tioiis to Mr. Clerk as the author of the system, yet
the family of that distinguished admiral, in his
? Memoirs,? maintain that no communication of Mr.
Clerk?s plan was ever made to their relative. Sir
Howard Douglas, too, has come forward in various
publications to claim the merit of the maneuvre
for his father, the late Admiral Sir Charles Douglas.
The origin of the suggestion, however, appears to
rest indisputably with Mr. Clerk, who died May 10,
1812, at an advanced age.?
He was the father of John Clerk, Lord Eldin,
already referred to in earlier portions of this work.
Paper has long been extensively manufactured
at Lasswade.
Springfield, a mile and a half north of the Esk,
is a hamlet, with a population of some hundreds,
who are almost entirely paper-makers. It is situated
in a sylvan dell remarkable for its picturesque beauty.
In 1763 there were only three paper-mills in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and the quantity of
paper made amounted to only 6,400 reams. There
are now more than twenty mills in the county of
Edinburgh, nine of which are on the North Esk,
and nine on the Water of Leith. The first papermill
was built at Lasswade about I 750 ; and by
1794 the labourers at it received and circulated in
the village L3,ooo per annum. ? Mr. Simpson,
the proprietor of two mills in this parish,? says the
? Statistical Account ? for the latter year, ? has the
merit of being the first manufacturer in this country
who has applied the liquor recommended by Berthollet
in his new method of bleaching for the
purpose of whitening rags.? He erected an apparatus
for the preparation of it, and thus added
greatly to the beauty and quality of the paper he
produced.
