180 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December, 25. 
The age for expensive literature is gone, and the costly 
quartos and folios of former years stand on our shelves 
like the last of their race, for no junior of equal stature 
is ever added to them. Long may they thus remain, 
for they are monuments of the time when readers were 
few, and hook-buyers were nowhere but among the 
wealthy. 
Let us cast a glance over the dark past that we may 
contrast it with the brighter present, and thence learn 
that “ a good time ” is come, and what abundance of 
cause there is for us to be grateful. In another of our 
pages to-day, Mr. Errington has justly pointed out that 
| the “good time” is come in cheapness of food and of 
I clothing, and in improvement in cheap dwellings. Let 
j us now show how it is come, also, in the increase of 
knowledge, and the supply of cheap, wholesome 
| publications. 
Look, first, at “ the Rook of Life ”—the Bible. In 
i 1540 the printer, Grafton, could only venture to print 
five hundred copies of his complete edition of the 
Scriptures; and no wonder, for the price of books was 
| enormously high. In 1505 we find that Elizabeth of 
York gave twenty-pence for a Primer and Psalter, and 
that twenty-pence would in those days have bought 
half-aload of barley. About ten years later, a large 
folio law book, about the size of Grafton’s Bible, and 
called “ Fitzlierbert’s Abridgement,” cost forty shillings, 
for which sum three fat oxen could then have been 
purchased. 
Contrast those facts with others now relative to the 
Bible. This “ Book of Books ” was to be seen at the 
Great Exhibition in hundreds of different languages; 
twenty millions of copies have been distributed by 
various religious societies within the last three half 
centuries, and a good-bound copy may be had for 
I nine-pence. 
Cheap books increase the number of readers in an 
equal degree as the increase of readers enable books 
to be published cheap. With the present century, as 
Mr. Knight has observed, a much larger class of book 
buyers sprang up, and principally from the middle 
ranks. For these a new species of literature had to be 
produced—that of books conveying useful information 
in a popular form, and for a small sum. In the year 
1827, Constables Miscellany led the way in this novel 
attempt, and in the same year the Society for the 
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge commenced its opera¬ 
tions. In 1832 appeared the Penny Magazine, and 
Chambers's Journal. Of the first of these more than 
100,000 were sold weekly, and of the second more than 
40,000 are still sold in England alone, in defiance of the 
host of penny and two-pennyworths of sterling merit that 
have since risen to compete with it for public patronage. 
The number of weekly periodicals, not newspapers, 
says Mr. Knight, issued in London on Saturday, May 4. 
1844, was about sixty. Of these the weekly sale of the 
more important amounts to little less than 300,000 
copies, or about fifteen millions annually. Of monthly 
magazines selling at various prices, from twopence up¬ 
wards, about 170 are published, and besides these there 
are thirty-eight at one penny, and eight at a half-penny ! 
Besides these there are the other births from the 
press of newspapers, monthlies, new books, and re¬ 
prints, the annual returns of which have thus been j 
recapitulated:— 
New hooks and reprints .... 41435,000 
Weekly publications (not newspapers) 100,000 
Monthly publications. 300,000 
Newspapers.. 1,250,000 
<£2,085,000 
In about a century this annual return has risen from 
£100,000 to more than two millions. The increased : 
number of readers, the wider diffusion of education, the 
improved habits of the people, have caused this 
increased demand for literary works, but that demand 
would not have been sustained if superior books and 
periodicals had not been provided at a low price, and 
of this character are many books now by the side of our 
desk as we write. 
The first that meets our eye is justly termed “ a 
volume for all.” It is The Family Economist, published 
monthly, at the price of one penny, and in a volume at 
the end of the year for a shilling! We can say of it, 
without any reservation, that it is full of useful informa- j 
tion and amusement. 
Next comes The Cottage Lamp, also published monthly, 
and priced one penny, of which we will say no more 
than that it is edited by the writer of “ Our Villagers,” 
in our pages; but we will give one extract:— 
HINTS FROM AN OLD GARDENER—JANUARY. 
A happy new year to you, John Brotlierton ; you appear 
with an inquiring countenance this morning. 
Ah! I thought as much. I can always tell when a man 
is in want of information, there is an unmistakeable some¬ 
thing in his face on those occasions, which can be read off at a 
glance. And now, since you have openly explained yourself, 
and ask my advice, that which I am able to give shall be at 
your service. Depend upon it, neighbour Brotherton, with 
God’s blessing, happiness lies much nearer a man's own 
door than a great many people imagine. Yourself, and the 
object of your visit to me this morning prove this. You 
have shaved ? Yes—smile if you like. The man who will 
allow his face to go unshorn, will neglect to clip his garden 
hedge. There is very great hopes for your garden, now you 
shave every other day, and as a matter of course, on the 
Sabbath. You own, that since you have given up attending 
the ale-house, wasting there your time, strength, and sub¬ 
stance, and ruining your family, that all go on much better 
at home. And no wonder. Man was bom for something 1 
nobler than to waste his existence in a pot-house. And if 
you would bring yourself to give up smoking, too, your 
health, as well as your pocket, would reap a still further 
advantage; and, for my own part, I never could understand 
the use or sense or smoking. Nay! do not think these 
words of mine unseasonable. I am accustomed to say what 
I think. 
But now to the purport of your visit. Since you have 
been in the habit of spending your earnings at home with 
your family, you have a well-supplied cupboard, your house 
is clean and orderly, your wife, family, and self, cheerful and 
contented; your old haunts have no pleasure for you now; 
and, therefore, you wish to turn your attention, and occupy 
your spare time profitably, in cultivating your garden. Well, 
that’s natural, for men’s minds are never idle ; if they are 
not thinking good thoughts, they are thinking evil thoughts ; 
and how much better to find ourselves employed in better 
things, whereby we benefit, and become a blessing to those ; 
that belong to us, and an example of diligence for those who 
are round about us. 
