I must protest against the manner in which Arun (Vol. ii., p. 187.) has
proceeded with the discussion of Caxton's printing at Westminster.
Though writing anonymously himself, he has not hesitated to charge me by
name with a desire to impeach the accuracy of Mr. C. Knight's _Life of
Caxton_, of which, and of other works of the same series, he then
volunteers as the champion, as if they, or any one of them, were the
object of a general attack. This is especially unfair, as I made the
slightest possible allusion to Mr. Knight's work, and may confess I have
as yet seen no more of it than the passage quoted by ARUN himself. Any
such admixture of personal imputations is decidedly to be deprecated, as
being likely to militate against the sober investigation of truth which
has hitherto characterised the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES." ARUN also
chooses to say that the only question which is material, is, Who was
Caxton's patron? i.e. who was the Abbot of Westminster at the time,--who
may not, after all, have actively interfered in the matter. This
question remains in some doubt; but it was not the question with which
DR. RIMBAULT commenced the discussion. The object of that gentleman's
inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 99.) was, the particular spot where Caxton's press
was fixed. From a misapprehension of the passage in Stow, a current
opinion has obtained that the first English press was erected within the
abbey-church, and in the chapel of St. Anne; and Dr. Dibdin conjectured
that the chapel of St. Anne stood on the site of Henry VII.'s chapel.
The correction of this vulgar error is, I submit, by no means
immaterial; especially at a time when a great effort is made to
propagate it by the publication of a print, representing "William Caxton
examining the first proof sheet from his printing-press in Westminster
Abbey;" the engraving of which is to be "of the size of the favourite
print of Bolton Abbey:" where the draftsman has deliberately represented
the printers at work within the consecrated walls of the church itself!
When a less careless reader than Dr. Dibdin consults the passage of
Stow, he finds that the chapel of St. Anne stood in the opposite
direction from the church to the site of Henry VII.'s chapel, i.e.
within the court of the Almonry; and that Caxton's press was also set up
in the Almonry, though not (so far as appears, or is probable) within
that chapel. The second question is, When did Caxton first set up his
press in this place? And the third, the answer to which depends on the
preceding, is, Who was the abbot who gave him admission? Now it is true,
as ARUN remarks, that the introduction of Abbot Islip's name is traced
up to Stow in the year 1603: and, as Mr. Knight has observed, "the
careful historian of London here committed one error," because John
Islip did not become Abbot of Westminster until 1500. The entire passage
of Stow has been quoted by DR. RIMBAULT in "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol.
ii., p. 99.; it states that in the Almonry--
"Islip, abbot of Westminster, erected the first press of
book-printing that ever was in England, about the year 1471."
Now, it appears that the various authors of repute, who have given the
point their consideration, as the editor of Dugdale's _Monasticon_ (Sir
Henry Ellis), and Mr. Cunningham in his _Handbook_, affirm that it is
John Esteney who became abbot in 1474 or 1475, and not Thomas Milling,
who was abbot in 1471, whose name should be substituted for that of
Islip. In that case, Stowe committed two errors instead of one; he was
wrong in his date as well as his name. It is to this point that I
directed my remarks, which are printed in Vol. ii., p. 142. We have
hitherto no evidence that Caxton {234} printed at Westminster before the
year 1477, six years later than mentioned by Stow.