July 20. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



123 



And on tlie title-page he informs us : — 



" Whycbe sayd translaeion and werke was begonne 



in Brugis in 1468, and ended in the holy cyte of Colcn, 



19 Sept. 1471." 



This may refer to the translation only ; but as 

 Caxton was both translator and printer, it does not 

 seem unreasonable to regard it as indicating when 

 his entii'e labour upon the work was brought to 

 a close. I might support the view that Caxton 

 printed at Cologne by other arguments which 

 would make the matter tolerably certain (see Life 

 of Caxton, p. 125., &c.) ; but as the excellent little 

 work to which I am indebted for these particulars 

 is so well known, and so easily accessible, 1 should 

 not be justified in occupying more of your space, 

 and I will therefore conclude with noting that 

 the parochial library at Shipdham, in Norfolk, is 

 said to contain books printed by Caxton and other 

 early printers. Perhaps some one of your corre- 

 spondents would record, for the general benefit, of 

 what they consist. Arun. 



Dr. KiMBAULT has evidently not seen a short 

 article on Caxton's printing at Westminster, which 

 I inserted in the Gentleman s Magazine for April, 

 1846, nor the reference made to it in the magazine 

 for June last, p. 630., or he would have admitted 

 that his objections to Dr. Dibdin's conjectures on 

 this point had been already stated ; moreover, I 

 think he would have seen that the difficulty had 

 been actually cleared up. In truth, the popular 

 misapprehension on this subject has not been occa- 

 sioned by any obscurity in the colophons of the 

 great printer, or in the survey of Stow, but 

 merely by the erroneous constricted sense into 

 which the word abbey has passed in this country. 

 Cu.Kton liiniself tells us he printed his books in 

 " th' abbay of AVestminstre," but he does not 

 say in the church of the nbbev. Stow distinctly 

 says it was in the almonry of the abbey ; and the 

 handbill Dr. Ilimbault refers to confirms that 

 fact. The almonry was not merely "within the 

 precincts of the abbey," it was actually a part of 

 the abbey. Dr. Rimbault aims at the conclusion 

 that " tlie old chapel of St. Anne was doubtless 

 the place where the first printing-office was erected 

 in England." But why so ? Did not the chapel 

 continue a chapel until the Reformation, if not 

 later ? And Caxton would no more set up his 

 press in a chapel than in the abbey-church iisclf. 

 Stow says it was erected in the almonry. The 

 almonry was one of the courts of the abbey, (situ- 

 ated directly west of the abbey-church, and not 

 east, as Dr. Dibdiu sunnised) ; it contained a 

 chapel dedicated to St. Anne, and latterly an alms- 

 house erecteil by the ]..a<Jy Margaret. Tlie latter 

 probably rephu.'ed other offices or lodgings of 

 greater antiipdty, connected with the duties of 

 the almoner, or the reception and relief of the 

 poor ; and there need be no doubt that it was one 



of these buldings that the Abbot of Westminster 

 placed at the disposal of oiu- proto-typographer. 

 Theie was nothing very extraordinary in his so 

 doing if we view the circumstance in its true light; 

 for the scriptoria of the monasteries had ever been 

 the principal manufactories of books. A single 

 press was now to do the work of many pens. The 

 experiment was successful ; " after which time," 

 as Stow goes on to say, " the like was practised 

 in the Abbeys of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, 

 St. Alban's, and other monasteries." The monks 

 became printers instead of scribes ; but they would 

 not ordinarily convert their churches or chapels 

 into printing-houses. The workmen, it is true, 

 term the meetings held for consultation on their 

 common interests or pleasures, their chapels; and 

 whether this may have arisen from any parti- 

 cular instance in which a chapel was converted 

 into a printing-house, I cannot say. In order to 

 ascertain the origin of this term these Queries may 

 be proposed: — Is it pecuhar to printers and to 

 this country ? Or is it used also in other trades 

 and on the Continent ? John Gough Nichols. 



THE NEW TEMPLE. 



Although I am unable to give a satisfactory re- 

 ply to Mr. Foss's inquiries, such information as I 

 have is freely at his service. It may, at all events, 

 serve as a finger-post to the road. 



My survey gives a most minute extent, of 35 

 preceptories, 23 "camerse" of the Hospitallers, 

 13 preceptories formerly coraniandries of the 

 Templars, 74 limbs, and 70 granges, impropriations, 

 &c., and, among them all, not a single one of the 

 valuation of the New Temple itself Reprises of 

 that establishment are entered, but no receipts. 



The former are as follows : 



" In cmcndationera et sustentationem ecclesie Novi 

 Tenipli, London, et in vino, cera, et oleo, et oinamentis 

 ejusdein - - - - - - -x iTi." 



" In uno fratri [sic] Capellano et octo Capehanis 

 sccularibiis, deservientibus ecclesiam quondam Templa- 

 riorura apud London, vocatam Novum Ttmplum, 

 piout ordinatum est per totum consilium totius rtgni, 

 pro animabus i'undatorum dieti Novi Tenipli et alia 

 [sic] posscssionuni alibi - - - - Iv m 



" Videlicet, fratri Capellano, pro se et ecclesia, xv ilii., 

 et cuilibet Capellano, v in., ubi solebant esse, tempore 

 Teniplarioruni, utius Prior ecclesie et xij Capellani 

 seculares. 



" Item in dlversis pensionibus solvcndis diversis 

 pcrsonis per annum, tani in Curia doniini Kegis, quam 

 Justiciariis Clericis, Officiariis, et aliis niiiiistris, in 

 diversis Curiis suis, ac etlam aliis familiaribus inagna- 

 tum, tarn pro terris tcncmentis, rcdditibus, et liber- 

 talibus hos])italis, quam Teniplarioruni, et niaxinic jiro 

 lerris Teniplarioruin maiuitenenclis, videlicet, IJaro- 

 nibus in Scaccario doniini Regis Domino Koberto <le 

 Sadyngton, militi, Capitali baroni de Scaccario, xh" 

 &c. &c. 



