Publishers is one of the oldest book businesses in England.
He was the original publisher of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and specialised in scholarly editions of classic authors, both of ancient and English literatures. He invented the use of cloth bindings, and used fine printing for commercial, not private press, books. Among his most important editions were Blake, Malthus, Boswell, Johnson, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Isaac Walton. He was also an antiquarian bookseller. In 1981 the firm was purchased by William Rees-Mogg, who took it back into scholarly publishing.