4 DISHES AND PISHING. 



Paper Myll built near Dartfoord, by an high Ger- 

 maine, called Master Spilman, Jeweller to the 

 Queenes Majestie." According to the Harleian MS., 

 2296, a special license was granted in 1589 to John 

 Spilman, "for the gatheringe of all manner of linen 

 ragges, scrolles or scrappes of parchment, peace o 

 lyme leather, shredds and clippings of cardes, and 

 oulde fishinge nettes, fitte and necessarie for the 

 makinge of all or anie sorte or sortes of white wright- 

 inge paper for the space of tenne years next ensuing," 

 Spilman was knighted by James I. in 1605, and not 

 by Queen Elizabeth as is commonly said (see Nichols' 

 Progresses of James /.). Churchyard alludes to a 

 paper-mill built by Sir Thomas Gresham ; this was 

 most likely in Osterly Park. But the priority is to be 

 claimed for Hertford; that one was standing there in 

 the reign of Henry the Seventh, is clearly proved by 

 three independent authorities. 1st. One of the notes 

 to Yallans's " Tale of Two Swannes, 1590," affirms that 

 in 1507 there was a paper-mill at Hertford, and be 

 longed to John Tate, whose father was Mayor of Lon 

 don. 2nd. This John Tate is shewn to have been the 

 first paper-maker in England, in a very valuable work 

 in the British Museum, the English translation of 

 Bartholomew Glanvile's " De Proprietatibus Rerum," 

 printed by Wynkyn de "VVorde, about 1495 ; at the 

 end are these lines : 



