A tour in Scotland; MDCCLXIX / [Thomas Pennant].

Thomas Pennant

Date:: 1774

Credit: A tour in Scotland; MDCCLXIX / [Thomas Pennant]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Jet. Pindar, who rented them, payed annually t6 the King 12,500!., to the Earl of Mulgrave 1,640!., to Sir William Penny man 600 L-, kept 800 workmen in pay, and fold his alum at 26!. per tun. But this monopoly was deftroyed on the death of Charles 1. and the right reftored to the proprietors. In thefe alum rocks are frequently found cornua ammonis, and other foffils, lodged in a ftony nodule. Jet is fometimes met with in thin flat pieces, externally of the appearance of wood. Accord¬ ing to Solinus, Britain was famous for this foflil *. The lands near Robin Hood's village were covered with fifli of feveral kinds, and with people who met the cobles in order to pur- chafe their cargo: the place feemed as if a great fifh fair had been held there ^ feme were carrying off their bargains, others bufled in curing the fifli ; and a little out at fea was a fleet of cobles and five- men boats, and others arriving to difcharge the capture of the pre¬ ceding tides f. There are 36 of the flrft belonging to this little place. The houfes here make a grotefque appearance, are fcattered over the face of a fteep cliff in a very fcrange manner, and fill every projecting ledge, one above another, in the fame manner as thofe of the peafants in the rocky parts of China. Sand's End, Runwick, and Staithes, three other fifliing-towns on this coaff, are (as I am told) built in the fame manner. * Gagates hie plurimus Qptimufque eft lapis : Ji decor em requiras, nigro gemmeus : Ji naturam aqua ardet, oleo rejiinguitur: Ji poteftatem attritu calefadius applicita detinet, citque fuccinum. C. xxiv. f From hence the fifli are carried in machines to Derby, Litchfield, Birmingham, and Worcefter: the towns which lie beyond the lait are fupplied from the Wed of England\ The$

A tour in Scotland; MDCCLXIX / [Thomas Pennant].

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