The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

124 DIARY OF WEYBRIDGE

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afterward found it was from that dear friend (Mrs. Godol- ;

phin), who had frequently given me large sums to be- I

stow on charities.

16th August, 1678. I went to Lady Mordaunt, who f

put £100 into my hand to dispose of for pious uses, re- j

lief of prisoners, poor, etc. Many a sum had she sent
me on similar occasions; a blessed creature she was, and
one that loved and feared God exemplaily.

23d August, 1678. Upon Sir Robert Reading's impor-
tunity, I went to visit the Duke of Norfolk, at his new
palace at Weybridge, where he has laid out in building
near ^10,000, on a copyhold, and in a miserable, bar-
ren, sandy place by the street side; never in my life had
I seen such expense to so small purpose. The rooms are
wainscotted, and some of them richly pargeted with ce-
dar, yew, cypress, etc. There are some good pictures,
especially that incomparable painting of Holbein's, where
the Duke of Norfolk, Charles Brandon and Henry VIII.,
are dancing with the three ladies, with most amorous
countenances, and sprightly motion exquisitely expressed.
It is a thousand pities (as I told my Lord of Arundel,
his son), that that jewel should be given away.

24th August, 1678. I went to see my Lord of St. Al-
ban's house, at Byfleet, an old, large building. Thence,
to the papennills, where I found them making a coarse
white paper. They cull the rags which are linen for
white paper, woolen for brown; then they stamp them
in troughs to a pap, with pestles, or hammers, like the
powder mills, then put it into a vessel of water, in which
they dip a frame closely wired with wire as small as a
hair and as close as a weaver's reed; on this they take
up the pap, the superfluous water draining through the
wire; this they dexterously turning, shake out like a pan-
cake on a smooth board between two pieces of flannel,
then press it between a great press, the flannel sucking
out the moisture; then, taking it out, they ply and dry
it on strings, as they dry linen in the laundry; then dip
it in alum water, lastly, polish and make it up in quires.
They put some gum in the water in which they macer-
ate the rags. The mark we find on the sheets is formed
in the wire.

25th August, 1678. After evening prayer, visited Mr.
Sheldon (nephew to the late Archbishop of Canterbury),h died, leaving no