High Street.] MESSRS. W. & R. CHAMBERS. 225
fortyyfve years ago. This little work came out in
the Augustan days of Edinburgh, when Jeffrey and
Scott, Wilson and the Ettrick Shepherd, Dugald
Stewart and Alison, were daily giving the producpublic
victory, and in a few days the sale in Scotland
alone was 50,000 copies, while No. 3 rose to
80,ooo in the Esglish market. Robert threw himself
heart and soul into the successful periodical ;
tions of their minds
to the public, and
while yet Archibald
Constable acted as
the unquestioned
emperor of the publishing
world.?
In 1826 Robert
published his ? Popular
Rhymes of
Scotland,? and the
? Picture of Scotland,?
and shortly
afterwards five
volumes of Scottish
history, for Consiable?s
Miscellany.
The brothers were
now making
money, and in tolerably
prosperous
c i r cu m s t a n c es,
though they lost
much of their hardwon
savings by assisting
their father
in a piece of unsuccessful
litigation.
About that time
William produced
the ?Book of Scotland,?
a work describing
the institutions
of the country,
for which he
got A30, while
Robert got 6100
for preparing a
?Gazetteer of Scotland
;? and in I 83 2
William projected
the great work
ADVOCATES? CLOSE.
which made the firm prosperous and famous wherever
the English language is spoken-- Chambers?s Edinburgh
journal, the vanguard of all that is wholesome,
sensible, and unsectarian in cheap literature, as it ap
peared six weeks before the famous Penny Magazin~
The first weekly number appeared on the 4th
February, 1832. Robert thought the speculation a
hazardous one, but William?s courage achieved a
29
and speaking of
partnership with
him, his brother
writes : ?? Such was
the degree of mutual
confidence between
us that not
for the space of
twenty-one years
was it thought expedient
to execute
any deed of agreement.?
While constantly
contributing
to the Journal,
Robert, in 1835,
completed his ?Biographical
Dictionary
of Eminent
Scotsmen,? in foul
volumes.
The brothers
issued, in the preceding
year, their
?? Information for
the People,? and
after this venture
came a series of
about a hundred
school books-the
? Chambers?s Edu,
cational Course,?
still so familiar to
many middle-class
school-boys. While
collecting information
upon the subject
of public education,
William got
together materials in
1839 for his ?Tour
in Holland and the
Rhine Countries i
and about this time, twenty volumes of a series
entitled ? Chambers?s Miscellany ? were issued by
the firm, which had an enormous circulation j but
the great and crowning enterprise of Messrs.
W. and R Chambers was unquestionably their
?? Encyclopzedia, or Dictionary of Uni;ersal Information
for the People,? a work begun in 1859 and
completed in 1868-a work unrivalled by any in
