e made up its mind to leave the printers alone, even this
source of information lapses, and the pioneer has to gather what he may
from the imprints in books which come under his hand, from notices of a
few individual printers, and stray anecdotes and memoranda. Through this
almost pathless forest Mr. Plomer has threaded his way, and though the
road he has made may be broken and imperfect, the fact that a road
exists, which they can widen and mend, will be of incalculable advantage
to all students of printing.

Besides the indebtedness already stated to the works of Blades, Mr.
Gordon Duff, Mr. Arber, and Mr. Reed, acknowledgments are also due for
the help derived from Mr. Allnutt's papers on English Provincial
Printing (_Bibliographica_, vol. ii.) and Mr. Warren's history of the
Chiswick Press (_The Charles Whittinghams, Printers_; Grolier Club,
1896). Lest Mr. Plomer should be made responsible for borrowed faults,
it must also be stated that the account of the Kelmscott Press is mainly
taken from an article contributed to _The Guardian_ by the present
writer. The hearty thanks of both author and editor are due to Messrs.
Macmillan and Bowes for the use of two devices; to the Clarendon Press
for the three pages of specimens of the types given to the University of
Oxford by Fell and Junius; to the Chiswick Press for the examples of the
devices and ornamental initials which the second Whittingham
reintroduced, and for the type-facsimiles of the title-page of the book
with which he revived the use of old-faced letters; to Messrs. Macmillan
for the specimen of the Macmillan Greek type, and to the Trustees of Mr.
William Morris for their grant of the very exceptional privilege of
reproducing, with the skilful aid of Mr. Emery Walker, two pages of
books printed at the Kelmscott Press.

That the illustrations are profuse at the beginning and end of the book
and scanty in the middle must be laid to the charge of the printers of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in whose work good ornament
finds no place. It was due to Caslon and Baskerville to insert their
portraits, though they can hardly be called works of art. That of Roger
L'Estrange, which is also given, may suggest, by its more prosperous
look, that in the evil days of the English press its Censor was the
person who most throve by it.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.

[Illustration: Decorative]

CONTENTS AND LIST OF PLATES