In 1851 some curious stone moulds were found at Hartley Castle by Sir George Musgrave, and one of them was undoubtedly used for casting lead “horn” books, and similar moulds have been found in Germany; the English ones may have been made about the earlier half of the sixteenth century. But more curious devices were found on the other side of the same piece of stone: these are undoubtedly the emblems of saints’ days as shown on clog almanacks of the same period, so that the horn books may possibly have originated from the makers of cast leaden almanacks. Horn books were also cut in ivory or bone, often with designs engraved on the back or on the handle. The lettering and devices were originally run in with heelball or some such material. They were also made of boxwood with letters burnt in, or engraved pewter, or gingerbread, and sometimes covered in paper with panel stamp impressions in blind or black ink. Several of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century horn books were covered with leather and stamped in blind, gold, silver, or, in Dutch examples, Dutch metal, which nearly always turns black, from panel stamps; sometimes the designs were arabesques or flowers, and at other times we find figures of saints or kings--St. George and the Dragon, mermaids, and the like--and several of Charles II. on horseback, the Duke of Cumberland, and other great people. These same stamps are also often impressed on paper backs as well as on leather. The late cardboard horn books either leave out the cross at the beginning or replace it by a meaningless X; they also often show additional alphabets with little wood-cut illustrations. At last the horn book form is quite lost, and at last we find folded pieces of cardboard with stamped or marbled backs, retaining only the alphabet to show that they are survivals. WORKS TO CONSULT. BLADES, W.--Books in Chains. _London_, 1892. DAVENPORT, C.--English Embroidered Bookbindings. _London_, 1899. DAVENPORT, C.--Book Edges. (Bibliographica.) DAVENPORT, C.--Little Gidding. (Bibliographica.) DAVENPORT, C.--Royal English Bookbindings. _London_, 1897. LABARTE, J.--Hist. des Arts Industriels au Moyen Age. _Paris_, 1864-66. LACROIX, P.--Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance. _Paris_, 1848-51. LIBRI, COUNT G.--Monuments Inedits. _Londres_, 1862. PRIDEAUX, S. T.--Historical Sketch of Bookbinding. _London_, 1893. TUER, A.--History of the Horn Book. _London_, 1896. WOOLNOUGH, C. W.--The Art of Marbling. CHAPTER VII. LEATHERS. Vellum--Calf--Pig skin--Sheep skin--Goat skin--Seal skin, etc.