I confess, after having read MR. J.G. NICHOLS' critique in a recent number
of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," relative to the locality of the first
printing-press erected by Caxton in this country, I am not yet convinced
that it was not within the Abbey of Westminster. From MR. NICHOLS' own
statements, 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 first that carried on his art
in the Abbey." Dugdale, in his _Monasticon_, speaking of Caxton, says, "he
erected his office in one of the side chapels of the Abbey." MR. NICHOLS,
quoting from Stow, also informs us that printing-presses were, soon after
the introduction of the art, erected in the Abbey of St. Albans, St.
Augustin at Canterbury, and other monasteries; he also informs us that the
scriptorium of the monasteries 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 accomplish.
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,