"price of these fish?" said he to the marketwoman: I cannot, sir, sell the two under 5d.' "Well," returned he, " if you will carry them to 66 my home, you shall have your price, and a penny "for your trouble." The offer was accepted, and he had six pounds of John Dory for as many pence. I am, dear Sir, Your's sincerely, R. W. You mining country of Cornwall, I should be rather more particular than I have hitherto been on the subject of its Mineralogy; and enter into some detail of the history of its mining concerns, the system on which they are carried on, and the extensive trade Wedbridge connected therewith. I shall readily gratify your curiosity to the best of my ability, and think I may venture to promise, that though the subject be of a less amusing nature than others which I have touched upon in the course of my correspondence, it will not altogether be without interest. You must indeed dip with me as deep as Dolcooth, into the mine of antiquarian research; but I trust we shall discover some ore there which may repay us for the trouble of the descent. The chief mineralogical productions of Cornwall, you know, considered as objects of trade and manufacture, are only two, tin and copper; as the former, however, had been discovered, and formed a branch of commerce, many ages before the latter was known to exist in the country, it will be proper to separate the history of the two, and discuss all that relates to Tin, before we pay any attention to the other mineral. From the writings of ancient authors, both sacred and profane, we learn, that tin was known and manufactured several centuries anterior to the Christian epoch. Moses, who flourished 3200 years ago, in enumerating the purification by fire. of things that will "abide" that element, makes mention of tin amongst the rest.* Homer, who *Numbers xxxi. 22. is supposed to have lived 900 years before our æra, speaks of this metal thrice, if I recollect right, in his description of Achilles' shield; first, as one of the metals chosen by Vulcan for the formation of this wonderful piece of armour; "In hissing flames huge silver bars are roll'd, secondly, (if we receive the poet's idea from his translator,) as a contrivance to relieve a dark scene, and thow the representation into perspective; "A darker metal mixt entrench'd the place, and thirdly, as enlivening and diversifying with this bright metal the representation of a group of oxen, * Χαλκον δ' εν πυξι βαλλεν ατειρεα, ΚΑΣΣΙΤΕΡΟΝ τε, Ιλ. Σ. 475. † Pope's Hom. book xviii. 666. Homer is not so refined here as his translator: he simply says, "Vulcan made a vine "yard, secured it with silver pales, surrounded it with a ditch of dark metal, and a hedge of tin." Εστηκει δε καμαξι διαμπερές αργυρέησιν ΚΑΣΣΙΤΕΡΟΥ, Ib. v. 563. by casting part of them in tin.* Isaiah too, in a prophesy delivered 2500 years since, predicts the future purification of the Jews, under the images of the ALMIGHTY purging away "their dross, and "taking away all their tin;"† and Ezekiel, 100 years after Isaiah, specifies this metal as one of the articles which Tyre received from Tarshish in return * Αι δε βοες χρυσοιο τετεύχατο, κασσιτέρου τε. Σ. 574. Pope's translation misses this opposition of colours in the group, from the use of both gold and tin; all his bulls are of gold. "Here, herds of oxen march, erect and bold, xviii. 665. † Isaiah chap. i. ver. 25. The force and beauty of the latter figure is not generally perceived. The Bishop of Killalla has a good note on the meaning of this passage. ואסירה כל־בדיליך: "Thy tin, not alloy," says the Bishop, " as Lowth incau"tiously renders it, for that should not be taken away, being "of use to render metals durable; but tin, which of all "metals is most hurtful to silver, a very small admixture of "it rendering silver as brittle as glass, and what is worse, "being very hardly separable from it again, if we may believe "Boerhaave; Chemistry by Dallowe, vol. i. p. 25; Parkhurst."-Bishop of Killalla's translation of Isaiah, 4to note in loc. |