Before the introduction of lamps, our streets were lit with cressets, which are thus described. The word cresset, Mr. Douce thinks, to have been derived from the French word croiset, a cruet, or earthen pot. It consisted of a sort of iron cage, like a trivet, suspended on pivots, in a kind of fork; or, it resembled an iron cap turned upside down. In this vessel was placed the light, made of twisted rope, steeped in pitch, tallow, linseed oil, hard resin, and turpentine, melted together; or the light rose from combustibles in a hollow pan*. One man carried it on a long pole, another attending with a bag to serve it, and a light: thus it was removed from place to place. When the cresset light was stationary, it served as a beacon, or answered the purpose of a fixed lamp. In the latter case, the person whose business it was to trim and feed the light, did not ascend by a moveable ladder, as lamplighters do in our time, but climbed the pole hand and foot, by means of projecting pieces of timber on each side. Such was the old beacon, standing lamp, or ancient street light.

Whoever has seen the gardens of the Tuilleries at Paris illuminated on the night of a fête may form some idea of the ancient cresset. The lights are ranged on pyramidal wooden frames, and each consists of a large wick in the middle of an earthen pan resembling a garden pot saucer, filled with melted tallow. These are called pots de feu, and have been used in this country in illuminating the wall facing Devonshire House, in Piccadilly.

The street lamps of the early part of the present century were, however, of little more service than to render "darkness visible;" and, in foggy nights the comparison of their light to a pin's head was a common observation. The burners were small, and being lit with whale oil, the flame was impure, and hardly deserved the name of light. The lanterns were of thick coarse glass, as may be seen in remaining specimens in a few of the alleys of London, to the present day. The application of coal gas to the lighting of the streets, in 1814, must be considered as one of the grandest social improvements of the present century, or, indeed, of modern times. Yet this invention, splendid as have been its results, at first met with much opposition, and among those who ridiculed the project of gaslighting was the present Lord Chancellor, Brougham, in the year 1809. One of the first public experiments was the lighting of Old Palace Yard by the London and Westminster Gas Company. The brilliant lights drew admiring crowds from all parts of the metropolis; but such was the doubt of the parochial authorities as to the practical success of gas-lighting, that after the Company had lit Palace Yard gratuitously by way of experiment, they refused to continue gas, and the lamps were re-lit with oil, as before the experiment. These are facts worth stating, inasmuch as they read us a valuable lesson-not to be thwarted by temporary obstacles; for the most successful im

provement of our time met with such opposition in its experimental stages.

The substitution of the handsome gas lantern, glass on all sides, for the unsightly oil contrivance, must be in the remembrance of the young reader, and brings us to what may be considered the perfection of street-lighting. The gas mains, or subterranean main pipes, which supply the metropolis, are in length upwards of two hundred and fifty miles, and afford light to more than fifty thousand lamps.

CANDLES, CANDLESTICKS, AND SNUFFERS. CANDLEMAKING is by no means a modern invention, though lamps appear to have been chiefly used by the ancients for domestic purposes. We, however, find mention of a kind of candle, or torch, both of tallow and wax, and not unfrequently of pitch. The wicks were originally small cords; afterwards the papyrus and the pith of rushes were used. But the ancients seem at no time to have been able to produce an article in any degree to be compared with the candle of modern times.

The employment of candles in the ceremonies of the Catholic church is of great antiquity; for, so early as 1478, they were considered expiatory offerings. Many thousands of wax candles were thus formerly used in England; but the Reformation diminished the consumption of these candles,

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and also the practice of keeping bees, who yielded wax for their manufacture. Candlemass day (Feb. 2) remains in our calendar; for, on this day was the mass or festival of candles, or Purification of the Blessed Virgin; when the churches were lighted in allusion, as was affirmed, to the prophetic words of Simeon, who, when the infant Jesus was brought into the temple, publicly exclaimed: “ Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." Candles were likewise used in great numbers upon other church festivals; for, in the close rolls it is recorded that in Jan. 1244, the king's (Henry III.) treasurer was commanded to cause fifteen thousand poor persons to be fed in St. Paul's Churchyard, London, on the day of the Conversion of St. Paul; and fifteen hundred wax tapers were also to be made and placed in St. Paul's Church upon the same occasion. A few pairs of wax candles are still retained about the altars of Catholic churches in England, but in greater numbers on the Continent, where they are likewise carried in religious processions: here also, small tallow candles are set up by the poor as offerings to certain saints; and, from a score to a hundred of these humble tributes may be seen burning at once; the cost of each being defrayed by the worshippers.

It should be added, that from Candlemass,

the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which prevailed throughout the winter, ceased until the following All-hallow Mass; hence the origin of an old English proverb:

On Candlemass day

Throw candle and candlestick away.

From Alfred's " tapers," before the invention of clocks, it must not, however, be inferred that wax candles were common in his time; nor that they were made in such perfection as at the present day. Venice, in her most flourishing age, produced the finest wax candles in Europe, and still continues to do so. In our country, Kensington once enjoyed a similar celebrity; this may probably be dated from the importance into which this village rose on William III. fixing upon it as one of the seats of the English court. The Venetian candles were made of various sizes: some were very small, with wicks of tow; others were of twisted forms; and some even weighed fifty pounds, and those which were used in processions and funeral ceremonies were of pyramidal shape. The wax taper of our day is said to be the invention of Pierre Blassimere of Paris, and to have been brought by him from Venice about the middle of the seventeenth century.

Tallow candles are of considerable antiquity in England; as the ward of Candlewick, and the Tallow Chandlers' Company in the city of London attest. Nevertheless, we read of candles being made at home in gentlemen's houses in the