NOTES.
THE FIRST PAPER-MILL IN ENGLAND.
In the year 1588, a paper-mill was established at Dartford, in Kent, by John Spilman, "jeweller to the Queen." The particulars of this mill are recorded in a poem by Thomas Churchyard, published shortly after its foundation, under the following title:—
"A description and playne discourse of paper, and the whole benefits that paper brings, with rehearsall, and setting foorth in verse a paper-myll built near Darthforth, by an high Germaine, called Master Spilman, jeweller to the Queene's Majyestie."
The writer says:
"(Then) he that made for us a paper-mill,
Is worthy well of love and worldes good will,
And though his name be Spill-man, by degree,
Yet Help-man now, he shall be called by mee.