[ Stephen Austin, Hertford printer, proprietor of the Hertfordshire Mercury. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Alexander Ramsay, offering to help promote 'The Scientific Roll', although Hertford is 'not a Literary or Scientific locality!'

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. The letter begins: 'It would afford me very great pleasure to help you in the matter of "The Scientific Roll" This is not a Literary or Scientific locality! and we have given up our Booksellers' Shop'. If Ramsay will send 'a copy of the numbers printed', he will 'give a notice in the "Hertfordshire Mercury" and perhaps that will make it known and induce people to take it.' The Austin family continued to run the Hertfordshire Mercury until the 1980s. Their printing firm, founded at the beginning of the nineteenth century, still operates, with a royal warrant.