Note 649 — Chapter XVI · JOSEPH JACKSON, 1763.

Mr. Halhed thus refers to this circumstance in the introduction to his Bengal Grammar (see post): “That the Bengal letter is very difficult to be imitated in steel will readily be allowed by every person who shall examine the intricacies of the strokes, the unequal length and size of the characters, and the variety of their positions and combinations. It was no easy task to procure a writer accurate enough to prepare an alphabet of a similar and proportionate body throughout, with that symmetrical exactness which is necessary to the regularity and neatness of a fount. Mr. Bolts (who is supposed to be well versed in this language) attempted to fabricate a set of types for it with the assistance of the ablest artists in London. But, as he has egregiously failed in executing even the easiest part, or primary alphabet, of which he has published a specimen, there is no reason to suppose that his project when completed would have advanced beyond the usual state of imperfection to which new inventions are constantly exposed.”