VOL. 10, NO. 286.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1827. [PRICE 2d.
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[Illustration: Caxton's House in the Almonry, Westminster.]
To expatiate on the advantages of printing, at this time of day, would
be "wasteful and ridiculous excess." We content ourselves with the
comparison of Dryden's
"Long trails of light descending down."
In a retrospective glance at our previous volumes (for can the
phrenologists tell us of a head capacious enough to contain their
exhaustless variety?) our readers will perceive that, from time to
time, sundry "accounts" of the origin and progress of printing have
been inserted in the MIRROR;[1] and though we are not vain enough to
consider our sheet as the "refined gold, the lily, the violet, the
ice, or the rainbow," of the poet's perfection, yet in specimens of
the general _economy of the art_, the long-extended patronage of the
public gives us an early place.
With an outline of the life of CAXTON our readers must be already
familiar; but we wish them to consider the above accurate
representation of the FIRST ENGLISH PRINTER'S RESIDENCE as antecedent
to a _Memoir of Caxton_, in which it will be our aim to concentrate,
in addition to biographical details, many important facts from the
testimony of antiquarians; for scarcely a volume of the _Archaeologia_
has appeared without some valuable communication on Caxton and his
times.
In the meantime we proceed with the _locale_ of Caxton's house,
situate on the south-west of Westminster Abbey, where was formerly the
eleemosynary, or almonry, where the alms of the abbots were
distributed. Howell in his _Londinopolis_, describes this as "the spot
where the abbot of Westminster permitted Caxton to set up his press in
the _Almonry_, or Ambry," the former of which names is still retained.
This is confirmed by Newcourt, in his _Repertorium_, who says, "St.
Anne's, an old chapel, over against which the Lady Margaret, mother to
king Henry VII., erected an alms-house for poor women, which is now
turned into lodgings for singing-men of the college. The place wherein
this chapel and alms-house stood was called the Eleemosinary, or
Almonry, now corruptly called the Ambry, (Aumbry,) for that the alms
of the abbey were there distributed to the poor; in which the abbot of
Westminster erected the first press for book-printing that was in
England, about the year of Christ 1471, and where WILLIAM CAXTON,
citizen and mercer of London, who first brought it into England,
practised it." Here he printed _The Game and Play of the Chesse_, said
to be the first book that issued from the press in this country.
Hence, according to Mr. M'Creery, the intelligent author of "The
Press," a poem, "the title of _chapel_ to the internal regulations of
a printing-office originated in Caxton's exercising the profession in
one of the chapels in Westminster Abbey, and may be considered as an
additional proof, from the antiquity of the custom, of his being the
first English printer."[2]
Every lover of science, on approaching this spot, will feel himself on
holy ground, however the idle and incurious of our metropolis may
neglect the scite, or be ignorant of its identity. We are there led
into an eternity of reflection and association of ideas; but lest
human pride should be too fondly feasted in the retrospect, the
hallowed towers of the abbey, seen in the distance, serve to remind us
of the imperial maxim, that "art is long, and life but short."
[Footnote 1: See MIRROR, vol 3, p 194--vol 5. p 311.]
[Footnote 2: We requote this passage from Mr. M'Creery, as it has
already appeared in vol. 5; and in vol. 3, a correspondent denies that
the first English book was printed at Westminster; but we are disposed
to think that an impartial examination of the testimonies on each side
of the controversy will decide in favour of Caxton.]
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