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the manufacture of linen was improved and  the process of painting changed, canvas was substituted, and in England linen cloth of the strongest lecture, is [?] made for the purpose. This is variously prepared for the use of the artist. The most common method is this. After stretching the linen on a frame, the knows are cut off with the pumice stone, then cold paste, made of wheat flour, is spread over the surface with a Palette-knife, and rubbed on both sides with the hand to equalize any excepts, which would form injurious seales. Some prefer a weak solution of gloves size, or fish glue cold and the constistence of trembling jolly. When the size is day (without pumicing it) a coat of white bead, thiged with a little burst number and thinned with Spirits of Surpentine, is spread over it with a large brush. When this is dry, it's pumiced, or rubbed with sandpaper, moistened over with drying oil, rubbed on with a sponge, and a second coat of point is applied (which may be smooted with the Palette Knife). When dry it is again pumiced, slightly oiled as before, and a third coat, paint is given with the Brish, the marks of which may be worked out with a softening brush of Badger's hair. 
The extremes of heat and cold, wet and dry, to which our climate is peculiarly liable, and the practice of warming our apartments with air from furnaces, that is often too hot and dry, render it of great importance that valuable painting should be [?] on substances the best calculated to bear those [?]. Canvas which is made of linen of a loose texture and prepared with paste which from the [?] of the atmosphere, is alternately moist and dry, becomes slack and requires to be lightened by wedges, with which the frame is painted; thus it is always getting more stretched, whilst the paint on it, is disposed to contract; the inevitable consequence is that the painting becomes cracked and sometimes is ruined. When preparation of linen are used, too strict attention cannot be paid to the [?] of the linen, the quality of the size, and the painting of the surface.
A solution of war in Spirits of Serpentine bounces of war to one quart of Sp: Serpentine sperad over the back of these canvases will be a great protection from the influence of damp; especially if put on the back, before framing them. of or