MIRROR FOUND AT TRELAN BAHOU, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Scale . (From the Archaeological Journal, Vol. xxx. page 267.) to face p. 198.] [C. A. S. Comm. Vol. V. No. XIII. they were made the means of prying into the future. Spartian' relates how the unlucky Didius Julianus, terrified at the rise of three powerful competitors at once for his dearly bought throne, after exhausting all the resources of authorised religion had recourse in his last distress to unhallowed expedients, and amongst others to that in which "a boy, with eyes blindfolded, is "made to look into a mirror, in which, as it is reported, the boy "beheld the approach of Severus, and the downfall of Julian." The same instrument, so convenient for all the inventions of jugglery, continued the favourite resource of magicians until their trade came to an end. To say nothing of Cornelius Agrippa and his wondrous looking-glass, we may still view with awe in the Londesborough collection the actual 'shew-stone' into which the Cromwellian conjuror, Kelly, "did call his spirits"; or as Hudibras expresses it: "Kelly did all his tricks upon The Devil's looking-glass-a stone; It is in reality one of those mirrors that the old Mexicans cut so ingeniously out of that obdurate material, obsidian; of an oval shape, with a high raised margin to protect the polished surface. It is difficult to imagine how the copper-coloured beauties of Montezuma's court contrived to 'see themselves as others see them'in so dusky a medium; Pliny remarks of the obsidian, that it was much in request for panelling walls, but that it reflected shadows and not images. The mention of enchanted mirrors brings us down to a variety of the species, still commonly to be met with, although here all the magic lies in a curious artifice of the metalworker. These are the Chinese mirrors of some mixed metal, having the reverses decorated with inscriptions, flowers, and 1 Didius Julianus, cap. vii. birds in low relief, whose exact images appear in the reflection cast by the mirror under a strong light. These remarkable effects greatly puzzle ordinary spectators; but the most probable explanation is a very simple one-that the effect is produced by long hammering of the relievo figures, which either condenses the corresponding portions of the entire plate, thereby causing the surface to reflect the rays of light differently from the densified parts, or else that the surface is slightly elevated in such places, not sufficiently indeed to be perceptible to the touch, but sufficiently so as to produce a slight variation of light and shade. APHRODITE HOLDING A MIRROR. Egyptian Bronze from Thebes, figured to the size of the original (in the collection of Mr Lewis). XIV. NOTES FROM A NORFOLK SQUIRE'S NOTE-BOOK, WITH SOME PARTICULARS OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE [February 19, 1883.] THE MS. from which these notes are taken is one of a large collection of family records in the muniment room of Sir Robert Jacob Buxton, Bart., M.P., of Shadwell Court, in the county of Norfolk. It is a long narrow folio of 138 pages, filled throughout with domestic memoranda in one handwriting, chiefly of money payments and receipts, extending over a period of 46 years from 1584 A.D.; and, interesting as many of these entries are, they are the more valuable in that we are able from other sources of information not only to identify the writer, but to assure ourselves of his exact place in the society of his time. Richard Wilton, of Topcroft Hall, in the county of Norfolk, was descended from an ancient Yorkshire family, of whom a younger branch settled in Norwich about the middle of the 15th century; and, engaging there in the trade of which Norwich was then one of the great centres, became of eminence among the great merchants of that city. A stately monument C. A. S. Comm. Vol. V. 14 |