“Ech, ech, my dear’y, and
Ach, ach, my love.
“There was a little man who had a little gun, and
“There was a little maid who was very much afraid
To get wed, wed, wed,” etc.

This is long and curious, and was greatly altered and abreviated in early 19th Century Editions.

Providing ourselves with a variety of pens and ink, we select two of the best and proceed to describe the Banbury Printer’s old stock of cuts.

Banbury, Oxfordshire, was one of the chief provincial towns noted for its Children’s Books, Chap Books, Battledoes, Reading Easies, etc., also for locally printed works, notably for two, viz., Dr. Johnson’s Rasselas, and White and Beesley’s work on Bees, thin 12mo volumes, boards, printed in a curious phonetic character, called “Rusher’s Types.” Rusher, printer of this town, had some ingenuity and originality of his own, and was not such a plagiarist and imitator as some of his contemporaries. Many of the tales he cleverly adapted to the locality, which have become very valuable. His edition of the Rasselas realized £5 5s. This book was written by Johnson in a week to defray his mother’s funeral expenses.

We give several extracts from some of Rusher’s Penny Books which will show how well he adapted them to his town.

The following little “Banbury Cake” Book is so excessively rare, we give the text verbatim.

THE HISTORY

OF A

BANBURY CAKE.

AN ENTERTAINING BOOK FOR CHILDREN.

BANBURY:

Printed and Sold by J. G. Rusher,

BRIDGE STREET.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

PREFACE.

It will be thought very odd, I doubt not, by each little boy and girl into whose hands this book shall fall, that a Banbury Cake should be able to write (as it were) its own life; but as they advance in years, they will find that many strange things happen every day—I shall therefore without more words to the bargain proceed with my story.

HISTORY OF A BANBURY CAKE.

I was born or made (whichever you please, my little reader) at Banbury in the county of Oxford, as you can plainly conceive by my title, where great numbers of Cakes are brought into being daily; and from whence they travel by coach, chaise, waggon, cart horse and foot into all parts of this Kingdom: nay and beyond the seas, as I heard my maker declare that he had, more then once sent some of them into France.

Soon after I was made, and while I was yet warm from the oven, I was sold by my maker’s fair daughter to a person on horseback for twopence.

With this person I took my first journey to Oxford; he rode a very fine Black Horse. As soon as he came home, he gave me to his son a lovely little boy, about seven years of age, and one as I found to my comfort not only lovely in person but in temper also. His name was Tommy, and he was praised and loved by all that knew him, and had often presents of cakes, toys and little books, and other things that are proper for children of his age; the books he kept with great care as things of value and worthy of his notice, but other trinkets he seemed to despise.

Tommy and his cousin were taken to see Mr. Polito’s collection of wild beasts and birds, which were then exhibiting at Oxford, among which were a large lion, an eagle, and many other natural curiosities, which sight was very entertaining, as Tommy and his cousin had never seen such before. They afterwards walked into the Colleges, round Christ Church College Meadow, and indeed saw all the curiosities about Oxford.

(The Banbury Cake).

We give a Bibliographical List, as perfect as is possible to date, of the “Halfpenny Series” of little History and Story Books issued at Rusher’s Banbury Press, some even with the same titles as the “Penny Series,” yet totally different in arrangement and woodcuts, used, as comparison in the Bodleian Library will readily show: Mother Hubbard and her Dog; Nursery Rymmes from the Royal Collections; Poetic Trifles for young Gentlemen and Ladies; The Cries of Banbury, London, and Celebrated Stories; Children in the Wood, Historical Ballad (Norfolk?); Children in the Wood, Restored by Honestus; Hermit of the Forest (Cumberland); Jack the Giant Killer, a Hero, celebrated by Ancient Historians (Cornwall); Robinson Crusoe; Nursery Poems from the Ancient and Modern Poets; Jack and Gill and Old Dame Gill; Read who will, They’ll laugh their fill; Dick Whittington and his Cat; The History of Tom Thumb (Middlesex); Death and Burial of Cock Robin; Renowned History of Dame Trot and her Cat; London Jingles and Country Tales for Young People; Tom, Tom, the Piper’ Son; Cinderella and her Glass Slipper; Jack Spratt and his Wife Joan, etc. etc.

Rusher’s Banbury Battledore and Reading Made Easy blocks, show the next improvement on the old Horn Books. Then Rusher published a Galloping Guide to the A B C., for which see next page.

The above woodcut of a Fugitive Soldier (designed by Craig, and engraved by Lee) was used on the back of the cover of this little book, as issued by J. G. Rusher at Banbury.

DEATH AND BURIAL OF COCK ROBIN.

Mother Hubbard and her Dog.

Dame Trot and her Cat.

Designed by Cruikshank, engraved by Dranston.

The Life of Jack Sprat and his Wife Joan.

Cinderella and her Glass Slipper.

Jack and Jill.

Dick Whittington and his Cat.

The Cries of York.

page 45 picture 1

“The Cries of York, for the amusement of Young Children, decorated with cuts printed by T. Kendrew, Collier Gate, York.” These York Cries have not been mentioned by any writer on juvenile literature and the same may be said of the Banbury Cries. T. Kendrew of York, brought out many interesting penny and other children’s books. He published “Giles Gingerbread, a little boy who lived upon learning, by Tom Trip,” this was an abbreviation of Newberry’s Edition of the “Silver Penny.” The series was illustrated with the early and prentice work of the Bewick School. One of the rarest is “The Cries of York,” the cuts of which afterwards travelled to Banbury and appeared in “Banbury Cries.” The series we are enabled to give complete.

Appended are the words to many of the foregoing Cries.

The Cries of York is distinctly different from The Cries of London issued by Kendrew though the same set of Cuts are utilized.

London Street Cries have always had a fascination peculiarly their own. Madame Vestris used to bring down the house with “Cherry Ripe,” and where are happier efforts of the favourite home Artists than “London Cries” by A. Morland, Wheatley, Stodhard, and others, which are so eagerly sought after by connoiseurs? The pretty plaintive Cries too, would we had the ‘music’ to them, so familiar in the streets in those charming old English days.

page 49 picture 1

“Nothing like leather.”

A most interesting and quaint old relic is the one from which annexed impression is given, from Dyche’s Spelling Book: an exceedingly clean, choice and crisp copy of this book, in the original sheep covers,—a veritable “old shopkeeper,” which for nearly a century had escaped its intended destiny in Rusher’s varied stores, at length found a resting place in Sir Thomas Bodley’s venerable receptacle for bibliographical treasures in the Bodelian, Oxford. The present example—a portion of which was broken away many years ago,—is probably the sole surviving one of the quaint series of cuts, doubtless admired by our great-grand-parents over 100 years ago.

The following are curious examples of Fable Cuts, which were used in Dilworth, Cocker, Fisher, and others.

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