, I ascertained that
there was no new structure present; but in manipulating I found that
these spots absorbed water more rapidly than the rest of the paper.

On applying litmus, these spots were found to have a powerful acid
reaction.

On submitting the matter to a chemical friend, he ascertained that the
acid in question was the sulphuric, or oil of vitriol. Experiments were
then made with a dilute solution of this acid on {237} clean paper, and
spots were produced similar to those of mildew.

The acid does not naturally exist in paper, and its presence can only be
accounted for by supposing that the paper has been bleached by the fumes
of sulphur. This produces sulphurous acid, which, by the influence of
atmospheric air and moisture, is slowly converted into sulphuric, and
then produces the mildew. As this may be shown to be an absolute
_charring_ of the fibres of which the paper is composed, it is to be
feared that it cannot be cured. After the process has once commenced, it
can only be checked by the utmost attention to dryness, moisture being
indispensable to its extension, and vice versa.

I do not know whether these facts are generally known, but they would
seem to be very important to paper-makers.

T.I.

_Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury_ (Vol. ii., p. 199.).--Your correspondent
PHILO-CHAUCER, I presume, desires to know the old route to Canterbury. I
should imagine that at the time of Chaucer a great part of the country
was uncultivated and uninclosed, and a horse-track in parts of the route
was probably the nearest approximation to a road. At the present day,
crossing the London road at Wrotham, and skirting the base of the chalk
hills, there is a narrow lane which I have heard _called_ "the Pilgrims'
road," and this, I suppose, is in fact the old Canterbury road; though
how near to London or Canterbury it has a distinct existence, and to
what extent it may have been absorbed in other roads, I am not able to
say. The title of "Pilgrims' road" I take to be a piece of modern
antiquarianism. In the immediate vicinity of this portion there are some
druidical remains: some at Addington, and a portion of a small circle
tolerably distinct in a field and lane between, I think, Trottescliffe
and Ryarsh. In the absence of better information, you may perhaps make
use of this.

S.H.

_Abbe Strickland_ (Vol. ii, p. 198.), of whom I.W.H. asks for
information, is mentioned by _Cox_, in his _Memoirs of Sir Robert