Note 448 — Chapter XI · WILLIAM CASLON, 1720.

The following sketch of William Caslon is mainly taken, and in parts quoted, from the interesting particulars of his career preserved in Nichols’ Anecdotes of Bowyer and the larger work into which that was subsequently expanded. The elder Bowyer’s intimate connection with Caslon’s first ventures in letter-founding give Nichols’ work a special authority in the matter. At the same time there exists a certain confusion in the earlier part of the narrative which it is difficult completely to harmonise.