The actual rubbing should be performed by drawing the heel-ball lightly across the brass. The movement should always be made in the same direction, or the lines will appear scratchy and confusing. It is best to complete a little patch first, and not go over the whole area before finishing any part of it; if this be done, there will be more chance of completing the work without shifting the paper. It is not a bad idea to force the paper by means of the palm of the hand into the recesses of the brass before commencing to rub; this will help to keep the sheet from moving. Some collectors make their rubbings intensely dark, that is, they do not leave off when the brown stage has been reached. Others are content to stop rubbing when the detail is just visible, completing the work at home by filling all the flat areas with a wash of Indian ink. Either plan is good, but the former is more useful in cases where the tracery is involved, whilst the latter provides a somewhat smarter effect when carefully executed. Rubbings may be stored in cardboard tubes, one in each tube, but many enthusiasts mount their black pictures on canvas and rollers. The latter plan is certainly the better one, but it is an expensive and tedious business which will not appeal to all. Small rubbings, it need hardly be added, make capital pictures for framing, looking very attractive if a white margin is preserved, and the frame made of a narrow black moulding. * * * * * Floor brasses were first used on the Continent, many originating in Flanders and some in Brittany. The earliest specimens in England date from the thirteenth century, though Beaumont states that the finest specimens belong to the fourteenth century. He also mentions that the fifteenth-century specimens were small, thin, and more ornate, whilst in the sixteenth century the art became debased by a surfeit of commonplace specimens. The majority of the English brasses are located in the Eastern Counties and the Home Counties, where, in fact, stone was not easily and cheaply obtained. The most curious of all floor brasses, the same writer states,[19] are those which are called palimpsests. These were originally laid down to the memory of a certain individual, but were subsequently taken up, re-engraved, and then used to commemorate some one else. Nearly all are post-Reformation--a fact which speaks for itself. [19] Beaumont, in "Memorial Brasses," p. 140. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbeys fell into decay, and any engraver who wanted a brass appears to have taken it from the nearest ruin and adapted it to his requirements. Palimpsest brasses were readapted in three ways:-- 1. Plates were re-engraved on the reverse side. 2. The old figure was used again without alteration, a new inscription and shield (if any) being added. 3. The original engraving was modified, fresh lines and shading being introduced to adapt it to contemporary fashion.