Lives of Illustrious Shoemakers. W. E. Winks

of the white.” The town of Vigo in Spain had been captured by Sir George Rooke, and Sir Cloudesley was ordered to go out and bring home the spoils of the united Spanish and French fleets, which lay disabled in the harbor. This difficult task was accomplished with a rapidity and dash which made so favorable an impression on the court, that on his return “it was immediately resolved to employ him in affairs of the greatest consequence for the future.” In 1703 he was put in command of the grand fleet, and protected the interests of England from the hostile attempts of the French and allied powers in the Mediterranean. At the battle of Malaga in 1704, Sir Cloudesley’s division of nine ships led the van, and had to bear the brunt of the enemy’s attack to such an extent, that at the beginning of the engagement he was almost entirely surrounded by the French, and more than 400 of his men were either killed or wounded. On his return home he was presented to the Queen by Prince George, and shortly afterward received the appointment of commander-in-chief and rear-admiral of the English fleet. As Admiral Shovel he won great credit for the part he took in the capture of the important city of Barcelona in 1705.

      In the month of October, 1707, after bearing an honorable part in the expedition under Prince Eugene against Toulon, he set sail with ten ships of the line, five frigates, and other war vessels for the shores of England. But he was destined never to see again the country he had served so nobly and loved so well. By some strange mischance, which has never been fully accounted for, his own vessel and several others, on the night of the 22d of October, struck on the rocks of the Scilly islands and perished. The brave admiral and his three sons-in-law, who were on board his vessel, besides a large number of officers and seamen, were drowned. The body of Sir Cloudesley Shovel was washed on shore, and having been found by a number of smugglers, was stripped of an emerald ring and other valuables, and buried in the sand. On attempting to sell their booty, the miscreants found that the ring they prized so much betrayed their guilty secret. They were compelled to point out the spot where the body had been concealed. England, of course, could not allow one of her noblest sons to lie in so ignominious a grave. The body was at once removed to London by express order of Her Majesty Queen Anne, and laid in the most honorable grave the nation had to give—

      “In the great minster transept,

      Where the lights like glories fall,

      And the organ rings and the sweet choir sings

      Along the emblazoned wall.”[2]

CHAPTER II.

       Table of Contents

      JAMES LACKINGTON

      SHOEMAKER AND BOOKSELLER.

      Sutor Ultra Crepidam Feliciter Ausus.

       —Latin Motto, Quoted on Frontispiece to “Lackington’s Memoirs.”

      I. LACKINGTON,

      Who a few years since began Business with five Pounds,

       Now sells one Hundred Thousand Volumes Annually.

       —From Frontispiece to First Edition of “Memoirs and Confessions,” 1791-92.

      “I will therefore conclude with a wish, that my readers may enjoy the feast with the same good humor with which I have prepared it.... Those with keen appetites will partake of each dish, while others, more delicate, may select such dishes as are more light and better adapted to their palates; they are all genuine British fare; but lest they should be at a loss to know what the entertainment consists of, I beg leave to inform them that it contains forty-seven dishes of various sizes, which (if they calculate the expense of their admission tickets) they will find does not amount to twopence per dish; and what I hope they will consider as immensely valuable (in compliance with the precedent set by Mr. Farley, a gentleman eminent in the culinary science), a striking likeness of their Cook into the Bargain.

      “Ladies and Gentlemen, pray be seated; you are heartily welcome, and much good may it do you.”—From Preface to Lackington’s “Memoirs and Confessions,” published 1826.

JAMES LACKINGTON.

       Table of Contents

      One of the most successful booksellers of the last century was James Lackington, whose enormous place of business at the corner of Finsbury Square, London, was styled somewhat grandiloquently “The Temple of the Muses.” A flag floated proudly over the top of the building, and above the principal doorway stood the announcement, no less true than sensational, “The Cheapest Bookshop in the World.” Lackington was an innovator in the trade, and had introduced methods and principles of doing business which at first awaked the ire of the bookselling fraternity, but were at length generally adopted, thus inaugurating a new era in the history of this important business. His name cannot be omitted from any complete history of booksellers, and it is none the less deserving of a place in the category of illustrious shoemakers; for Lackington commenced life as a shoemaker, and for some time after he had entered on bookselling speculations continued to work at the humble trade to which he had served an apprenticeship.

      When Lackington was about forty-five years of age, and had made a considerable fortune in the bookselling trade, he wrote and published a singular book, in which he narrated the principal events in his life, under the form of “Letters to a Friend.” This book bears the title “Memoirs and Confessions,” and is certainly one of the most remarkable autobiographies ever presented to the world. What portion of its contents may be referred to by the term “memoirs” as distinguished from “confessions” it is impossible to say, but certain it is that there are many things in the book which its author would have done well to blot as soon as they were written, and of which he was no doubt heartily sorry and ashamed in after-life. Among the worst of these were his strictures and reflections on the Wesleyan Methodists, to whom he had belonged in early life, and from whom he had received no small benefit, temporal as well as spiritual. When the second edition of his memoirs came to be printed in 1803, his character had undergone a happy change. He then saw things in a different light, and made full and complete acknowledgment of the faults which marked the first edition; expressed in very decided albeit very conventional terms his faith in Christian truth, and his debt of obligation to the religious people whom he had so sadly maligned. But words were not enough to satisfy his ardent, thorough-going nature. His benefactions to the Wesleyan Society were very considerable, and he seemed toward the close of his life to have found great satisfaction in making the best use of the ample means at his disposal. With all his faults he was an estimable man, honest, truthful, and generous. He was never ashamed of his lowly birth and humble apprenticeship, nor turned his back on his poor relations, but ever sought them out and helped them when he had the power to do so. His success in business was owing to his shrewd common-sense, his rare insight into character, his good judgment as to the public taste and requirements, his capital method of assorting and classifying his stock and strict keeping of accounts, his courageous yet prudent purchases, and his strict adherence to a few sound maxims of economy and thrift. None but a man of original and uncommon powers of mind could have launched out on new speculations and adventures as Lackington did with the same uniform and certain success, and none but a man of good sense and lofty feeling would have been proof against the ill effects which so often attend on success. There is a touch of vanity in his memoirs, it is true, but it is not the vanity of a man who is vain and does not know it; he is quite conscious of his egotism, and indulges in it with thorough good-humor as a hearty joke. He was rather fond of display, kept a town-house and a country-house when he could afford it, and set up a “chariot,” as the phrase went in those days, and liveried servants. Yet it was not many men in his position who would have taken for a motto to be painted on