As usual there is something to be said on both sides, but leaving this debateable ground we will only add that the _Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_, translated by himself from the French, is generally considered to be the first book printed by Caxton, perhaps with Mansion's help, and probably at Bruges, and in or about the year 1475. It is also the first printed book in English. It was followed about 1476 by the French version of the same work, and by the famous _Game and Play of the Chesse Moralised_. This was once believed to be the first book printed on English soil, but it is now assigned to Caxton's press on the Continent, probably at Bruges. About 1476 Caxton returned to England, and set up his press at Westminster. It has been asserted that he worked in the scriptorium, but it is not known that Westminster Abbey ever had a scriptorium. Others have thought that he printed in some other part of the Abbey. His office, however, was situated in the Almonry, in the Abbey precincts, and was called the Red Pale, but it is now impossible to identify the place where it stood. In 1477 Caxton produced _The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres_, the first book, so far as is known, ever printed in England. [Illustration: TYPE OF CAXTON'S DICTES OR SAYENGIS OF THE PHILOSOPHRES, WESTMINSTER, 1477 (_exact size._)] The Westminster printer was patronised by the king and by the mighty of the land, and also by the Duchess of Burgundy, and with his pen, as well as with his press, he sought to supply the books and literature which the taste of the time demanded. "The clergy wanted service-books," says Mr Blades, "and Caxton accordingly provided them with psalters, commemorations and directories; the preachers wanted sermons, and were supplied with the 'Golden Legend,' and other similar books; the 'prynces, lordes, barons, knyghtes & gentilmen' were craving for 'joyous and pleysaunt historyes' of chivalry, and the press at the 'Red Pale' produced a fresh romance nearly every year." From his arrival at Westminster about 1476 until his death about 1491--the date is not exactly known--Caxton was continually occupied in translating, editing, and printing, though beyond the prologues, epilogues, and colophons to his various publications he composed little himself, his principal work being the addition of a book to Higden's _Polychronicon_, bringing that history down to 1460. His translations number twenty-two. The long list of his printed works includes a _Horæ_, printed about 1478, and now represented only by a fragment, which is of great interest as being probably the earliest English-printed service-book extant. It was found in the cover of another old book, and is now in the Bodleian Library.