THE
SINGULAR SAGA OF THE STANHOPE PRESS !!
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One of the most colourful characters to stride through the
history of the printing industry was Charles, 3rd Earl of Stanhope.
For that matter the whole Stanhope clan is fraught with
interest. Especially that “six-foot Amazon” daughter of his, Lady Hester Lucy
!! But more of her anon.
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It was during
the War of Spanish Succession that James Stanhope (1674-1721) , grandfather of
Charles, became Commander-in-chief of the British forces in Spain.
In 1710 he
found himself taken prisoner by the enemy .... but the Peace Treaty two years
later ensured his release. Back in England he was appointed Lord of the
Treasury and the title of Viscount was bestowed upon him.
Then came the
disastrous ‘South Sea Bubble’ affair, as historians call it.... the buying of
shares in a certain South Sea Company. This was encouraged by the British
Government and expected to erode the national debt. “The scheme became
immensely popular .... the value of the shares increased ten-fold. The whole
country went mad until 1720 when the ‘South Sea Bubble’ exploded. A panic
followed. Thousands of families were involved in general ruin.” (“Illustrated
History of the World”, p 900)
Lord Stanhope,
who had sanctioned the scheme, was now deposed and financier Robert Walpole
took his place. He was to become Lord of the Treasury and virtually “rule England for the next ten
years.” (“Concise Universal Biography”, p 1357)
MEET LADY HESTER !!
Stanhope’s grandson, Charles, was a rather eccentric
character with an even more eccentric daughter. This ‘Queen of the Desert’ as she was to become known began to
take an interest in the outlandish
prophecies of a certain naval officer named Richard Brothers.
Ex-naval
officer would be more correct, for by the time she met him he was in an asylum........
Nevertheless,
she seemed to accept his ‘Divine revelations’ that she was to play an important
role in ushering in the return of the Jews to Palestine and the subsequent
building of a new Jerusalem. Brothers
had written that he was to be crowned King of Jerusalem and demanded that the
King of England provide him with “90 000 sacks of flour and 60 000
shovels.”
He also
requested the King of Denmark to supply him with “300 shiploads of timber plus
a suitable quantity of of hammers, saws and axes.” And the Emperor of Turkey was to give 3 000 camels...
In 1801 he had
published a description of this new Jerusalem in a 200 page book filled with
mathematical madness. ( Past Finding
Out by G. Balleine pp27-36)
Yet Lady Hester
felt strangely drawn to this deluded visionary and when he told her that she
was Divinely appointed to “lead the
chosen people back to Jerusalem ( and that ) on her arrival in the Holy Land
mighty changes would take place in the world”,
she decided such was her destiny. ( Second Cavalcade of History by C. Golding. pp405-406)
Thus it was, whilst
her father dabbled with his new
printing press invention, she, at the age of 34, set off for the Middle East.
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GO EAST, YOUNG WOMAN !!
This
adventurous woman is all the more remarkable when considered in the light of her upbringing. Born on March 12th. 1776, she
grew to womanhood rubbing shoulders
with nobility. Her mother was sister to
William Pitt, one time Prime Minister
of England. During the war with France, Lady Hester even accompanied her
famous uncle “to all revues and manoeuvres.” And from 1804 until his death two
years later she acted as his housekeeper and secretary. (
Cassell’s Romance of Famous Lives. p 979)
An annual
pension amounting to one thousand, two hundred pounds was granted her by King
George III. Contemporaries describe her
as notable “for her great beauty and accomplishments.”
The untimely
death of her uncle, aged 47, and of Sir James Moore soon afterwards, “the man
she was to have married” may have contributed to bizarre behaviour that was to follow. In 1810 she
set sail on an adventure from which she would never return to her homeland.
There was a
brief stay in Sicily where her “outspoken remarks” upset many, a meeting with
Lord Byron of literary fame in Athens, and then on to Constantinople where “she
upset the British Ambassador” with her
uncontrollable tongue. From thence it was Egypt bound.... and she
was shipwrecked on the way !
About this time
we find her adopting Turkish dress and being granted an audience with Mohammed
Ali, Turkish ruler of Egypt. Only a year previous he had caused the massacre in cold blood of 500 rebellious
citizens of his kingdom. “Figuratively speaking,” writes one of her biographers, “their blood was hardly dry on his hands
when he invited her to Ezbekieh Palace. ( Queen
of the Desert by J.G.Hughes. p.57)
Lady Hester
also found time to climb the Great
Pyramid at Gizeh.
TO THE HOLY LAND.
On May 12, 1812
she is bound for Palestine, probably unaware of her father’s major breakthrough
in the world of printing. Enroute to
Syria she is smitten with fever. A Doctor Meryon, , one of her travelling
companions, nursed her “through weeks at death’s door.” ( Cassell’s p. 982) It is also from his writings much of her
unique life has been gleaned by later writers. Thirty years after her death “he
published six volumes on her life and career.” ( Biblical Archaeology Review
July 1984 p. 75)
We read how she
once dined with “a rich Jew whose nose and one ear had been cut off and one eye
torn out by order of the cruel Pasha, El Gezzar.” There is a meeting with John Burckhardt, the famous Swiss
traveller, who disguised himself as an Arab that he might be taken,
unsuspected, into the long-lost Rose-red city of ancient Petra and of the
whirling dervishes who “seem to think I am a deity because I can ride” and who
gave her a piece of Mohammed’s tomb. ( Hughes. P64; 65; 81.)
THE SAGA OF THE STATUE!.
It is indeed remarkable to think of this high-bred English woman,
niece of a Prime Minister, daughter of an Earl, friend of princes, riding through the desert... sometimes with
200 Bedouin tribesmen around her ...
sometimes eating camel meat ... nearly
200 years ago.
At Askelon, an
ancient Philistine city, she organized her followers to dig for buried
treasure..... and uncovered the ruins of a gigantic statue. It has been
suggested that this discovery earned her the title of the Holy Land’s first
archaeologist. But if that is so, it is not to be thought that archaeology was
her objective. She even had the statue smashed “into a thousand pieces” lest treasure was to be found therein! Such
an act of vandalism does not endear her to the archaeologists of today !! Nor
did she discover any hidden treasure !
Death took her
at the age of 63 ( June 23, 1839) and her grave may still be seen in a Greek
monastery in the village of Djoun in Syria. And, J.G. Hughes tells us, in that
village is a café called ESTHER STENHOPE. ( p.
159)
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THE INVENTIVE EARL.
During Lady
Hester’s meanderings, her father was
occupying his time with various
inventions .
There were the
calculating machines – two different types, at that ! - and a microscope lens that still bears his
name. There was the “contrivance for
the management of locks on canals” and
his model steam-boat was no children’s toy.
In 1808 he took out a patent on this invention. (
Chamber’s Book of Days Vol.2. p.164)
But it is his
foray into the world of printing that
demands our attention. It is hard to
believe that since the days of Gutenberg the form and mode of operating a
printing press had seen little change. “The same clumsy, wooden type of
machine” was still in use 350 years
later. The massive hand-operated screw would be turned to bring paper and
type together. But Lord Stanhope did
two things. Firstly, the press was now given an iron frame. And secondly, a system of levers was designed to
increase the force of the screw. The result was seen in the quality of
reproduction and in the speed of operation. Now pages could be
printed at 250 an hour ! Wow !!
It was a major
breakthrough.
STEREOTYPING
Nor was Lord
Stanhope finished with his investigation of printing techniques. He now
perfected the system of printing known as stereotyping. A master plate bearing
the imprint of a complete page ( known as
a matrix) would be made of plaster of paris ( later, papier-mache was used) thus
enabling the type to be used again and again whilst the page was also re-usable
at a moments notice.
. Whilst others had sought to accomplish this, it had never been truly successful. Nor was
the idea always appreciated. William Ged some 70 years previous had experimented
with the idea but fellow printers
feared for their livelihood. They “wrecked his invention.” ( 500 Years of Printing ... by
S. Steinberg. P.200)
It was
providential that the same year Lord
Stanhope brought this procedure to acceptance in the printing industry, the
British and Foreign Bible Society had
been launched. Their aim was to provide inexpensive - or even free - copies of
the Scriptures for those who desired
such. The following year
Cambridge Press adopted this new stereotyping method and Bibles were mass produced at an
economical price and a remarkable rate.
“Supplying the British and Foreign Bible Society and other missionary
organizations became the foundation of the Cambridge Press in the 19th
Century; so that it became a printing business of significant size and a
substantial employer of skilled labour.” (
A Short History of Cambridge University Press
.... by M. Black. P.51)
This pioneer of
the print-shop died in 1816 – at the age of 63. The name of Stanhope
however , is still remembered in some circles ...... even if it is
the daughter rather than the father who
comes to mind !!
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