St. Paul’s Church, and fifty parish churches in London after the great fire; and in 1677, Charles II. granted to his natural son, Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond, and his heirs, a duty of one shilling a chaldron on coals, which continued in his family till it was purchased by government in 1800.  The 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