49 



have been derived the names of pot, post, and foolscap, now 

 employed to distinguish the different sorts. 



Throughout the whole of the period above mentioned, and for 

 some time after, the produce of the English paper-mills was 

 exceedingly inferior to that made in France, Italy, and Flanders. 

 From these countries, therefore, our supplies were for the most 

 part drawn. It Avould appear, however, that the work of Bar- 

 tholomens, Be Proprietatibus Rerum, was somewhere about the 

 year 1496, (for the date is not inserted,) printed on paper of a 

 good quality, made in England, by Jolin Tate the younger. The 

 mark of the said paper was a wheel or star of eight points 

 within a double circle. In the year 1588, one Spielman, 

 erected a mill at Dartmouth; but it is probable that his manu- 

 facture was suitable for packing, &c., merely. Sir Gardiner 

 Wilkinson, in Ms work on Egypt, asserts, that "paper for writ- 

 ing or printing was not made in London before the year 1690. 

 Fac-similes, of a great variety of old paper marks are given 

 in a memoir by the Rev. Samuel Denne, No. 14, in the 12th 

 volume of the Archceologia. 



Most of the paper of the present day, though fair in its 

 appearance, is considerably inferior to that of former ages, and 

 is evidently made to be sold cheap. Extraneous substances, 

 such as plaster of paris, are sometimes mixed with the pulp, 

 and the strength of the article is injured by the improper 

 application of the chlorides for the purpose of bleaching it. 

 The article made in Kent has been long considered the best. 

 The worst is produced in the northern parts of England, 

 where cotton-waste or " devil's-dust" is much used, the price 

 being as low as Id. up to 2id. ^ lb. Samples of this cotton- 

 waste were exhibited by Mr. Yates, who tested, in presence 

 of the Society, by weighing, &c, the inferiority of modern 

 paper to that of the olden time. He also produced, in illus- 

 tration, as he went along, numerous specimens taken by him 

 from manuscripts and printed books of the several periods 



adverted to. 



