00 marks from Bristol, and in proportion
from smaller places. In 1386 London gave 4,000_l._ more, and 10,000
marks in 1397. The latter sum was obtained also for the coronation of
Henry VI. Nor were the contributions of individuals contemptible,
considering the high value of money. Hinde, a citizen of London, lent
to Henry IV. 2,000_l._ in 1407, and Whittington one half of that sum.
The merchants of the staple advanced 4,000_l._ at the same time. Our
commerce continued to be regularly and rapidly progressive during the
fifteenth century. The famous Canynges, of Bristol, under Henry VI.
and Edward IV. had ships of 900 tons burden.

_Gold-beating._--Reaumur asserts, that in an experiment he made, one
grain of gold was extended to rather more than forty-two square inches
of leaf-gold; and that an ounce of gold, which in the form of a cube,
is not half an inch either high, broad, or long, is beat under the
hammer into a surface of 150 square feet. The process is as
follows:--The gold is melted in a crucible, and taken to the
flattening mills, where it is rolled out till it becomes of the
consistence of tin; it is then cut into small square pieces, and each
piece is laid between a leaf of skin (known by the name of
goldbeaters-skin); two parchment bands are then passed over the whole,
and each band is reversed; it is then hammered out to the size of the
skin, taken out, cut and hammered over again, and so on till it is
sufficiently thin; when it is placed in books, the leaves of which are
rubbed with red ochre, to prevent the gold adhering to them. There are
gold leaves not thicker, in some parts, than the three hundred and
sixty thousandth part of an inch. BURTON.

_Ancient Pitch-in-the Hole._--A soldier was brought to Alexander to
exhibit a trick which he had acquired, of pitching a pea into a
distant hole, which just fitted it;--when the reward which the great
conqueror bestowed upon the soldier for his useless application of
time was a peck of peas. P.T.W.

_Pekin._--Balducci Pegalotti, a Florentine writer upon commerce, about
the year 1340, describes Pekin (under the name of Cambalu) the capital
city of China, as being one hundred miles in circumference. He also
states the journey from the Genoese territories to Pekin as of rather
more than eight months, going and returning; and he assures us it was
perfectly secure, not only for caravans, but for a single traveller,
with a couple of interpreters and a servant.

_Me