340 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 51. 



sibility, of reading them after he had turned his 

 back upon them, — the position required to bring 

 them into the order 1084. It is also extremely 

 improbable that so obscure a part of the building 

 should be chosen for erecting the date of the found- 

 ation ; nor is it likely that so important a record 

 would be merely impressed on the phuster, liable 

 to destruction at any time. Read in the most 

 natural way, it makes 1480 : but I much doubt its 

 being a date at all. The upper figure resembles a 

 Roman I ; and this, with the O beneath, may have 

 been a mason's initials at some time when the 

 plaister was renewed : for that the figures are at 

 least sixty years later than the supposed date, 

 Mr. Bloom confesses, the church not having been 

 built until then. X. P. U. 



CAXTONS PKINTING- OFFICE. 



(Vol.ii., pp.99. 122. 142. 187. 233.) 



I confess, after having read Mr. J. G. Nichols' 

 critique in a recent number of the "Notes and 

 QuERiis," relative to the locality of the first print- 

 ing-press erected by Caxton in this country, I am 

 not yet convinced that it was not within the Abbey 

 of Westminster. From Me. Nichols' own state- 

 ments, I find that Caxton himself says his books 

 were " imprynted " by him in the Abbey ; to this, 

 however, Mr. Nichols replies by way of objection, 

 " that Caxton does not say in the church of the 

 Abbey." 



On the above words of Caxton " in the Abbey 

 of Westminster," Mr. C. Knight, in his excellent 

 biography of the old printer, observes, " they leave 

 no doubt that beneath the actual roof of some 

 portion of the Abbey he carried on his art." Stow 

 says " that Caxton was the fii'st that carried on his 

 art in the Abbey." Dugdale, in his 3Io7iasticon, 

 speaking of Caxton, says, " he erected his oflice in 

 one of the side chapels of the Abbey." Mk. Ni- 

 chols, quoting from Stow, also informs us that 

 printing-presses were, soon after the introduction 

 of the art, erected in the Abbey of St. Alb.ans, St. 

 Augustin at Canterbury, and other monasteries ; he 

 also informs us that the scriptorium of the monas- 

 teries had ever been the manufactory of books, 

 and these places it is well known formed a portion 

 of the abbeys themselves, and were not in detached 

 buildings similar to the Almonry at Westminster, 

 which was situated some two or three hundred 

 yards distant from the Abbey. I think it very 

 likely, when the press was to supersede the pen in 

 the work of book-making, that its capabilities 

 would be first tried in the very place which had 

 been used for the object it was designed to ac- 

 complish. This idea seems to be confirmed by the 

 tradition that a printer's office has ever been called 

 a chapel, a fact which is beautifully alluded to by 

 Mr. Creevy in his poem entitled The Press : — 



" Yet stands the chapel in yon Gothic shrine. 

 Where wrought the father of our English line, 

 Our art was hail'd from kingdoms far ahroad, 

 And cherish 'd in the hallow'd house of God ; 

 From which we learn the homage it received, 

 And how our sires its heavenly birth believed. 

 Each printer hence, howe'er unhlest his walls, 

 E'en to this day, his house a chapel calls." 



!Mh. Nichols acknowledges that what he calls a 

 vulgar error was current and popular, that in some 

 part of the Abbey Caxton did erect his press, yet 

 we are expected to submit to the almost unsup- 

 ported dictum of that gentleman, and renounce 

 altogether the old and almost universal idea. With 

 respect to his alarm that the vulgar error is about 

 to be further propagated by an engraving, wherein 

 the mistaken draftsman has deliberately repre- 

 sented the printers at work within the consecrated 

 walls of the church itself, I may be permitted to 

 say, on behalf of the painter, that he has erected 

 his press not even on the basement of one 

 of the Abbey chapels, but in an upper story, a 

 beautiful screen separating the workplace from 

 the more sacred part of the building. 



John Cbopp. 



COLD HARBOUR. 



(Vol. i., p..60.; Vol.ii., p. 159.) 



I beg leave to inform you that Yorkshire has 

 its " Cold Harbour," and for the origin of the 

 term, I subjoin a communication sent me by my 

 father : — 



" "When a youngster, I was a great seeker for 

 etymologies. A solitary farm-house and demesne 

 were pointed out to me, the locality of which was 

 termed Cad, or Ciidhiiber, or Ciidharber. Con- 

 jectures, near akin to those now presented, oc- 

 curred to me. I was invited to inspect the locality. 

 I dined with the old yeoman (aged about eighty) 

 who occupied the farm. He gave me the etymo- 

 logy. In his earlier days he had come to this 

 farm ; a house was not built, yet he was compelled 

 by circumstances to bi'ing over part of his farming 

 implements, &c. He, with his men-servants, had 

 no other shelter at the time than a dilapidated 

 barn. When they assembled to eat their cold 

 provisions, the farmer cried out, ' Hegh lads, but 

 there's cauld (or caud) harbour here.' The spot 

 had no name previously. The rustics were 

 amused by the farmer's saying. Hence the 

 locality was termed by them Cold Harbour, cor- 

 rupted, Cadharber, and the etymon remains to 

 this day. This information put an end to my 

 enquiries about Cold Harbour." C. M. J. 



Cold Harbour. — The goldfinches which have 

 remained among the valleys of the Brighton 

 Downs during the winter are called, says Mr. 



