When thoroughly dry, the face of the varnish may be polished with pumice-stone, tripoly, water, and sweet oil. If it be an oil varnish, procure some of the finest pulverized pumice-stone, and mix it with water to about the consistence of cream; with a piece of linen rag dipped in this mixture rub the work till all inequalities disappear, and the surface is as smooth as glass; then dry it with a cloth, and polish once more with tripoly and sweet oil; then dry it with a piece of soft linen, rub it with starch reduced to a fine powder, and finish with a clean soft linen cloth, until the varnish assumes a dazzling appearance. If it is a spirit varnish, omit the pumice-stone, and begin with the tripoly and water; after this use the tripoly and sweet oil, and finish as before described for the oil varnish. The difference is so striking between the polished and unpolished surfaces, as to amply repay the additional trouble required in the polishing. The polishing powders must be kept in thoroughly clean vessels, a single grain of sand being sufficient to spoil the polish. M. DIGBY WYATT. 37, TAVISTOCK PLACE, W.C. _April, 1861._ FOOTNOTES. [1] M. Gabriel Peignot, in his "Essai sur l'Histoire da Parchemin et du Vélin," Paris, 1812, and in his paper on the same subject in "Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance," vol. ii. Paris, 1849, produces evidence of the use of parchment for writing upon anterior to the age of Eumenes; and consequently limits his interpretation of Pliny's words, "Varro membranas Pergami tradidit repertas," to an assertion of the discovery of improved processes by which parchment was rendered more available for writing upon than it had been previous to the accession of Eumenes. [2] A good representation of a scrinium and scapi, from a painting in the "Casa Falkener," described in the "Museum of Classical Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 54, is given in one of the cubicula of the Pompeian Court at Sydenham. [3] See Gell's "Pompeiana" Appendix; and the "Memoir of the Canonico Iorio." [4] "Let those who will have old books written in gold and silver on purple parchment, or, as they are commonly called, in uncial letters,--rather ponderous loads than books,--so long as they permit me and mine to have poor copies, and rather correct than beautiful books." [5] P. 113. Ingram, Cooke, & Co., London, 1853. [6] "Universal Palæography." London, Bohn. [7] Through the kindness of the late Mr. Dennistoun, of Dennistoun, and Cardinal Acton, who obtained the requisite facilities for me. [8] Tome v. pl. lxv.; tome iii. p. 29.