merit as a landscape painter, has recommended him to the zealous
patronage of Earl Fitzwilliam and the Duke of Devonshire. I confess I
have never seen more exquisitely finished and more poetical
productions."

_Improvements, &c._

"The Shrewsbury Hospital, at Sheffield, has lately been rebuilt in an
improved situation, by Messrs. Woodhead and Hurst, of Doncaster. It
accommodates eighteen aged men and eighteen women in a very convenient
manner. It has been liberally supported by the present Duke of Norfolk,
and is managed by trustees of his nomination. The men are allowed 10s.
per week, and the women 8s. There is also another hospital, founded by
a Mr. Hollis, a Sheffield cutler; as a provision for sixteen cutlers'
widows, who besides habitations, receive 7s. per week, coals, and a gown
every two years.

"In conclusion I have assembled some _miscellaneous_ facts. Sheffield
parish is ten miles by three. The Park of 2,000 acres was inclosed in
Queen Anne's time.

"The Duke of Norfolk is Lord of the Manor, from his ancestors the
Lovetots, Furnivals, Nevilles, Talbots, and Howards.

"Roger de Busli had 46 manors in Yorkshire, and in Nottinghamshire and
Derbyshire 179.

"The Cutlers' Company was incorporated 21st James I.--The cutlers are
8,000 or 10,000 in number.

"In 1751, the first stage-wagon went from Sheffield to London. In 1762,
the first stage-coach.

"In 1752, the plated manufacture began.

"In 1770, the first bank was opened.

"In 1786, the first steam-engine grinding-wheel was established.

"The casting or melting of steel began 60 years ago, till which time
Swedish bar-steel was used.

"There are iron-forges near every Roman station, and Abbey Dale is full
of cinders from smelting, with apertures to windward to serve as blasts.

"Beds of scoriae found in the parish, on which trees grow, and in old
pleasure parks.--Roman coins are also found in scoria.--A quarry of
stone at Wincobank Hill, contains fossilized vegetables, chiefly
calamites. They are succulent, and of the bamboo family. In the coal
districts, branches and trunks of trees are found; and Mr. Rhodes took
out of solid stone, a fossil post of walnut wood. South-east of
Tickhill, is an accumulation of subterranean trees, in black earth,
mixed with shells and rounded stones.

"It is believed at Sheffield, that the executioner of Charles I.,
was a person of the name of William Walker, a native of Darnall, near
Sheffield. Such was the tr