Excerpt from Some Account of the Parish of Saint Clement Danes (Westminster) Past and Present, Vol. 2

The pleasure of a stroll through the great highway of English life, from Cornhill to Charing Cross, from the centre of English commerce to the centre of English rule, would be greatly increased if it were the fashion for men to be labeled. On any fine day, Sundays excepted, between noon and six o'clock, no one can walk through Cheapside, St. Paul's Churchyard, Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, and the Strand, without passing many notable persons. A duke, an earl, a famous inventor, a poet, a mighty monarch of commerce, a popular novelist, a millionaire liquidator of insolvent estates, a Member of Parliament whose great speech last night was the topic of the morning's talk, an eminent judge in lay attire, a hero of the battle field in civilian dress. The stroller unawares passes many such men of mark. Also he would pass men who are doing good work in this working world, pioneers of progress, men who do much without making themselves notorious, - the non-commissioned officers in the army of civilisation, who bravely and joyously bear the heavy brunt of the battle, and whose names are not recorded in the gazette of con temporary fame. Such a man was John Diprose. As a compiler and publisher of books for the million, his name was familiar; but those who knew him personally, his family and a legion of friends, justly regarded him as a notable man of the age, - one who seemed specially gifted and destined for the labours of the times in which he lived. Those who loved him, or rather those who love him, for death does not sever the bonds of affection, are desirous that there should be some record of the man and his work. I am not in the least afraid that this brief Memoir will fail to satisfy his relations and intimate friends, for their vivid and affectionate remembrances would fill up the poorest outline, and make it a complete and lifelike picture. But a Memoir of John Diprose.

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