PAPER, MANUFACTURE OF 495 



horn, to which circumstance no doubt we may attribute its introduction. The mark 

 is still frequently used, but the same change which has so much diminished the 

 number of painted signs in the streets of our towns and cities, has nearly made 

 paper-marks a matter of antiquarian curiosity; the maker's name being now generally 

 used, and the mark, in the few instances where it still remains, serving the purpose of 

 mere ornament, rather than that of distinction. 



Water-marks, however, have at various periods boon the means of detecting frauds, 

 forgeries and impositions, in our courts of law and elsewhere, to say nothing of the 

 protection they afford in the instances already referred to, such as bank notes, 

 cheques, receipt, bill, and postage-stamps. The celebrated Curran once distin- 

 guished himself in a case which he had undertaken by shrewdly referring to the 

 water-mark, which effectually determined the verdict. And another instance, which 

 may be introduced in the form of an amusing anecdote, occurred once at Messina, 

 where the monks of a certain monastery exhibited, with great triumph, a letter as 

 being written by the Virgin Mary with her own hand. Unluckily for them, how- 

 ever, this was not, as it easily might have been, written upon the ancient papyrus, 

 but on paper made of rags. On one occasion a visitor, to whom this was shown, 

 observed, with affected solemnity, that the letter involved also a miracle, for the 

 paper on which it was written was not in existence until several centuries after the 

 mother of our Lord had died. 



A further illustration of the kind occurs in a work entitled ' Ireland's Confessions," 

 which was published respecting his fabrication of the Shakspeare manuscripts, a 

 literary forgery even still more remarkable than that which is said to have been 

 perpetrated by Chatterton, as Rowley's Poems. 



The interest which at the time was universally felt in this production of Ireland's 

 may be partially gathered from the fact, that the whole of the original edition, which 

 appeared in the form of a shilling pamphlet, was disposed of in a few hours ; while so 

 great was the eagerness to obtain copies afterwards, that single impressions were sold 

 in an auction-room at the extravagant price of a guinea. 



This gentleman tells us, atone part of his explanation, that the sheet of paper which 

 he used was the outside of several others, on some of which accounts had been kept 

 in the reign of Charles the First ; and being at that time wholly unacquainted with 

 the water-marks used in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, ' I carefully selected (says ho) 

 two half-sheets, not having any mark whatever, on which I penned my first effusion.' 

 A few pages further on, he writes ' Being thus urged forward to the production of 

 more manuscripts, it became necessary that I should possess a sufficient quantity of 

 old paper to enable me to proceed ; in consequence of which I applied to a bookseller, 

 named Verey, in Great May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane, who, for the sum of five 

 shillings, suffered me to take from all the folio and quarto volumes in his shop the fly- 

 leaves which they contained. By this means I was amply stored with that commo- 

 dity ; nor did I fear any mention of the circumstance by Mr. Verey, whose quiet un- 

 suspecting disposition, I was well convinced, would never lead him to make the 

 transaction public, in addition to which he was not likely even to know anything 

 concerning the supposed Shakspcarian discovery by myself, and even if he had, I do 

 not imagine that my purchase of the old paper in question would have excited in him 

 the smallest degree of suspicion. As I was fully aware, from the variety of water- 

 marks which are in existence at the present day, that they must have constantly been 

 altered since the period of Elizabeth, and being for some time wholly unacquainted 

 with the water-marks of that age, I very carefully produced my first specimens of the 

 writing on such sheets of old paper as had no mark whatever. Having heard 

 it frequently stated that the appearances of such marks on the papers would have 

 greatly tended to establish their validity, I listened attentively to every remark 

 which was made upon the subject, and from thence I at length gleaned the intelli- 

 gence that a jug was the prevalent water-mark of the reign of Elizabeth, in conse- 

 quence of which I inspected all the sheets of old paper then in my possession, 

 and having selected such as had the jug upon them, I produced the succeeding 

 manuscripts upon these, being careful, however, to mingle with them a certain 

 number of blank leaves, that the production on a sudden of so many water-marks 

 might not excite suspicion in the breasts of those persons who were most conversant 

 with the manuscripts.' 



Thus, this notorious literary forgery, through tho cunning ingenuity of the per- 

 petrator, ultimately proved so successful as to deceive many learned and able critics 

 of the age. Indeed, on one occasion a kind of certificate was drawn up, stating 

 that the undersigned names were affixed by gentlemen who entertained no doubt 

 whatever as to the validity of the Shakspearian production, and that they voluntarily 

 gave such public testimony of their convictions upon the subject. To this document 



