Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/417

 3B2 THEi H:J ST •O.'RfO .**&*&. portation of it being ocrafiopsiUy prohibited by one of thp Egypt- ian monarchs,- Ptolemy king of Egypt and Eunwenes king of Attalia contending with each other in thfc 4 grcA?ipg magnificence of their libraries, and' the fagdeity of the human underftanding being excited by the force of emulation, a neiy fpecies of paper was invented at Pergamus in Attalia, aad wa$ denominated Per- gamenum or Parchment from the city i:. Of the reed Papirus, which was afterwards found equally in other regions of the eaft, all the paper of the Romans was made atjtheirfiril entrance among us and for many ages after their departure from us * 9. The Britons, who had no letters, could have no paper. And the Romans muft have introduced both paper and parchment into the ifland. Hence the former i? denominated Pappyr among the Welch, Paper and Pabaur among the- Armoricans, and Phaipear among the Irifli. Hence the latter has received from the Ro- man Pergamenum the appellation of Parfliemin among the Ar- moricans, and from the Roman Membraiia °^ has derived the . denomination of Memrun among the Welch and of Meam- brun among the Irifli. And a coarfe manufactory of paper and parchment muft have been certainly introduced into Britain with the knowledge of them. The primaeval inhabitants of Britain were equally unac- quainted with the making of fait. This agreeable and ufeful article in our food during the reigns of Auguftus and Tiberius v,ms imported by foreign merchants into the fouth-weftern re- gions of Britain *', And had it been made at all in the kingdom, it muft: have been made within that region of it particularly, and in fuch quantities as under the circumftances of the ifland would have ablblutely prevented any importation at all. The Romans had long been acquainted with the art 3 And they in? troduced it very early into Britain, The firft attempt would naturally be the eafieft, and confined to the margin of the tea. And a very confiderable quantity of the fineft andihe firmeft fait in Europe appears to have been made upon the fhores of Bri- tain in the fourth century * * But the Romans had been long inftru&ed to featch for the fprings of brine in the ground, and .to