Respecting the quality, value, and preparation of parchment in past ages, it is stated in the "Penny Cyclopaedia" that parchment from the seventh to the tenth century was "white and good, and at the earliest of these periods it appears to have nearly superseded papyrus, which was brittle and more perishable. A very few books of the seventh century have leaves of parchment and papyrus mixed, that the former costly material might strengthen and support the friable paper. About the eleventh century it grew worse, and a dirty colored parchment is evidence of a want of antiquity. This may possibly arise from the circumstances that writers of this time prepared their own parchment, and they were probably not so skilled as manufacturers. A curious passage from a sermon of Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, who was born in 1054, is a voucher for this fact. The sermon is on the "Book of Life," which he recommends his hearers to obtain: 'Do you know what a writer does? He first cleanses his parchment from the grease, and takes off the principal part of the dirt; then he entirely rubs off the hair and fibres with pumice stone; if he did not do so, the letters written upon it would not be good, nor would they last long. He then rules lines that the writing may be straight. All these things you ought to do, if you wish to possess the book which I have been displaying to you.' At this time parchment was a very costly material. We find it mentioned that Gui, Count of Nevers, having sent a valuable present of plate to the Chartreux of Paris, the unostentatious monks returned it with a request that he would send them parchment instead." CHAPTER XXX. MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (TRUE PAPER). WHEN IT WAS THAT TRUE PAPER WAS INVENTED--CITATIONS FROM MUNSELL ABOUT CHINESE AND OTHER ANCIENT PAPER--A SHORT CHRONOLOGY FROM THE SAME AUTHOR--LINEN PAPER IN USE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY--BOMBYCINE PAPER--DEVELOPMENTS OF THE MICROSCOPE--METHODS EMPLOYED IN ASCERTAINING ORIGIN OF LINEN PAPER BY MEERMAN--SOME OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO THE EVOLUTION OF PAPER --RAPID IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY AFTER INVENTION OF PRINTING--CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN THE USE OF THE WATER MARK--NO DISTINCTIONS IN QUALITY OF PAPER USED FOR MSS. OR OTHER BOOKS--ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE WATER MARK--ITS VALUE IN DETECTING FRAUDS--INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF ITS USE IN FABRICATING A FRAUD--FULLER'S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PAPERS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES--WHEN THE FIRST PAPER MILL WAS ESTABLISHED IN EUROPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LINEN PAPER--DATE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST PAPER MILL IN AMERICA--WHO FIRST SUGGESTED WOOD AS A MATERIAL FOR MAKING PAPER--SOME NAMES OF AUTHORS ON THE SUBJECT OF PAPER--STORY OF RAG PAPER INSTRUCTIVE AS WELL AS INTERESTING.