The Sun.
London, England, 1806-01-09 00:00:00

ON THE USE OF SEA-COAL IN LONDON FIRES'.

Mr. Pennant, in whose Works:we frequently see
a strong predileaion for Welsh antiquities, asserts,
" That coals were known to the Britons before the
arrival of the Romans, who had not even a name
for Ahem : yet Theophrastus describes them very
accurately at least three centuries before the time of
(.Isar, and even says that they were used by;work-
ersin brass. It is highly probable that the Britons
made use of them. It is certain that they had
a; primitive name for this fossil, that of glo : ,and as
a farther 'proof I mayadd, that a flint-axe, the in-
strument of the aborigines clf- our Island, was dis-
covered stuck in certain veins of coal, exposed to-
day' in Craig-y-Pyer, in Monmouthshire."—(Tour
in Wales, Lone. 1778, 4to. p; 16;)
Another of our Writers, whose work in illustra-
tion of ancient manners has long been valued, runs
into a different extreme: ,Bishop Fleetwood (Chron.
Preciosum,- ed. 1707, p. 118) says, " That, when-
ever coals are mentioned in old accompts, we are to
understand ',charcoal, not sea-coal, which has not been
in common use (as well as I can guess) an.hundred
and fifty years, at least not-in London ; though I
find them in Matthew Paris, under the name of
curio mgrinus, in the time of Henry 111. in.Addita-
ment."

• The application of coal (or carbo, as it is called in
the Latin of the middle ages) to charcoal seems cor-
reEt ; since whereer sea-coal occUrs, carbo. has
usually the adjunEt of marinus ; as in •the Wardrobe
Accdnipts of the 28th of Edward I. 1300, where !:
carlones marini occurs among the garrisoa-stores
RokboroUgh Castle.
. In 1.234, when Henry Ill:. confirmed the charter
of his father to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he gave the ;1
townsmen, on their supplication, licence to dig,
coals and stone in the common soil without the l'
walls, called the Castle MoOr,•and to convert them
• to their own profit, in aid.of their fee-farm rent of
'ao hundred pounds -a-year. This, says Dr. Ander-
son, is the first mention of coals dug at Newcastle,
which were then probably confined as fuel to the
use of the, town ; for the City of London had at that
titne, as may be easily gathered from the Domesday
Survey, §,o many woods and copses round it, and
the carriage both by land and water was so cheap,
that coa.sfrora Newcastle would have been far more
expensive: than the wood and turf-fuel from its own
neighbourhood.,
The Historlogriphers of London relate,. that, in
Edward L's reign, sea-coal wvas in so "mild) request
with several of the city-trades, -as dyers, bre,,ves, &c.
that, on the complaint, of the Nobility and Gentry
that they could not 'go to London on account of the
noisome smell and thick air, the Kitt; issued a pro-
, claination, forbiddino• the use of it, even in the
suburbs, on pain of AO, loss of furnaces, &c. Those
trades, however, finding the scarcity and price of
woodifliel, daily increasing,' discovered it was still
their interest to use sea-coal ; and, notwithstanding
the prohibition, entered on the trade with Newcastle.
Tn 1357 the townsmen's licence to dig coal was in=
'creased by a special grant from the CroWn of the
soil in whiCh they had before only liberty to dig
and in 1379 the trade had grown so considerable;
that 'Edward 111. imposed a duty of sixpence a tea,
each 'quarter of the year, on 'all'ships from Newcastle
laden with coals. • Such was the introdu&ion of sea-.
coal to common use. Mr. Evelyn, in his Finn ffit-
glum, written in the reign of Charles 11. proposed
the removal of such trades as required great fires five
or •six miles out of London, towards Greenwich ;
also of slaughter-11°1.11;es and tallow-chandlers ; and
to plant fragrant nurseries acid gardens in the low-
grounds round the 'City.

LONDON i rinted by R !CHARD HARRIS, o'f No. 4, Mittlett-court, Vow-street ; and
At'the 51-TN•biIICE,'No. 1162, Strand; where ildveilisiments Orders fc

POLICE.

PUP tIC-th!ME, IiATTON GARDEN.---Ar6steraya
ti-can Of the name of Chivers, Jones, a grave-digger at
,St. James's, Clerkenweil, Bradbury, his man, Max-
well; a drover,-and Spacer, a dustman, Were exa-
Mined a: Second time; the first as'a receiver, and the
rest for stealing lead out of the "vaults in St. JaMes's
Church; On Bra'dbury was found a large sheet' of,
lead, on which 'was affixed a.bro.ss plate, having en-
graved thereon, -" Mrs. Eliabeth ClAss,, died fe7th
September, 1741, in the 59th year. 6±" Her age;-"
Myers was committed for trial as the receiver ; the
other prisoners Were committed for re-examination,
other chargeS being expeeted against thcM.