Chimneys.—In the year 1200 chimneys were scarcely known in England. One only was allowed in a religious house, one in a manor house, and one in the great hall of a castle or lord's house; but in other houses the smoke found its way out as it could. The writers of the fourteenth century seem to have considered them as the newest invention of luxury. In Henry VIII.'s reign the University of Oxford had no fire allowed, for it is mentioned that after the students had supped, having no fire in the winter, they were obliged to take a good run for half an hour to get heat in their feet before they retired for the night. Holinshed, in the reign of Elizabeth, describes the rudeness of the preceding generation in the arts of life. "There were," says he, "very few chimneys; even in the capital towns the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued out at the door, roof, or window. The houses were wattled and plastered over with clay, and all the furniture and utensils were of wood." In 1639 a tax of two shillings was laid on chimneys.
Behind the Scenes in the Post Office.—"How can one get admitted to the General Post Office, and what departments are best worth seeing there?" asks "A Country Cleric." Admission to that remarkably interesting building, the General Post Office, can be had on application to the Secretary. A banker's reference is necessary. The sight is one well worth seeing, and should on no account be missed by country visitors to London. Visitors are admitted at six in the evening, and are shown over the telegraph department. Here may be seen the pneumatic tubes, through which messages are received from many parts of London. Into this office run wires from Belfast, Edinburgh, and all parts of the United Kingdom, and the whole system is explained by an expert. Crossing the road one then enters the Post Office itself. Here one sees the "blind men," as they are called, at work deciphering illegible addresses; and men and machines stamping postmarks at the rate of from one hundred to three hundred a minute. But in order to see the Post Office properly, two or three visits should be made. Not one person in a hundred has any notion of the peculiar experiences of a letter between the times of its postage and receipt.
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THE LITTLE GLEANER.
An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Religious and General Instruction for Children.
The Editor seeks as much as possible to make this Magazine both interesting and useful to its readers, and hopes that all true friends of the young will try to secure for it a still wider circulation.
Published on the first of every Month. Price One Penny.