ABSTRACT
William Tinsley was more of a romantic character, comparing himself with Dick Whittington when describing his walk from Hertfordshire over Highgate Hill: ‘Whittington’s experience on the old northern height was much more pleasant and encouraging than mine. It is possible that William had begun to think of a future for himself as a bookseller, or even as a publisher of books, during the childhood years that came after his time at school and involved those long tedious days in the fields. His own memoirs imply that the decision to leave family and home, and to make his way to London, was by no means fraught with anguish or soul-searching. In 1849, not long before the time of Tinsley’s meeting with Mulready, it happened that Henry Vizetelly, the engraver, also to be a publisher some decades later in the same street as the Tinsley brothers, visited the Mulready home to discuss some engravings to be made from Mulready’s drawings.
