Star.
London, England, 1830-07-22 00:00:00

SCINTILLA.

LEADEN HAL L.—A vessel, laden with leather, from Tt '-
poll, being wrecked on the coast of Cornwall, Mr. Simon Eyre, a shoe.
maker, in a small way of business in Lesdenhall.strtet, Raised wiut
money he was able
t his friends, and travelled on foot to Pen.
saner, where he what had been saved from the wreck.
With this stock e commenced dealer in leather, and In a few years
amassed an immense fortune, with an unblemished character. lic
built Lesdenhall in 1419 ; sans time after which he was knighted ;
and in 1426, Sir Simon discharged the office of Lord Mayor of
London. He was the first man that introduced the use of Morocco
leather in England.
Cu Inoue BILL, copied from an original record in the
of Thetford. This curious bill was entered in the record
when le Forrester was Mayor, in the ninth year of Edward
TheefordllL A.D.t01336.the
ann.l.ty.,exhiwhiMch..ts
wanas•au.w.themnartica... accounionsOfthet.he.
s4l:altsmutehoaoi,t
man
,y articles at that time; being a bill inserted In the Town-book
of the expenses attending the sending two light horsemen fro
year :
'rwo men chosen to go into the army against Scotland Al 0 o
For cloth, and to the tax for mating it into two gowns 0 6 11
For two pair of gloves, and a stick or staff ... ••0 0 2
For two herpes
For shoeing these horses ... . . : . ... 0 0 1
For two pair of boots for Light Horsemen ... .. 0 2 it
Paid to a lad for going with the Mayor to Lynn, to
take care of the horses. The distance between Thet-

ford and Lynn is about 33 miles • • .. 0 0 3
To a boy for a letter at Lynn, viz. carrying it thither ... 0 0 I
Expenses for the hones of two Light Horsemen for
four days before they departed ••• .. 0 1 ti
ORIGIN OF THE USE OF COALS IN BRITAIN.
Whether the ancient Britons were acquainted with this valushi,
fossil, is somewhat doubtful. For a time it escaped the notice of
the Romans, but was afterwards in use among them. For some
years following the Norman Conquest, a silence prevails concerning
this useful article : but in the reign of Henry 111. this trade had a
rapid progress. It is observable, that A.D. 1306, the use of
sea-coal was prohibited in London, by proclamation, as a public
nuisance, it being thought to corrupt the air with its stink and
smoke 1 Such a preudiee was not of long continuance ; and this fuel
'was, a short time eats, used in the royal palace. It is singular,
however, as appears from the household book of the first Earl
of Northumberland, dated 1512, that in this nobleman's family
they had not yet learned to use it by itself, for this extraordinary
reason, " because colya will not byrne withowte wodd." At this
time the best coals were five shillings per chaldrnn, A. D. 1582,
Queen Elizabeth obtained a lease of the manor*, coal-mines, &c. at
the annual rent of ninety pounds. Coals then advanced to six, and
in 1590, to nine shillings per chaldron. Towards the latter end of
this reign, an impost of one shilling (instead of two-pence, which
had been fixed in former times) was granted on every chaldron ship.
ped in the port of Tyne,:and to be used within the kingdom. In
King King James's reign, planting having been much neglected,
and wood being very scarce, the burning of coals became general
throughout the kingdom. In 1633, the price of a chaldron of
Newcastle was nine shillings; and in the next year Charles the
First, solely by his own authority, imposed a duty of four shit.
tinge per chaldron on all coals exported to foreign parts. On
other occasions it appears that this prince granted exclusive rights
to several persons on the payment of certain customs, on which
our author very properly remarks—" Monopolies contributed
greatly, among other grievances, to hurt the interest of the un.
fortunate Charles with the people of Great Britain. The granting
of these in the coal trade, appears to have composed no inconsi-
derable part of that monarch's political sins." Rushworth has
preserved a curious letter from the King to the Marquis of New.
castle, written in figure cyphers from Oxford, and dated 2d of
November, 1643, concerning the procuring of arms from Holland
in exchange for our coals.
AN ANCIENT CIISTOM.—The blood of a human
victim, mixed with wine, accompanied the most solemn forms of
execration among the ancients. CATALIWIL made use of this
superstition to bind his adherents to seency.—" He carried round"
says Salina, " the blood of a human victim, mixed with wine ;
and when all had tasted it after a set form of execration, (sings
in solessisibiss *aerie Agri counsel° he imparted his design."
JAMES never washed himself, not even his hands, pro-
bably from that irritability mentioned by Mayerne ; only, to avoid
utter uncleanliness, he used to rub the ends of his fingers in a wet
napkin. His eyes, which were large, he was in the habit of rolling
about in a strange manner, especially after any stranger had entered
the room ; the result, probably, of his constant fear of assassination.
Many persona, as we are informed by Weldon, were unable to en.
dure the scrutiny of his eye, and left the room, " sabring out of
countenance." The largeness of his tongue, or rather the narrow.
nom of his jaws, which caused him to drink in an unmanly manner,
imbibing the liquor as if he had been eating it, is a fact already
alluded to. It is one of the most curious contradictions in his cha-
racter, full as it is of all kinds of cross-lights, like the manor-houses
of his time, that though delighting in fine dresses worn by others,
be used to wear very plain clothes himself, and often retained them
till they fell to rags.—Lifer lams I. Constables Miscellany.
HISTORICAL DOUBTS.—An auctioneer, at a late sale
of antiquities, put up a helmet, with the following candid observe.
don :—" This, ladies and gentlemen, is a helmet of Romulus, the
Roman founder; but whether he was a brass or iron founder, I
cannot tell."

MATRIMONIAL SUCCESS.—St. Jerome relates, that
when he was at Rome, he saw a man that had not arrived to an ad-
vanced age, who had yet survived 20 wives, whom be had married
in uninterrupted succession. He afterwards married an elderly
woman, who had buried 19 husbands; and at her death he attended
her funeral, with his head crowned with a chaplet, and marching h
the stately pace of triumph.
MARRIAGE IN HUM LIVE. —On Thursday last,
In a room fitted up in the ball of St. Paul's, Eolus Tempest Sad-
dler, Esq. son of the late Windus Saddler, Req. the well-known
aeronaut, to Breezilia Zephyrs, second daughter of Runk:anus
Greene, also of aerostatic celebrity. The lovely bride looked di-
vinely light and airy. She was given away by Sir Gushes Boren...
After the ceremony, the happy pair pet off in a balloon for the top
of Mount Blanc, there to spend the honey moon.—Purr SLY.
SCRAPZIL—Mirror.

INDIAN RUBBER.—Dr. Mitchell has extended a
bottle of India rubber, which was about the size of an English
walnut until its diameter was fifteen Inches. Laresebottles hate
been madei to attain a diameter of slx feet ; one of when filled
with hydrogen gas, escaped! and was found 130 miles from the
spot where it was filled.
NUMBER OF JEWS, WUO NOW EXIST IN TIIF
WORLD