Life of Count Rumford. 21 



to take them, I can get them at that price, but I don't think 

 much under. 



Votre tres humble Serviteur, Monsieur, 



BN THOMPSON. 

 To MR. LOAMMI BALDWIN, Woburn. 



We must regard the perseverance of the youth in 

 going, in his spare time, in so many directions, to hunt 

 up "them Pistols," as an offset to the inelegance in 

 describing them. 



His skill and ingenuity, which are said to have been 

 remarkable in this exercise of them, were constantly put 

 to use by the boys of his acquaintance, in engraving 

 upon the handles of their knives and other implements 

 the names and certain devices of their owners. Doubt- 

 less, also, his facility in this work was improved by 

 elder persons in marking silver. Indeed, he was an 

 able and accurate draughtsman, and an accomplished 

 designer. I have before me a copy of an engraved 

 plate, wrought by him when in Salem, three inches and 

 five eighths long by two inches and seven eighths broad. 

 From the lopped bough on one side of an old and top- 

 less tree is suspended a shield, and from a green shoot 

 on the other side a square and compass. The shield, 

 inscribed " B. Thompson," is beautifully proportioned, 

 and traced with all the heraldic accompaniments. On 

 the upper right-hand corner an open eye is looking 

 from a quarter of a radiated sun, below which is a ship 

 in full sail. Beneath the shield is a young lion couched, 

 an open and a closed book, a sword, and another com- 

 pass. This work seems to have been intended for a 

 book-plate. 



Like other geniuses in mechanical inventions, ex- 

 cepting only that, being brighter than many of them, 



