121 



years ago, that one single engine in England raised more water 

 than all the water power in use in Germany. 



In a lecture given by Sir Hussey Vivian, Bart, M.P. for 

 Glamorganshire, on "Copper Smelting," at the Royal Institution, 

 Swansea, December, 1880, he shows that skilled workmen went 

 from Keswick to South Wales in 1584, to teach the art of roasting 

 and smelting the ore. In the course of his lecture he says : — " In 

 the reign of Elizabeth, there was a rich copper mine at Keswick, 

 Cumberland, of which the Queen deprived the Earl of Northum- 

 land on the ground that it was a Royal Mine. It was reported 

 that 4000 men were employed at that mine, but this is probably 

 a great exaggeration. According to Camden, much good copper 

 continued for a time to be rnade at Keswick and Nevvlands, but 

 Webster in 167 1 wrote that now the work is quite left, and decayed, 

 yet I am informed that some do now melt forth as much good 

 copper as serveth them to make halfpennies and farthings. I beg 

 especially to direct attention to the smelting works at Keswick in 

 Cumberland, because I think there is no doubt from the records 

 brought to light by the laborious and intelligent researches of our 

 fellow-townsman, Lt.-Col. G. G. Francis, that the first sm.elting 

 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 the opinion, that such could not be the 

 case, inasmuch as nothing analogous to it existed in any part of 

 Germany 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 

 the reverberatory process with them from Germany* 



" In point of date, the story begins with a patent granted by 

 Queen Elizabeth in 1564, 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, Lan- 



