Letter from Blair Hughes-Stanton, Stratford St. Mary, to Thomas Balston, 1949 July 22 : autograph manuscript signed.

Discussing his time at the Gregynog Press, explaining that he declined to be in charge of the "typographical side" of the operations, as he had little experience and was chiefly interested in illustrating books, and that he had therefore suggested they hire (William) McCance as Controller or printer, along with Agnes Miller Parker and Gertrude Hermes as retained engravers, although he was given the Controller's salary "and McCance the lower salary"; explaining that both he and McCance attended a course in printing, and that "the arrangement seemed alright except I am afraid McCance was not the energetic partner I hap hoped for and in the end I designed all the books I illustrated and supervised the machinery" and adding "As McCance was in name Controller his name appears in the Colophon ... as Printed by W. McC. but in fact they wre not", and stating that the presses Aesop's fables and book of poems by Vansittart were the only volumes printed by McCance, and pointing out that he failed to complete "Gertrude Hermes Selbourne"; asking him to regard the contents of his letter as confidential, remarking that "McCance has no stamina or energy in spite of a good mind he is incapable of producing anything or very little", acknowledging that Aesops fables "was a very good book", but that Parker did all the wood engravings and McCance was only responsible for "about 10 initial letters"; concluding that if he had allowed himself "to sit back and wait until my books had been planned and set I feel it unlikely that I should have got past producing Comus and Four Poems."