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were first established, it will be seen that in most cases they were 
situated in the vicinity of some monastery. In Oxford we find 
one of these printing-houses in 1468, at S. Abans in 1480, 
Cambridge in 1521, Abingdon 1528, Ipswich 1548, Carlisle 1549. 
As early, however, as 1533 the jealousy of Englishmen was 
aroused by the number of foreigners engaged in the art, and 
most stringent measures were taken both to confine the printing- 
houses in England to fewer masters, and to discourage the sale of 
printed books from beyond sea. In tnat year, 1533, an Act was 
passed cancelling all former privileges, and constant efforts were 
made to discourage the exercise of the art of printing in all 
provincial towns. During the next 50 years printing-houses that 
had been worked in York, Ipswich, Canterbury and Norwich 
were no longer employed, and in 1583 the legislature passed 
another act forbidding the use of printing-houses in all towns 
except in London and the two Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. During the Civil War, printing-presses were carried 
about to divers places, and those versed in the literature 
of the Marprelate times are well acquainted with the scurrilous 
and bitter controversies of the Puritans and Episcopalians, 
contained in pamphlets and books under the most quaint and 
grotesque titles, some of which were issued from the contending 
armies in the Civil War. A catalogue of the titles only would 
make an amusing volume ; some years ago I commenced one but 
had not time to complete the collection. 
In 1649, Parliament, then in possession of York, passed an 
ordinance allowing, as a great favour, one printing press in that 
city and one at Finsbury, in addition to those of London and the 
two Universities. Restrictions were carried still further, and 
in 1662 an act was passed which stipulated that, ‘no person 
within the city of London or the liberties thereof, or elsewhere, 
shall erect or cause to be erected any Printing-house, unless 
notice shall first be given to the Master or Wardens of the Com- 
_ pany of Stationers” . . . “And from the time to come no 
