THE FOWLING-PIECE. 167 



i favour of things that are the production of remote 

 ages or distant countries. 



Madrid harrels are composed of the old shoes of 

 horses and mules collected for the purpose ; and an 

 idea may be formed of the great purity to which the 

 iron is brought in the course of the operation, when 

 it is known, that, to make a barrel, which, rough 

 from the forge, weighs only six or seven pounds, 

 they employ a mass of mule-shoe iron weighing from 

 forty to forty-five pounds ; so that from thirty-four to 

 thirty-eight pounds are exhausted in the beatings and 

 hammerings it is made to undergo, before it is forged 

 into a barrel. 



The avidity with which Spanish barrels were sought 

 after, has, however, in a great degree, subsided ; and 

 I am of opinion, that our stub-twisted barrels are 

 fully equal to the Spanish, and that the preference 

 given to the latter, by some few whimsical persons, 

 proceeds more from a fancied, than any real, supe- 

 riority. 



The vanity of possessing something that is sin- 

 gularly curious, the false idea that whatever is ex- 

 pensive must necessarily be excellent, and occasion- 

 ally the laudible desire of improvement, have all, in 

 their turns, been the causes of a variety of experi- 

 ments being made in the manufacture of barrels ; 

 and twisted are allowed to be superior to any other. 



