4 FISHES AND FISHING. 



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, scroUes 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 I.). 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 Vallans'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 "DeProprietatibusRerum,** 

 printed by Wynkyn de Worde, about 1495 ; at the 

 end are these lines : — 



