art. Notwithstanding his mercantile habits, he possessed a literary taste, and his first work was a translation from a French historical miscellany. The tradition of the devil and Dr. Faustus was derived from the odd circumstance in which the Bibles of their first printer, Faust, appeared to the world. When he had discovered this new art, and had printed off a considerable number of copies of the Bible, to imitate those which were comnonly sold in manuscript, he undertook the sale of them at Paris. It was his interest to conceal this discovery, and to pass off his printed copies as manuscripts. But as he was enabled to sell his Bibles at sixty crowns, while the scribes demanded five hundred, this created universal astonishment; and still more, when he produced copies as fast they were wanted, and even lowered his price: this made a great sensation at Paris. The uniformity of copies increased the wonder. Informations were given to the magistrates against him as a magician; his lodgings were searched; and a great number of copies being found were seized. The red ink which embellished his copies was said to be his blood; and it was therefore adjudged that he was in league with the devil, and Faust was at length obliged (to save himself from a bonfire) to discover his art to the parliament of Paris.

SAILING COACHES.

The curious invention of sailing coaches was found out by Simon Stevinus, in the Netherlands. An account of an experiment made in one of them will best describe them. Purposing to visit Grotius (saith Gassendus), Peireskius went to Scheveling, that he might satisfy himself of the carriage and swiftness of a coach, a few years before invented; and made up with that artifice, that with expanded sails it would fly upon the shore as a ship upon the sea. He had formerly heard that Count Maurice, a little after his victory at Newport, had put himself thereinto, together with Francis Mendoza, his prisoner, on purpose to make trial thereof; and that within two hours they arrived at Putten,

which is distant from Scheveling fourteen leagues, or two-and-forty miles. He had therefore a mind to make the experiment of it himself, and he would often tell us with what admiration he was seized when he was carried with a quick wind, and yet perceived it not, the coach's motion being equally quick."

THE TRUMPET.

The trumpet is said by Vincentio Galileo, in his Dialoge della Musica, page 146, to have been invented at Nuremberg; and there is extant a memoir which shows that trumpets were made to great perfection by an artist in that city, who was also an admired performer on that instrument: it is as follows:-" Hans Meuschell, of Nuremburg, for his accuracy in making trumpets, as also for his skill in playing on the same alone, and in the accompaniment with the voice, was of so great renown, that he was frequently sent for to the palaces of princes the distance of several hundred miles. Pope Leo the Tenth, for whom he had made sundry trumpets of silver, sent for him to Rome; and, after having been delighted with his excellent performance, dismissed him with a munificent reward."

WALES.

Cymbru, Cambria, or Wales, according to the Welsh Chronicles, had its name from Camber, one of the three sons of Brut (or Brutus ab Silius, which hero is mentioned by Homer to have conquered Aquitain): the other two sons of Brut were Locrin, whence came the name of Lloegr, (now England); as well as that of Albania, from Albanic, who possessed Scotland.-Brut y Brenhinoedd.

WATER COMPANIES.

There is not a city in the world that is so well supplied with that most essential article of domestic use, water, as London. The most remote parts of the metropolis are supplied with it regularly and in abundance, and at a price that is by no means high. In Paris, at

the present day, the water is carried about the streets by men employed for the purpose; and a recent attempt to remedy this evil by the establishment of a Water Company has not been successful. Paris is therefore two centuries behind us in this respect. Various have been the methods of furnishing London with water at different periods. The foreign merchants who traded to London not having the privilege of landing their goods, were obliged to sell them on board the ships, until the year 1236, when they purchased the privilege of housing their woad, by paying annually to the city the sum of fifty marks, and giving one hundred pounds towards the bringing of water from Tyburn to the city, which was soon after put in execution by bringing water from six fountains or wells in that neighbourhood, in a leaden pipe of six inches bore to the city.

In 1438, Sir William Eastfield, Knight of the Bath, and mayor of the city, brought water from Tyburn and Highbury Barn to London, and caused conduits to be erected in Fleet-street, Aldermanbury, and at Cripplegate; and in 1535, the common council of the city granted two-fifteenths, for defraying the expense of bringing water from Hackney to Aldgate, where a convenient conduit was erected for it on the south side of the street just without the gate, which proved very useful to the inhabitants in the eastern parts of the city. It was still found that there was not a sufficient quantity of water to supply the common demands of the city, and therefore an application was made to Parliament to empower the mayor and corporation to bring it from Hampstead-Heath, St. Mary-le-bone, Hackney, and Muswell-Hill, upon their indemnifying the owners of lands where they should be obliged to dig or build; this privilege was granted in the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII.

In 1546, two-fifteenths were granted by the commoncouncil, for bringing water from Hoxton fields, and for erecting a conduit in Lothbury. These conduits were now become pretty general in different parts of the city, which were supplied from others at a distance: the

most famous of these was Lamb's Conduit, which is thus noticed by Stowe :

"There lyeth a streete from Newgate west to the end of Turnagaine Lane, and winding north to Oldbourne Conduit. This conduit by Oldbourne Cross was first builded 1498. Thomasin, widow to John Percival, mayor, gave to the second making thereof 20 markes; Richard Shore, ten pounds; Thomas Kneesworth and others, did also give towards it. But of late a new conduit was there builded in place of the old; namely in the yeare 1577,by William Lambe, sometime a gentleman of the chapel to King Henry the Eighth, and afterwards a citizen and clothworker of London; the water thereof he caused to be conveyed in lead from divers springs to one head, and from thence to the said conduit, and waste of one cocke at Oldbourne Bridge, more than two thousand yards in length."

And speaking of Mr. William Lambe, who died in 1577, he says,—

"Neere unto Holborne he founded a faire conduit and a standard with a cocke at Holborne Bridge, to convey thence the waste. These were begun the six-and-twentieth day of March, 1577, .and the water carried along in pipes of lead more than two thousand yards, all at his own costs and charges, amounting to the sum of fifteene hundred pounds, and the worke fully finished the foure-and-twentieth of August in the same yeere."

And to ascertain more precisely the situation of this edifice, he further says, that from

"The west side of the conduit is the highway, there called Snor (now Snow) Hill, stretching out by Oldbourne Bridge, over the water to Turnmill Brook *, and so up to Oldbourne Hill."

The conduit at Holborn Bridge is believed to have been destroyed in the fire of London, which is known to have extended as far as Cow Lane; if so, it must have been rebuilt, for it is noticed by Hatton as being in existence in his day: "Lamb's Conduit," says he, "at the north end of Red Lion Street, near the fields, affords plenty of water clear as crystal, which is chiefly used for drinking. It belongs to St. Sepulchre's parish, the fountain head being under a stone marked

The Fleet River was formerly called the Wells, and afterwards Turnmill Brook, on account of the many mills erected on it.

S.S.P. in the vacant ground, a little southward of Ormond-street, where the water comes in a drain to this conduit, and it runs thence in lead pipes to the conduit on Snow Hill, which has the figure of a Lamb upon it, denoting that its water comes from Lamb's Conduit*."

In 1582, one Peter Maurice, a German engineer, proposed to the court of Lord Mayor and Aldermen the erecting a machine in the river Thames for raising water, for the more effectual supply of the city; which being approved of, he erected the same in the river, near London Bridge. This curious machine, which raised water to such a height as to supply the uppermost rooms of the loftiest buildings, was the first of the kind ever seen in England; and one not being sufficient, others were added.

In 1594, a large horse engine of four pumps was erected at Broken Wharf, in Thames-street, by Bevis Bulmar, for the convenience of the inhabitants in the western parts; but it was afterwards laid aside, on account of the expense of working it.

Before a method was found of conveying water by wooden pipes into the streets of London, and from thence by pipes of lead into the several houses, the inhabitants had no other means of supply than by fetching it from the conduits, or paying men who made it their business to bring it from thence. One of these persons we find characterised by the name of Cob, a water-bearer in Ben Jonson's comedy of "Every Man in his Humour:" the vessels they brought it in were called tankards, and held about three gallons; they were hooped round like a pail, and in figure were a frustum of a cone; they had a small iron handle at the upper end, like that of an alehouse pot, and being fitted with a cork bung or stopple, were easily portable on the shoulders of a man. One of these vessels is still used in the representation of the above comedy. As the last instance in remembrance of their actual use, the

VOL. I.

* Hatton's New View of London, p. 789.

M