The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-19 00:00:00

A GHOST STORY IN KENT.

For three weeks or a month the family of Mr.
Martin, Ashford-road, has been disturbed by mys-
terious ringings of the door bell, violent shaking
of the doors, and divers other annoyances, the
perpetrators of which no vigilance-could detect, and
to which no clue could he obtained. The family
consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Martin, their son, a
young man of about 20, another son (an invalid)
some years younger, and one female servant. The
servant was a staid, demure sort of person, not
given to going out over much ; she had no fol-
lowers, had had two years' character from her last
place, and was so much respected and trusted by
her mistress that in the summer when the family
went to the seaside she had sole charge of the house.
The family were of regular habits, and kept early
hours, and the whole thing was inexplicable. The
effect, however, on the health of Mrs. Martin and
her invalid son began to be serious, and the aid of
the police was called in. For some time a police.
man was almost constantly in the house, but al-
though the disturbance did not take place while he
was there, he had never left many minutes before
the bells were again rung, and the doors again
shaken as violently as ever. At, length, last Sun-
day evening, Mr. Maloney placed Sergeant Feather-
stone and a cordon of police all round the house.
The policeman on the premises left about 9 o'clock.
In 20 minutes after the back door was shaken vio-
lently—there was no one within the cordon—and
it was at once proved that the ghost was within
the house. The police quietly departed, and Fea-
therstone having instituted inquiries found that the
servant girl, under a steady and even a religious
exterior, had long carried on a most flagrant and
profligate career. On being charged with the per-
petration of these abominable tricks, she, after some
hesitation, confessed her guilt, and that some of the
fellows who visited her having come at such hours
of the evening as rendered it likely that a disco-
very would be made, she had invented these noises
and pretended alarms from robbers in order to pre-
vent suspicion falling upon herself. Footmarks in
the garden which had seemed to confirm her tales
had been made, unobserved, by herself ; and the
boldness, coolness, and. dexterity with which she
so long deceived everybody was certainly remark-
able. Her mistress, indeed, up to the very mo-
ment of the discovery, was so-convinced of her
innocence as to be almost unwilling to test it.
The girl, whose name is Harriet King, was dis-
missed—it being - doubtful whether any charge
against her could be entertained by the magis-
trates—and her wages paid to her relatives here on
condition that she was at once sent home to her

parents, who, we hear, are very•respeetable labour-
Lug people at Tonterden.—Maidstone Journal.

TIIE FIRST ENGLISII PRINTER.

An attempt was made a few years since, at the
instance of several leading /ittcrateurs, to raise a

fund for a monument to -William CaXton. The
learned and the great were present, and spoke
loudly in honour of the champion of intellectual
liberty for England, but the enthusiasm evaporated
in words, and the insufficient amount subscribed
having been handed over by Dean Milman to the
committee of the Printers' Pension Society, an en-
deavour has since been made to increase the fund
sufficiently for the foundation of a " Caxton Pen-
sion." With the view of aiding this project, the
Rev. J. M. Bellew, a few days since, delivered a
lecture upon" Caxton and •his Times," at St. Mar-
tin's llall, to a numerous and highly interested
auditory.
After a few prefatory remarks, the rev. lecturer
commenced by describing the scene of Caxton's birth
in the Weald of Kent, and the careful education be-
stowed on the young lad by his yeoman father. It
was not until the age of eighteen that the young
man left his Kentish grammar-school for an appren-
ticeship in Landon to Robert Large, a mercer of
Cheap. The,mercers of London in those days were
not mere dealers in small wares as at an earlier

period, or mere linendrapers as at the present
period ; they were wholesale merchants, and from
the time of Edward 111. were the chief woolstaplers
of the country, having then constant dealings with
the Low Countries, and so being the channels
whereby valuable foreign MSS. found their way
into England. It was thus William Caxton,
in his apprenticeship, met with early facilities
for acquiring knowledge of languages. Remaining
with his master until his death in 1441, Caxton
then, at the instance of his brother mercers, went
to the Low Countries as commissioner for adjusting
new channels for their trade, disturbed by the
quarrels of the Dukes of Burgundy and the English
Sovereigns. Twenty-three years later, in 1464,
Caxton was appointed Royal Commissioner by Ed-
ward 111. to confirm a treaty of trade with Bur-
gundy. All the best years of his life, therefore,
were passed in Bruges, Ghent, Cologne, Mentz, and
the German cities, where his long residence made
him familiar with the invention of printing and
the difficulties which obstructed its early develop-
ment ; and when the company of printers was
broken up by the siege of Mentz, and the partner-
ship of Faust and Guttenberg dissolved, Caxton
became one of the earliest and readiest scholars of
an art then no longer secret. He set up a printing
press in Cologne, whence he issued his first publica-
tion, " The History of Troy," but between 1470 and
1474, at the request of Edward IV., he came over to
England, bringing with him his printing
presses, types, and craftsmen., In the ilmonry of
Westminster, just where Victoria-street now com-
mences, William Caxton, at the age of 60, established
the first printing press in England, and, with Wyn-
ken de Worde and Pynson, his favourite workmen,
published the first book printed in England, " The
Game of Chess." This was followed, up to the
time of his death, in 1491, by no less . than.

sixty-two works —in all upwards of 5,000
closely-printed folio pages—the greater portion.
translated by himself from the French or Latin,
and afterwards " set up" in type, also by himself.
He died in his 81st year, while his "Lives of the
Fathers" was passing through the press, and was
buried in the graveyard of St. Margaret's West-
minster. Pynson, who received the appointment of
King's Printer after Caxton's death, resided where
now stands the Times office, and gave its name to
the spot. The lecturer, who was much applauded
throughout, concluded with a resume of the develop-
ment of English literature, taking occasion from
the example of William Caxton, to enforce the dig-
nity of labour, and impress the value and sure ulti-
mate success of earnest perseverance.