collieries in the vicinity of Newcastle are perhaps the most
valuable and extensive in Europe, and afford nearly the whole supply
of the metropolis, and of those counties on the eastern coast
deficient in coal strata; thus--

"The grim ore
Here useless, like the miser's brighter hoard,
Is from its prison brought and sent abroad,
The frozen horns to cheer, to minister
To needful sustenance and polished arts--
Hence are the hungry fed, the naked clothed,
The wintry damps dispell'd, and social mirth
Exults and glows before the blazing hearth."

_Iago's Edge Hill_, p. 106.

P.T.W.

* * * * *

ALEHOUSE SIGNS.

(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)

Two of your correspondents have puzzled themselves in seeking the
origin of the old Cat and Fiddle sign. The one has been led away by a
love of etymology--the other would string the fiddle at the expense of
poor puss's viscera. Now laying aside conjecture and the subtleties of
language, suppose we consult plain matter of fact? It is then
generally allowed that the tones of a flute resemble the _human
voice_: those of a clarionet, the notes of a _goose_: and, all the
world knows that a well-played violin (especially in the practice of
gliding) yields sounds so inseparable from the _strains of a cat_, as
not to be distinguished by the mere amateur of musical science.

In conformity, therefore, with this last truth, the small fiddles
which Dancing-masters carry in their pockets, are at this day called
_kits_. But our etymologist will readily perceive this to be a mere
abbreviation, and that they must originally have been known as
_kittens_.

E.D. Jun.

* * * * *

ANACHRONISMS RESPECTING DR. JOHNSON.

(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)

"I am corrected, sir; but hear me speak--
When admiration glows with such a fire
As to o'ertop the memory, error then
May merit mercy." _Old Play_.

In justice to myself and the readers of the MIRROR, I must be allowed
to offer a few apologetic remarks on the almost unpardonable
anachronisms which I so inadvertently suffered to occur in my
communication on the subject of Dr. Johnson's Residence in Bolt Court.
But when I state that the chronological metathesis occurred entirely
in consequence of my referring to that most treacherous portion of
human intellect, the memory; and that it is upwards of seven years
since I read "Boswell's L