o his industry are
invaluable. To him we owe all our knowledge of English history, from the
landing of the Saxons in Kent to his time, (nearly three centuries,)
and all our certain information respecting the various tribes who then
inhabited the island: from him it is apparent that the work called the
Saxon Chronicle copies long passages. Bede also translated St. John's
Gospel into English; and it is said, that a copy of some of St. Paul's
Epistles, in Bede's handwriting, is still preserved in the library of
Trinity College, Cambridge. His works, published at Basle, extend to
eight folio volumes.

Bede died May 26, 735, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was first
buried in his own monastery, but his remains were afterwards removed,
and interred in Durham cathedral; and, being subsequently canonized, he
was enrolled in the Romish calendar of saints. His character is thus
drawn by William of Malmsbury:--"He was a man, that, although born
in the extreme corner of the world, yet the light of his learning spread
over all parts of the earth. All the hours which he had to spare from
the monastic exercises of prayer, and singing in the choirs by day and
night, (in which he was constant, and very devout,) he most diligently
spent in study, and divided his whole time between that and his
devotions."

The Chair is not the only memorial of Bede preserved in this
neighbourhood. About one mile west of Jarrow is a _Well_, still
called _St. Bede's_, to which it was customary, almost as late as
the middle of the last century, to convey diseased children, and, after
dropping in a crooked pin, to dip them for the recovery of their health:
round the Well, also, on every Midsummer Eve, was a great resort of the
neighbouring people, with bonfires, music, and dancing. The mystical
properties of the Well are not of difficult solution: since it was
reasonable enough to associate the restorative effects of cold bathing
with sanctity; and the rejoicings at the spring were indicative of the
gladness of the people, in connexion with a name endeared to them, by
the wisdom, virtue, and benevolence, of its possessor.

[5] Sir James Mackintosh.

* * * * *

GOLD-BEATING.

Early in the 17th century, great surprise was excited upon the
promulgation of the fact, that the Parisian gold-beaters could produce
1,600 leaves, or 105 square feet, from one ounce of gold; but the
surprise of the public was redoubl