a country churchyard, under an ivied porch;
or in the church itself; or under a tree in a
park, where deer are browsing within sight;
or on a mossy and fern-clad wall; or lying
on the grass, or even in bed; or in the British
Museum; or in a quiet study, where the
light is taken great care of. The design is
the first step; and the designer may have
derived ideas from altar railings, or from
great men's tombs, or from beasts, birds, and
flowers; or from antique sculpture; or from
his own memory and imagination. Young
artists seek money, and give a chance to their
ambition, by offering designs to eminent
brass-founders; designs for chandeliers, and
other articles of ornamental furniture; and
for railings, gates, &c. Specific pieces of work,
such as monumental railings, statuettes, and
brass-plates for particular purposes, are done
from designs forwarded with the order.

Next to the design comes the model. An
account has been given elsewhere of modelling
in wax, in preparation for stamping, pressing,
and chasing. Therefore we will not tell what
pretty things of that kind may be seen here,
but mention only the wooden model made
from the drawing, for instance, of a tomb.
The wood is pear. It is carved after the
design, and in the same separate pieces, fitting
into each other, that will be required by the
casting process. Here we have in wood the
knobs, sockets, fluting, angles, that are to be
reproduced in brass. From this wooden
model a cast is taken in lead, which must be,
of course, its reverse, as the cast is to produce
a brass copy of the wooden model. The
leaden cast is chased a little; then it is cast
in brass, and well finished by chasing. Here
is the pattern complete, ready to take its
place with—how many others, does the reader
think? In this establishment there are ten
tons of patterns. They are numbered, and
the number reaches one hundred thousand.
Those whose business it is, are so familiar
with this multitude of details, that they can
almost instantly lay their hand on the one
wanted, or direct their eyes to the pigeon-
hole in the warehouse where it is deposited.
At a counter in that warehouse stands a
woman whose life is passed in sorting the
patterns as they come in from the casting.
Hinges, screws, knobs, bolts, buttons, nails,
hooks, in vast variety, lie before her in trays,
and she puts them by in their proper places.
The walls are studded with them; drawers
are filled with them; shelves are piled with
them; pigeon-holes are stuffed with them.
In short, one hundred thousand of them have
to be stowed away in such a manner, as that
they may be immediately found when wanted.

With these models is laid by a great wealth
of steel dies. These are a large investment,
and a very uncertain property. An ordinary-
looking die may prove to be worth its weight
in gold; while a pair which has cost fifty
guineas may not be required to give out as
many copies. And while there may be a
dead loss on such an article, a batch of the
commonest brass-headed nails, requiring the
labour of thirteen pairs of hands, may sell at
Calcutta with a profit of eighteen-pence to
each person.

Next comes the casting. For the material
required, we must look to the cemetery. It is
a beautiful cemetery, with dark ivy spreading
over the face of red sandstone rock, in which
below are vaults hewn out, dry, dim, and
solemn, with niches in which ranges of coffins
are deposited, while the outer face presents
Egyptian forms and symbols. Below, where
there was once this rock, there are green
nooks and platforms, where shrubs and
flowers enclose flat gravestones, and
monuments of many forms and devices. On either
side there is undulating ground, with pleasant
walks, well kept, and adorned with more
shrubs and flowers, which again enclose green
spaces, set apart by families for their dead.
Amidst all the clearance required for the
interment of such a population as is brought
here for its rest, there are no unsightly débris,
no heaps of rubbish. As the red rock retires,
there is no difficulty in disposing of the
fragments scooped out or hewn down. They go
to help the convenience and luxury of the
living: to help to make the chandeliers under
which the young and gay will dance, and the
fire-grates at which the aged will warm their
old blood, and the household articles which
will spread the conveniences of home through
cities and mountain retreats in another
hemisphere. The cost of this cemetery is largely
defrayed by the sale of its red sand to the
metal-founders of the town. It is a very fine
sand, remarkably free from impurities. When
wetted and flattened, it looks as smooth as
can well be; but for facings, and when a very
fine surface is required, it is mixed with coal-
dust and flour, and its bed is smoked with a
torch.

The mould consists of two boxes, which,
when filled, are bolted together, the sand on
their faces meeting, except in the hollow
made by the pattern, and the channel through
which the metal is to flow. The moist sand
is firmly rammed down in each, round the
pattern. Wherever there are recesses in the
pattern, they are filled in with sand. If the
article is to be hollow, it is "cored" by the
pattern being filled with sand. There are, in
fact, four methods of casting. Common
articles, like drawer-handles, bolts, knobs, and
hinges, are cast solid. In such a case, we see
the face of the mould stuck all over with
patterns, as close as they will properly lie,
which are to leave their hollow impression to
be filled up by the molten metal. This is
"common casting." The next is called
"common-face casting;" and that is when
flat ornamented pieces are required, as for
door-plates. The third is "cored" casting,
as for gas-fittings, or other articles required
to be hollow. In these a mould is taken
from the inside of the pattern, as well as the