: 402° 
lent as a permanent loan to government, 
for which three per cent. is paid, and no part 
of which can confequently be employed as a 
banking -capital. j. N. Hunt. 
Now. 3, 180%. 
EE 
Io the Edztor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HEN an error finds its way into 
a celebrated work, in very exten- 
five circulation, it ought not to pafs un- 
noticed, parcicularly by thofe whom it 
concerns; I have therefore to requeft the fa- 
vaur ofa place in your valuable publication, 
to reCtify an error in the Supplement to the 
Encyclopzedia Britannica, under the word 
RefleStor. It is there mentioned, that «* Mr. 
‘Thomas Smith, tin-plate-worker, Edia- 
burgh, feems to have conceived the idea 
‘of illuminating light-houfes by means of 
jamps and refie€tors, inftead of coal-fires, 
without knowing that fomething of the 
fame kind had been long ufed in France; he 
has therefore all the merit of an inventor, 
and what he imwented, he has carried toa 
high degree of perfection.”?_ 
The writer of this article has certainly 
been mifinformed, for refleftors, fuch as 
he defcribes, were invented by me; they 
were alfo made, and fixed up, under my 
direction, in a light-houfe on the coaft of 
Norfolk, in tue year1779. And, in the 
year 1787, at the requeft of the truftees 
appointed by aét of parliament for erecting 
four lighi-houfes on the northern parts of 
reat Britain; I infiructed the above- 
mentioned Mr. Thomas Smith, in this 
method of conftruéting light-boules, 
Should the learned editer of the En- 
cyclopedia Britannica be inclined tomake 
inquiry -concerning the truth of what I 
have here advanced, the following may be 
‘of ufe to him, being a copy of a letter 
which received on this butinefs from the 
then Lord Provoft of Edinburgh. 
Lyzn Regis, . 1 am; Sir, your's, &c. 
Odi, 29, 1301. EZiKitL WaLKER. 
To Excke! Walker, Efg. Lynn Regis. 
SIR, a 
IN conicguence of your letters and opinion, 
the truftees appointed by a& of parliament 
for erecting four light-houfes on the North- 
ern parts of Great Britain have refolved to’ 
have them conftrufied and lighted agreeable 
to your principles, explained in part by the dif- 
ferent letters received from you on that fub- 
ject. vy 
: The places moft proper for thefe lights are 
of difficult accefs fone of them at prefent al- 
mofi inacceflible ); the truftees therefore ima~- 
gine you would not choofe to go there your- 
Error in the Encyclopedia Britannica correéted. 
felf, and have agreed with Thomas Smith, 
tin-plate-worker, in this place, to be inftru€t- 
ed by you, who will fet off for Lynn Regis fo: 
foon as you inform of your being there, and of 
its being convenient to yu ; andthe premium 
mentior:d in your letter of the t1th of Oc- 
tober will either be remitted by a bill on 
London, or paid here to your order. £ 
There will be fenyby Mr. Smith a defcrip- 
tion of the height and fituation of the ground 
whereon the different light-houfes are to be 
erefted, in order to thew from what number 
of the points of the compafs the lights will 
‘require to be feen, and alfo the neceffary 
height of the building, 
I am directed by the truftees to give you - 
their fincere thanks for the attention and in- 
formation you have already given to this bu- ' 
finefs, of great importance to navigators 3 and 
_they hope, by. your affiftance, that the lights, 
when conftruéted, will give general fatisfac- 
tion, and they are anxious to have the whole 
-finithed during the enfuing fummer, 
lam, Sir, your's, &c. 
jJoun Grikve, 
Edinburgh, 
Fan. 22, 1787. 
Pleafe to dire&? for me, 
Lord Provoft of Edinburgh. 
—n eae i : 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
DESULTORY COMMENTS 0” MASON’S 
SUPPLEMENT /0 JOHNSON’S DICTIO=s 
NARY. m 
(Continued from page 300 of our laft Number.) 
FLECKER. 
HE exiftence of this word refts fole> 
ly, fays Mr. Maton, on a mifquota- 
tion of Johnfon’s from Romeo and Juliet. 
—Surely not. The word feck>a fpot, is 
common to moft of the Gothic diale&ts, to 
the Swedith, the German, and the Iceland- 
if. Hence the verb-to fleck, to fpot, uled 
by Dryden :. 
Fleck d inher face, and with difordered hair. 
From to feck is formed the frequenta- 
tive to flecker; by the fame rule of analo- 
gy as trom to chat, chatter; beat, batter; 
Spit, [putter ; flit, flutter ; fly (A.S. figan), 
ficker; ‘mould, moulder; gleam, glimmer 4 
wave, waver. To flecser therefore means- 
to fpot frequently.; and jleckered is fynony~ | 
mous with many-fpotted. It is fill m 
vulgar ufe, and is efpecially applied to 
dappled cattle. 
bull reprefents a white animal ‘mottled 
with black fpots. Yon fleckered dog is a 
Pomeranian. Our poets fay, ** the /peckled 
fnake ;? but the German poets, ‘$* Die 
bunt-geflecktehaut der Schlange,”’ The {nake 
with gaily-fleckered tkin.—Fleckered de- 
fcribes larger {pots than fpeckled, and 
Speckled \arger {pots than freckled; but 
[Dec 1, ~ 
The fign of the fleckered . 
- > a 
ee ee aS ee ae 
pied, 
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= ne 
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