They secured perfect inking and register; and the
sheets were printed off more neatly, regularly, and
expeditiously; and larger sheets could be printed on both sides,
than by any other method. In 1823, accordingly, Mr. Clowes
erected his first steam presses, and he soon found abundance of
work for them. But to produce steam requires boilers and
engines, the working of which occasions smoke and noise. Now, as
the printing-office, with its steam presses, was situated in
Northumberland Court, close to the palace of the Duke of
Northumberland, at Charing Cross, Mr. Clowes was required to
abate the nuisance, and to stop the noise and dirt occasioned by
the use of his engines. This he failed to do, and the Duke
commenced an action against him.
The case was tried in June, 1824, in the Court of Common Pleas.
It was ludicrous to hear the extravagant terms in which the
counsel for the plaintiff and his witnesses described the
nuisance--the noise made by the engine in the underground cellar,
some times like thunder, at other times like a thrashing-machine,
and then again like the rumbling of carts and waggons. The
printer had retained the Attorney-general, Mr. Copley, afterwards
Lord Lyndhurst, who conducted his case with surpassing ability.
The cross-examination of a foreign artist, employed by the Duke
to repaint some portraits of the Cornaro family by Titian, is
said to have been one of the finest things on record.
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