use is, that these are in shape like a heart fluted, and consequently, terminate in a point. They consist of two equal lateral cavities, by the edges of which the snuffers cut off and received into the cavities, from which it is not got out without particular application and trouble. There are two circumstances which bespeak these snuffers of considerable age: the roughness of the workmanship, which is in all respects as rude and coarse as can well be imagined, and the awkwardness of the form*." Mr. Hone, in his Table Book, has engraved another antique pair of snuffers, superior in design and workmanship to those found in Dorsetshire, but of later date: they divide in the middle of the upper as well as the lower part, but, in one respect both pairs are alike: they are each in shape like a heart, and terminate in a point. The box and parts above in the latter pair are boldly chased, and the snuffers are plain on the underside and made without legs. Probably, in no attempt at improvement has ingenuity been so strained as in modern snuffers. They are constructed on a similar principle with scissors; though they not only cut off the candlesnuff, but at the same time convey it into a box or cavity; and to keep the box closed by the cutter, when not actually in use, all snuffers have a coiled steel spring in a cell of the shanks. As, however, the contents are constantly liable to fall out of the box, various devices have been *They will be found engraved in the Mirror, vol. xx. from Hutchins's History of Dorsetshire. executed to close the box during the opening and operation of the cutter: this is done by one tube revolving within another, or by the rising and falling of a steel slide or cutter, which at once hides and retains the snuff in the box. Yet, these springs are liable to get out of order, and cause disappointment. The best polished snuffers are of cast steel, and common sorts are of brass and wrought iron: thousands of grosses are cast from pig metal, (or iron, in its first stage,) filed, brushed, and roughly polished; and such an implement is sold for sixpence! These are indeed refinements of the clumsy contrivances of our ancestors; for, probably, snuffers are now to be found in the poorest cottages in the kingdom, of manufacture superior to those formerly used in castles and mansions. By the ingenuity lavished upon snuffers we are reminded how the subdivision of labour in arts and manufactures leads to high convenience. What a trifling task it appears to snuff a candle; yet, to do this adroitly, how many heads have been racked to devise means, and hundreds of pounds expended to secure inventions by royal patents. Were we not aware of the principle just mentioned, the improvement of snuffers might appear so trifling a task as to remind us of the poet's apostrophe to life: "Out, brief candle;" and that the brave and learned Sir Walter Raleigh wrote 66 on the snuff of a candle:" Cowards fear to die; but courage stout, COALS. 171 "Round about our coal fire." OLD DITTY. A BLAZING coal fire is one of the main characteristics of English comfort; and we had almost termed it a comfort exclusively English. It is true that coals are found in several parts of the continent of Europe; China abounds in them, they are well known in Tartary and the island of Madagascar; and they have been discovered and wrought in various parts of America; but the principal coal mines of the world are in this country; and the enjoyment of this exhaustless provision every Englishman knows how to appreciate : Hence are the hungry fed, the naked clothed, The subject is so abundant in details suitable for a volume like the present, devoted to English life and manners, that its omission would be culpable; although, we must observe that our limits will allow but an outline of the general and natural history of coals, from their introduction into this country. Coals were known to the Britons before the arrival of the Romans. The Anglo-Saxons knew of and partly used them; but they are not mentioned under the Danish usurpation, nor under the Normans. The late Marquess of Hastings informed Mr. Bakewell, the geologist, that stone hammers and stone tools were found in some of the old workings in his mines at Ashby Wolds; and that similar stone tools had been discovered in the old workings in the coal mines in the north of Ireland. Hence we may infer, that these coal mines were worked at a very remote period, when the use of metallic tools was not general. One of the earliest notices of coals occurs in 1234, when Henry III. granted a charter to the townsmen of Newcastle-uponTyne, "to dig stones and coals" in the common soil without the walls. This is the first mention of coals dug at Newcastle, which were then probably confined as fuel for the use of the town; for, the city of London had at that time so many woods and copses round it, that coals from Newcastle would have been far more expensive than the wood and turf fuel from its own neighbourhood. Within fifty years Newcastle became famous for its great trade in this article, which was then denominated sea coal. Nevertheless, coals were prohibited in London as a nuisance, by the proclamation of Edward I.; and Stow, writing of this period, says, "the nice dames of London would not come into any house or room where sea coals were burned; nor willingly eat of the meat that was even sod or roasted with sea-coal fire." The nobility and gentry complained that they could not go to London on account of the noisome smell and thick air, and in those times, the convenience of the few being studied before the wants of the many, the proclamation did not even spare industry. Dyers, brewers, &c. were forbidden the use of coals even in the suburbs of London, on pain of fine, loss of furnaces, &c. Those trades, however, finding the scarcity and price of wood-fuel daily increasing, discovered it was still their interest to use sea-coal; and, notwithstanding the prohibition, entered on the trade with Newcastle. Shortly after this coals were the common fuel at the king's palace in London. In 1357, the townsmen's license to dig coal at Newcastle was increased by a special grant from the crown, of the soil in which before they had only liberty to dig; and, in 1379, the trade had grown so considerable that Edward III. imposed a duty of sixpence per ton, each quarter of the year, on all ships laden from Newcastle with coal. Such was the introduction of seacoal to common use; and fifty years previously, a trade had been opened between France and England, in which corn was imported, and coal exported *. In the reign of Elizabeth, the burning of coal was again prohibited in London during the sitting of parliament, lest the health of the knights of * In the year 1832, were exported from Great Britain, 30,072 tons of coals to various parts of Europe, and to Egypt. |