HAAltLI;,M. 167 



generally spend the winter in this neighbourhood. In ap- 

 proaching towards Haarlem, villas again appeared, some of 

 them of considerable size and elegance. In little more 

 than three hours after leaving Leyden, we reached 



Haarlem, 



where we took up our abode at the Golden Lion, kepi 

 by M. Godthardt, a Frenchman, in Grand Zijlstraat. En- 

 glish strangers, in particular, are here attended by the sons 

 and daughters of the host, who, while they serve with ala- 

 crity, join in the conversation, and make themselves the 

 companions of their guests. The evening being fine, we 

 walked out, to take a general view of the town. 



Statue of Coster. 



We soon came to the statue of Laurence Coster, situate 

 in the market-place, near to the great jCathedral, and op- 

 posite to the house in which he first practised the art of 

 printing *. We may here, perhaps, be excused for men- 

 tioning, to our credit as presbyterians, gardeners, and print- 

 ers, that while we had passed scores of Madonnas in Au- 

 strian Flanders without a single reverence, we had all, by a 

 simultaneous impulse;, lifted our hats to the palm of Clu- 



• Mandelslo, in his Travels, says that Coster made letters of beech-wood 

 about the year 1420 ; but this is probably twenty years too early. The old- 

 est specimen of his printing now in existence, consists of the Lord's Prayer 

 and Creed in Latin : the impression is taken only on one side of the paper, 

 and from wooden types. This specimen is preserved by the Magistrates of 

 Haarlem, and the date assigned to it is 1140. Moveable metallic types were 

 first employed at Mentz, soon after that period. More than half a century 

 elapsed before the art of printing was introduced at Edinburgh, by Chef 

 man, under the patronage of James IV. 



