The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, Vol. 20, No. 577, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, No. 577
Volume 20, Number 577, Saturday, November 24, 1832

Author: Various

Release Date: February 9, 2006 [EBook #17728]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XX, No. 577.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1832. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

[Illustration: DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES.]

DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES.

The first of these archaeological rarities is a pair of Snuffers,
found in Dorsetshire sixty-four years since, and engraved in Hutchins's
history of that county. They were discovered, says the historian,
"in the year 1768, in digging the foundation of a granary, at the
foot of a hill adjoining to Corton mansion house (formerly the seat
of the respectable family of the Mohuns), in the parish of St. Peter,
Portisham. They are of brass, and weigh six ounces: the great difference
between these and the modern utensils of the same nature and use is,
that these are in shape like a heart fluted, and consequently terminate
in a point. They consist of two equal lateral cavities, by the edges of
which the snuff is cut off, and received into the cavities, from which
it is not got out without particular application and trouble."

"There are two circumstances attending this little utensil which seem to
bespeak it of considerable age: the roughness of the workmanship, which
is in all respects as crude and course as can be well imagined, and the
awkwardness of the form."

So little is known of the comparatively recent introduction of snuffers
into this country, that the above illustration will be acceptable to the
observer of domestic origins and antiquities. See also _Mirror_, vol.
xi. p. 74.

The KEY, annexed, was the property of Mr. Gough, the eminent
topographer, and is suppose