Charles Marsh (d. 1782)

MARSH, CHARLES (1744–1756). He should certainly not be omitted from this list. Record of this bookseller is found in Timperley and contemporary advertisements. One of these, in the Public Advertiser, 2 Feb., 1756, announces the appearance of "The Winter's Tale, a play altered from Shakespeare by C. Marsh." The advertisement includes a verse by the author commencing

Think'st thou, the Swan of Avon spreads her wings,
Her brooding wings, for thee alone to plume
And nestle there, O Garrick? ...

Timperley records another facetious poem by this bookseller entitled 'The Library, An Epistle from a Bookseller to a Gentleman, his customer, desiring him to discharge his bill ' (1766), which concludes

The sum of all then is, I beg,
And you shall have both hat and leg,
Your Worship would discharge your bill
That I my contract may fulfil.

These effusions emanated from Charles Marsh's shop at Cicero's Head in Round Court in the Strand. He removed from there to Charing Cross, not far from the corner of Northumberland House, "turning down to Westminster." The earliest imprint I have found of his in Round Court is 1744, and the latest one, at the same address, is 1756. Timperley says that Samuel Leacroft, bookseller at Charing Cross, "succeeded to the shop and business of that singular genius Charles Marsh." One of Marsh's apprentices was Thomas Evans another bookseller who was known for his sense of humour. (See 'D. N. B.').

—Ambrose Heal, 14 November 1931