true,
as ARUN remarks, that the introduction of Abbot Islip's name is traced
up to Stow in the year 1603: and, as Mr. Knight has observed, "the
careful historian of London here committed one error," because John
Islip did not become Abbot of Westminster until 1500. The entire passage
of Stow has been quoted by DR. RIMBAULT in "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol.
ii., p. 99.; it states that in the Almonry--

"Islip, abbot of Westminster, erected the first press of
book-printing that ever was in England, about the year 1471."

Now, it appears that the various authors of repute, who have given the
point their consideration, as the editor of Dugdale's _Monasticon_ (Sir
Henry Ellis), and Mr. Cunningham in his _Handbook_, affirm that it is
John Esteney who became abbot in 1474 or 1475, and not Thomas Milling,
who was abbot in 1471, whose name should be substituted for that of
Islip. In that case, Stowe committed two errors instead of one; he was
wrong in his date as well as his name. It is to this point that I
directed my remarks, which are printed in Vol. ii., p. 142. We have
hitherto no evidence that Caxton {234} printed at Westminster before the
year 1477, six years later than mentioned by Stow.

JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.

* * * * *

THE USE OF COFFINS.

The Query of H.E. (Vol. i., p. 321.) seems to infer that the use of
coffins may be only a modern custom. In book xxiii., chapters i. and
ii., of Bingham's _Antiquities of the Christian Church_, H.E. will find
ample proof of the very early use of coffins. During the first three
centuries of the Church, one great distinction betwixt Heathens and
Christians was, that the former burned their dead, and placed the bones
and ashes in urns; whilst the latter always buried the corpse, either in
a coffin or, embalmed, in a catacomb; so that it might be restored at
the last day from its original dust. There have frequently been dug out
of the barrows which contain Roman urns, ancient British stone coffins.
Bede mentions that the Saxons buried their dead in wood. Coffins both of
lead and iron were constructed at a very early period. When the royal
vaults at St. Denis were desecrated, during the first French revolution,
coffins were exposed that had lain there for ages.

Notwithstanding all this, it appears to be the case that, both in the
Norman and English periods, the common people of this country were often
wrapped in a sere-cloth after death, and so