proceeded to Falkirk, and about half paft three in the afternoon we arrived at Carron. The foil from Edinburgh to the very entrance of Carron, was ftrewed with large round blocks of bafaltes. The volcanic lava, broken into small pieces, is used for hardening the road; and there can be no better nor more durable roads, than such as are made of this fub. ftance. Immediately on our arrival, Swediaur wrote a note to a perfon belonging to the manufactory, with whom he was acquainted. An anfwer was returned, that it was necef fary to leave the name, defignation, and refidence of each of us. The demand was inftantly complied with; and a few minutes after we were told that we were at liberty to enter. A man attended us at the gate, who faid that he was ordered to conduct us every where, with the exception of the place where the cannons are bored, which no ftranger was permitted to fee. He conducted us firft into an immenfe court, furrounded with high walls and vaft sheds. This place was covered with cannons, mortars, bombs, balls, and thofe large pieces which bear the name of carronades. Amid thefe machines of war, these terrible inftruments of death, gigantic cranes, capftans of every kind, levers, and affemblages of pullies, ferving to move fo many articles of enormous weight, are erected in fituations convenient for that purpose. The various movements, the fhrill creaking of pullies, the continual noife of hammers, the activity of thofe arms which give im pulfion to fo many machines -every thing here prefents a fpectacle as new as interefting. Under the fheds where the finished articles are depofited, we saw several rows of rampart cannon, battering guns, and field-pieces, destined for Ruffia and the Emperor. They were longer than ordinary, of the most perfect workmanship, and covered with a thin varnish, of a steel colour, to preserve them from ruft. Their carriages were of cast iron, and poffeffed the greateft fimplicity of conftruction; they appeared to me to unite the merit of the ftrongest folidity, to that of being free from the numerous appendages belonging to wooden carriages, which ferve only to render the working them more difficult, to obftruct their motion and to occafion the neceffity to frequent repairs. The fubftance which the cannons are varnished with is kept a great secret, but I am inclined to think, that it is compofed of a fat deficcative oil, to which there is added a certain portion of varnish of amber, mixed with plumbago. For my own fatisfaction, I have made feveral experiments with those ingredients, and they feemed to answer the fame purpose. The large buildings where the cannons are bored, are not at a great distance from the first yard. We paffed clofe by them; but were very politely told, that particular proceffes andm achines unknown to every other ettablishment of the kind, rendered it neceffary to keep that place concealed from ftrangers. We thought this was very reasonable, and followed our conductor to another quarter. He conducted us to the works for fmelting the ore; where four furnaces, of forty-five feet in height, devoured both night and day enorX x 2 mous pieces a year, many of which are exported to foreign ftates; and their guns of new conftruction are the lighteft and neateft now in uf, not excepting brais guns; the thirty two pounder fhip-gun weighing forty-two hundred weight, the fix-pounder eight hundred and a half, and the other calibres in proportion. The prefent proprietors are a chartered company, with a capital of 150,000l. fter ling, a common feal, &c. but their ftock is confined to a very few individuals. mous maffes of coals and metal. One may from this judge of the quantity of air neceffary to feed these burning gulphs, which difgorged, every fix hours, whole floods of liquid iron. Each furnace is fupplied by four air pumps, of a great width, where the air, compreffed into iron cylinders, uniting into one tunnel, and directed toward the flame, produces a fharp ruftling noise, and fo violent a tremor, that one not previously informed of it, would find it difficult to avoid a fenfation of terror. Thefe wind machines, this fpecies of gigantic bellows, are put in motion by the action of water. Such a torrent of air is indifpenfibly neceffary to fupport, in the higheft ftate of ignition, a column of coal and ore forty-five feet high; and it is fo rapid and active, that it projects a vivid and brifk flame more than ten feet above the top of the furnace. An open area of very great extent, built in the form of a terrace, and on a level with the upper aperture of the fire-places, is appropriated to the reception of the fupplies of ore and coals; and on this platform are also fpacious areas, where the coal is prepared for use. As the coal ufed here confifts almoft wholly of large lamps, the process by which they convert it into cake, is completely different from that employed at Newcastle, where the coal duft only is applied to that purpose. At Carron foundery, this business is done in the open air, and in the most fimple manner. A quantity of coal is placed on the ground, in a round heap, of from twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, and about two feet in height. As many as poffible of the large pieces are fet on end, to form paffages for the air; above them are thrown the fmaller pieces, and coal duft, and in the midft of this circular heap is left a vacancy of a foot wide, where a few faggots are placed to kindle it. Four or five apertures of this kind are formed round the ring, particularly on the fide expofed to the wind. There is feldom, indeed, occafion to light it with wood; for thefe purifying works being inceffantly in action, they generally ufe a few fhovels of coal already burning, which acts more rapidly than wood, and foon kindles the furrounding pile. As the fire fpreads, the mafs increafes in bulk, puffs up, becomes fpongy and light, cakes into one body, and at length lofes its bitumen, and emits no more fmoke. It then acquires a red, uniform colour, inclining a little to white; in which state it begins to break into gaps and chinks, and to affume the appearance of the under part of a mushroom. At this moment, the heap must be quickly covered with ashes, of which there is always a fufficient provifion around the numerous fires where the coke is prepared. This method of fpreading a large quantity of afhes on the fire to deprive it of air, is fimilar to that used in making charcoal, which is covered over with earth. The refult is pretty much the fame; the pitcoal, thus prepared, being light and fonorous, and producing the fame effect in high furnaces as charcoal. This is a quality of extreme importance; fince, by means of charred pitcoal, founderies may cafily be establifhed in places where the want of wood would otherwise render it neceffary to abandon the richest mines of iron. There is fuch a numerous feries of thefe places for making coke, to fupply fo vaft a confumption, that the air is heated to a confiderable extent, and during the night the fky is entirely illuminated with the flames. When one obferves, at a little dif tance, fo many maffes of burning coal on one fide, and fo many volumes of flame, darting to a great height above the high furnaces, on the other—and at the fame time hears the noise of weighty hammers ftriking upon re founding founding anvils, mingled with the fpar, and fometimes of ponderous loud roaring of bellows-one doubts fpar, and white or yellowish fpathofe whether he is at the foot of a volcano iron. in actual eruption, or whether he has been tranfported by fome magical ef. fect to the brink of the cavern, where Vulcan and his Cyclops are occupied in preparing thunderbolts. The fecond is a hard rocky fubftance, of a yellowish brown colour. The third is of a deep iron-grey colour, fometimes inclining a little to violet, and is remarkable for being formed in geodes (Septaria) of a round or oval form, a little flattened. The largest of these geodes are about eighteen inches in diameter, and the least from four to five inches. On placing them on one edge, and giving the other a hard fmart blow with a hammer, which breaks them into two pieces, one is agreeably fur prifed to fee their interior filled with a multitude of very diftinct, fmall prifms, of three, four, and five fides, and feparated from each other by filaments, or freaks, of calcareous white Thefe prifms confit of the fame matter with the geodes, that is of a kind of a hard unctuous iron ore, which at firft has rather the appearance of a deep grey argillaceous ftone, than of an ore of iron. The prifms, which must be confidered as the refult of contraction, when the fubftance of the geodes was foft, are from three to four lines broad, and from two to three inches long. Their forms are very perfect and regular; and in fome of the largest the prifms are fo multiplied, and difpofed with fuch order, that they refemble, in miniature, those fine bafaltic colonnades, commonly known by the name of the Giant's Causeway. This fpecies of iron ore is obtained in great abundance from a hill near Dunbar, a fmall town in Haddingtonfhire, about twenty-fix miles from E. dinburgh, close by the fea, and, confequently, very convenient for the conveyance of the ore. It affords a great quantity of iron, which one would not expect from its appearance to the eye; but analyfis and experiment have proved that it is valuable. It is neceflary to calcine it before it is put into the fmelting furnace. By the due intermixture of these three ores, there is obtained a grey crude iron, of a good quality, which is applied to the most extenfive ufes. It is fo foft as to yield easily to the fire; and, as it is alfo very pure, may be moulded into the most delicate forms.. It may juftly be fuppofed, that it was not without repeated unproductive experiments, proceffes, and expences, that this establishment arrived, at length, at its prefent high state of perfection, in which every thing is appointed, every thing is executed, with fuch uniform precifion, that nething is entrusted to ordinary routine or chance. The The minerals are intermixed with method, carefully weighed, and put into baskets of equal dimenfions. The fame attention is obferved with refpect to the coals. Every thing is placed in regular order, within reach of the founders, under sheds appropriated to that fervice. The baskets for each charge is always counted out: a clock, erected near the large furnaces, determines the precife time of putting in the charge. The fame form is obferved with refpect to the discharging of the furnaces; the ftroke of the bell announces the moment when they fhould proceed to that operation; and every one of the workmen flies to his poft. We visited the place where the crude iron is refined in reverberatory furnaces, to be afterward caft into mortars, cannons, howitzers, bombs, balls, &c. We faw, alfo, that where the moulds are prepared, and another place where they are dried. We were then conducted into a vaft fabric, which fuggefted the most plea fant ideas, for its productions confifted of the various implements of agriculture, the arts, and domeftic ufe: in this place were made coppers of five feet diameter, for the making of fugar in the West Indies; ftoves, in the fhape of an antique urn, mounted upon pedestals; hearths of all kinds, and of the finest fashions for pit-coal fires; kitchen ranges, with all their appendages, boilers, tea kettles, faucepans, neatly and folidly tinned: fpades; hoes of different forts, for cultivating the fugar cane, which were ground to a fharp edge on large whettoues; baffo-relievos, of the most excellent model, for chimney-backs in one word, every thing, even to cast iron hinges and bolts for doors: and the greater part of these productions are fold at fo moderate a rate, that a man of very flender fortune may here pro cure many articles of neceffity, and even of ornament, which cannot be obtained elsewhere at three times their price. But labour and workmanship are, in this place, affifted by fo many machines and ingenious proceffes, that its commodities are executed, both in a fhorter time, and with greater perfection, than in other establishments of the fame kind. I should not forget to notice a very fimple machine, which ferves to grind and reduce to a very fine powder the charcoal used for fprinkling over the moulds: it confifts of a kind of mortar of caft-iron, feveral feet in diameter, closely fhut with a wooden cover, perforated in the middle, to admit the paffage of a vertical cylinder, which forms the principal mechanic power of the machine, being turned round on its own axis by a wheel, which is moved by water. Two iron bars pass horizontally through the bottom of the vertical axis, in the manner of a crofs, and they may be raised or lowered at pleafure, by means of feveral holes, at different distances, in the axis. This crofs divides the area or capacity of the mortar into four portions, two of which are occupied by two iron balls, nearly as large as ordinary bombs, but entirely folid, and of a polished surface. The moment the axis is put in motion, the balls begin to roll round after each other, and thus speedily bruife the charcoal. But as by this means the latter might be compressed only, without being reduced to a fine powder, the two other fpokes are furnifhed with teeth in the manner of a rake, which fir up the charcoal from the bottom of the mortar, and turn it on every fide; fo that in a very short fpace of time, and with little trouble, whole facks of charcoal may be ground to an impalpable powder, without any lofs of fubftance. REMI REMINISCENCE S. From the Works of Horace Walpole Earl of Orford. THE * in obferving to the king how prejudicial it would be to his affairs, to prefer to the minifter in poffeffion a man in whofe judgment his predeceffor was the fitteft perfon to execute his office. From that moment there was no more queftion of Sir Spencer Compton as prime minifter. He was created an earl, foon received the garter, and became prefident of that council, at the head of which he was much fitter to fit than to direct. Fourteen years afterward he again was nominated by the fame prince to replace Sir Robert as firft lord of the treasury, on the latter's forced refignation; but not as prime minifter, the conduct of affairs being foon ravished from him by that dafhing genius the Earl of Granville, who reduced him to a cypher for the little year in which he furvived, and in which his incapacity had been obvious. The queen, impatient to destroy all hopes of change, took the earlieft opportunity of declaring her own fentiments. The inftance I fhall cite will be a true picture of courtiers. Their majefties had removed from Richmond to their temporary palace in Leicefterfields †, on the very evening of their receiving notice of their acceffion to the crown; and the next day all the nobility and gentry in town crowded to kifs their hands: my mother among the reft, who, Sir Spencer Compton's defignation, and not its evaporation, being known, could not make her way between the fcornful backs * Sir Spencer Compton, afterward Earl of Wilmington, was fo far from refenting Sir Robert's fuperior talents, that he remained fiedfastly attached to him; and when the famous motion for removing Sir Robert was made in both houfes, Lord Wilmington, though confined to his bed, and with his head bliftered, rofe and went to the House of Lords to vote against a measure that avowed its own injuftice by being grounded only on popular clamour. It was the town refidence of the Sidneys Earls of Leicefter, of whom it was hired, as it was afterward by Frederic Prince of Wales on a fimilar quarrel with his father: he added to it Saville house belonging to Sir George Saville, for his children. |