Issued biennially by William Cox, Proprietor and Compiler, and printed by Alfred J. Dyer, printer Hampshire Independent Office, this work includes essential information about local businesses, churches, residents, nobility, gentry and more. Advertisements were a particular selling point, a full-page insert costing 30s. each. Compared to the 4s. subscriber's price, one hopes the Directory provided a good return on investment.
The binder of the 1878 Southampton Directory was George Cawte, practical bookbinder and machine paper ruler, of the firm H.G Cawte and Sons. His original business premises were the central block of Tudor House, 9 St. Michael's Square. When the building was slated for restoration, he moved to 5 West Street in 1883, a building that miraculously survived the Blitz. In 1912, his one-time apprentice, Henry Daubney Cox, bought the business which continued to flourish on the back of strong and steady business from the city, library, and ocean liners.
There is a larger instalment of fiction, and a bright, quaint essay on Schools of Mind and Manners which is well worth reading. Mine is Thine is ex- tremely interesting this month. The description of the Highland ball is simply delightful, and the ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 05 January 1878; 7.
a well executed lithograph of Moriss' Shepherd of Jerusalem. The smaller publications of the Religious Tract Society are of the usual high order of merit. Good Words commences a fresh volume with promise of even more than usual excellence ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 12 January 1878; 7.
Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart., writes a letter to the Mayor requesting that he, on behalf of the town, accept a copy of Narrative of a Forty Days' Sojourn in the Holy Land, to be placed in the Southampton Public Library, and be accessible to all. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 19 January 1878; 3.
In 1859, Henry Gilbert founded the longstanding bookselling firm H.M. Gilbert & Sons. By 1878, his son. bibliophile and antiquarian Henry March Gilbert, operated out of 26 1/2 Above Bar Street. He frequently advertises both new and secondhand books, noting 'best advantage' for selling and 'greatly reduced prices' for purchasing. April saw the publication of his catalogue of old books, comprising a large number of works in most, if not all, departments of literature. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 06 April 1878; 5,6.
The most serious crime which has occupied the attention of the court was committed by a man ignorant of reading and writing, but such ignorance, it is well known, does not absolve an offender from the penal consequences of his acts ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 26 January 1878; 6.
A gentleman residing at Shirley Warren, giving his experience of the recent earthquake writes :—*' l was quietly seated in my easy chair on Monday, reading a newspaper. There was not the least wind, and a dead silence prevailed. The rain had just ceased, when I was suddenly startled ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 02 February 1878; 6.
An evening of songs and recitations at Holy Trinity Parish's "Penny Readings" included Mr. Dawson reading 'with much force' Thomas Ingoldesby's comedic poem, Misadventures at Margate. 'which caused great amusement.' The moral of the story is versified thus: Remember, then, that when a boy I've heard my Grandma tell, 'Be warn'd in time by others' harm, and you shall do full well!' Don't link yourself with vulgar folks, who've got no fixed abode, Tell lies, use naughty words, and say they 'wish they may be blow'd!' Don't take too much of double X!-- and don't at night go out To fetch your beer yourself, but make the pot-boy bring your stout! And when you go to Margate next, just stop, and ring the bell, Give my respects to Mrs. Jones, and say I'm pretty well! Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 02 March 1878; 5,6.
Southampton is cited in the Directors' Report from this newly burgeoning social enterprise. The coffee tavern, cocoa house and coffee palace provided a much-needed and positive antidote to the proliferation of ale houses, gin palaces, and taverns. As E.H Hall remarks, "Hot coffee, strong tea, rich cocoa, a warm room, today's papers, a hearty welcome, in conjunction with the concomitant blessings of friendship, sobriety, and happiness, have an irresistible charm, even for the most abandoned" (18).
Amongst this week's magazine recommendations, we have an amusing account of female head gear in the Leisure Hour. Sunday at Home affords pleasant and thoughtful reading for the Sabbath. The illustrations in this, as in all the Religious Tract Society's publications, are uniformly good. The Day of Rest fully maintains its claim to popularity. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 16 March 1878; 7.
"On this Wednesday evening a meeting was held at the Dolphin Hotel to discuss the advisability of establishing an Amateur Dramatic Club for the town of Southampton." Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 23 March 1878; 5-6.
The Southampton Mechanics’ Institute was opened in 1830 in Hanover Buildings and was renamed the Polytechnic Institution in 1842. It housed a small library, a museum and a reading room stocked with newspapers and magazines. It also offered weekly lectures and various educational classes. On this evening, Mr. F. H. Holmes gave a series of readings, from English and American authors. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 30 March 1878; 5,6.
Today's Goodreads are: Obelisks and Our Needle, and a well-written memoir of Geo. Cruikshank, accompanied by a portrait, also afford profitable reading. The Sunday at Home has an illuminated text for a frontispiece, and it is further embellished with beautiful specimens. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 13 April 1878; 7.
Charles Henry Roud is one half of the local firm of Foster & Roud, 1 Albion Place, printers of Foster & Roud's Southampton Directory in the 1880s. On this day, he verifies a prisoner's handwriting at the Southampton Borough Quarter Sessions.
Offering his readers a steady diet of sensational pap, London-based publisher Samuel Tinsley didn't convince this Southampton reviewer: "This story only makes us wonder why it was ever written, and what class of persons, above an average school girl fresh from the nursery, can possibly be interested in reading it. Why the heroine is called Regent Rosalind is a puzzle...the goody goody element is strong, the grammar decidedly weak. Its chief merit is that it is in one volume" Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 20 April 1878; 7.
62 Marland Place was the office of bookseller and stationer C. Domoney. It was also the depot for the many publications that rolled out of the Society's London-based printing works. At a meeting of the Southampton School Board, the Society, led by the indefatigible Rosa Bullar, offered to double the number of Bibles and Testaments used for school prizes. Hampshire Advertiser, Wednesday 29 May 1878; 2.
On this day, R.S. Pearce, Town Clerk, releases the 1878 electoral roll, printed by Henry Warren, Machine Printers, 20 Above Bar. Most Southampton book trade personnel are landowners, hence entitled to vote: a measure of the trade's prosperity.
Canon Albert Basil Wilberforce, grandson of the famous abolitionist, sermonises on the evils of the demon drink and the benefits of teetotalism. His St. Mary's Church of England Temperance Society issues the now infamous 'Drink Map', freely distributed to disembarking sailors. They regard it as a vade mecum to the many public houses and beer dens in the town. Few ventured into the teetotal gray zone clearly marked on the map.
Elections are money-spinners for printers. From reprinting election speeches to providing bills, tickets and other ephemera, they form the core of jobbing printing, the bread and butter of the trade. It doesn't mean, however, that their candidates always win.
Two tales, For Percival and Within the Precincts, make satisfactory progress. The former is one of the best we have read in any magazine for some time past, being full of refined and delicate sketches of character, and by no means deficient in ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 14 September 1878; 7.
The 64th anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the 54th anniversary of the Southampton Auxiliary of the Ladies Bible Society, was held in the Victoria Rooms, Southampton ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 26 October 1878; 2.
"At the Southampton Police Court before Mr. J. H. Cooksey (chairman) and a full bench of magistrates, William West, alias Samuel Burgess, was brought up, on remand, ... Hampshire Advertiser, Wednesday 20 November 1878; 2.
Charles Dickens is on the early evening entertainment menu for this working-man's club, founded in 18xx and patronised by successful businessman and department store owner, Edwin Jones. Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 30 November 1878; 5,6.
Earlier in the year, keen not to be seen in competition with the Southampton Polytechnic Institution, members of the Society agreed to publish and distribute a list of the papers that had been read since the formation of the society. At this meeting held in the council-chamber of the Hartley Institution, Richard Westlake, one of the Society's Vice-Presidents and member of a prominent Southampton Quaker family, read a paper entitled "A few thoughts ..." Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 23 November 1878; 5-6 and Saturday 05 January 1878; 4.
Gutch and Cox of 150 High Street successfully tender for 10,000 pass books. Like many of their colleagues, Thomas and Charles survive the ups and downs of the book trade by diversifying. In the 1878 South Directory, they are variously described as Printers, Booksellers, Stationers, Engravers, Die-sinkers, Machine paper rulers, Fancy Repositories, Engravers and Copper Plate Printers, and Circulating Library Keepers.
Temperance Mission Week was brought to a close Saturday evening with a popular entertainment in the Victoria Rooms under the presidency of Mr. W.C. Westlake with recitations by Mr. Broadbere. Southampton Observer, 7 December 1878; 4.
Southampton Drink Map: This map reminds us when we first looked at it of the ‘Wreck Chart’ issued by the National Life-boat Society. And certainly they have a great deal in common – the one shows where ships have perished – or at least sustained disaster, and if each red spot on the Drink Map could tell its tale, is there ONE that would not have its own cruel story of human shipwreck to relate? The map deserves careful consideration. All too thick as the dots, crosses, and triangles appear, which indicate the different establishments where drink is sold, yet the compilers have erred on the side of omission. We do not pretend to be well up in the locality of our breweries, but we notice that three of the largest do not appear on the map. Its compiler, therefore, cannot be accused of exaggeration, and of course, there may be other omissions. Yet we reckon 14 stars, dots, and triangles within a stone’s throw of the Bargate! Southampton Observer, 7 December 1878; 3.
Edward Brown, a lad, was charged with stealing a book, valued at 2s6d, the property of Mr. H.M. Gilbert, bookseller, Above Bar, but as the book had been returned by the boy’s mother, Mr. Gilbert did not wish to press the charge, and the case was adjourned for a month to see how the defendant conducted himself during that time. Southampton Observer, 21 December 1878; 3.
Cook, R. Mansfield, Sydney Grundy, W. Davenport Adams, Geo. Grossmith, junr., H. S. Leigh, and other writera afford pleasant reading, which may also be said as regards the Notes on the Drama in London and the provinces. The magazine supplies a want in periodical ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 16 November 1878; 7.
You can better awaken an intelligent interest by a well-selected course of reading alone in school, without requiring the child to reproduce and disgorge what he reads on a future day. The teacher can thus traverse much more ground with his scholars ... Hampshire Advertiser, Saturday 28 December 1878; 6.
Charlotte Rayner is widow of Charles Woodhouse Rayner and stalwart member of a local printing, bookselling and newspaper dynasty. From 1871-1879, she is sole 'proprietress' of the conservative newspaper Southampton Observer, at 21 Bridge Street. Nearing the end of her life, she hands the reins over to her foreman, George Buxey.
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