CHAPTER VII.

LIFE OF THOMAS GUY THE BOOKSELLER.

Life of Thomas Guy, an Illustration of Parsimony without Avarice -His Speculations and Schemes-His Economy and his Liberality-Anecdote of Guy and Hopkins the Miser-Matrimonial Engagements-Mutability of Love-Death of Guy-His Munificence-Last Will and Testament-Conclusion, &c.

As an illustration of extreme parsimony without avarice, we present the reader with a brief sketch of the life and eccentric habits of Thomas Guy. This remarkable man, whose charity far exceeded his habits of saving, was the son of a lighterman and coal-merchant in Horsleydown, Southwark.* He was born at the commencement of the civil war of his education and early life but little is known. In 1660 he was bound apprentice to John Clarke, a bookseller, living in the porch of Mercer's Hall, Cheapside. As soon as his term was expired, he commenced trading for himself, with a capital of two hundred pounds; he carried on business in a house situated between Cornhill and Lombard Street, and his trade was principally in English Bibles. At that time Bibles were so badly and so carelessly

* See Highmore's Pietas Londinensis, 8vo. Lond. 1810, for some account of this singular character.

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THOMAS GUY, THE BOOKSELLER,

printed in England, that almost every page was disfigured by some typographical error. This induced Guy to enter into a speculation to print them in Holland, and to import them into England, by which scheme a more accurate edition could be sold at a price considerably under that of the London Bibles. The University of Oxford, having by charter certain privileges in the printing of Bibles, interfered and prevented our enterprising bibliopole from carrying out his design. He then, however, contracted with the University for the privilege of printing them; and for many years he was enabled to amass considerable sums of money by carrying on an extensive trade in Bibles. This laid the foundation for his vast fortune; for being a bachelor, and naturally of a very frugal and saving disposition, his profits were allowed to accumulate. He was most penurious in his domestic arrangements, and the complete suit of his every day apparel would scarcely have fetched eighteen-pence from the most enterprising Israelite. He usually dined upon his shop counter with an old newspaper or dirty proof-sheet for a table cloth. His meals were always of the most frugal nature, and he seldom indulged in luxuries. His savings as a bookseller he speedily augmented by purchasing seamen's tickets, during the continental wars in Queen Anne's time, and by large but cautious speculations in South Sea Stock.

AN INSTANCE OF PARSIMONY WITHOUT AVARICE. 103

Most of our readers are probably familiar with the history of that celebrated "bubble," and are aware how pernicious were its effects at the time upon the operations of legitimate commerce: the pursuit of trade was abandoned-property was sacrificed at a ruinous loss, and visions of a golden future fevered the imaginations of the most unpretending capitalists. Stock rose enormously; and every man who possessed a portion regarded it as the germ of future affluence. By and bye the bubble burst, and thousands were ruined in the terrible crisis. Gay the poet held some of the stock, which the advice of his more cautious friends could not induce him to part with; he deemed it worth twenty thousand pounds, every penny of which was lost. Some few, more careful than the rest, enriched themselves by selling out when the delusion was in its zenith. Thomas Guy was among this number. In the year 1720 he possessed stock to the amount of forty-five thousand five hundred pounds. His suspicions were excited as to its stability as an investment; and when it rose to about three hundred pounds he began to sell out, and continued doing so until it arose to six hundred, when he disposed of the whole of his remaining property in the stock at that rate. It ultimately, however, reached the almost fabulous price of one thousand and fifty pounds per cent! From beginning to end Thomas Guy is said to have made nearly five hundred thousand

THE UNIVERSITY OF MIONICSA IRAMBIRD

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AN ANECDOTE OF GUY,

pounds by the great South Sea bubble! During all this prosperity Guy observed the most rigid parsimony; but he never allowed his love of saving to render him forgetful of his duties as a Christian. Long before this vast acquisition of wealth he paid for the building of three wards on the north side of the outer court of Saint Thomas's Hospital, and for many years he annually gave one hundred pounds towards the funds of that institution. It is somewhat singular to find such munificence in a person of such penurious habits; and the life of Thomas Guy is a striking proof of the wide distinction we ought to draw between parsimony and avarice: the one is not essentially a selfish or sordid propensity, and its observance may sometimes have for its motive a noble ulterior object in view; whilst avarice is a passion purely selfish, and can never sympathize with such virtues as charity or benevolence. Not that we should deem it necessary to carry the principle of saving to the extent which the following anecdote of Guy displays. It is said that one evening he was sitting in his little back parlour meditating over a handful of half lighted embers, confined within the narrow precincts of a brick stove; a farthing candle was on the table at his side, but it was not lit, and the fire afforded no light to dissipate the gloom; he sat there all alone planning some new speculation; congratulating himself on saving a pennyworth of fuel, or else perchance thinking how

AND VULTURE HOPKINS.

105

"He

else he could bestow some thousand guineas in charity : his thoughts, whether on subjects small or great, were interrupted by the announcement of a visitor; he was a shabby, meagre, miserable looking old man; but compliments were exchanged, and the guest was invited to take a seat; Guy immediately lighted his farthing candle, and desired to know the object of the gentleman's call the visitor was no other than the celebrated Hopkins, who on account of his avarice and rapacity had obtained the name of Vulture Hopkins. lived," says Pope, "worthless, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no person living, but left it so as not to be inherited till after the second generation." His counsel represented to him how many years it must be before this could take effect, and that his money would only lie at interest all that time. He expressed great joy thereat, and said they would then be as long in spending as he had been in getting it. But the Chancery afterwards set aside the will, and gave it to the heir at law. The reader will probably remember the lines in Pope's Moral Essays

"When Hopkins dies a thousand lights attend,

The wretch that living saved a candle's end."

"I have been told," said Hopkins, as he entered the presence of Thomas Guy, "that you are better versed in the prudent and necessary art of saving, than any