Paper & paper making, ancient and modern / by Richard Herring: With introduction, by the Rev. George Croly, L.L.D.

  • Herring, Richard, 1829-
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Paper & paper making, ancient and modern / by Richard Herring: With introduction, by the Rev. George Croly, L.L.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND. can we match the purity of Venice glasses, and yet many green ones are blo^vn in Sussex, profit¬ able to the makers, and convenient to the users, our home-spun paper might be found ])eneficial.” With reference to any particular time or jplace 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 attri¬ buted to Sir John Spielman, a German, who estab¬ lished 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 license ‘‘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. Shakespeare, in the second part of his play of Henry the Sixth, the plot of which appears laid at least a century previously, refers to a paper miU. 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 cor¬ rupted,” 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