The history of English-made paper is somewhat obscure. Ordinary lesson-books, published for the enlightenment of the young, state that the first English paper-mill was erected at Dartford, in Kent, by Speilman, a German, in 1588. This, however, must be wrong, for in that popular educator of the past generation, the _Saturday Magazine_, a short account is given of early paper and its water-marks, and John Tate is named as having a mill at Hertford, his device being a star of five points enclosed within a double circle. John Tate the younger is here stated to have made the paper for the first book printed on English-made paper about the year 1496. It was written in Latin, and entitled ‘Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum.’ His mark upon it was a wheel. This mill existed for thirty-five years--1460 to 1496. This same account goes on to say that the paper used by the early printers bore great variety of marks: a bull, fifteenth century: the oxhead, with the star between the horns, late fifteenth century; the black letter p; the shears; an open hand, surmounted by a star; a collared dog’s head, with a trefoil above it; a crown, an orb, a shield charged with a bend, and many other devices. Hone, in his ‘Everyday Book,’ also gives a few other marks. He mentions the orb as a foreign paper-mark existing as early as 1301, and says it is the ‘oldest known mark.’ Hand-paper is the kind usually found used for early documents. It was a convenient size for court-rolls or legal writings. The name arose from its water-mark, that of an open hand with a star above the middle finger. This is found both in England and Germany. Its date of manufacture was certainly older than 1450. The actual device varied. Sometimes the fingers were raised in blessing, sometimes it was a hand encased in a glove or gauntlet. The star had sometimes five and at others six points. On the wrist are the maker’s initials. On some coarse whitish-brown paper of 1465 a garter was used; about the same date a bull or bull’s head appears. This is found on some of Faust’s earliest printed books. These were detached sheets: there was no distinction then between book or letter paper. A careful study of paper-marks would be interesting and valuable if the authenticity or age of old papers or drawings were doubted, though the question of forgery scarcely ever arises, for so much knowledge and ingenuity would be required to produce a manuscript which would deceive an adept and pass muster as a veritable antique, that fraud of this kind is well-nigh impossible. Paper was not known in France, and consequently not used, before 1130. It did not reach as far north as Normandy until the fourteenth century; therefore it is improbable that it found its way into England till after this date, or, if so, only in very small quantities. The oldest paper is coarse and rough, scarcely sized at all, so that the ink sank into it like blotting-paper, making erasures impossible.