Colliery

“ Inspectors ought to visit collieries a little before the danger becomes so great, and not, as usually happens, just after some awful explosion. No blame to them though, if, as is said, their work is so heavy that they cannot possibly visit each colliery, in their respective districts, more than once in several months, or even years. ”

“ In 1828 he removed to Shield Row, where he rented for some time the South Moor colliery. While at Callerton he introduced an improved system of pumping the water out of collieries, which, though adversely criticised at the time, was soon in general use in the north of England. ”

“ Wednesday.—Several Colliery Owners, in despair, descend into their own mines for the purpose of trying to raise some coal themselves, but their employés, declining to assist in hauling them up again, they are left to their fate, and nothing more is heard of them. ”

“ But perhaps of all the affairs of life with which the chime had mingled, the most remarkable, could they be collected and recorded, would be the occasions on which the hearing of the message had marked a turning point in the career of some one person, as happened, once on a summer afternoon, when it was heard by a Lancashire collier—a young lad with an unkempt mop of golden hair, delicate features, and limbs which were too refined for his calling, who was coming up the River Morne on a barge. ”

“ A collier lad, one would imagine, has not much leisure or opportunity to couple a thorough course of botany with his ordinary work, yet this lad's specimens, each marked with its habitat, show that he has found time to wander round the hedgerows, woods, waste ground, old gardens, marshes, shady banks, and hay-fields in search of them. ”

“ There lived the colliers who worked in the little gin-pits two fields away. The brook ran under the alder-trees, scarcely soiled by these small mines, whose coal was drawn to the surface by donkeys that plodded wearily in a circle round a gin. And all over the countryside were these same pits, some of which had been worked in the time of Charles II., the few colliers and the donkeys burrowing down like ants into the earth, making queer mounds and little black places among the corn-fie1ds and the meadows. ”

“ The whole world lay outside. It opened its mighty arms to him. It spoke of width, of depth, of breadth. It showed him its secrets—hamlets and valleys tucked away in its mighty heart—where a hunted man could hide for ever. It shouted to him to break free—to be free!
Three minutes passed. Collier realized that he was still standing in his place, his heels clamped to the red carpet. He stared at his feet, encased in their tight boots, as though they were objects for curiosity or wonder. Shapeless, unwieldy lumps of leather! Would they never move? ”

“ Writing upon the subject of the Forest collieries, about the year 1779, Mr. Rudder remarks in his History of the county,—“The pits are not deep, for when the miners find themselves much incommoded with water, they sink a new one, rather than erect a fire engine, which might answer the expense very well, yet there is not one of them in all this division. They have indeed two or three pumps worked by cranks, that in some measure answer the intention.” ”

“ Day after day he must accompany the shepherd and his flock, and keep watch over the straying sheep upon the mountain-side.
When the faithful colly has thoroughly learned his business, he may have a chance to win other prizes besides his daily food and his master's friendship; for in Scotland prizes are often given to the dog that proves himself the best in a "field trial." ”

“ At length the cries of her companions reached the ears of those on the beach, and the machine attendant on horseback dashed off to the rescue. After swimming his horse a considerable distance he reached the scene of danger. Miss Collier at once seized on a chain attached to the collar, and the horse's head being with difficulty set towards the shore, the whole party were dragged through the water, the two children holding on to the buoy, through which Miss Collier had thrust her spare arm. ”

“ But in flight and general appearance the water-colley is almost exactly like a starling with a white neck. His colour is not black or brown—it is a rusty, undecided brown, at a distance something the colour of a young starling, and he flies in a straight line, and yet clumsily, as a young starling does. ”

“ Independently of the qualities necessary for the successful mobilisation of sheep, the collie is, perhaps, of all the sub-varieties of the canine race, the most faithful and sympathetic. Time after time has one observed the tramping shepherd or swagman and his dog. ”

“ If we look at a collier, we see instantly that his back is curved, his legs bowed, and the extensor muscles of his calves withered through long disease. He has knotted himself so long, that the erect position of his race becomes a punishment to him. It is credibly related that a number of colliers, having been sentenced to imprisonment in Wakefield jail, with hard labour, the only complaint they made was, that they were obliged, whilst at work, to keep the ordinary posture of rational creatures. ”

“ COLLAR OF ESSES.
Although the suggestion made by C. (Vol. ii., p. 330.) , viz. that the Collar of Esses had a "mechanical" origin, resulting from the mode of forming "the chain," and that "the name means no more than that the links were in the shape of the letter S.," could only be advocated by one unacquainted with the real formation of the collar, yet, as I am now pledged before the readers of "Notes and Queries" as the historiographer of livery collars, it may be expected that I should make some reply. ”

“ Charles Colling, the great improver of the short-horned breed of cattle, by the breeders whose names are annexed, as a token of gratitude for the benefit they have derived from his judgment, and also as a testimony of their esteem for him as a man. ”

“ He reminds Collier of his friendship and admiration for Coleridge, and bids him remember that he and all his family attended the poet's lectures five years before. He tells him alluringly that this is a brand-new course, with nothing metaphysical about it, and adds: "There are particular reasons just now, and have been for the last twenty years, why he [Coleridge] should succeed. He will do so with a little encouragement." ”

“ The Oswestry Advertiser, a short time ago, recorded the fact that, at Cefn, ‘a woman is employed as messenger at one of the collieries, and as she commences her duty early each morning she meets great numbers of colliers going to their work. ”

“ Now, yonder, for instance, is a tree out of which I used to make—I mean that in some strange way I seem to know that splendid bows can be made out of the wood of that particular tree; and there, growing close beneath its shade, in the water, is a clump of rushes which, when dried in the sun, make perfect shafts for arrows. And that reminds me, Dick, that, since we must save our powder and shot for very special occasions, we ought to provide ourselves with bows and a good stock of arrows, if only to enable us to procure game. ”

“ James Bowen, surgeon, Narbeth, in that county, informs me—"The average life of a collier is about forty; they rarely attain forty-five years of age; and in the entire population of Begelly and East Williamson, being 1163, forming, strictly speaking, a mining population, there are not six colliers of sixty years of age." ”

“ The principle of Gray's invention consists in the process of folding a collar of paper or of cloth and paper by making a defined curved line, exactly located or fixed, at or near the outset, by being indented into the material with a suitable instrument or broken into it over the edge of a pattern, and turning the collar over on or following this line; whereby certain important advantages in the collar itself may be easily and conveniently secured. ”

“ To these, if they should inquire for the great distinguishing principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might say that it was the power of vast combination 'in linked sweetness long drawn out.' He gathered into focal concentration the largest body of objects, apparently disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any magic, could assemble, or, having assembled, could manage. ”

“ At thirty a miner begins to look wan and emaciated, and so does a collier at forty; while the farming labourer continues robust and hearty." [52] John Jones, relieving officer for the Holywell district, states—"Though the children and young persons employed in these works are healthy, still it is observable that they soon get to look old, and they often become asthmatic before they are forty." [53]
In the Forest of Dean, Mr. Thomas Marsh, surgeon, states that "colliers usually become old men at fifty to fifty-five years of age." ”

“ Up in a far corner of this little garden paradise, under the shade of a spreading cedar, sat the placid figure of a man,—one of the brethren at first he seemed, for he was clothed in the garb of the monastic order, and a loose cowl was flung back from his uncovered head on which the hair shone white and glistening as fine spun silver. ”

“ Every jot as easily as with one Coulter: For, before the Furrow is raised by the Share, it lies fast, and makes a sufficient Resistance equally against the Edges of all the Coulters; tho’, after it be raised and loose, it yields and recedes every way, except downwards; so that it cannot be cut by any Edge, but such as attacks it perpendicularly from above, as that of the Spade does. ”

“ Moved by an instinct he did not stay to define or to resist, the collie swept down the ridge and into the valley below. The harassed farmer beheld descending on his stampeded flock a bolt of tawny-and-white lightning that whirled in and out among the galloping strays as if bent on their wholesale destruction. ”

“ But at two bells in the second dog-watch, that night, all doubt was put an end to by a sudden, startling cry from the lookout on the fore-topgallant yard of:
“Land ho; right ahead!”
I was on deck at the time, and far from expecting to hear such a cry; indeed so incredulous was I still that I quite concluded the man had allowed his imagination to run away with him, and was mistaking the shoulder of some low-lying cloud for distant land. So I hailed him with:
“Topgallant yard, there! are you quite sure that what you see is land, and not a hummock of cloud?” ”

“ Soon afterwards they encountered a large herd of cattle in charge of about a dozen native lads, one of whom, upon sighting the strangers, took to his heels and ran, as though for his life, to an eminence at no great distance, where, placing his hands funnelwise to his mouth, he began to shout, in a peculiar, high-pitched tone of voice, a brief communication of some sort to some unseen person or persons. ”

“ The English collier, who on being met in a lane with a couple of fine terriers, was asked by a thrifty land-holder if he, the collier, might not have shown greater wisdom had he spent his money on pigs rather than on terriers, replied: “Perhaps so, but a man would look a damned fool going ratting wi’ two pigs.” One supposes that in Ireland if the people ever do go ratting, they do it with these same porkers. ”

“ You start back, for, instead of the countenance you were charmed to meet at the weekly beard reckoning, you see a collier's face, a collier's hands, and your smock-frock converted into a charcoal-burner's blouse.
Cutting down the forest is hard labour enough until practice makes you perfect; chopping is hard work also ”

“ At a place named Coil-chro, or the Wood-of-hazel-nuts, a turn of the path, as it wound over the headland, brought us in view of a gentleman and two ladies on horseback, attended by a smart mounted servant, clad in a grey surtout, and accoutred with a leather girdle, laced hat, and black cockade. ”

“ When a collier is in full dress, he has white stockings, and very tall shirt necks, very stiffly starched, and ruffles?—That is very sure, sir; but they never wash their bodies underneath; I know that ”

“ The Coliidae are small birds, with a rather finch-like bill, a more or less crested head, a very long tail, and generally of a dun or slate-coloured plumage that sometimes brightens into blue or is pleasingly diversified with white or chestnut. They feed almost wholly on fruits, but occasionally take insects, in quest of which they pass in bands of fifteen or twenty from tree to tree. ”

“ For Printed Circular, giving full particulars about Shepherd Dogs, enclose a 3-cent stamp, and address
N. H. PAAREN,
P. O. Box 326,—CHICAGO, ILL.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Don’t be Humbugged
With Poor, Cheap Coulters.
All farmers have had trouble with their Coulters. In a few days they get to wabbling, are condemned and thrown aside. In our
“BOSS” Coulter
we furnish a tool which can scarcely be worn out; and when worn, the wearable parts, a prepared wood journal, and movable thimble in the hub (held in place by a key) can be easily and cheaply renewed. ”

“ Fifthly, Knowing that when the Colliers are forced to sinck Pits for getting of ten yards thick of Cole one third Part of the Coles or more, that be gotten under the ground, being small are of little or of no use in that inland Country nor is it worth the drawing out of the Pits, unlesse it might be made use of by making of Iron therewith into cast works or Bars. ”

“ In Warwickshire and Leicestershire it is not uncommon for the men to follow their occupation ten years longer; but all classes of witnesses in the other districts uniformly state that it is rare to see an old collier.
In Derbyshire, William Wardle "does not think colliers live as long as those above ground; very few live to be sixty." [56]
In Yorkshire, "colliers have harder work than any other class of workmen, and the length of time they work, as well as the intense exertion they undergo, added to the frequent unhealthiness of the atmosphere, decidedly tend to shorten their lives." ”

“ The Scotch sheep dog, or colley, has no superior, scarcely an equal, in managing a flock. The Ettrick Shepherd says, that a single shepherd, with one of these colleys, will accomplish more in gathering a flock of sheep from a Highland farm than twenty shepherds could do without it. ”