Martin's, and safely let
himself down to the ground (a distance of 73 feet) without rope or
ladder, his strength of muscle enabling him to reach from cornerstone to
cornerstone, and cling thereto as he descended.
~Football.~--See "_Sports_."
~Forgeries.~--The manufacture of bogus bank-notes was carried on here,
at one time, to an alarming extent, and even fifty years ago, though he
was too slippery a fish for the authorities to lay hold of, it was
well-known there was a clever engraver in the Inkleys who would copy
anything put before him for the merest trifle, even though the
punishment was most severe. Under "_Notable Offences_" will be found
several cases of interest in this peculiar line of business.
~Forks.~--Our ancestors did without them, using their fingers. Queen
Elizabeth had several sent to her from Spain, but she seldom used them,
and we may be quite sure it was long after that ere the taper fingers of
the fair Brums ceased to convey the titbits to their lips. Even that
sapient sovereign, James I., the Scotch Solomon, did not use the foreign
invention, believing possibly with the preacher who denounced them in
the pulpit that it was an insult to the Almighty to touch the meat
prepared for food with anything but one's own fingers.
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