Various
Notes and Queries, Number 59, December 14, 1850

NOTES

THE FIRST PAPER-MILL IN ENGLAND

In the year 1588, a paper-mill was established at Dartford, in Kent, by John Spilman, "jeweller to the Queen." The particulars of this mill are recorded in a poem by Thomas Churchyard, published shortly after its foundation, under the following title:—

"A description and playne discourse of paper, and the whole benefits that paper brings, with rehearsall, and setting foorth in verse a paper-myll built near Darthforth, by an high Germaine, called Master Spilman, jeweller to the Queene's Majyestie."

The writer says:

"(Then) he that made for us a paper-mill,
Is worthy well of love and worldes good will,
And though his name be Spill-man, by degree,
Yet Help-man now, he shall be called by mee.
Six hundred men are set at work by him,
That else might starve, or seeke abroade their bread;
Who now live well, and go full brave and trim,
And who may boast they are with paper fed."

In another part of the poem Churchyard adds:

"An high Germaine he is, as may be proovde,
In Lyndoam Bodenze, borne and bred,
And for this mille, may heere be truly lovde,
And praysed, too, for deep device of head."

It is a common idea that this was the first paper-mill erected in England; and we find an intelligent modern writer, Mr. J.S. Burn, in his History of the Foreign Refugees, repeating the same erroneous statement. At page 262, of his curious and interesting work be says:

"The county of Kent has been long famed for its manufacture of paper. It was at Dartford, in this county, that paper was first made in England."

But it is proved beyond all possibility of doubt that a paper-mill existed in England almost a century before the date of the establishment at Dartford. In Henry VII.'s Household Book, we have the following:—

"1498. For a rewarde geven at the pulper-mylne, 16s. 8d."

Again:—

"1499. Geven in rewarde to Tate of the Mylne, 6s. 8d."

And in Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1495, mention is made of a paper-mill near Stevenage, in the county of Hertford, belonging to JOHN TATE the younger, which was undoubtedly the "mylne" visited by Henry VII.

The water-mark used by John Tate was an eight-pointed star within a double circle. In the twelfth volume of the Archæeologia, p. 114., is a variety of fac-similes of water-marks used by our early paper makers, exhibited in five large plates, but is not a little singular that the mark of John Tate is omitted.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

SPECIMENS OF FOREIGN ENGLISH

The accompanying specimens of foreign English you may perhaps consider worth a corner among the minor curiosities of literature:—

Basle.—

"Bains ordinaires et artificiels, tenu par B. Sigemund, Dr. in medicine, Basle. In this new erected establishment, which the Owner recommends best to all foreigners are to have,—Ordinary and artful baths, russia and sulphury bagnios, pumpings, artful mineral waters, gauze lemonads, fournished apartments for patients."

Cologne. Title-page in lithograph.

"Remembrance on the Cathedral of Cologne.—A collection of his most remarkable monumens, so as of the most artful ornamous and precious hilts of his renaconed tresory. Draconed and lithographed by Gerhardt Levy Elkan and Hallersch, collected by Gerhd. Emans."

Augsburg, Drei Mohren Hotel. Entry in travellers' book.

"January 28. 1815.—His Grace Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, &c. &c. &c. Great honour arrived at the beginning of this year to the three Moors: this illustrious warrior, whose glorious atchievements, which, cradled in Asia, have filled Europe with his renown, descended in it."

Mount Etna. Printed notice found attached to the wall of one of the rooms in the Casa degl' Inglesi, Mount Etna, October, 1844:

"In consequence of the damage suffered in the house called English set on the Etna for the reprehensible conduct of some persons there recovered, the following provisional regulations are prescribed, authorized, and granted to M. Gemmellaro¹, who has the key of the mentioned house for his labour, honour, and money spent to finish such edifice, besides his kind reception for travellers curious to visit the mountain.

I. Any person desirous to get the key of the house is requested to apply to M.G., and in case of his absence, to … signing his name, title, and country, in the same time tell the guide's and muleteer's name, just to drive away those have been so rough to spoil the moveables and destroy the stables … are the men to be particularly remarked.

II. Nobody is admitted without a certificate of M.G., which will assure to have received his name, &c. &c., except those are known by the fore-going strangers.

III. According to the afore-mentioned articles, nobody will take the liberty to go in the house and force the lock of the door: he will really suffer the most severe punishment fixed against violence.

IV. Is not permitted to any body to put mules in the rooms destined for the use of people, notwithstanding the insufficiency of stables. It is forbidden likewise to dirtes the walls with pencil or coal. M.G. will procure a blank book for those learned people curious to write their observations. A particular care must be taken for the moveables settled in the house.

V. The house must be left clean and without fire, to avoid conflagration; it is forbidden to leave rooms or windows opened, as the house has been lately damaged by the winds, snow, sand, &c. &c.; the aforementioned A.D., M.N. are imputed of negligence and malice: persons neglecting to execute the above article will be severely punished, and are obliged to pay damages and expences.

VI. As soon as the traveller returns at Nicolosi, either to S. Nicolo l'Arena, will immediately deliver the key to M.G., as it commonly happens that foreigners are waiting for it. A certificate must be likewise delivered, declaring that the afore-mentioned regulations have been exactly executed. It is likewise proper and just to reward M. Gem. for the expense of moveables, money, &c, &c., and for the advantage travellers may get to examine the Volcan, for better than Empedocli, Amodei, Fazelli, Brydon, Spallanzani, and great many others. M. Gemm. has lately been authorized to deny the key whenever is unkindly requested. He is also absolutely obliged to inform the gen. of the army, who is determined to punish with rigour their insolence."

Mount Sinai.—(On the fly-leaf of the travellers' book.)

"Here in too were inscribed as in one legend, all whose in the rule of the year come from different parts, different cities and countries, pilgrims and travellers of any different rank and religion or profession, for advise and notice thereof to their posterity, and even also in owr own of memory acknowledging. 1845, Mount Sinai."

VIATOR.

FOLK LORE

May-dew.—Every one has heard of the virtues of "May-dew," but perhaps the complex superstition following may be less generally known. A respectable tradesman's wife in this town (Launceston) tells me that the poor people here say that a swelling in the neck may be cured by the patient's going before sunrise, on the 1st of May, to the grave of the last young man who has been buried in the church-yard, and applying the dew, gathered by passing the hand three times from the head to the foot of the grave, to the part affected by the ailment.² This was told me yesterday in reply to a question, whether the custom of gathering "May-dew" is still prevailing here. I may as well add, that the common notion of improving the complexion by washing the face with the early dew in the fields on the 1st of May extensively prevails in these parts; and they say that a child who is weak in the back may be cured by drawing him over the grass wet with the morning dew. The experiment must be thrice performed, that is, on the mornings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of May. I find no allusion to these specific applications of "May-dew" in Ellis's Brand.

H.G.T.

Piskies.—An old woman, the wife of a respectable farmer at a place called "Colmans," in the parish of Werrington, near Launceston, has frequently told my informant before-mentioned of a "piskey" (for so, and not pixy, the creature is called here, as well as in parts of Devon) which frequently made its appearance in the form of small child in the kitchen of the farm-house, where the inmates were accustomed to set a little stool for it. It would do a good deal of household work, but if the hearth and chimney corner were not kept neatly swept, it would pinch the maid. The piskey would often come into the kitchen and sit on its little stool before the fire, so that the old lady had many opportunities of seeing it. Indeed it was a familiar guest in the house for many months. At last it left the family under these circumstances. One evening it was sitting on the stool as usual, when it suddenly started, looked up, and said,—

"Piskey fine, and Piskey gay,
Now Piskey! run away!"

and vanished; after which it never appeared again. This distich is the first utterance of a piskey I have heard.

The word "fine" put me in mind of the expression "fine spirit," "fine Ariel," &c., noticed by DR. KENNEDY lately in NOTES AND QUERIES (Vol. ii., p. 251.). It is worth notice that the people here seem to entertain no doubt as to the identity of piskies and fairies. Indeed I am told, that the old woman before mentioned called her guest indifferently "piskey" or "fairy."

The country people in this neighbourhood sometimes put a prayer-book under a child's pillow as a charm to keep away the piskies. I am told that a poor woman near Launceston was fully persuaded that one of her children was taken away and a piskey substituted, the disaster being caused by the absence of the prayer-book on one particular night. This story reminds me of the "killcrop."

H.G.T.

1. The dun cow of Dunsmore filled with milk every vessel that was brought to her till an envious witch tried to milk her in a sieve.

2. Lady Godiva.—A close-fitting dress might suggest the idea of nudity; but was not the horse borrowed from the warrior Lady of Mercia Ethelfleda?

3. CAN DU PLERA MELEOR CERA. Quand Dieu plaira meilleur sera. Charm on a ring, olim penes W. Hamper, F.A.S.

F.Q.

MINOR NOTES

Circulation of the Blood.—About twenty-five years since, being in a public library in France, a learned physician pointed out to me in the works of the Venerable Bede a passage in which the fact of the circulation of the blood appeared to him and myself to be clearly stated. I regret that I did not, at the time, "make a note of it," and that I cannot now refer to it, not having access to a copy of Bede: and I now mention it in hopes that some of your correspondents may think it worth while to make it a subject of research.

J. MN.

Culprit, Origin of the Word.—Long ago I made this note, that this much used English word was of French extraction, and that it was "qu'il paruit," from the short way the clerk of the court has of pronouncing his words; for our pleadings were formerly in French, and when the pleadings were begun, he said to the defendant "qu'il parait"—culprit; and as he was generally culpable, the "qu'il parait" became a synonyme with offender.

T.

Cambridge.

[Does not our ingenious correspondent point at the more correct origin of culprit, when he speaks of the defendant being "generally culpable?"]

Collar of SS.—In the volume of Bury Wills just issued by the Camden Society, is an engraving from the decorations of the chantry chapel in St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmund's, of John Baret, who died in 146-; in which the collar is represented as SS in the upright form set on a collar of leather or other material. It is described in the will as "my collar of the king's livery." John Baret, says the editor of the Wills, was a lay officer of the monastery of St. Edmund, probably treasurer, and was deputed to attend Henry VI. on the occasion of the king's long visit to that famed monastic establishment in 14—.

BURIENSIS.

The Singing of Swans.—"It would," says Bishop Percy (Mallet's North. Antiq., ii. p. 72.), "be a curious subject of disquisition, to inquire what could have given rise to so arbitrary and groundless a notion as the singing of swans," which "hath not wanted assertors from almost every nation." (Sir T. Browne.)

"Not in more swelling whiteness sails
Cayster's swan to western gales, ³
When the melodious murmur sings
'Mid her slow-heav'd voluptuous wings."

T.J.

Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs.—In consequence of the suggestion of Δ. (Vol. ii., p. 220.), I have applied to the owner of Sir T. Herbert's MS. account of the last days of Charles I., and the answer which I have received is as follows:

"I found the first part of Sir Thos. Herbert's MS. (56 pages) is not in the edition of Woods Athenæ Lord W. has; but I found a note in a pedigree book, saying it was printed in 1702, 8vo. I suppose it can be ascertained whether this is true."

Perhaps some of your readers may know whether there is such a volume in existence as that described by my friend.

ALFRED GATTY.

Portraits of Stevens and Cotton and Bunyan.—The plan of "NOTES AND QUERIES" appears well adapted to record the change of hands into which portraits of literary men may pass. I accordingly offer two to your notice.

The portrait of George Stevens, the celebrated annotator on Shakspeare, who died in 1800, was bequeathed by him to a relative, Mrs. Gomm of Spital Square; and at that lady's death, some years after, it passed, I have reason to expect, into the possession of her relative, Mr. Fince, of Bishopsgate Street. I have no farther information of it.

The portrait of Charles Cotton, by Sir Peter Lely, was, at the time (1814) when Linnell took a copy, and (in 1836) when Humphreys took a copy, in the possession of John Berisford, Esq., of Compton House, Ashborne, Derbyshire; and the following extracts of letters will show who at present possesses it:—

"Leek, 14th July, 1842.

"After Mr. Berisford's decease, I should think the portrait of Cotton would fall into the hands of his nephew Francis Wright, Esq., of Linton Hall, near Nottingham.

I am, &c. &c"

"Linton Hall, Aug. 19. 1842.

"Sir,—The Rev. J. Martin, of Trinity College, Cambridge, is the possessor of the portrait of Cotton to which your letter alludes. I am, Dear Sir,

"Yours, in haste,

"F. WRIGHT."

I avail myself of the present opportunity to ask the authority for the portrait of Bunyan appended to his ever-fresh allegory. The engraved portrait I have has not the name of the painter.

O.W.

Sonnet: Attempting to prove that Black is White.—
That white was really black, and black was white;
But I believe it has not yet been done.
Black (Saxon, Blac) in any way to liken
With candour may seem almost out of reach;
Yet whiten is in kindred German bleichen,
Undoubtedly identical with bleach:
This last verb's cognate adjective is bleak—
Reverting to the Saxon, bleak is blæk.*
A semivowel is, at the last squeak,
All that remains such difference wide to make—
The hostile terms of keen antithesis
Brought to an E plus ultra all but kiss!"

MEZZOTINTO.

Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks, 1626.—MR. HEBER says, "Who has seen another copy?" In Tanner's Collection in the Bodleian Library is one copy, and in the British Museum is another, the latter from Mr. Bright's Collection.

W.P.

[Another copy is in the valuable collection of the Rev. T. Corser. See that gentleman's communication on Nicholas Breton, in our First Vol., p. 409.]

QUERIES

THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM

An ill-starred town in England seems to have enjoyed so unenviable a reputation for some centuries for the folly and stupidity of its inhabitants, that I am induced to send you the following Query (with the reasons on which it is founded) in the hope that some of your readers may be able to help one to a solution.

Query: Why have the men of Gotham been long famous for their extreme folly?

My authorities are,—

1. The Nursery Rhyme,—

"Three wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl;
If the bowl had been stronger,
My story would have been longer."

2. Drunken Barnaby's Journal (edit. London, 1822, p. 25.), originally printed 1774, London:

"Veni Gotham, ubi multos
Si non omnes, vidi stultos,
Nam scrutando reperi unam
Salientem contra lunam
Alteram nitidam puellam
Offerentem porco sellam."

"Thence to Gotham, where, sure am I,
If, though not all fools, saw I many;
Here a she-bull found I prancing,
And in moonlight nimbly dancing;
There another wanton mad one,
Who her hog was set astride on."

3. In the "Life of Robin Hood" prefixed to Ritson's Collection of Ballads concerning Robin Hood (People's edit. p. 27.), the following story, extracted from Certaine Merry Tales of the Madmen of Gottam, by Dr. Andrew Borde, an eminent physician, temp. Hen. VIII. (Black letter), in Bodleian Library, occurs:—

"There was two men of _Gottam, and the one of them was going to the market to Nottingham to buy sheepe, and the other came from the market; and both met together upon Nottingham bridge. Well met, said the one to the other. Whither be yee going? said he that came from Nottingham. Marry, said he that was going thither, I goe to the market to buy sheepe. Buy sheepe? said the other, and which way wilt thou bring them home? Marry, said the other, I will bring them over this bridge. By Robin Hood, said he that came from Nottingham, but thou shalt not. By Maid Marrion, said he that was going thitherward, but I will. Thou shalt not, said the one. I will, said the other. Ter here! said the one. Shue there! said the other. Then they beat their staves against the ground, one against the other, as there had been an hundred sheepe betwixt them. Hold in, said the one. Beware the leaping over the bridge of any sheepe, said the other. I care not, said the other. They shall not come this way, said the one. But they shall, said the other. Then said the other, and if that thou make much to doe, I will put my finger in thy mouth. A t..d thou wilt, said the other. And as they were at their contention, another man of Gottam came from the market with a sack of meale upon a horse, and seeing and hearing his neighbours at strife for sheepe, and none betwixt them, said, Ah, fooles, will you never learn wit? Helpe me, said he that had the meale, and lay my sacke upon my shoulder. They did so and he went to the one side of the bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sacke, and did shake out all his meale into the river. Now, neighbours, said the mall, how much meale is there in my sacke now? Marry, there is none at all, said they. Now, by my faith, said he, even as much wit as in your two heads, to strive for that thing you have not. Which was the wisest of all these three persons, judge you?"

4. Tom Coryat, in an oration to the Duke of York (afterwards Chas. I.), called Crambe, or Colwarts twice sodden (London, 1611), has this passage:—

"I came to Venice, and quickly took a survey of the whole model of the city, together with the most remarkable matters thereof; and shortly after any arrival in England I overcame any adversaries in the Town of Evill, in my native county of Somersetshire, who thought to have sunk me in a bargain of pilchards, as the wise men of Gottam went about to drown an eel."

5. Dr. More's Antidote against Atheism, cap. ii. § 14.:

"But because so many bullets joggled together in a man's hat will settle a determinate figure, or because the frost and wind will draw upon doors and glass windows pretty uncouth streaks like feathers and other fooleries which are to no use or purpose, try infer thence, that all the contrivances that are in nature, even the frame of the bodies, both of men and beasts, are from no other principle but the jumbling together of the matter, and so because that this doth naturally effect something, that is the cause of all things, seems to me to be reasoning in the same mood and figure with that wise market man's, who, going down a hill and carrying his cheeses under his arms, one of them falling and trundling down the hill very fast, let the other go after it appointing them all to meet him at his house at Gotham

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1

The name of this gentleman will be recognised by some of the readers of NOTES AND QUERIES as that of a most indefatigable explorer of the wonders of the mountain, and the author, in the Transactions of the Catanian Academy., of excellent descriptions of its recent eruptions.

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2

If the patient be a woman, the grave chosen must be that of the last young man buried, and that of the last young woman in the case of a man patient.

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3

"It was an ancient notion that the music of the swan was produced by its wings, and inspired by the zephyr. See this subject, treated with his accustomed erudition, by Mr. Jodrell, in his Illustrations of the Ion of Euripides."—Bulwer's Siamese Twins.

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4

Pronounced (as black was anciently written) blake.

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