s of foreign military
service by English and Scotish officers during the English operations
in the Netherlands under Elizabeth and during the Thirty Years' War.
The foreign sources of English books, or books written by or about
English, Scotish, and Irish folk, have been--
Aire
Amsterdam
Antwerp
Arras
Augsburg
Basle
Bologna
Boulogne
Breda
Bruges
Brussels
Constantinople
Dort
Florence
Flushing
Geneva
Ghent
Gouda
Haarlem
Leipsic
Leyden
Lyons
Malines
Middelburg
Milan
Munich
Munster
Paris
Parma
Pisa
Rome
Rotterdam
Strasburg-in-Elsass
The Hague
Tournai
Utrecht
Venice
Vevey
Wesel
Zuerich
It is always to be borne in mind that these adjuncts at the foot of
title-pages in troubled periods are not unfrequently fictitious; and
we have elsewhere equally shown that Greenwich and Waterford are names
appended to early controversial works of which the writers desired to
conceal the real parentage.
Of English presses it might seem almost superfluous to speak; but in
fact the typographical fortunes of London have experienced their flux
and reflux. At first we find the City itself in sole possession of the
industry and privilege; then Westminster came; thirdly, Southwark. Of
the provincial places of origin, Oxford appears to have been the
foremost, and was followed at intervals by York, Cambridge,
Canterbury, Ipswich, Worcester, and other centres, of which some
preserved their reputation down to comparatively recent times, while
Oxford and Cambridge of course remain important and busy seats of
printing. Beverley, Nottingham, Derby, Northampton, Bristol,
Birmingham, Gateshead, and Newcastle-on-Tyne have never been more than
occasional sources of literary production, and certain towns, such as
Lincoln and Gainsborough, are only known from local or small popular
efforts; there is an edition of _Robin Hood's Garland_ with the
Gainsborough imprint. One or two publications purporting to have been
executed at Sherborne in Dorsetshire belong to the firm of William
Bowyer of London.
There was a distinct centralising tendency at a later period, by which
the English metropolis absorbed the principal share of work, and it
was followed, owing to economical causes, by a reaction which we know
to be at present in full force, and which has restored to the
provinces, but to new localities, Bungay, Guildford, Bristol, no less
than Edinburgh and Aberdeen, an appreciable proportion of the custom
of the London publ
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