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io8    SOCIAL    LIFE    IN    ENGLAND

CHAPTER XXXII Markets

One of the pleasantest sights, to a Londoner at any rate, is the market-place of an old-fashioned country town on a market-day. In many such towns the weekly market is held, in the open air, in the same place where it has been held for centuries. Probably none of the houses round the market-square is as old as the market, but the buildings, altered and rebuilt as they have been, take us back several centuries, and speak of days long gone by.

A good many towns have built covered markets. Some of them are near the old market-place, but in other cases the market is now held in quite another part of the town. Cattle-markets, which used to be held in the open street in a busy thoroughfare, are now often held in places more suitable for that purpose some distance away from their old quarters.

Corn-markets are held in most market-towns, frequently on the same day as the general market, and many towns now boast a corn-exchange. Then, too, in some places there are markets held in connection with the chief trade of the neighbourhood.

The market-house is often a curious building. You may almost speak of it as “ a big room on legs ”. There is a large room standing on stone or wooden arches. The open space underneath serves to shelter some of the market-stalls, and a staircase leads up from the street to the room above, where the town council holds its meetings. On the roof of this building is a turret containing a clock, and perhaps a fire-bell and a market-bell. There is such a quaint old market-house still standing at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, but so

MARKETS

many of these old buildings have been pulled down to make way for larger structures, in which the town can carry on its business, and where the various officers can have their offices, that the town hall is mostly now a smart modern building.

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The stalls set up on the market-day are of the same simple kind as those which have been used for centuries. It is curious to notice how the different trades keep to different parts of the market-place—butchers in one place, greengrocers in another, and fishmongers in another. Just as the trades had their special quarters in the town, so they had in the market. Things have altogether changed as far as the shops are concerned,

   Brass and Bronze.


 So much similarity is observable in the modes of or ef working in the different combinations of copper with  other metals, that the same description will apply pretty accurately to all of them.

 In brass founding and before working, for instance, the making of the moulds, the  melting of the metal in furnaces , the casting and subsequent trimming and finishing, the rolling into sheet , pr ht the drawing into wire— all are conducted pretty nearly in the same way as for other metals.

The making of the the brass itself is, however, rather a delicate operation.

This metal consists of about two parts of copper to one cuay of zinc ; the proportion not being exactly equal in all  specimens.

 In the first place the copper is melted, then and poured into cold water, by which it is made to separate into small pieces varying from the size of a small shot , to that of a bean, and known as “ shot-copper.”

 The mi to zinc is produced from a carbonate of the metal, called Cung “ calamine;”

 this is broken into small pieces, heated to redness in a furnace, reduced to a fine powder, and m; rm washed . Any quantity of the powdered calamine is then mixed with three-fourths of its weight of shotcopper,” and an amount of charcoal equal in bulk of, both .

 The mixture is exposed to a strong heat in earthen crucibles for several hours ; at the end of fir elt which time the two kinds of metal have combined celys together in a liquid state, and the charcoal has disap- N ice peared. The brass, formed by the union of the two melted metals, is poured either into large flat granite moulds, or tr< rer into smaller moulds of cast-iron, according as it is to be th xst afterwards rolled into sheets or cast into small articles. Sometimes brass is made by the direct union of zinc th st- and copper; but this is a more difficult process than nc ed when calamine is employed instead of metallic zinc. th ilt Bronze, like bell-metal, is a mixture of copper and pf id, | tin, but the proportions depend partly on the pur- di lal | poses to wrhich it is to be applied, and partly on the of on i opinions of the maker or artist. Bronze is a term fre- sii » a | quently applied to the metal used for cannon, as wrell T ;es | as for statues ; and under this designation the French se ize | founders are said to emplojr, for cannon, a ratio of ar in- j 100 copper to 11 tin. Cymbals contain 78 copper to ar fly ■ 22 tin ; medals, 100 copper to about 10 tin; statues th is ;

      annoyance and disappointment.

 At length his labours seemed to be nearly at an end ; his mould was lowered into the pit, the furnace heated, and the metal thrown in. At this time, while a violent storm raged without, the roof of his study, as if to increase the confusion, caught fire; but, though ill and harassed, lie still directed the works and encouraged his assistants, till overcome by anxiety and fatigue he retired in a raging fever to lie down, leaving instructions respecting the opening of the mouth of the furnace and the running of the bronze.

 He had not, he says, been reposing very long before one came running to him to announce evil tidings : the metal was melted, but would not run. He jumped from his bed, rushed to his studio like a madman, and threatened the lives of his assistants, with, being frightened, got out of his way till one of them, to appease him, desired him to give his orders, and they would obey him at all risks.

 He commanded fresh fuel to be thrown into the furnace; and presently, to his satisfaction, the metal began to boil. Again, how- ever, it appeared thick and sluggish, and refused to run. He then ordered all the plates, dishes, and other articles of domestic use in his house to be brought to him, which he threw pell-mell on the metal; wffien it immediately became fluid, and the mould was soon filled. Fie adds that he fell down on his knees, and poured forth a fervent thanksgiving to Almighty God for the success that had crowned his exertions.”

Coining.