Vol 2, pages 1-100 - My Primitive Methodist Ancestors

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH.
VOL. II. BOOK II. CONTINUED.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BEMEESLEY BOOK-ROOM, 1821-43.
fXPERIENCE, temperament and policy all combined to make Hugh Bourne
publisher and pressman. His character had been shaped and a new
direction given to his life by the printed word. Though naturally taciturn
and, like Moses, "not eloquent
. . . but slow of speech and of a slow
tongue," he was communicative through another medium than that of speech. All
along he obeyed a pretty steady impulse to express himself in manuscript and type
to externalise his own convictions and his impressions of the facts before him, as his
life-long journalising, and his innumerable memoranda respecting past and current
events clearly show. In all this he was the direct opposite of William Clowes, who
was averse from the use of the pen. For him the inside of a printing-office had few
attractions, yet, like Aaron, he was naturally eloquent, and could "speak well."
Moreover, as a practical man, Hugh Bourne knew what power there was in the press
as an instrument of propagandism ; and, as one of the founders and directors of a new
denomination, he may have had the ambition to copy, in his own modest way, the
example of John "Wesley whom he so much admired who was one of the most
voluminous authors and extensive publishers of his own, or indeed of any, time. So
Hugh Bourne's publications ranged from a somewhat bulky Ecclesiastical History to
a four-page collection of " Family Receipts," which tells how to relieve a cow choked
with a turnip, and how to provide a cheap and wholesome travelling dinner for fourpence.
Whence, it will be seen, that the doings of Popes and Councils as well as the small
details of domestic and personal economy, alike came within the purview of his printed
observations.
These characteristics and habits may be seen at work in Hugh Bourne even before
1811. In proof of this, note the printed account of the first
camp meeting, hot from
the press, that was scattered by thousands ;
the " Rules for Holy Living " distributed
on camp-grounds, and even slipped through the broken panes of Church windows ;
his
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