and intelligent researches of our fellow townsman Lieut. Col. G. G. Francis, that the first smeltimg works in South Wales was built and worked by men from Keswick. I remember well that Col. Francis announced to me before he published his letters in 1867, that he had discovered that our Welsh copper smelting process came from Germany. I at once told him, and I still retain that opinion, that such could not be the case, inasmuch as nothing amalagous to it existed in any part of Germany even down to our times. I think we were both part right. The evidence Col. Francis has discovered, puts it beyond doubt, that Germans were largely employed in the Keswick smelting, but there is no tittle of evidence that I can discover, that they brought our reverberatory process with them from Germany.

In point of date, the story begins with a patent granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1564 (p. 29) to Thomas Thurland, master of the Savoy, and Daniel Hogstetter a German, giving them power and authority to dig, search, try, sort, and melt all manner of mine stores of gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver, in Yorkshire, Lancaster, Cumberland, Westmorland, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucester, and Worcester, and the principalities of Wales, as well within her Majesty's own grounds as others, on payment of a royalty. In the same year a patent was granted to William Humfrey, and Christopher Shutes, a German, with similar powers within England, and the English pale in Ireland, except the places before granted. Under the first of these patents no doubt the working and smelting at Keswick was carried on. Seventeen years later we find a letter from Mr. George Needham to Sir Francis Walsingham setting forth in considerable detail the operations which were carried on under the directions of one Jochim Gaunse, Ganse, or Gans, for his name is spelled in these three ways. This letter is of a most interesting character and contains, I believe, disinct indications of the first introduction of the system of copper smelting which has been ever since that date so largely practised in this district, and which is now more or less adopted in almost every copper producing district in the world.

"I gather from this that the Keswick works were managed by Mr. Daniel Hogstetter and Mr. Steinberger up to 1581, when Mr. Jochim Gans went there, and that this practice had been to roast and smelt the ore, and regulus.

On 21st July, 1584, Thomas Smith writes to Ulrick Frosse saying that Mr. Weslin is going to Cornwall through Wales, and that he will take measures for transporting the copper ores to the new smeltIng house at Neath in Wales, which house I understand is ready, and we have taken order here that against he shall be ready to make copper, we shall have from Keswick one of our copper makers and

Now

withall an under melter, and the Dutch carpenter for a time to serve and ready him in these causes.

Now this fixes the exact date of the commencement of copper smelting in South Wales, viz., the autumn 1854, and it shows that the skilled workmen came from Keswick.

I have quoted Sir H. Hussey Vivian's remarks at length because he is a great authority and stands at the head of the copper smelting industry of the world. The lecture has not been published, but it was printed in the "Cambrian newspaper," and I am indebted to our friend Mr. E. J. Grayson for drawing my attention to the matter, and sending me the extract which I have given.

It has often been a subject of speculation what became of the German miners when the works were destroyed by Cromwell's army. Nicolson and Burns say that—

Most of the miners were slain in the Civil Wars, and the works have never since been managed to any account. Vol. ii, p. 69. Some lingered in the neighbourhood. Zinogle, Senogle or Sinogle constantly appear in our church books as carpenters down till 1705, when Sebastin Zinogle gets, for work done at the church, 2d., and in 1706 Giles Sinogle for work is paid 9d., and later still the name comes back to us from Coniston changed to Snoggles, although the better informed of the family protested against the innovation in spelling it.

This circumstance seemed to point to Coniston Mines as a place to which some might have gone from Keswick, but on referring to West's "Antiquities of Furness " I find that he says:

During the rage of the Civil Wars the copper mines in Coniston Fells were shut up.

Still the name of Yearle, now spelled Earle, remains amongst us. The Becks got to Dalston and the neighbourhood of Carlisle, and there is a Norfolk family who say they are descendants of German ancestors. Senogle

is

is a most respectable name amongst the mechanics of Kendal (following the same occupation as their ancestors), and Moser amongst professional gentlemen. Cayrus lingers amongst the higher classes in North Lancashire, and the Calverts and Raisleys both flourish in East Cumberland and elsewhere.

ART. XXXIV.-William George Browne of Orthwaite or Allerthwaite Hall. By WILLIAM BROWNE of Tallentire Hall.

Read at that place October 6th, 1882.

WI

ILLIAM GEORGE BROWNE, commonly known as "the traveller," was the eldest son of George, who was the eldest son of William Browne of Orthwaite or Allerthwaite Hall, of the old family of Brownes of Wood Hall, near Hesket-new-Market, in the parish of Caldbeck. He was for some years the owner of this place.

In these days to give that title of traveller to any man sounds absurd. But we must fancy ourselves to be living here in times when the periodical visits of the carrier were the only means of communication between one place and another, and when people made their wills in anticipation of the dangers of any long journey.

I produced yesterday evening a volume, published in 1799, of his first travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from 1792 to 1798.* I now produce a seal of his, with William Browne in Arabic letters engraved on it, and the date 1226 A.H. I also produce a power of attorney, signed by him before again leaving England; and also a letter from Sir Joseph Banks to my father proving his death. That letter contains an extract from one which Sir Joseph had received from Mr. James Morier the secretary of the Persian Embassy, giving a detailed account of the discovery of Brown's mangled body. Subsequent inquiries proved that he was murdered by orders from the Persian government, from an unfounded suspicion that he was upon a mission into Tartary injurious to the Persian

* Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria from the year 1792 to 1798, by W. G. Browne. London: Published for T. Cadell, Junior, and W. Davies, Strand; and T. N. Longman and G. Rees, Paternoster Row, 1799. Quarto.

interests,

interests. This letter and a power of attorney, given by Mr. Browne the traveller to my father and the then Mr. Spedding of Mirehouse, are the chief documents I now have in my possession.

The power of attorney speaks for itself. It is dated July 18th, 1812. He calls himself William George Browne of John Street, Adelphi, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, "about to quit this kingdom" and to be "absent for some term." His intentions were to explore Tartary and Bochara.

It gives my father and Mr. Spedding absolute power to hold his estates, and to do everything which he himself might do for their management during his absence. But in little more than a year after this date, i.e., on the 20th of August, 1883, Mr. James Morier writes from Tabriz :

On the fourth day's march from the camp, after crossing the Kissil Ozan river, he was stopped by ten horsemen who first blindfolded his eyes, as well as those of his servants, tied their hands behind their backs, and conducted them to some distance off the road. There they kept them concealed until night, when they released the servants but carried poor Browne away with them. It was long before we were assured of what had been his fate; until, about a fortnight ago, his body, wrapt in his Turkish clothes, was found in a mangled state.

Mr. James Morier, who was not then aware of the extent to which the Persian government were implicated, concludes:

With the villainous rabble that composes the royal camp, this unfortunate accident cannot create surprise. But to those who knew the virtues and estimable qualities of the deceased it cannot fail to roduce the most heartfelt grief and regret.