Currently showing at Penrith Museum until the end
of January 2004 is an exhibition reminding us of the days when the
cost of reading matter meant that poorer folk relied on broadsides
or chapbooks for information or entertainment. These were a single
sheet, or one or two folded sheets cut into pages, most often
illustrated with woodcuts and were among the stock of small but
useful articles sold by itinerant pedlars or 'chapmen'. They might
be bought for a penny and were the means of keeping up to date on
the latest executions, songs or scandals in high places. They also
remind us that while many could not write, a large number could
read.
The chapbook was a means of transmitting popular
culture, folklore and superstitions and the Penrith Museum
'Chapbooks: Popular Literature in Print' exhibition reflects a wide
range of items falling into these categories.
Penrith was a notable centre of chapbook
production in Cumbria with printers Anthony Soulby and Ann Bell
producing many examples. A substantial number were also printed in
Whitehaven. A number of chapbooks in the display were also printed
in the the North East and Scotland. We find woodcuts of the
celebrated Northumberland artist and engraver Thomas Bewick used in
some. On display are some engraved blocks belonging to the Museum
produced by one of his apprentices and (from 1804 1813) assistants,
Isaac Nicholson (1789-1848) of Melmerby.
The commentary is by bibliographer and rare
book-dealer Barry McKay of Appleby-in-Westmorland who along with
the Jackson Library, Carlisle and the St. Brides Library in London
has lent specimens of these once common, but now quite rare
products of the printer's press.
