been surmounted by Mr. E.T.  Parris, of whose talents we spoke in our account of the Colosseum, and who has just completed a model of an apparatus for getting at large domes.  The model has already been approved by an experienced architect, and submitted to the dean and chapter of St. Paul’s; so that the restoration of Sir James Thornhill’s labours presents an excellent opportunity for the immediate application of Mr. Parris’s machinery; whilst its accomplishment would be the means of rewarding individual ingenuity, and rescuing from decay a valuable triumph of British genius.

Instantaneous Lights.

Oxymuriate matches must “hide their diminished heads” before the recent invention of a method of obtaining light, by merely compressing a match, which inflames instantaneously.  These matches are called Prometheans, and comparing small things with great, we know not a better name to imply the scientific age to which the invention belongs.

Fossil Fish.

Mr. Mantell, of Lewes, has lately added to his museum a fine specimen of a fossil fish, discovered in a bed of clay belonging to the Hasting sand formation.  Similar remains are abundant in the strata of Tilgate Forest, in the white rock at Hastings, and in the sandstone quarries near Tunbridge Wells; but they consist, for the most part, of detached scales only.

Wonders of Art.

Among the last we notice the model of a boat for aerial navigation, lately sent to the French Academy from Rome; and the patent taken out at Paris for a coach with one wheel only, to accommodate 30 or 40 passengers.  The perfection of the latter scheme in England would render indispensable a complete revision of our Turnpike Acts.

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NOTES OF A READER.

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SCOTTISH INNS.

By Sir Walter Scott.

The courtesy of an invitation to partake a traveller’s meal, or at least that of being invited to share whatever liquor the guest called for, was expected by certain old landlords in Scotland, even in the youth of the author.  In requital, mine host was always furnished with the news of the country, and was probably a little of a humourist to boot.  The devolution of the whole actual business and drudgery of the inn upon the poor gudewife was very common among the Scottish bonifaces.  There was in ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the nominal keeper of a coffee-house, one of the first places of the kind which had been opened in the Scottish metropolis.  As usual, it was entirely managed by the careful and industrious Mrs. B——­; while her husband amused himself with field-sports, without troubling his head about the matter.  Once upon a time the premises having taken fire, the