or do we know how long he occupied the Long Shop. In
1542 Richard Kele's name is found in a _Primer in Englysh_, which was
issued from this house. He may have been some relation to the Thomas
Kele who, in 1526, had occupied John Rastell's house, the Mermaid, as
stated by Bonham in his evidence. During 1543, in company with Byddell,
Grafton, Middleton, Mayler, Petit, and Lant, Richard Kele was imprisoned
in the Poultry Compter for printing unlawful books (_Acts of Privy
Council_, New Series, vol. i. pp. 107, 117, 125). Most of the books that
bear his name came from the presses of William Seres, Robert Wyer, and
William Copland. Perhaps the most interesting of his publications next
to the edition of Chaucer, which he shared with Toye and Bonham, are the
series of poems by John Skelton, called _Why Come ye not to Courte?_
_Colin Clout_, and _The Boke of Phyllip Sparowe_. They were issued in
octavo form, and were evidently very hastily turned out from the press,
type, woodcuts, and workmanship being of the worst description. At the
end of _Colin Clout_ is a woodcut of a figure at a desk, supposed to
represent the author, but it is doubtful whether it is anything more
than an old block with his name cut upon it.

Looking back over the work done at this time, it is impossible to avoid
the conclusion that the art of printing in England had much deteriorated
since the days of Pynson, while the best of it, even that of Berthelet,
could not be compared with that of the continental presses of the same
period. There was an entire absence of originality among the English
printers. Types, woodcuts, initial letters, ornaments, and devices, were
obtained by the printers from abroad, and had seen some service before
their arrival in this country. But just at this time a printer came to
the front in this country, who for a few years placed the art on a
higher footing than any of his predecessors.

[Footnote 3: The _Registers of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars_, edited
by W. J. C. Moens (Introduction, pp. xiii.-xiv.).]

[Illustration: FIG. 17.--John Day.]

CHAPTER IV

JOHN DAY

John Day, one of the best and most enterprising of printers, was born in
the year 1522 at Dunwich, in Suffolk, a once flourishing town, now
buried beneath the sea.

From the fact that Day was in possession of a device found in the books
of Thomas Gibson, the printer whom Latimer unsuccessfully recommended to
Cromwell, it has been supposed that