that many were even doubting if such a person had ever existed. What a contrast is here exhibited of the two nations?-Well may some Englishmen exclaim, Alas! my countrymen, I pity your weakness!!! Again-When we view St. Peter's Abbey, the grand depository of the manes of England's Worthies, and saunter through its majestic aisles, what admiration and awe fills our imaginations, while gazing on those massive piles which croud its lofty walls? Oft have we explored every corner, in the hope of finding some niche, however small, that contained a trace of our first Typographer; but, vain our labour! What could have caused this neglect? Have not a great portion of those monuments been erected at the public expense? Were his services less deserving than many of those who have been thus honoured? But, why should we waste our time in fruitless inquiry? Did he not build a monument with his own hands, which has already stood the test of ages? And though it is formed of more perishable articles, still we trust that his monument will survive as long as any that grace that venerable pile! yea, even till the final wreck of Time!!! Although the nation have thus neglected to call in the Sculptor's aid to perpetuate his memory; we are highly gratified on finding that a few highly respected and exalted characters, associated under the title of The Roxburghe Club, (long acknowledged as lovers and admirers of ancient lore) have performed that duty, which more properly belonged to the nation: in executing this act of justice to the memory of so worthy a man, they have not only perpetuated the remembrance of him, but they have also raised a monument for themselves. It is thus described: The tablet erected to the memory of Caxton, by The Roxburghe Club, is composed of the finest dove-coloured marble, enclosing an oblong panel of white, delicately veined with blue. Above the panel rises a pediment having the device of Caxton engraved in the centre; and on either side of the inscription are two small pillasters. The words of this inscription are as follow: TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM CAXTON, WHO FIRST INTRODUCED INTO GREAT BRITAIN IN THE ABBEY OF WESTMINSTER. IN REMEMBRANCE OF ONE THE LITERATURE OF THIS COUNTRY ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXX. EY THE KOXBURGHE CLUB. EARL SPENCER, K. G. PRESIDENT. Was it not his venerable hands which laid the foundation stone of that great fountain [the press], the inexhaustible streams of which have swept away the dark clouds of ignorance and superstition, which (for ages) had infested our native land? But let us view our own times-amid the shocks and convulsions which recently agitated Europe, and made her tremble to the very centre; was it not this fountain's pure streams which cherished and supported Great Britain in all her splendour? and while other nations were wrecked by this storm, Britannia's vessel of state rode the gale, and harboured safe in port! May Caxton's fountain continue to flow [unsullied], without the least interruption, till Time has run his course, and commenced his final work of destruction! (AFTER A THIRTY YEARS' RESIDENCE ABROAD), obtained a knowledge of THE ART AND MYSTERY OF PRINTING, returned to His Native Country, and indefatigably laboured (FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND), to THE LAST DAY OF HIS LIFE. Alphabetical List of the Books printed by Curton, With their supposed Degrees of Rarity: the figures at the end of the line denote the degree, six being the highest. Accidence Arthur, Histories of Ballad, Fragment of Boetius Book of Divers Ghostly [No date.) 6 Golden Legend 1483 Gower's Confessio Amantis 1453 Matters Cato Parvus No date Lombardy, History of qu? Lucidary No date. No date. 4 Lyndewood qu? 4 Canterbury Tales Do. (1 ed.) 5 Ovid's Metamorphoses - 1480 Ditto Do. (2 ed.) 4 Troilus &Cresside Do. 4 Do 5 Chess, Game of 1474 5 Proverbs of Pisa 1478 Craft to Know well to Die 1490 Edward the Confessor - qu? Godfrey of Boulogne 1491 This list of the books printed by Caxton cannot, perhaps, be better closed than by the following anecdote from Herbert: "At my first setting out [says he] in this arduous undertaking, i entertained hopes of being able to give a more correct and certain account of Mr. Caxton's works, having been informed that there were still existing complete copies of most, if not all, of Caxton's books, collected and preserv ed by the late Mr. Cheswell, a very eminent bookseller of the last age, and that they were then in the possession of a gentleman, who, no doubt, would favour me with the perusal of them, and be glad of the opportunity of communicating materials so curious, and necessary to illustrate and authenticate the memoirs of our first printer. Without delay i waited on the gentleman, who very politely promised me the use of them, but said that they were sent over to Amsterdam, for the inspection of a friend there, but that he would write for them the first opportunity. A short time after, i took the liberty to write to him that i would with pleasure wait on hinr, in order to take extracts from his Caxtons, in such a manner as should be most agreeable to him. In a few days i was indulged with an answer, informing me he had received from Holland the very disagreeable intelligence, that all his fine Caxtons had met with the unfortunate accident (Heu lamentable dictu?) of being burnt, and totally destroyed, as he understood, by the neglect of a servant, in his master's absence, throwing down from a shelf a large bottle of aquafortis into the box where the said books were, and neglecting them in his fright, so that more mischief was done in the room. I am very much afraid," concludes Herbert, that my friend received but a Flemish account of his Caxtons." Taken from Dibdin's edition of Ames' Typographical Antiquities. 1 Royal Book 1484 Russel, Oration of . No date. 6 Siege of Rhodes No date. 6 Speculum Vite Christi Do. 4 Statutes Do. 6 Troy, Receuil des Histoires No date. Tully of Old Age, &c. 1481 3 William Caxton used two devices in his printing, one of which we have already given, (vide page 196), and another much smaller, having a different border, and a flourish inserted above and below the letters. The device itself consists of the initials W. C. within an upper and lower border of rude foliage and lozenges, upon black and white grounds. Between the letters is an arbitrary sign meant to convey the date 74, as 1474 is usually supposed to have been the year when Caxton commenced printing in England. The earliest impression of the large device now known, is in the copy of "The Dictes and Sayinges of the Philosophres," 1477, preserved in the Lambeth Library, where it occurs on the recto of the first leaf. In conformity with other typographical works, we have placed to the accounts of several of the English printers, copies of i the heads usually accepted as their portraits; but Mr. Dibdin, in his "Typographical Antiquities," and his "Bibliographical Decameron," has shewn, that most of them may be considered as spu rious. The portrait of Caxton has been copied from a head introduced in La Zucca, of A. F. Doni, to illustrate a particular kind of cap and streamer, which has been supposed to represent the Italian poet, Burchiello Domenico: as the same engraving is to be found in the early editions of his works. This portrait was originally engraved by W. Faithorne, for Sir Hans Sloane, as the head of W. Caxton; it was then re-copied on a copper-plate, with some alterations, for the Rev. John Lewis's life of that printer, and afterwards by Marchand, Ames, and Herbert. The Rev. T. F. Dibdin, to whose works we are indebted for the above information, thus relates the circumstance in his Bibliographical Decameron, Vol. II. Page 288. "Would you believe it, a portrait of Burchiello, an Italian Poet of the XVIth century, was most wickedly foisted into the public notice, by Ames, as that of William Caxton! Yet Ames, on second thoughts, must not be too severely criticised. As an antiquary in the art of engraving, his knowledge was exceedingly limited; and it was sufficient for him that the name of Faithorne was subscribed to a book of drawings in the Harleian Collection, purporting to be portraits of printers--in which this identical por trait appeared! and so, a draped head (as the phrase is) of Master Burchiello, aforesaid, came forth as that of the venerable and our well beloved William Caxton!" Notwithstanding all this, as a certain degree of concurrence is required with popular sentiments, although in themselves erroneous, we have, as before stated, engraved the heads usually esteemed to be those of our first Printers, and in the course of the text will be found some observatious upon their authenticity. |