the damask work so fashionable in the armour of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, which is often seen beautifully inlaid with gold.
It was executed by engraving the pattern upon the surface of the metal,
and filling up the lines with fine plates of a different metal; the two
were then united with the assistance of heat, and the whole burnished.
Pliny has preserved a receipt for solder, which probably was used in
these works. It is called santerna; and the principal ingredients are
borax, nitre, and copperas, pounded, with a small quantity of gold and
silver, in a copper mortar.

[The volume is enriched with four steel-plate engravings, and 154 cuts,
of clever execution.]

[4] Val. Max. vi. 8.

* * * * *


THE WONDERS OF THE LANE.


Strong climber of the mountain's side,
Though thou the vale disdain,
Yet walk with me where hawthorns hide
The wonders of the lane.
High o'er the rushy springs of Don
The stormy gloom is rolled;
The moorland hath not yet put on
His purple, green, and gold.
But here the titling[5] spreads his wing,