Arthur Guthrie

ARTHUR GUTHRIE, Bookseller, Stationer and Printer ; Proprietor, Publisher, and Printer of “The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald”, “Irvine and Fullarton Times” and “Cumnock News” : “Herald” Office, Ardrossan.

    The comprehensive and ably managed business centred in the Herald Office premises, Ardrossan, may well claim a portion of the space at our disposal in noting the features of the prominent enterprises of this flourishing town. The business has had a prosperous career for nigh forty years under the control of its present owner, Mr. Arthur Guthrie. The premises are finely designed for the accommodation of the different sections of the undertaking, and are fitted up throughout in the best modern style. The spacious shop to the front is handsomely appointed with show cases, etc., for the display and accommodation of the select and varied stock of artistic and fancy articles, bric-a-brac, art works, and fine writing furniture, which forms its special feature ; in addition to which a complete range of office and private stationery is also shelved.

    As evidencing the varied nature of the business done at 54, Princes Street, Mr. Guthrie is sole agent in Ardrossan for several firms, notably W. H. Goss, the well-known maker of fine art porcelain ; Valentine & Sons, Dundee ; G. W. Wilson & Company, Aberdeen ; A. Brown & Co., Lanark, whose photographs of Scottish scenery have a world-wide reputation ; and McCaw, Stevenson, & Orr, manufacturers of the extensively used “Glacier” window decoration. The Oxford University Press have here also their local depot for Bibles and Prayer Books.

    To the rear of this is a comfortable and excellently-lighted reading room, supplied with the principal daily and weekly papers, and monthly and general periodical literature. In connexion is a well-found circulating library. These departments, we need hardly say, enjoy the patronage of a large and representative clientele.

    The Printing and Journalistic Department is situated in Harbour Lane, where is issued The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, which claims to be the oldest penny paper in Scotland. The Herald was preceded for several months by a small 4to. sheet not unlike the small supplements now issued by country printers with their other publications, with this difference — that advertisements were not asked for. Guthrie's Monthly Circular contained a list of new books, brief local articles and paragraphs, and “Gems of Thought”. The Circular was issued gratuitously, and the anxiety of sailors’ wives to obtain copies, saying that it contained more news than they could write in letters to their absent husbands, first suggested its development into a four-page paper. It could only be issued monthly, for it will possibly surprise many readers of newspapers now to know that only thirty-six years ago an unstamped paper could not be published weekly or daily — (the shortest interval was a month for any sheet containing news). Every paper required an impressed stamp, which, however, carried it post free. The stamp was originally 4d., imposed for the purpose of limiting the circulation of newspapers and to prevent the growth of Liberal opinions. In 1833, Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer, then a Radical, supported by Mr. Roebuck, moved the repeal of the Stamp Duty on newspapers, and failed ; but in 1836 the tax was reduced from 4d. to 1d. The first number is dated 1st June, 1853 ; and the law forbidding, as we ha already said, a more frequent issue, it was announced to appear monthly. It was a small foolscap sheet — 15in. X 20in. — was printed on an old Stanhope press, contained eleven advertisements, on each of which a duty of 1s. 6d. was paid to the Crown, and 500 copies were sold — a considerable number for a first issue, considering that the sale was confined to Ardrossan and Saltcoats.

    During the two years the Herald was printed as monthly, it was once increased in size — 20in. x 28m. — for by this time it was called for outside of the parishes of Ardrossan and Stevenston, and had risen from 500 to 400 monthly. In 1855 the Newspaper Stamp was repealed, and the change in the law necessitated a serious consideration of the position. Not withstanding the favour shown it, the Herald could not live as a monthly with penny daily papers starting in the cities and the prospect of a reduction in the price of long-established provincial weeklies. On the one hand there were the responsibilities involved in a more frequent  issue — greater outlay, more hands, and increased personal superintendence, not to speak of the editing without assistance of any kind; but then the times were propitious for a venture of the kind. The political education of the people, in consequence of the Chartist and Anti-Corn Law agitations, had advanced by leaps and bounds ; the adoption of Free Trade principles had increased trade and vastly improved the social conditions of the working classes, besides adding to the wealth the country ; and, not least, the growth of the feeling amongst such men as Kingsley, Maurice, and others, that if such a danger as that of the 10th of April, 1848, was to be avoided, it could only be so by a more general diffusion of sound political knowledge amongst the masses, and what better agent for this purpose than the newspaper press ? The time was, indeed, opportune for establishing a weekly local paper. There were then only three papers in the county — the Advertiser, Observer, and the Kilmarnock Journal, all high-priced — and there were 1,400 readers to begin with. As a weekly paper, therefore, the Herald appeared on July 7th, 1855, size, 21 x 30. The first result was a slight decrease of circulation — it fell from 1,400 to 1,100 ; but gradually recovering, it was again 1,400 ; increased to 1,800 in the great storm which flooded Saltcoats in 1857 ; and a few weeks later to 2,100, in consequence of a boiler explosion in Dairy, which caused a demand for the paper. From this point progress was continuous ; hand labour was dispensed with and steam introduced ; the machinery was improved, and in 1863 the size was changed from four to eight pages. Only once, and for a short time, did the fortunes of the paper look bad. In 1859 the average weekly circulation of the Herald was 5,500 copies, but by the reduction of the Glasgow weeklies from 1 1/2d. to 1d., this number gradually fell to 4,000.  All local papers were affected by this change, for, having no type-setting, or little type-setting, to pay for, larger sheets were given, and it almost looked as if they would swallow up the provincial press ; for, to get into the provinces, even they did not despise the “big gooseberry” paragraph. At 4,000 the Herald reached its lowest point, but, gradually stiffening, by slow degrees 400 additional copies were added. In 1873 the special edition, the Irvine and Fullarton Times, added to this circulation ; and in a still greater degree the Cumnock News, the first number of which was issued in 1880. Now, the circulation is greater than it has ever been, fully averaging 7,500 weekly.

    From the first the Herald has been worked upon the same lines. There is the Literary Paper, the first on Alexander Smith, the poet, in which, for the first time, it is stated that he was born in Kilmarnock. There is the Historical Sketch, beginning with Ardrossan and Saltcoats, and followed by Kilwinning, Dairy, Stewarton, &c. ; there is the feature, the development of which has been the chief aim — the collection of Ayrshire news by means of an ever-increasing staff of correspondents ; and there, too, at a very early date, is the old Ayrshire and Scotch life retold, sometimes humorously and with graphic power, as by Tammas Turnip, Geordie Short, Sandy Sybo, and Bobby Blunt ; sometimes in historic form, as by Bailie Hugh Craig, James Gibson, and a host of others ; sometimes as biographies of departed worth ; but, in whatever form, always maintaining the interest, the freshness, and the original character of the paper. There has been little change — only development.

    No doubt the “penny” must be largely credited with the establishment and the rapid growth of the circulation ; but not altogether. The early popularity of the paper was as much due to the fact that then, as still, there was something to be found in its columns which was seen nowhere else. From the first it was held that an original article, even inferior in thought and expression, was of more interest, and more likely to interest, than a first-class article, if copied from another journal. Carrying out this principle, contributors from all quarters were welcomed, and, thanks to the readers and friends, there never has been a time during all these years there have not been articles ready for insertion if space was available. “I will take the Herald”, said the late Convener of the county, Colonel Hamilton, of Cairnhill, to a Kilmarnock bookseller, when offered it; “you always get something new in it” ;  and this something new, this freshness, lies at the foundation of any success the Herald has achieved. Without attempting to enumerate the many series of original papers which have appeared, it is enough to say that no fewer than eleven volumes have been published, the contents of which first appeared in the columns of the Herald. These are — “Retrospect of an Artist’s Life”, by J. K. Hunter (Tammas Turnip) ; “Life of Alex. Smith”, by the Rev. Mr. Brisbane ; “Life of Rev. Dr. Landsborough”, by his son, the Rev. David Landsborough ; “Tours in Arran”, by Rev. David Landsborough ; “The Eglinton family”, by John Fullerton ; “Inscriptions on Covenanters’ Tombstones”, by James Gibson ; “The Epistles of Noah”, edited by George Umber, A.R.A. ; “Muirkirk and its Neighbourhood”, by Rev. Peter Mearns, Coldstream ; “James Hepburn, Free Church Minister”, by the author of “Angus Graeme” ;  “Historical Notes of Ardrossan and Saltcoats;” and “Robertson of Irvine, Poet-Preacher”, by the Editor.

    Like many country papers which date back to the year 1853, the Herald was printed on a hand-press, which was made to do duty for all classes of printing. Now, within the offices there are five printing machines driven by steam ; two folding machines, one specially adapted for the folding of books, pamphlets, etc. ; two cutting machines ; stitching machine ; printing, lithographic, and binding presses. Besides carrying on an extensive jobbing business, several of the books above named were printed in the office, and published by Mr. Guthrie — the Ardrossan Press having deservedly acquired a reputation for fine printing.

    From the large circulation and the important industrial character of the districts covered — North Ayrshire, the towns on the West Coast, Glasgow, and elsewhere — the Herald is unquestionably an excellent advertising medium, and its columns are fully availed of by the enterprising business world. Mr. Guthrie’s long connection with the Press, and the share he has taken in the political and public life of the district, have made him widely known. For several years he has acted as one of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace.

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