No. 3.-BELLS. Text, p. 121. On the 7th of November, 1824, the bells of Ross, in Herefordshire, were rung muffled, in memory of John Kyrle, Esq., immortalised for his kindness, by Pope, on the centenary day of his death; we may say of him as was said of Sutton, founder of the Charter-house school, in London; "He was gentle by birth, high by humility, and, which is greatest to his honour, rich by charitable bounty," which flowed in "a gentle stream, as from a full heart." The following are the weights of the celebrated Bow-bells, in the city of London treble, 987 lbs. ; 2d, 1064 lbs. ; 3d, 1152 lbs. ; 4th, 1351 lbs. ; 5th, 1592 lbs. ; 6th, 1915 lbs. ; 7th, 2322 lbs. ; 8th, 2769 lbs. ; 9th, 3870 lbs. ; the tenor, 5938 lbs. ; the clappers, about 400 lbs. ; gross weight, 23,360 lbs. Peals of bells are now often hung in cast-iron frames, being stronger and cheaper than oak, take up less room, are more durable, and are said to improve the sound. No. 4.-Text, 324. Prices of articles used by the Navy, and pay of Workmen. About twenty years past, I had an opportunity of overlooking some of the old books connected with the Navy office in Somerset-house, London, from which I made the following extracts the dates begin 1693, In the year 1718 there were only nine flag officers in the navy. In 1737, the expenses for the year of Greenwich Hospital, in which there were 900 men, was £10,000. In 1693, bread, 10s. per cwt.; cheese, 2d. per lb. ; butter, 4d. and 4d. 1-4 ; oatmeal, 5s. per bushel; Barbadoes sugar, 34s. per cwt.; beer, 50s. per tun; beef, 18s. 6d. to 22s. per cwt. (112lbs. ;) suet, 2s. to 2s. 6d. per stone of 14lbs. ; peas, 4s. 6d. per bushel; flour, 16s. per cwt.; salt, 80s. per whey; wheat, 3s. 6d. per bushel; coals, 26s. per chaldron; hops, 43s. per cwt.; malt, 3s. 6d. per bushel; good rice, 20s. per cwt.; damaged do., 16s.; lizard fish, 6d. each. In 1728, turpentine, 40s. 3d. per barrel; 49 tuns sea beer, 50s. per tun; old junk, from £5 to £6 per tun; 5175 furze bavins, at 5s. 9d. per 1000; 6000 brushwood bavins, at 14s., and 9900 at 15s. per 1000; these are faggots of wood, for burning, heating ovens, and other domestic purposes: "The mantling brambles hide the hearth, Prices paid for day work in Woolwich-yard, 1717; bricklayers, 1s. 10d. ; braziers, 2s. 6d. ; plumbers, 2s. 6d. ; wheelwrights, 2s.; house-carpenters, 2s.; boys, 6d. to 8d.; caulkers, Is. 8d. to 1s. 10d.; shipwrights, 1s. 2d. to 2s.; sailmakers, 1s. 4d. to 1s. 10d.; joiners, 1s. to 2s.; riggers, 1s. 6d. ; spinners, 1s. 8d.; hatchellers, 1s. 5d.; labourers 1s. to 1s. 2d.; watchmen, 1s. per night; watermen, 2s. ; pitch-heaters, 1s. 3d.; block-makers, 2s. 1d.; locksmiths, 2s. 6d. ; sawyers, 3s. per 100 feet of oak, elm, and fir; scavilmen, Is. 3d.; teams of four horses, 6s. Prices paid 1728: for black oakum, 12s. per cwt.; white do., 16s.; salad oil, 4s. 6d. per gallon; train-oil, £12 per tun; pitch, 12s. 6d. per barrel; resin, 13s. 6d. per cwt.; sand, 2s. per bushel; brown paper, 6s. per ream; tallow, 39s. per cwt.; tar, 170s. per last; tarras, 2s. 9d. per bushel; thrums, 7d. 3-4 per lb. ; pan-tiles, 85s. per 1000; plain ridge do., 208s.; turpentine, 40s. 3d. per brl.; runlets for oil, 2 and 3 galls., 1s. 3d.; 4, 5, and 6 galls., 1s. 6d. ; 10 and 12 galls, 2s. each; bees' wax, ls. 5d. 1-2 per lb. ; candles, 5s. 6d. per doz. lbs. ; charcoal, 6d. 1-4 per bushel; culm, 10s. 6d. per qr.; brass, 11d. per lb.; copper, manufactured, 1s. 7d.-sheet or bar, 1s. 6d. old lead, 10s. 6d. per cwt. sheet-lead, 19s 11d. per cwt.; glue, 4d. 3-4 per lb.; cordage-cables, 30s. per cwt.; ordinary twine, 5d. per lb. ; extra, 6d. marline, 3d. 1-2. This year 35 bullocks, weight, 189 cwt. and 14 lbs., cost 17s. 6d. per cwt. These bullocks must have been small and badly fed, or they would have weighed much heavier. There was fat beef at that period; the Bishop of Durham, who was a palatine bishop, which means a lord who had jurisdiction, "as fully as the king had in his palace," used to provide the provisions for the judges' tables when they went to Durham. He wrote from London, 1661, ordering "to be got some fat beef, from William Man, of Piercebridge, for the judges to taste at the assizes; also, some Westphalia hams, Holland cheeses, and look there be ready some kegs of sturgeon." Such articles were considered good "belly-timber" for bishops and judges, in those days of full feeding. In the neighbouring county of Northumberland, there has for centuries been, in Chillingham-park, some of the original wild cattle. The meat of the bulls weighs from 560 to 700 pounds; and that of the cows from 420 to 500 pounds; although they run wild, which lessens their tendency to fatten. The Durham ox, slaughtered 1801, weighed, when alive and ten years old, 3804 pounds; at eleven years old he dislocated his hip, was in great pain for eight weeks, then he was killed, without being full fed he had been shown about the country. His meat weighed 2332 pounds, the fat and hide, 294. The owner, before the accident, was offered £2000 pounds for him. The Durham cows are excellent milkers; most of the London milkmen prefer them. It is said the breed came originally from Holland. Bakewell began his improvements in the breed of cattle at Dishley, in Leicestershire, about the middle of the last century. He obtained his best long-horned cows from Canley, a hamlet in the village of Stonely, near Coventry. According to Mortimer's "Whole Art of Husbandry," 1708, it was estiinated that the capital required to stock a farm was equal to three years of the rent; thus, if the rent was £100, it would require £300 to work it. Eminent Men of all Nations; from Gorton's General Biographical Dictionary. |