July 13. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



99 



CAXTON S PKINTING-OFFICE. 



The particulai- spot where Caxton exercised his 

 business, or the phice where his press was fixed, 

 cannot now, perhaps, be exactly ascertained. Dr. 

 Dibdin, after a careful examination of existing 

 testimonies, thinks it most probable that he erected 

 his press in one of the chapels attached to the aisles 

 of Westminster Abbey ; and as no romains of this 

 interesting place can now be discovered, there is a 

 strong presumption that it was pulled down in 

 making alterations for the building of Henry VII.'s 

 splendid chapel. 



It has been frequently asserted that all Caxton's 

 books were printed in a part of AVestminster 

 Abbey ; this must be mere conjecture, because we 

 find no statement of it from himself: he first 

 mentions the place of his printing in 1477, so that 

 he must have printed some time without informing 

 us where. 



With all possible respect for the opinions of Dr. 

 Dibdin, and the numerous writers on our early 

 typography, I have very considerable doubts as to 

 whether Caxton really printed within the icalls of 

 the Abbey at all. I am aware that he himself says, 

 in some of his colophons, " Emprinted in th' Abbey 

 of Westmynstre," but query whether the precincts 

 of the Abbey are not intended? Stow, in his 

 Annals (edit. 1560, p. 686.), says, — " AVilliani Cax- 

 ton of London, mercer, brought it (printing) into 

 England about the year 1471, and first practised 

 the same in the Abbie of St. Peter at Westminster;" 

 but in his Survey of London, 1603 (edit. Thorns, 

 p. 176.), the same writer gives us a more full and 

 particular account ; it is as follows : — 



" Near unto this house [i. e. Henry VII.'s alms- 

 house], westward, was an old chapel of St. Anne ; over 

 against the which, the Lady Margaret, mother to King 

 Henry VII., erected an alms-house for poor women, 

 which is now turned into lodgings for the singing men 

 of the college. The place wherein this chapel and 

 ahns house standeth was called the Elemosinary, or 

 almonry, now corruptly the ambry, for that the alms 

 of tlie Abbey were there distributed to the poor ; and 

 therein Islip, abbot of Westminster, erected the first 

 press of book-printing that ever was in England, about 

 the year of Christ 1471. William Caxton, citizen of 

 London, mercer, brought it into England, and was the 

 first that practised it in the stiiil abbey; after which 

 time the like was practised in the abl)eys of St. Au- 

 gustine at Canterbury, St. Albans, and other monas- 

 teries." 



Again, in the curious hand-bill preserved in the 

 Bodleian Library, it will be remembered that 

 Caxton invites his customers to " come to Westmo- 

 nester into the Alinoneslrye" where they may pur- 

 chase his books " good chepe." 



From these extracts it is pretty clear that 

 Caxton's priiiting-ollice was in the Almonry, which 

 was within the precincts of the Abbey, and not in 

 the Abbey itself. The " old chapel of St. Anne " 



was doubtless the place where the first printing- 

 office was erected in England. Abbot Milling 

 (not Islip, as stated by Stow) was the generous 

 friend and patron of Caxton and the art of print- 

 ing ; and it was by permission of this learned monk 

 that our printer was allowed the use of the build- 

 ing in question. 



The old chapel of St. Anne stood in the New- 

 way, near the back of the workhouse, at the 

 bottom of the almonry leading to what is now 

 called Stratton Ground. It was pulled down, I 

 believe, about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 ttiry. The new chapel of St. Anne, erected in 

 1631, near the site of the old one, was destroyed 

 about fifty years since. 



Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook for London 

 (vol. i. p. 17.), says, — 



" 'ITie first printing-press ever seen in England was 

 set up in this almonry under tlie patronage of Esteney, 

 Abbot of Westminster, by William Caxton, citizen and 

 mercer (d. MS."?)." 



Esteney succeeded Milling in the Abbacy of 

 Westminster, but the latter did not die before 

 1492. On p. 520. of his second volume, Mr. Cun- 

 ningham gives the date of Caxton's death cor- 

 rectly, i. e. 1491. Edward F. Rimbault. 



SANATORY LAWS IN OTHER DATS. 



In that curious medley commonly designated, 

 after Hearne, Arnold's Chronicle, and which was 

 probably first printed in 1502 or 1503, we find 

 the following passages. I make "notes" of them, 

 from their peculiar interest at the moment when 

 sanatory bills, having the same obje(;ts, are occu- 

 pying the public attention so strongly ; especially 

 in respecttothe SinithfieldNuisance and theCIergy 

 Discipline bill. 



1. In a paper entitled "The articles dishired bi 

 y^ comonse of the cety of London, for reformacyo 

 of thingis to the same, of the Mayer, Aldirmen, and 

 Comon Counsell, to be enacted," we have the fol- 

 lowing : — 



" Also that in anoyding the corupte savours and 

 lothsom innoyaunc (caused by slaughter of best) w*in 

 the cyte, wherby moche people is corupte and infecte, 

 it may plese my Lord INIayr, Aldirmen, and Comen 

 Counsaile, to put in execucion a certainc acte of par- 

 Icment, by whiche it is ordeigned y' no such slaughter 

 of best shuid be vsed or had within this cite, and that 

 siiche penaltees be leuyed vpo the contrary doers as in 

 the said acte of parlement ben expressed. 



" Also in anoyding of lyke aniioyaucc. Plese it my 

 Lord Mair, Alderme, and Como Councell, to enact 

 that noo maner puller or any other persone 1 this cytee 

 kc])e from hinstbrth, within his hous, swans, gies, or 

 dowk, upon a peyn theifore to be ordeigned." — pp. 83, 

 84, 3d. ed. 



I believe that one item of "folk-faith" is that 

 " farm-yard odours are healthy." I have often 



