1822.1 Printing on Coloured Paper recommended. 493 
To the Editor of ike Monthly Magazine. 
-SIR, 
PJHHE improvement recently made, in 
JL the colour of the covers of your 
world, recalls to my mind an idea which 
has sometimes occurred to me, of an 
improvement that may ha effected in 
paper used for printing. It will be ob¬ 
servable to any one making the compa¬ 
rison, that writing or printing of the 
same strength and body, on a fair white 
sheet of paper, is less legible, and the 
eye sooner fatigued in reading it, than 
on a sheet grown brown by age; and 
the reason of this is not difficult to dis¬ 
cover. A greater quantity of light 
being reflected from the white paper, 
the pupil of the eye contracts so much, 
as to render vision less distinct, and the 
effort greater. This fact ought to lead 
us to the practice of tinging paper in¬ 
tended to be printed upon with a slight 
shade of colouring* which would at 
once render it inore pleasing to the 
reader, and less subject to be discolour¬ 
ed by age or use. 
To this hint permit me to add ano¬ 
ther. Where hot pressure is to be used, 
we may avail ourselves with great ad¬ 
vantage of the difference of specific 
caloric that bodies possess; as in the 
specific caloric of sand and iron, for in¬ 
stance: taking equal bulks of each, 
raised to the same degree of tempera¬ 
ture, the former will contain much 
more heat than the latter. If, then, we 
suppose two irons used for the common 
domestic purpose of smoothing linen, 
one of which is made of solid iion, and 
tlie other of a hollow shell of iron filled 
with sand, and the two are raised to 
the same temperature, that containing 
sand, owing to the difference of specific 
caloric and conducting power, will re¬ 
tain its heat much longer than the 
one of solid iron. Sand or stone heaters 
may also he applied to tea urns, and a 
variety of other domestic uses ; besides 
their application to hot-pressing in se¬ 
veral departments of our manufactures. 
There is no better means of drying spe*- 
cimens of plants collected by the bota¬ 
nist, than laying them between two 
sheets of paper, and covering the up¬ 
permost with hot sand. B. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BEG leave to offer what appears to 
me a more probable solution to the 
fawn’s head being found in (he body of 
a tree, than the one given by your cor¬ 
respondent Mr. Welch, although I am 
indebted to this gentleman for the idea 
I suggest. 
What Mr. Welch says of the practice 
of cutting the tops of young trees to 
make them pollards, I am well ac¬ 
quainted with, as well as another prac¬ 
tice, which, coupled with tiiis, may 
serve to account for the extraordinary 
circumstance recorded in your Maga¬ 
zine. 
I well remember when a boy, a prac¬ 
tice very general, and not infrequent 
now, for those who had the charge of a 
flock of ewes in the lambing season, to 
throw the dead and cast lambs into 
bushes'or pollards, such as Mr. Welch 
describes, standing a considerable 
height from the ground, in order to pre¬ 
vent their being eaten by dogs. May it 
not, therefore, be probable that the 
fawn might have been thrown info one 
of these young pollards, of which the 
top was omitted to be again cut, a cir¬ 
cumstance frequently seen ; and by the 
head’s resting in the crown of the pol¬ 
lard after the body had decayed, and 
the leading stem having grown over and 
completely covered the crown of the 
tree, account for the head being found 
in the body after the tree had grown to 
maturity ? * W. 
Near Sittingbourne , Nov. 6,1821. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PRESENT STATE of EAYHAM and 
PENSHURST. 
B AYHAM, the seat of the Marquis 
Camden, is pleasantly situated 
on the borders of Sussex, about six 
miles' distance from Tunbridge Wells ; 
and is an object of general attraction 
on. account of the line ruins of the 
abbey, a noble, edifice of the gothic 
order of architecture. This abbey was 
built (as appears by an inscription on 
a large stone near the altar) in the 
reign of Richard I. A. D. 1190, by ESa 
de Sackville, of Buekhurst, for the 
White or Premonstratensian canons, a 
religious sect instituted at Prdmontre, 
in France, about the year 1120, and 
introduced into England in 1146. From 
the extent of ground which the ruins 
occupy, this monastery must have been 
of the largest dimensions. The prin¬ 
cipal walls and a few arches only are 
now left standing, but the plan of the 
interior can be distinctly traced ; par¬ 
ticularly the chapel, refectory, confes¬ 
sional, cloisters, &c. To the spectator 
the remains of this stupendous pile 
present an air of gloomy solemnity 
and grandeur; nor can the eye repose 
