and one cannot but regret this-for in our cold and snowy climate few internal ornaments will ever fix the eye so often as a rich fireplace *.” The chimney-piece of the present day has been reduced in height to allow the introduction of the chimney-glass; the jambs are no longer enriched with sculptural embellishments, but exhibit plainness and severity of style, especially when we recollect the exuberant fancies of our forefathers in this branch of internal decoration.

LAMPS AND LANTERNS.

PROBABLY, no articles of ancient manufacture are more common than lamps. Their invention is attributed to the Egyptians; but of this statement there is some doubt. They were common among the Greeks and Romans, being made of terra cotta, or baked clay, bronze, brass, gold, and silver; and many specimens have been found in the excavated city of Herculaneum, which was buried by an eruption of Vesuvius upwards of two thousand years since. In England, they were rare among the Anglo Saxons; but, in the fourteenth century, they were used by the Irish, and were made of glass, drawn up and down with cords; they were lit with paper, with dishes under them, melted tallow or kitchen stuff being burnt in them instead of oil.

Lanterns are likewise of considerable antiquity.

*Lives of British Sculptors, &c.

Their invention is ascribed, though erroneously, by Asserius, to Alfred the Great: he says: "Before the invention of clocks, Alfred caused six tapers to be made for his daily use; each taper contained twelve pennyweights of wax, was twelve inches long, and of proportionate breadth. The whole length was divided into twelve parts, or inches, of which three would burn for one hour, so that each taper would be consumed in four hours; and the six tapers being lighted one after another, lasted for twentyfour hours. But the wind, blowing through the windows and doors, and chinks of the walls of the chapel, or through the cloth of his tent in which they were burning, wasted these tapers, and consequently they burnt with no regularity; he, therefore, designed a lantern made of ox or cow horn, cut into thin plates, in which he enclosed the tapers, and thus protecting them from the wind, the period of their burning became a matter of comparative certainty." This error of Alfred's inventing the lantern has been printed in scores of books to the present day; but its untruth is proved by Aldhelm, who lived in the seventh century, or about three hundred years before Alfred, and is the first to mention the use of glass lanterns.

In our description of an old English Hall, (at page 17) we have mentioned the louvre, or lantern in the roof, of which Westminster Hall presents a fine specimen. We likewise find other architectural lanterns, or certain fine open orna

mented church towers, which are supposed by some writers to have been intended to hold lights, in aid of the traveller. Mr. Britton concludes the lantern in the steeple of Boston Church, Lincoln, to have been anciently lit at night as a sea-mark. The church of All Saints, at York, has a similar pierced lantern; tradition tells that formerly a large lamp was hung in it, which was lit at night, as a mark for travellers, in their passage over the wide and dreary forest of Galtres, to York; and there is still the hook of the pulley on which the lamp hung in the steeple. Stow tells us, that the steeple of Bow Church, in Cheapside, finished about 1516, had five lanterns; one at each corner, and one on the top, in the middle upon the arches: in these lanterns lights were placed in the winter, whereby travellers to the city might have the better sight thereof, and not miss their way." Probably the last lantern-tower erected in England is that of St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleetstreet, built in 1832.

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There is something peculiarly appropriate and characteristic in lights being thus placed on the steeples of churches: the benighted traveller of a reflective turn of mind would consider them as emblematic, and as their light points out his road on earth, so the " light that shineth" around the hallowed church will guide him to everlasting bliss; while the mariner tossed upon the mountain sea in pitchy darkness may alike look to these church-lights for rays of hope and trust in

the providence of Him, without whose will not a sparrow falleth to the ground.

Our ancient hand-lantern is an oblong square, carried the narrow end uppermost, with an arched opening for the light, and square handle. In the sixteenth century we find mentioned " a great lanterne, with glasse, set in joyner's work painted." In 1602, it is related that Sir John Harrington, of Bath, sent to James VI. king of Scotland, at Christmas, for a new year's gift, a dark lantern. The top was a crown of pure gold, serving also to cover a perfume pan; within it was a shield of silver, embossed, to reflect the light; on one side of which were the sun, moon, and planets, and on the other side, the story of the birth and passion of Christ, as it was engraved by David II. king of Scotland, who was a prisoner in Nottingham. On this present, the following passage was inscribed in Latin-" Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

Street lamps were adopted in London upwards of four centuries since: so early as 1414, the citizens were ordered to hang out lanterns to light the streets; and, according to Stow, Sir Henry Barton, during his mayoralty, in 1417, ordered lanterns with wax lights to be hung out on the winter evenings betwixt hallowtide (autumn) and Candlemas. If this account be correct, London was the first lit of the cities of Europe. During three centuries after, the citizens were occasionally reminded of this regula

tion, under penalties for its neglect; but the frequency of the repetition only proves how ill the order was obeyed. In 1688, the inhabitants were ordered "to hang out candles duly to the accustomed hour, for the peace and safety of the city;" and in 1679, we find the lord mayor complaining of "the neglect of the inhabitants of the city in not hanging and keeping out their lights at the accustomed hours, according to the good and ancient usage and acts of council in that behalf;" in 1690, the justices of the peace decided the distances at which lamps should be placed in the streets; and, in 1716, it was directed, that each house should have a lamp hung out on every night between the second after full moon until the seventh after new moon, from the hour of six in the evening until eleven; but, as this did not extend to the whole town, and many street robberies were committed, an act of parliament was passed in 1743, for completely lighting the cities of London and Westminster. In consequence, four thousand two hundred lamps were put up, exclusive of those attached to public buildings; although this provision extended only to the city of London. Thus, in an

old print of Charing Cross, ninety years since, no lamps are to be seen in the street; although globular glass lamps, with oil burners, were introduced at the last mentioned date, it was not until 1767, that six such lamps were fixed at Charing Cross, on irons round the statue, and lit for the first time on the 5th of February.