_Water-marks in Writing-paper._--Can any of your correspondents indicate
any guide to the dating of {311} paper by the water-mark. I think I have
read of some work on that subject, but have no precise recollection
about it. I have now before me several undated MSS. written on paper of
which it would be very desirable to fix the exact date. They evidently
belonged to Pope, Swift, and Lady M.W. Montague, as they contain their
autographs. They are all of that size called _Pro Patria_, and two of
them have as water-mark a figure of Britannia with a lion brandishing a
sword within a paling, and the motto _Pro Patria_ over the sword. Of one
of these the opposite page has the initials GR, and the other has IX;
but the paper has been cut off in the middle of the water-mark and only
exhibits half the figure IV. Another sheet has the royal arms (1.
England and Scotland impaled, 2. France, 3. Ireland, 4. the white horse
of Hanover,) within the garter, and surmounted by the crown, and on the
opposite page GR. within a crowned wreath. There is no doubt that they
were all manufactured between 1715 and 1740; but is there any means of
arriving at a more precise date?