482 PAPER, MANUFACTURE OP 



stoves adjacent to each vat. The workman dips his mould, -which is sometimes formed 

 merely of bulrushes, cut in narrow strips, and mounted in a frame, into the vat, and 

 then raises it out again, the water passing off through the perforations in the bottom, 

 and the pulpy paper-stuff remaining on its surface. The frame of the mould is then 

 removed, and the bottom is pressed against the sides of one of the stoves, so as to 

 make the sheet of paper adhere to its surface, and allow the sieve (as it were) to be 

 withdrawn. The moisture, of course, speedily evaporates by the warmth of the stove, 

 but before the paper is quite dry, it is brushed over on its outer surface with a size 

 made of rice, which also soon dries, and the paper is then stripped off in a finished 

 state, having one surface exquisitely smooth, it being seldom the practice of the 

 Chinese to write or print on both sides of the paper. While all this is taking place, 

 the moulder has made a second sheet, and pressed it against the side of the other 

 stove, where it undergoes the operation of sizing and drying, precisely as in the 

 former case. 



That very delicate material, which is brought from China in pieces only a few 

 inches square, and commonly, but erroneously, termed rice paper, is in reality but 

 the pith of the Aralia papyrifera, obtained by cutting the stem spirally round 

 the axis, and afterwards flattening it by pressure. That it is not an artificial 

 production may very readily be perceived by contrasting one of the more trans- 

 lucent specimens with a piece of the finest manufactured paper, by the aid of the 

 microscope. 



The precise period at which the manufacture of paper was first introduced into 

 Europe appears to be rather a matter of uncertainty. Paper-mills, moved by water- 

 power, were in operation in Tuscany at the commencement of the fourteenth century ; 

 and at Nuremberg, in Germany, one was established in 1390, by Ulrnan Stromer, 

 who wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper-making. He seems to 

 have employed a great number of persons, all of whom were obliged to take an oath 

 that they would not teach any one the art of paper-making, or make it on their own 

 account. In the following year, when anxious to increase the means of its produc- 

 tion, he met with such strong opposition from those he employed, who would not 

 consent to any enlargement of the mill, that it became at length requisite to bring 

 them before the magistrates, by whom they were imprisoned, after which they sub- 

 mitted by renewing their oaths. Two or three centuries later, we find the Dutch, in 

 like manner, so extremely jealous with respect to the manufacture, as to prohibit the 

 exportation of moulds, under no less severe a penalty than that of death. 



With reference to any particular time or place at which this inestimable invention 

 was first adopted in England, all researches into existing records contribute little to 

 our assistance. The first paper-mill erected here is commonly attributed to Sir John 

 Spielman, a German, who established one in 1588, at Dartford, for which the honour 

 of knighthood was afterwards conferred upon him by Queen Elizabeth, who was also 

 pleased to grant him a licence 'for the sole gathering for ten years of all rags, &c., 

 necessary for the making of such paper.' It is, however, quite certain that paper- 

 mills were in existence here long before Spielman's time. Shakspeare, in the Second 

 Part of Henry the Sixth, the plot of which appears laid at least a century pre- 

 viously, refers to a paper-mill. In fact, he introduces it as an additional weight 

 to the charge which Jack Cade is made to bring against Lord Say : ' Thou hast most 

 traitorously corrupted,' says he, ' the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar 

 school : and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the 

 tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and 

 dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.' 



The earliest trace of the manufacture in this country occurs in a book printed by 

 Caxton, about the year 1490, in which it is said of John Tate 



Which late hathe in England doo make thya paper thynne, 

 That now in onr Englyssh thys booke is printed inne.' 



His mill was situate at or near Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, and that it was con- 

 sidered worthy of especial notice is evident from an entry made in Henry the 

 Seventh's Household Book, on May 25, 1498 'For a rowardc geven at the paper- 

 mylne, 16s. 8^.' And again in 1499 ' Geven in rewarde to Tate of the inyhu>, 

 6*. 8d.' 



Still, it appears far less probable that Shakspearo alluded to this mill, although 

 established at a period corresponding in many respects with that of occurrences re- 

 ferred to in connection, than to that of Sir John Spielman'^, which, standing as it did 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Jack Cade's rebellion, and being esteemed so 

 important at the time as to call forth the marked patronage of Queen Elizabeth ; 

 while the extent of the operations carried on there, if wo may judge from the 



