 papers. Stephen Austin was on the premises 

 when the officers came to make Kearsley's 

 arrest, and while they were knocking for 

 admission he hurried to the office and, locking 

 the door, gathered the copy wliich was being 

 set for No. 46, thrust it into his pocket, upsetting 

 the type that was on the ' galleys,' and putting 

 his foot through the ' formes ' in ' chase,' he 

 got out of the window and on the roof just 

 before an entrance was effected by breaking 

 open the door. Subsequently, during Kears- 

 ley's detention in the Tower, he carried on 

 the business, and for some time after his dis- 

 charge remained with him, until he came to 

 Hertford and commenced business on his own 

 account as a printer and schoolmaster in 1768, 

 In 1772 he started a paper called the Hartford 

 Mercury (some of the eariiest copies of which 

 are in the possession of his descendants), pub- 

 Hshed weekly at the price of zld. Subsequentiy 

 the paper developed into the Hartford, Bedford 

 and Huntingdon Mercury, and being the only 

 newspaper published in those counties was 

 widely read. The sparseness of the population, 

 however, together with the difficulties of loco- 

 motion and the expense of bringing out a 

 sheet at that time, proved insurmountable 

 obstacles to its financial success, and after some 

 years the venture was discontinued. 



Stephen Austin, however, continued to carry 

 on the business of a printer, and in due time 

 was joined by his son, another Stephen Austin, 

 born in 1776, who ultimately succeeded to the 

 business, and from whom it passed to his son 

 Stephen, the father of Mr. Vernon Austin. 



Mr. Vernon Austin's father and grandfather 

 were the appointed printers and booksellers to 

 the East India Company's College, the work of 

 which, while Haileybury College was being 

 built, was carried on at Hertford Castle. This 

 position was retained until the Company was 

 dissolved in 1858 ; and it was under the auspices 

 of the authorities of that institution that the 

 printing and publishing at Hertford of works 

 in various Oriental languages was commenced. 

 Up to that time great difficulty had been 

 experienced in procuring the different Oriental 

 books required by the students in their studies ; 

 those that were obtainable were only to be had 

 at great cost, while the type used was so bad 

 and the paper of such indifferent quality that 

 the books were oftentimes almost illegible. It 

 was somewhat of a revolution, therefore, when 



The Hitopadesa was printed with new Sanscrit 

 type at Hertford in 1847, as at that date there 

 were not more than one or two Oriental printers 

 in England, and thenceforward during successive 

 years a great number of books printed in 

 Sanscrit, Bengali, Arabic, Persian, Pushto, 

 Hindustani, Hindi, Hebrew, and other Eastern 

 languages, as well as in Greek, Latin, German 

 and French, were issued from the Hertford 

 Press of Stephen Austin, the name by which 

 the firm was known at that period. One of the 

 best examples of its work at that time is to be 

 seen in a sumptuous edition of the Indian 

 drama Sakoontala, or the Lost Ring, translated 

 by the Rev. Monier Wilhams, and pubhshed in 

 1855. Each page and every woodcut was 

 surrounded by decorative borders taken from 

 MSS. in the British Museum and the library 

 of the East India Company, designed by T. 

 Sulman, jun., and engraved by George Meason, 

 and printed in gold and colours, while the 

 typography and press work were of the highest 

 order. In his introduction the editor pointed 

 out that the press of Stephen Austin of Hertford 

 had issued some of the most perfect specimens 

 of decorative Oriental printing that this country 

 had ever produced. In short, the firm acquired 

 a world-wide reputation for Oriental printing, 

 and many of the finest specimens of Oriental 

 typography now extant bear that name. The 

 skill and taste displayed in these productions 

 were acknowledged by the presentation of 

 gold medals by the late Queen Victoria and 

 the Empress of the French, by the award of 

 medals of the first class at the International 

 Exhibitions held in London and Paris, &c., and 

 by testimonials from many of the most eminent 

 Oriental scholars of Europe and India ; and in 

 the year 1883 the Congr^s International des 

 Orientalistes presented their diploma for services 

 rendered to Oriental literature. 



In the year 1834 ^^- Austin, at the request 

 of the leading members of the Whig party in 

 the county, including Lord Dacre, Mr. Rowland 

 Alston, Mr. H. G. Ward, M.P. (afterwards Sir 

 Henry Ward, Governor of Madras), and others 

 who were stirred to action by the circumstances 

 which shortly afterwards led to William IV 

 abruptly dismissing Lord Melbourne's ministry 

 — started the journal which is now known as 

 The Hertfordshire Mercury. At that time it 

 was called The Reformer, and in the early days 

 of its existence it numbered amongst the 

 contributors to its columns Mr. H. G. Ward, 

 M.P., Sir Culling Eardley Smith, bart., and 

 many other persons distinguished in politics, 

 literature and art, including Dr. Arnold, of 

 Rugby, whose letters to the Editor, signed 

 ' F. H.' during the years 1837-40, were after- 

 wards collected and published in the Miscel- 

 laneous Works of Thomas Arnold, D.D., by Dean 

 Stanley. 



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