INTRODUCTION
 

I.
 

HEN did the word Stationer come
into popular use in England?
We have already adduced at I.
xxi, certain though inferential
proof of the existence of the
Craft of the Stationers so early
as the 3rd August 1510: but
how soon before that did the word,
and the business it represented,
find a home in this country?
We cannot precisely tell.

The late Mr John Grough Nichols,
E.S.A., read a paper* at a meet¬
ing of the London and Middlesex
Archaeological Society at Station¬
ers' Hall on the 12th April 1860 ;
which is the best account of the later history of the Company as his grand¬
father's Notes, quoted by us at I. xxii, are the best of its earlier history.

* Also separately published under the title of Historical Notices of the Worshipful Company of
Stationers of London, with descriptions of their hall, pictures and plate, and their ancient seal of arms.
MDCCCLXl.

II. 5