e out his lines and to use signatures,
customs that had been in vogue on the Continent for some years before he
left. In 1480 he brought the new type 4 into use. This was modelled on
type 2, but was much smaller, the body being most akin to modern
English. Although its appearance was not so striking as that of the
earlier fount, it was a much neater letter and more adapted to the
printing of Indulgences, and it has been suggested that it was the
arrival of John Lettou in London, and the neat look of his work, that
induced Caxton to cut the fount in question. The most noticeable feature
about it is the absence of the loop to the lowercase 'd,' so conspicuous
a feature of the No. 2 type. With this type No. 4 he printed Kendale's
indulgence and the first edition of _The Chronicles of England_, dated
the 10th June 1480, a folio of 152 leaves. In the same year he printed
with type 3 three service-books. Of one of these, the _Horae_, William
Blades found a few leaves, all that are known to exist, in the covers of
a copy of _Boethius_, printed also by Caxton, which he discovered in a
deplorable state from damp, in a cupboard of the St. Albans Grammar
School. This was an uncut copy, in the original binding, and the covers
yielded as many as fifty-six half sheets of printed matter, fragments of
other books printed by Caxton. These proved the existence of three
hitherto unknown examples of his press, the _Horae_ above noted, the
_Ordinale_, and the _Indulgence of Pope Sixtus IV._, the remaining
fragments yielding leaves from the _History of Jason_, printed in type
2, the first edition of the _Chronicles_, the _Description of_
_Britain_; the second edition of the _Dictes and Sayinges_, the _De
Curia Sapientiae_, Cicero's _De Senectute_, and the _Nativity of Our
Lady_, printed in the recast of type 4, known as type 4*.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Caxton's earliest Woodcut. Headline in Type 3.]

The first book printed by Caxton with illustrations was the third
edition of _Parvus_ and _Magnus Chato_, printed without date, but
probably in 1481. It contained two woodcuts, one showing five pupils
kneeling before their tutor. These illustrations were very poor
specimens of the wood-cutter's art.

To this period also belongs _The History of Reynard the Fox_ and the
second edition of _The Game and Play of Chess_, printed with type 2*,
and distinguished from the earlier edition by the eight woodcuts, some
of which, according to the economica