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xviii PHILIP
As usual, when i try to write down what I recall of those past days,
I find only a few impressions of minor details rather than any clear
memory of the more important facts.
Messrs. Smith & Elder worked hard and converted their editor's
suggestions into facts and realities, with an energy and a liberality
very remarkable. I have a pile of old letters from them about
The Cornhill Magazine, which are an example in themselves—
punctual, orderly, sparing no trouble. There are more than one on
the same day, entering into every detail.
The day when the first number was published—January 1860—
messengers arrived to tell the editor of new thousands being wanted
by the public ; then more messengers came, and we were told how
the printers were kept working till all hours. I have also heard
of the binders fixing on the yellow wrappers all through the night
which preceded the publication. Mr. George Smith told me that
the calculations were all put out by the enormous sale, which reached
to some 120,000.
The price which pays for the paper and printing of 10,000
announcements, ceases to be remunerative when 120,000 notices
are put forth. The proprietors actually lost upon the transaction
after a certain number had been reached. Literary booms and
vast successes were not so common then as now, and this was
supposed to be quite phenomenal. With the exception, perhaps, of
the Dublin Penny Magazine, it seemed to be the impression in
those bygone days that nothing was worth having that did not cost
five shillings or half-a-crown at least. Other publishers must have
found out the value of a shilling just about the time that Messrs.
Smith, Elder & Co. made this discovery. Macmillan is two months
older than the Cornhill, Temple Bar is about a year younger.
The inaugural ode for The Cornhill Magazine was very much
liked and admired. Not very long ago I received from Australia,
among other memoranda, a sketch of Father Prout, the author
of the poem.
The first time I realised the privileges of an editor's daughter
was one winter's evening, when, instead of having to wait a month
for the second number of " Framley Parsonage," my father sent me
upstairs to the study to fetch the proof-sheets which were lying on
his table.