These flasks are very small. The engravings represent them of their proper dimensions. Mr. Wilkinson thinks it probable that they were brought to Egypt from India, the Egyptians having had commercial relations with that country at a very remote epoch, and that they came not as pieces of porcelain, but as vessels containing some articles of importation.
STRONG ATTACHMENT TO SMOKING.
The following is a curious case of extreme fondness for smoking in a very poor and very old man. In the year 1810, there died in Dartford workhouse, aged 106, one John Gibson. He had been an inmate of the house for ten years, and till within two months of his death used daily to perambulate the town. His faculties were entire to the last. He was so much attached to smoking, that he requested his pipe, together with his walking-stick, might be placed in his coffin, which request was complied with.
EXTRAORDINARY LETTER.
The following strange and curious epistle, we are assured, was sent to a surgeon of eminence by a malefactor who had been sentenced to death. It has a degree of character and quaintness about it which is rarely found in the letters of convicts. Whether or not the surgeon complied with his request we do not know.
"Sir,—Being informed that you are the only surgeon in this county, in the habit of dissecting dead bodies—being very poor, I am desirous of passing what remains to me of life, with as much comfort as my unhappy condition admits of. In all probability I shall be executed in the course of a month; having no friend to intercede for me, nor even to afford me a morsel of bread, to keep body and soul together till the fatal moment arrives, I beg you will favour me with a visit; I am desirous of disposing of my body, which is healthy and sound, for a moderate sum of money. It shall be delivered to you on demand, being persuaded that on the day of general resurrection, I shall as readily find it in your laboratory, as if it were deposited in a tomb. Your speedy answer will much oblige your obedient servant,
James Brown."
A MATTRESS FOR A BANK.
In the month of April, 1822, Mrs. Motley, broker, Bedford-street, North Shields, purchased an old mattress for 2s. from a shipowner, who was going to reside with his daughter; in arranging some papers a few days ago, he found a document in the hand-writing of his deceased wife, not intended for his perusal, but that of her son by a former husband, in which it was stated that property to a considerable amount was deposited in the said mattress. His daughter in consequence waited on Mrs. Motley, and offered her a few shillings to return it. Mrs. M. naturally supposed that this seeming generosity was not without a cause, but having sold it to a Mrs. Hill for 3s., for a small consideration she regained possession of the prize, but on entering her house the original proprietor and a constable were ready to receive her, and without ceremony cut open the mattress, when a purse, said to contain 100gs., two gloves filled with current silver coin, several valuable rings, trinkets, silver spoons, &c., were discovered. Mrs. Hill had considerably reduced the mattress to fit a small bedstead without finding the hidden treasure.
ARCHITECTURE FOR EARTHQUAKES.