Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-12-30
i4zi--wiLLIAM cAxToN-14oa.
The Patriarch OF English Printers.
Patronized by Royalty.
(Col. Jas. T. Bacon, in the Charles

South Carolina know much, If any
thing, about William Caxton?
In the year 1477 passers-by, going
through the almonry Of Westminster,
found on one Of the houses, near the
old Chapel of ST. Anne, where the
aims of the abbey were wont to be
distributed, new sign-a shield
with a broad red band, or "pale," as
the heralds would say, down it's CEN
tre. Under this sign OF the Red Pale,
If they were curious enough to stop
and look, still stranger sight
greeted their eyes-the first printing
press ever seen in England, with a
grey-haired, but bright-eyed printer,
busy at work with his apprentices,
setting up his black-letter types, and,
marvel Of marvels, finishing q whole
book of many pages in one day. No
wonder that the story Of this novel
shop in the almonry spread through
London speedily, and that merchants,
courteirs, churchmen, great mobiles
and even princes Of the blood came to
visit William Caxton at the Red Pale,
and We'd with each other in buying
his wares, and encouraging him to
undertake new translations or print
from favorite manuscripts. 1t was a
fierce and cruel time, too, for the
War of the Roses had deluged the
land with blood and tears Yet even
tho fipy 10 E1wor1 hn tro o1,
erous Richard Of Gloucester, showed
themselves friends OF the sturdy old
printer and helped him by their fa-
vor.
1t was the sister Of these two Eng
lish Kings, indeed, who had made
CaXton printer. Margaret of Bur-
gundy had found him the governor
OF the English MERGERS Company, or
guild, at Bruges, and having herself
special privileges in the English wool
trade-as was the wont of monarchs
in those days-proved him a valued
servant. The next step was to take
him into her household, and, finding
that he could read and write, which
was an unusual accomplishment, she
set him to translating and copying
French books into English for her.
Caxton was a thorough Englishman,
for, though he had been many years
in Flanders, he had been born in the
weald of Kent, in 1921, brought up
in London as an apprentice-his mas
ter, by the way, worthy merchant,
being made Lord Mayor while CaX-
ton was with him--and loved his
own country and his own language
above all others in the world. So he
took the greatest pride in translating
we'll and having these English books
very first Of them, a version Of the
FreRch Romance Of Troy" immedi-
ately came into great demand at
Margaret of Burgundy's court
Caxton was ordered to make so
many copies Of the Romance of
Troy that, as he quantity tells u.s..
his hand grew weary and not stead
fast" and his eyes "dimmed with
overmuch looking on the white pa
per-" 1t seemed as If he must give
up the work, much as he loved it,
when he luckily heard of another
copyist, Colard Mansion by name,
who was making great effort to
introduce the new art Of printing.
Mansion had saved some money and
had hired two rooms over the church
porch at st. Donatus. Here he was
working with might and main over
an edition Of "Ovid," with rude wood
cuts, and here Caxton joined him to
learn the new art. 1t was not q sue
cessful venture for poor Mansion, who
left Bruges three months after,
ruined man; and it cost Caxton, as
he tells us, "a great charge and ex-
pense;" but it left him with a prac-
tical knowledge of his art, which was
to stand him in good ste, later
1t was in this little printing office,
above the church porch in Bruges,
that Caxton & Mansion brought out
that first English book, "The Ro-
nance Of Troye," and little later,
''The Game and Plays Of the
Chesse," in 1474-so rare now that a
copy sold in 1885 for 9,750-which
would have astonished the old print
ers very considerably! Then Man
sion vanishes from history, a bank
rupt, seeking hiding no one knows
where; and CaXton, more fortunate,
went on to Cologne, where the Ger
man printers were perfecting their