or the systematic arrangements by which the daily operations are conducted, rank among the first in the kingdom, or indeed in the world.

The particular brewery referred to, and which Mr. Dodd visits, not for the purpose of entering into the chemical niceties which are involved in the process of brewing, or into a history of beer and malt liquors generally, is that of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins. Of course we cannot accompany him step by step in his examination and description of this huge establishment; but must make a few notices indicating the minuteness of the whole. Some idea of the extent of the premises may be conveyed when informed that the whole cover a space of ground eight or nine acres in area, and from a quarter to a third of a mile in circuit; and we can assure our readers that the ground is economized to the utmost possible degree, both as to foundations and elevations-the combination and the power of machinery or every agency which can unite with the strength of man's arm, and the superintendence of his head. With regard to the water employed we thus read:

The water used for brewing is that of the river Thames, pumped up by means of a steam-engine through a large iron main; the main passing under the malt warehouses, and leading to the reservoirs in the open court of the brewery. Into these cisterns, then, the water is conveyed; and we have seldom seen a cast-iron structure present a finer combination of strength with elegance. Fifteen iron columns, each nearly half a yard in diameter, are · ranged in three rows of five each, and on the top of these columns is the lower cistern, a cast-iron vessel about thirty-two feet long by twenty wide, and several feet deep. From this cistern rise the supports by which a second one, about the same size as the former, is upheld; and a light staircase leads up from the ground to the upper cistern. The whole structure, reaching an elevation of probably forty feet, is made of cast-iron.

The quantity of water supplied from the Thames for the purposes of brewing daily is stated to be, on an average, a hundred thousand gallons. There is a well on the premises, not far from the cisterns, its water being used principally to aid the cooling of the beer in hot weather. The Thames water, of course, is cleansed, by well understood hydraulic processes.

We stop not to particularize the number and horse-power of the steam engines; nor can we follow Mr. Dodd's lucid descriptions when he comes to notice the more ingenious and complicated appliances and mechanical agencies which the brewery presents. It is to one or two of the larger indexes that we crave attention, as our guide proceeds in the order actually observed in the factory. Of the great brewhouse itself:

The first effect on the mind of a stranger is a state of bewilderment, which is not removed till matters are viewed a little more in detail. The dimensions of the room are so vast, the brewing utensils reach to such a height, and the pumps, pipes, rods, and other apparatus are so thickly arranged on

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every side, that unless we follow the actual brewing processes in their regular order, the whole assemblage on the mind of a visitor, becomes a mass of confusion. * The reader must imagine a room nearly equalling Westminster Hall in magnitude, built entirely of iron and brick, and uninterrupted by distinct floors or partitions, so as to be open from the ground to the roof. * The principal part of the room is occupied by ten enormous piles of brewing vessels.

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The bins for holding the malt are about two dozen in number, "and are of such extraordinary dimensions, especially in height, that we may say, without exaggeration, that an ordinary three-storied house,-roof, chimneys, and all,-might be contained in one of them." On an average of the whole year, more than two thousand two hundred quarters of malt per week are required for the brewery. The amount of coals in use is about twenty tons daily. We proceed next to the part of the building where the store-vats are situated.

These vats are contained in a series of store-rooms, apparently almost interminable: indeed all that we have hitherto said as to vastness is much exceeded by the array which here meets the eye. On entering the storebuildings, we were struck with the silence which reigned throughout, so different from the bustle of the manufacturing departments. Ranges of buildings, branching out north, south, east, and west, are crammed as full of vats as the circular form of the vessels will permit; some larger than others, but all of such dimensions as to baffle one's common notions of "great and small." 串 * The space occupied as store-rooms may in some measure be judged, when we state that there are one hundred and fifty vats, the average capacity of each of which, large and small together, is upwards of thirty thousand gallons.

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Mr. Dodd, like every other visitor to this brewery, or indeed to any very large manufacturing establishment that is properly conducted, was particularly struck, even in the "cleansing" department, with the cleanliness to be observed. In fact, order in every way is absolutely necessary, were it but for the sake of economising room and time.

The whole number of "butts, puncheons, barrels, and similar vessels belonging to the establishment is between sixty and seventy thousand. These are cleansed after every time of using; and are also inspected and measured at the cooperage. Good specimens of Mr. Dodd's descriptions and observations may be taken from the latter paragraphs of his "Day at a Brewery," and where what he has to state addresses itself to the knowledge and taste of the many. We shall therefore allow him to be heard with considerable continuity, and then dismiss the informing and interesting volume. Having mentioned that the operations of the brewery are kept up during night as well as day, he proceeds to say,

Long before sleepy London has roused its head, the draymen are busy in hauling up the butts of beer, and placing them on the drays. So many butts are sent out from the establishment every day; and the advantage of carrying them in drays through the metropolis at as early an hour as possible is so great, that by four o'clock in the morning all is bustle and activity, -clerks, (we are elsewhere told that thirty or forty clerks are employed) and foremen superintending the operatives, and men working the cranes by which the butts are lifted up from the cellars to the drays. The form of these drays, of which seventy or eighty are constantly at work, is familiar enough to every Londoner. If the brewers' drays are well known

in London, what shall we say of brewers' horses? Who ever mistakes a brewer's horse for any other? Who, that has ever passed one day in the London streets, has failed to remark these noble but unwieldy animals,— unwieldy from very strength? And the draymen too: here are specimens of the "physical man!" The horses seem made for the men, and the men

for the horses :

The stables, the laboratory for the veterinary surgeon, the blacksmith's shop, the harness-making premises, and other subsidiary offices constitute no small feature of the enormous establishment:

The principal of these buildings are, as may be supposed, the stables, one range of which extends nearly three hundred feet in length. A clear passage leads throughout from end to end, the horses being ranged on either side with great regularity; galleries or lofts for provender above them; and an open space for ventilation along the middle of the stables. At one end of the long stable is a building in which the provender is prepared for the horses; a small steam-engine, of five or six horse power, works machinery by which the oats are bruised or crushed before given to the horses, (a modern practice, productive of much benefit to the health of the animal); and another machine by which the chaff is cut. By an ingenious arrangement the waste steam from this engine can be directed into a water-trough, whereby any desired temperature may be given to the water which the horses drink.

Barclay and Perkins' brewery and literary associations:

Before concluding our necessarily hasty sketch of this vast establishment, we may observe that it is something more than a brewery; it is a memorial of past times, carrying us back to a period when the Globe theatre occupied part of the site; and later, when Dr. Johnson was domiciled in an apartment over the entrance gate. In Boswell's "Life of Johnson" there are numerous letters and reports of conversations relating more or less to the brewery.

The great lexicographer became connected with the spot through the Thrales:

The beer brewed by Thrale at the period alluded to was about thirty thousand barrels annually, not one twelfth part of the quantity now brewed in the same establishment, which produces as much as the nine principal breweries did in 1760. In 1765 Dr. Johnson was introduced to Mr. and

Mrs. Thrale by Malone; and from that time till the brewer's death, Johnson lived almost entirely in their houses, at the brewery, and at Straetham. Before the fire at the brewery in 1832, the room was pointed out near the gate, in which the doctor wrote many of his most celebrated productions, more particularly his Dictionary. In 1781 Mr. Thrale died, and as he had no sons, the executors, of whom Dr. Johnson was one, deemed it desirable to dispose of the brewery. It was sold jointly to Mr. Barclay and Mr. Perkins (the latter of whom had been the superintendent of the brewery) for the enormous sum of one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds! Boswell relates: "When the sale of Thrale's brewery was going on, Johnson appeared bustling about, with an ink-horn and pen in his button-hole, like an exciseman; and on being asked what he really considered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of, said 'We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dream of avarice.'"

ART. IX.-Letters from the Virgin Islands; Illustrative of Life and Manners in the West. Van Voorst.

THE Virgin Islands are numerous, and so insignificant in a commercial and political sense that, with little molestation, several nations, not always at harmony, have had at the same time a share in the groupe. The Spaniards and the Danes as well as the English lay claim to them. Tortola belongs to the last mentioned power, St. Thomas and St. John's to Denmark, being the only settlements of any importance in the list. In fact many of them may be regarded as the peaks of a broken range of rocks, and of no pretension whatever unless for their geological features. Tortola is the largest of the islands, which, together with its dependencies, is the author's principal subject; he having had, we presume, some official station in the colony a considerable number of years ago; for the letters, although without a date, appear to have been written in the time of the Fourth George.

St. Thomas was of some mark during the colonial supremacy of Spain, as a free port, and also during the struggle which that power waged with her rebellious dependencies, the island being used as a depôt by each. The British settlement is likewise of some consequence on account of the sugar which it supplies; but it is chiefly for the notices of the natural conformation of the islands, and for the sketches of manners as also the working of slavery, that the book has interested us; the state of society described being that of the old routine and antique fashion, as if the groupe were out of the way, and hardly worth thinking of by travellers or voyagers.

The LETTERS are elegantly written and highly spirited; perhaps too elaborately so. Had they appeared at the period to which they more particularly belong, the volume would have been more deserving of recommendation, even though it be the fact that the march of

mind and of manners has continued to be but slow in these parts. The picture of business and trade which is here furnished is so anomalous as to awaken curiosity, and affords some queer results of the protective system; many of the articles coming "no one knows how, or cares much to inquire." The author says to his friend, to whom the Letters are addressed, "I write you on foreign stationery, in waistcoat and hose of excellent French silk, shirt of fine German linen, and brogues made here from the villanous leather of Kentucky." "Tea, wines, brandy, cigars, with twenty other articles forbidden in the commercial decalogue, are yet seen among us." Even a breakfast in Tortola presents a strange mixture and combination, illustrative of traffic as well as of hearty feeding.

Your breakfasts within the Tropics is a meal "fit for the Shah." In most houses they bring one coffee at daylight in porcelain cups, just the antique articles that at home lie secure in grandmamma's closet, far too valuable for use; and, this taken commonly at the toilet, whets the stomach for a more substantial refection about nine o'clock. The hall-table then appears decked â la fourchette, with veal patés, a chicken, or tête de veau garnished with an excellent Yorkshire tongue or Bolognas; while sliced plantain, that should be eaten from the embers hot as lava, and the fine squashes they boil here, attend as substitutes for our potatoes. At times, indeed, we get them from Scotland; generally, however, of indifferent quality: those imported by the packet seldom reach us. Then again there is broiled fish-barracouta, an omelet, or the fine avocado pear, called among the military, subaltern's butter --for the sharp-set. I have also seen radishes here, villanously tough, and water-cress, equal to any elsewhere.

The bread consists of French rolls, and the common island loaf, that smacks of garlick and the leaven used in it, but eats passing well with our rich dairy produce. Tortola is remarkable in this respect: and for those who can digest the grossness of what are brought to table as Johnny cakes, this part of the dejeuné will have large attractions.

Our liquids are chocolate, café-au-lait, with, in many parts, their constant attendant, claret; tea does not often appear at this meal. Lastly, you find a sweet cake, and salvers with honey or Barbadoes ginger in preserve, set on enticingly at the close, but which wind up the business rarely.

The volume reads better as a whole than will be supposed from any such specimens as we can conveniently find room for; and conveys a good idea of the oddities of colonial life as witnessed in a quarter that is not subject to many innovations. The shops, for instance, as seen in St. Thomas's have a character of their own, which seems in some measure descriptive of the Danish colonists.

The great trading street of St. Thomas extends in a broad line, parallel with the water, for about a mile and a half. Here, and generally on the harbour side, lie what they term the fire-proofs, stone buildings into which you enter by large iron-case doors, not unlike in form and size those in the towers of old churches: these admit you to a sort of superterrene vault, where long coffin-like trunks are seen in niches, or piled together almost to the