FROM TITLE-PAGE. "THE SCOTTISH ART REVIEW" (SCOTT, 1889).] [Sidenote: THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.] But the field for extensive artistic experiment in these directions was tolerably clear when Mr. William Morris turned his attention to printing, and, in 1891, founded the Kelmscott Press. So far as I am aware, he has been the first to approach the craft of practical printing from the point of view of the artist, and although, no doubt, the fact of being a man of letters as well was an extra advantage, his particular success in the art of printing is due to the former qualification. A long and distinguished practice as a designer in other matters of decorative art brought him to the nice questions of type design, its place upon the page, and its relation to printed ornament and illustration, peculiarly well equipped; while his historic knowledge and discrimination, and the possession of an extraordinarily rich and choice collection of both mediæval MSS. and early printed books afforded him an abundant choice of the best models. In the results which have been produced at the Kelmscott press we trace the effect of all these influences, acting under the strongest personal predilection, and a mediæval bias (in an artistic sense) which may be said to be almost exclusive. The Kelmscott roman type ("golden") perhaps rather suggests that it was designed to anticipate and to provide against the demand of readers or book fanciers who could stand nothing else than roman, while the heart of the printer really hankered after black letter. But compare this "golden" type with most modern lower case founts, up to the date of its use, and its advantages both in form and substance are remarkable. Modern type, obeying, I suppose, a resistless law of evolution, had reached, especially with American printers, the last stage of attenuation. The type of the Kelmscott press is an emphatic and practical protest against this attenuation; just as its bold black and white ornaments and decorative woodcuts in open line are protests against the undue thinness, atmospheric effect, and diaphanous vignetting by photographic process and tone-block of much modern illustration, which may indeed _illustrate_, but does not _ornament_ a book. The paper, too, hand-made, rough-surfaced, and tough, is in equally strong contrast to the shiny hot-pressed machine-made paper, hitherto so much in vogue for the finer kinds of printing, and by which it alone became possible. The two kinds--the two ideals of printing--are as far apart as the poles. Those who like the smooth and thin, will not like the bold and rough; but it looks as if the Kelmscott standard had marked the turn of the tide, and that, judging from the signs of its influence upon printers and publishers generally, the feeling is running strongly in that direction. (One would think the human eyesight would benefit also.) This is the more remarkable since the Kelmscott books are by no means issued at "popular