It was written， not printed； written in a clear， even hand， with thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes， very large， easier than print， and so beautiful that Lucy stared at it for a whole minute and forgot about reading it. The paper was crisp and smooth and a nice smell came from it； and in the margins， and round the big coloured capital letters at the beginning of each spell， there were pictures.
There was no title page or title； the spells began straight away， and at first there was nothing very important in them. They were cures for warts （by washing your hands in moonlight in a silver basin） and toothache and cramp， and a spell for taking a swarm of bees. The picture of the man with toothache was so lifelike that it would have set your own teeth aching if you looked at it too long， and the golden bees which were dotted all round the fourth spell looked for a moment as if they were really flying.