devotions."

The Chair is not the only memorial of Bede preserved in this
neighbourhood. About one mile west of Jarrow is a _Well_, still
called _St. Bede's_, to which it was customary, almost as late as
the middle of the last century, to convey diseased children, and, after
dropping in a crooked pin, to dip them for the recovery of their health:
round the Well, also, on every Midsummer Eve, was a great resort of the
neighbouring people, with bonfires, music, and dancing. The mystical
properties of the Well are not of difficult solution: since it was
reasonable enough to associate the restorative effects of cold bathing
with sanctity; and the rejoicings at the spring were indicative of the
gladness of the people, in connexion with a name endeared to them, by
the wisdom, virtue, and benevolence, of its possessor.

[5] Sir James Mackintosh.


* * * * *


GOLD-BEATING.

Early in the 17th century, great surprise was excited upon the
promulgation of the fact, that the Parisian gold-beaters could produce
1,600 leaves, or 105 square feet, from one ounce of gold; but the
surprise of the public was redoubled, when, upon the discovery of the
fine skin now in use, they found that 147 square feet could be produced
from the same quantity.