This was the last book printed abroad with which Caxton had any connexion, and the new type used in it was no doubt specially prepared for him to carry to England. It contained far more distinct types than the first, which had 163, for it began with 217, which were increased on recasting to at least 254.
Supplied with new type and other printing material, Caxton made his preparations to return to his own country. The exact date cannot now be determined, but it was probably early in the year 1476. It is curious that just about this time one of the Cologne presses issued the first edition of the Breviary for the use of the church of Salisbury, the use adopted by all the south of England, and it may be that Caxton, who had had dealings with the Cologne printers, may have been connected in some way with its production and publication in England.
After Caxton had left Bruges his former partner, Colard Mansion, continued to print by himself. In Caxton's first type, which had been left behind at Bruges, he printed three books, Le Recueil des histoires de Troyes, Les fais et prouesses du chevalier Jason, and the Meditacions sur les sept pseaulmes. All three are in folio, with 31 lines to the page. As they are often confused by writers with books really printed by Caxton, and as they are produced from type which was at one time in his possession, they may perhaps merit a short description.
The Recueil contains 286 leaves, of which two are blank. Six copies are known, of which by far the finest was sold at the Watson Taylor sale in 1823 to Lord Spencer. It was then in its original binding and uncut, but Lord Spencer, who, like most collectors of his day, despised old bindings, had it rebound in morocco, and the edges trimmed and gilt. Another very fine copy, probably "conveyed" from some continental library, was purchased from M. Libri by the British Museum in 1844.
The Jason contains 134 leaves, of which the first and last two are blank. A magnificent copy, the only one in England, is in the library of Eton College, and there are two other copies, slightly imperfect, at Paris.
Of the third book, the Meditacions sur les sept pseaulmes, only one copy is known to exist. It is in the British Museum, bound up with a copy of the Quatre derrenieres choses, and is quite perfect. It contains 34 leaves, the last being blank.
Mansion continued for some time onwards to print at Bruges in the workshop which perhaps he had shared with Caxton, over the church porch of St. Donatus, but later in life seems to have been unsuccessful and fallen on evil times. The books which he then printed with such little success are now by the chance of fate the most sought for and valuable amongst the productions of the early continental press.
CHAPTER III.
THE EARLY WESTMINSTER PRESS.
In 1476 Caxton returned to England and took up his residence in the precincts of Westminster Abbey, at a house with the sign of the "Red Pale" in the "almonesrye." This locality is thus described by Stow: "Now will I speake of the gate-house, and of Totehill streete, stretching from the west part of the close.... The gate towards the west is a Gaile for offenders.... On the South-side of this gate, King Henry the 7. founded an almeshouse.... Near unto this house westward was an old chappel of S. Anne, over against the which, the Lady Margaret, mother to King Henry the 7. erected an Almeshouse for poore women ... the place wherein this chappell and Almeshouse standeth was called the Elemosinary or Almory, now corruptly the Ambry, for that the Almes of the Abbey were there distributed to the poore."