81 
That the wheelbarrow was known long before the days of 
Pascal may be seen by anyone who will examine the curious 
engravings in Georgii Agricolse de re metallica (Basilese, 
1556). In this impressive folio, which may be seen at the 
Manchester Public Library, there are several pictures in 
which miners are represented as transporting minerals from 
place to place in wheelbarrows. A writer in La Liberty states 
that he pointed out this work to Janin, who replied with 
characteristic indifference : “ Cela m’est bien egal, ce n’est 
pas moi qui ai invente cela, je l’ai lu, j’en laisse la responsa- 
bilite a ceux qui font ecrit avant moi, et n’ecrirais pas une 
ligne pour le contredire.” This shows a spirit unworthy of 
the true antiquary, to whom truth, even in trifles, is sacred, 
and who does not readily admit the existence of trifles. A 
much earlier instance of the use of the wheelbarrow can be 
cited. In the mural paintings at Gaws worth in Cheshire, 
discovered in 1851 and since destroyed, there was a repre- 
sentation of the Doom or Last Judgment, in which one of 
the demons is seen carrying a lost soul on a wheelbarrow to 
the mouth of hell. In form the barrow resembles those 
which are still used on the moss near Gawsworth.* 
The Church is held by Mr. J. P. Earwaker to have been 
erected in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. We have 
thus the certain fact that the wheelbarrow was known not 
only in German mines but in a remote agricultural district 
of England, one hundred years before the time of Pascal. 
* On the History of the artificial Preparation of Indigo,” 
by Carl Schorlemmer, F.RS. 
One of the most brilliant discoveries which lately has 
been made is that of the synthesis of indigo, the Indian 
colour, which is mentioned by Dioskorides and Pliny, as 
well as by the Arabians. It was however only after the 
* Historical and Antiquarian Hotes on Gaws worth Church, by Joseph 
F. A. Lynch. Manchester, 1879, p. 25. 
