the same form as at the present time. For a long period the printers were their own typefounders; but as the art spread the casting of letters became a separate business. The earliest record of this change is found in a decree of the Star Chamber, dated the 11th of July, 1637, issued for the suppression of publications of the Puritans, and those who joined them in opposition to the Government, and who, it was believed, had established secret printing-offices for that purpose. By the above decree it was ordained that there should be only four letter-founders throughout the kingdom; and that when any vacancy occurred in that number, it should only be filled up under the orders and with the sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury-the primacy at that time being held by Laudand six Commissioners. The decree also regulated the taking of apprentices, and the employment of journeymen. The Star Chamber regulations remained in force, although the Court had been abolished; and the type-founder was still under restraint.

For the introduction of Printing into England we are indebted to William Caxton, and his successor, Wynkin de Worde, who established for themselves a high reputation both as printers and letter-founders. Caxton was born in the Weald of Kent, most probably in the year 1422-23. He was apprenticed to Robert Large, the mercer, in the Old Jewry. His master was Lord Mayor in 1439-40, and died in the following year. To Bruges, then a centre of commerce, Caxton was sent about 1441, and here he lived for about thirty-five years; first, we may suppose, as a clerk, then as a trader on his own account, and last, as head or governor of the English merchants settled in Bruges. In this capacity he was brought into close connexion with many English noblemen who resorted to Bruges on diplomatic or other errands, and also with the Court of Burgundy. With the Duchess Margaret, wife of Duke Charles, and sister of our Edward IV., he became a great favourite. In 1470, he held some office in her household; and it was "the dreadful command" of this "redoubted lady," as he expresses it, which led him subsequently to devote himself to literature and printing. In 1469, he translated from French into English the Romance of Troy, the demand for copies of which was so great that it was impossible to transcribe them sufficiently fast. This seems to have led Caxton to turn his attention to the new invention of printing as a means of multi

plying his copies. Availing himself of the capture of Mentz, he secured one of the fugitive workmen of Fust and Schoeffer, and established a printing-office at Cologne, where he printed the French original and his own translation of the Siege of Troy. Whilst at Cologne he became acquainted with Wynkyn de Worde and Theodorick Rood, both foreigners, and Thomas Hunte, his countryman, who all subsequently became printers in England.

Such is the general version of Caxton's career; but Mr. Blades has proved that Caxton derived from Colard Mansion, the first printer at Bruges, his types and his method of working. He shows that Caxton's first book was printed in 1472; was printed by Mansion himself, at Bruges, and not at Cologne, as hitherto believed; and that Caxton employed Mansion to cut and cast him a new fount of type, with the intention of practising the art in England.

Early in 1476 (not, as is generally said, in 1474), Caxton left Bruges, came over to England, and settled in Westminster (according to his own placard, preserved in Brasenose College, Oxford), in the Almonry, at "the Reed Pale," the name by which was known a house on the south side of Tothill-street; this house fell down in November, 1845, when wooden types are said to have been found here: its precise site is now ⚫ In his masterly Life of Caxton, vol. i. 1861.

occupied by the principal entrance to the Westminster Palace Hotel. We have engraved this house. Its identity, however, has been questioned. It has been suggested that Caxton first set up his printing-press in the triforium of Westminster Abbey, near one of the little chapels, or in the ancient Scriptorium. (See Curiosities of London, p. 6.) Stow describes the press as in an old chapel, near the entrance to the Abbey. Caxton had subsequently an office in King-street, Westminster.

Caxton certainly practised his art under the protection of the Abbot of Westminster; and there produced the first book printed in England, the Game of Chess, which was completed on the last day of March, 1476. For fifteen years he continued, with astonishing industry, translating and printing; and he died, according to an entry in the registry of St. Margaret's, Westminster, towards the end of 1491, being about four score years of age. His epitaph has been thus written by some friend unknown: "Of your charitie pray for the soul of Maister

William Caxton, that in hys tyme was a man of moche ormate and moche renouned wysdom and connynge, and decesed fullcrystenly the year of our Lord MCCCCLXXXXI.

Moder of Merci shyld him frem thorribul fynd,

And bryng hym to lyfe eternal that never hath ynd."

"Caxton," says Hansard, "must have been a man of wonderful perseverance and erudition, cultivated and enlarged by an extensive knowledge of books and the world. Of his industry and devotedness some idea may be formed, when Wynkyn de Worde, his successor, states, in his colophon to the Vita Patrium, that Caxton finished his translation of that work from French into English on the last day of his life.

Wynkyn de Worde came, as we have already seen, with Caxton to England, and remained with him in the superintendence of his office until the day of his death, when he succeeded to the business: he carried it on in the same premises for about six years, when he removed to the "Sygn of the Sonne, in Flete-strete, against the condyth." He subsequently removed to the Swan, and the Falcon, the latter on the site of Falcon-court. De Worde cut new and improved founts, and provided his contemporaries with type; "and it is even said that some of the latter used by English printers less than a century ago, are from his matrices, nay, that his punches are still in existence." (Hansard, Encyclop. Brit., 8th edit). His works amount to the extraordinary number of four hundred and eight he made the first use in England of Greek, in moveable type; and of Arabic and Hebrew, cut in wood: he printed the first book on paper made in England. Richard Pynson, a Norman by birth, studied the art of printing under Caxton. Pynson was an earlier printer than De Worde, having established an office before the death of Caxton: his first work, date 1493, was printed at "the Temple Bar of London."

De Worde died about the year 1534. In his Will, still in the Prerogative Office, Doctors' Commons, dated 5th June, 1534, he bequeaths many legacies of books to his friends and servants, with minute directions for the payment of small creditors, and forgiveness of debtors, betokening a conscientious and kindly disposition. His device is generally that of Caxton, with his own name added to the bottom; but he also used a much more complicated one, consisting of fleur-de-lis, lions passant, port

cullis, hearts, and roses, and other emblazonments of the Plantagenets and the Tudors.

Fleet-street has been the cradle of Printing almost from its first introduction: Wynkyn de Worde (assistant of Caxton), at the Golden Sun, Swan, and Falcon. The imprint to the Demaundes Joyous is as follows :—

There may be added Rastell, "at the signe of the Starre ;" and Richard Tottel, the eminent law printer and publisher, "within Temple bar, at the signe of the Hande and Starre," now the house and property of Messrs. Butterworth, who possess all the original leases of the same, including Tottel's, in the reign of Henry VIII., to the present time.

The following were also contemporary printers in Fleet-street, viz. Robert Copland, stationer, printer, bookseller, author, and translator: his sign, in 1515, was the Rose Garland. John Butler lived at the sign of St. John the Evangelist, in 1529. Thomas Bertholit, King's printer, dwelt at the Lucretia Romana: he retired from business about 1541. John Bedel, stationer and printer, lived, in 1531, at the sign of Our Lady of Pity. John Waylond, citizen and stationer, lived at the Blue Garland, 1541. Lawrence Andrew, a native of Calais, was a printer at the Golden Press, by Fleet-bridge. Thomas Godfrey, who will be remembered as the printer of Chaucer's works, lived near the Temple Bar.

Caxton used five distinct founts of type. At this time all books were printed in the old black letter, in imitation of the mode of writing used by the monks. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the style of type now used was introduced by Aldus, and was called, from the place of its origin, Italic. The great plainness of the Roman character, now gradually superseded other kinds of type, except in Germany.

Although the art of Printing was now firmly established in England, the printers were for a long time supplied with type from the Continent, that from the Dutch foundries being only