Note 571 — Chapter XIII · JOHN BASKERVILLE, 1752.
Reading edition
The apparatus was first offered, it is said, to the French Ambassador in London for £8,000. Subsequently Baskerville wrote, on Sept. 7, 1767: “Suppose we reduce the price to £6,000. . . . Let the reason of my parting with it be the death of my son and intended successor, and having acquired a moderate fortune, I wish to consult my ease in the afternoon of life.”