tain pages were worn out or battered in the course of printing, these small discrepancies are accounted for by the resetting which was thus rendered necessary.

Mr. Figgins's observations, as those of a practical and experienced man, are entitled to respectful consideration: but, if we may trust our own eyes, we think that he has come to a wrong conclusion in supposing that the types used in The Game of Chesse, and others of Caxton's books, were not cast but cut. It is true there are many varieties of type, but all those varieties may be traced perpetually recurring, just as in any modern piece of printing: and any other apparent variations we are inclined to attribute to the imperfect press-work and the bad usage which has just been described.

Mr. Figgins has now cut, and cast, a fount of Caxton types: and, in order to do so, he has taken as his model those used in the second edition of The Game of the Chesse, presuming that to have been the first book that Caxton printed in this country. He describes the original as a mixture of black-letter and the character called secretary, with all the shades of modification and approximation to each other of which the two styles are capable; but, finding the black-letter and its approximations predominate, he has endeavoured, while keeping between the two styles, to adhere more closely to the black-letter. But in pursuing his labours, and "in going through the book, as I have been obliged to do, word by word and letter by letter, I have found (he admits) several stray characters which induce me to think there must have been some intervening works for which other characters were required:"that is to say, Caxton had either previously printed some other books in this country, or else he had brought with him from Cologne, and employed in this book, certain types which he would not have cut on purpose for it, because they are introduced into

places where they are not actually required. These are the letters e, h, and marked for contractions' where no contraction really occurs. There are two varieties of the coupled letters ad,† each of which occurs but once, and there is also a single example of the Latin termination rum,t which was probably cut for some Latin book. These types would be required for the "Pies § of Salisbury use," and other work of that character, which Caxton had to execute for his patron the abbat of Westminster. The abbreviated y, or the, is however of undeniably English origin.

The ligatured letters, to which we have already alluded, are very numerous. Most of the consonants are coupled with the several vowels on a single type, and with some letters the plan is carried still further: thus we have united

cc ca ce ci co cr cu en er et

ta te th ti to tu, &c.

In the word rehercith we find only five types employed-re he r ci th: in treteth only four-t re te th in place only three-p la ce. Every individual type is faithfully followed in the present reprint.

Altogether, Mr. V. Figgins has cut 133 types of this Caxton fount, including two varieties of the capital C, and four points. We have no doubt that he will in some measure find his reward in the demand which will hereafter be made by persons desirous of reprinting some other specimens of our early printing. At present, he generously hands over all the profits that may arise from the present undertaking to the fund for the completion and endowment of the Almshouses for decayed Printers and their widows, which have been recently erected at Wood Green, Tottenham. We ought not to omit that, to render the fac-simile more complete, he has had paper manufactured in imitation of Caxton's, with a fac-simile of one of the contemporary water-marks.

Church.

MR. URBAN,-The introduction into the proceedings of a recent sitting of the Archæological Institute of Great Britain of a notice, as reported in the pages of Sylvanus Urban for August, that Herr Karl Bernhardi is prosecuting researches into the Life and Times of Saint Boniface, the British Apostle of Germany, is very gratifying to an English ear, and is a most comprehensive theme, if the subject be gone into with a proper appreciation of the difficulties of the undertaking, of the magnitude of the field, and the dignity of the hero.

It will embrace the "whole army of martyrs who left Britain shortly after the light of the Gospel had reached her shores to spread the glorious illumination through the cognate countries and nations of their brother Saxons, and it may be owing to a common language and nationality that their efforts were easier and more successful than any similar attempts from the nearer Gauls who had had the faith preached to them so much earlier.

Nor has Germany been, nor is she at present, unmindful of these benefits received from our countrymen. Throughout the entire space beyond the Elbe, and along the woody tracts of the Thüringer Wald, the name and acts of these pioneers of truth, but more particularly of Holy Boniface, are in the mouths of the peasantry, heightened frequently, by the exaggerations of time or a willing credulity, into the marvellous or impossible.

During fortunate periods of vacant rambling, it has been my pleasing occupation to follow the footsteps of this great civiliser wherever popular tradition supplies the defects of history, or where documentary evidence of the period confirms the doubtful traits of tradition. The notice of these peregrinations at places whose names rarely reach an English ear would form a pleasing retrospect, but too long for my present purpose. Ordruff, Altenstein, Ellrich, Hameln,

Geismar, Fulda are localities which lie out of the beaten tracts when an Englishman or Oxford travelling-Fellow contemplates his Germany, but from my point of view they were of the highest interest: nor inferior in attraction was the limpid well of Mummerswörde.* in Friesland, the last scene of the missionary labours of the saint; the appointed station of his martyrdom, and of that of his companions, by a horde of heathen savages. The bubbling fountain is said to have gushed out at the moment of the massacre, as if the indignant earth must weep at the unhallowed desecration. Curiously enough, a similar legend obtains in our own island for another Winifred, at Holywell, in Wales; but there the saint is female, and the number of springs, from a treble rebound of the head, when severed from the body, is threefold.

Nor have the more illustrious and better known traces, signa notæque pedum, of the Christian hero in Southern Germany, Mainz (Mayence), Eichstadt, Würzburg, München (Munich) been unvisited or unregarded. Amongst the noble temples they all contain, consecrated in honour of himself or associates, the most recent is the most remarkable and inagnificent,-that basilica which the capital of Bavaria owes to the piety and art-munificence of the ex-king Ludwig. Exclusive of the splendour of stupendous columns of polished granite and curious mosaics, of rich gilding and artistic carvings, the glorious series of frescoes with which the upper surfaces of the walls are filled surpasses all description. Their opening scene transports us to the humble roof at Crediton, in Devonshire, where the parents of the infant Winifred vow their babe to Christ and the Church if it recover from the lethal peril by which it was then assailed. It also contains the fulfilment of the vow. The destruction, at the peril of his life, of the Oak of Jove (Quercus Jovis), at Geismar, venerated by all the surrounding

tribes for the countless ages of which its knotted trunk and gnarled branches bore witness, is one of the most prominent acts of his mission, and the most successful efforts of Schraudorff's pencil. The final deposition of the remains of the martyr, brought miraculously to Fulda, worthily closes the series and his life: a grateful return by this aggregation of German art, of royal munificence, and devotion for early English benefits, paid during the first quarter of the present century.

This mindful feeling seems still to pervade our Teutonic kinsmen whenever an opportunity offers for avowal or display, as was witnessed in a remarkable instance in the early part of last June.

Our

The year and month of the martyr. dom of the saint are fixed by historical and contemporary evidence for June 755: the precise day is unascertained. present calendar, copied from those preceding the Reformation, fixes it for the fifth, but the piety or precision of catholic Germany, when it determined to celebrate the eleventh centenary of the consummation of their apostle, chose to extend the ceremony with a wider scope of time and a better chance of hitting the exact date: commencing therefore the rites at Fulda from the fifth to the twelfth; on the fifteenth to the twenty-second they were transferred to Mainz; to vary the scene and extend the benefits of a plenary indulgence granted by the Pope specially for the occasion to all who participated in their celebration. The scene of action thus embraced the greatest portion of the month, and two of the most leading fields of the deeds of the apostle-his final retreat and resting place, and the spot of his highest elevation.

At Fulda it was opened on the fifth by a solemn procession, graced by twentyfour archbishops and bishops of the principal Catholic sees of Germany and other countries. Amongst them is named the Bishop of Trapezunt (in partibus), as coadjutor and representative of Cardinal Wiseman, and of Catholic England, with the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, who subsequently mounted the pulpit to enlarge on the merits and sufferings of the saint. In the procession, and subsequently in the cathedral, the cherished relics of martyrdom, the saint's missal pierced through by the dagger of the assassins when he vainly offered it as a protection to his breast, and the dagger itself, with his bones and vestments, were exposed to the piety or curiosity of the public which crowded the otherwise deserted streets of Fulda, now but a provincial town of Elec

toral Hesse. The remainder of the week was filled up with religious offices in the cathedral, to the glorification of an Englishman. Their adjournment to Mainz, on the fifteenth, has already been noticed, with the same imposing array of the hierarchy, and, because on a greater field, with a more fervent display of piety and devotion in the people. At Mainz a grand row of buildings along the Rhine offered an almost unrivalled expanse of front for embellishment and display; the weather and the season were propitious for the most beautiful as well as the most innocent of Catholic adornment, in a grand exhibition of floral crowns and festooned wreaths, mixed with gorgeous tapestry and bright streamers, floating from the roofs and across the streets. As these huge buildings are the principal hotels, mine host could here combine something of interest with piety, and, calculating that his superior splendour would evidence superior piety, thus lure the priestly and devout to a preference of his hostel. It must not be however supposed that the fervour of the occasion was confined in its demonstration to this favoured spot. The whole city had taken up the impulse with zeal and ardour; the humblest cottage, the highest garret, was garnished with a newly-furbished saint, protruded as sign of Catholicity and Faith; countless multitudes from all parts of the diocese filled the vacant space in front of the cathedral, to welcome the spiritual cavalcade which issued forth from the beautiful portal of the metropolitan fane, shining in its curiously red stone, to hail their good bishops, and be participant of such increased twenty-four fold opportunity of episcopal benediction. I could enlarge upon the various church offices, the choral rejoicings, and the nightly illuminations which filled up the celebrations of the entire week, with great enjoyment to the casual visitor, and no doubt great edification to the faithful, but my paper admonishes me to conclude. I may however just mention one single remark made by, no doubt, a Protestant tourist, that in the floral display already mentioned the fourthcentenary statue of Guttenberg, erected in honour of the discovery of Printing by metal types on its immediate site, did not escape a profuse adornment: so profuse, slily notes the traveller, that the Bible which is given in his hand became completely hidden, whether by accident or design the writer will not determine.

Yours, &c.

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.