small organ, which was the surprise of all who examined it. This done, he built a second, on which he played for the remainder of his life; and he also had the satisfaction of making a third instrument, which was purchased by a gentleman in the Isle of Man. In the construction of his later organs he was much assisted by information obtained from a gentleman belonging to the trade in London, which city Strong visited in company with his mother-they, it is said, walking the whole of the distance from Carlisle, about 300 miles. But what motive could have prompted them to journey in this fashion is not very clear, as the family seems to have been in easy circumstances. Strong used to make various articles of furniture and of wearing apparel, and the boots that he wore in his journey from Carlisle to London were the work of his own hands. While in the metropolis, our Cumberland youth was introduced by Dr. Brown to Stanley, the celebrated blind organist, who entertained so high an opinion of his abilities that he offered to give him lessons in music; but Strong, caring more for home ties than for the promise of a brilliant career, thankfully declined the generous offer. Among other pieces of machinery, our mechanic constructed a weaver's loom, by which he was enabled to manufacture plain cloth, plush, damask, etc. The first-named fabric produced him considerable profit, but the ornamental goods were only made for the sake of novelty. In estimating the value of the achievements of a life such as that now under review, it must be borne in mind that what was accomplished was the result of the efforts of one who never received any regular instruction, and who laboured under the privation most inimical to mechanical success. Doubtless, many of his works lacked the style and finish possessed by other similar articles, but, nevertheless, they strikingly showed what might have been effected by their maker, if he had enjoyed the advantage of suitable instruction.

Mr. Strong married at the age of twenty-five, and died at Carlisle in 1798, being in his sixty-sixth year, and leaving several children.

Thomas Wilson, the Blind Turner and Bell-ringer, of Dumfries.

;

The following account of this estimable man is extracted from the Mirror,' vol. v. 1825, page 273:"Thomas Wilson was born on the 6th of May, 1750, old style, and had nearly completed his 75th year. Dr. Jenner's invention came too late for him when a mere child he lost his eyesight by the natural smallpox, and had no recollection of ever having gazed on the external world. Like other boys, he was very fond of visiting the venerable mid-steeple of Dumfries, and at the age of twelve, was promoted to the office of chief ringer. Being of industrious habits, he, after much labour and perseverance, succeeded in gaining a pretty correct notion of the trade of a turner -such as, without becoming a burden to any one, enabled him to support himself-and honest Thomas's beetles and spurtles are still held in high repute by the guid wives of both town and country. Although the business requires a considerable number of tools, he had them so arranged that he could, without the least difficulty, take from his shelf the particular one he might be in want of, and even sharpen them when necessary. He excelled in the culinary art, cooking his victuals with the greatest nicety, and priding himself upon the architectural knowledge he displayed in erecting a good ingle or fire. In his domestic economy he neither had nor required an assistant. He fetched his own water, made his own bed, cooked his own victuals, planted and raised his own potatoes, and what is more strange still, cast his own peats; and was allowed by all to keep as clean a house as the most particular spinster in the town. Among a hun

dred rows of potatoes he easily found his way to his own, and when turning peats, walked as fearlessly among the flags of Lochar moss, as those who have all their senses about them. At raising potatoes, or any other odd job, he was ever ready to bear a hand, and when a neighbour got groggy on a Saturday night, it was by no means an uncommon spectacle to see Tom conducting him home to his wife and children. As a mechanic he was more than ordinarily ingenious, and made a lathe with his own hands with which he was long in the habit of turning various articles both of ornament and general utility. In making cocks and pails for brewing, dishes, potato-beetles, tin-smiths' mallets, and hucksters' stands for all the country round, blind Tom was quite unrivalled; and many a time and oft, he has been seen purchasing a plank on the sands, raising it on his shoulder, though ten feet long, and carrying it home to his own house, without coming in contact with a single object. He also constructed a portable break for scutching lint, which he further mounted on a nice little carriage, and in this way, readily transported both himself and the machine to any farmhouse where his services were required. Never was bell-man more faithful. For more than half a century Tom was at his post three times a day, at the very minute or moment required, whether the clock pointed right or no, and without, we believe, a single omission. In the coldest morning, or the darkest night of winter-foul or fair, sunshine or storm-it was all one to Tom; and though sluggards might excuse themselves on the score of the weather, his noisy clapper never failed to remind them that there was at least one man in the town up and at his duty; or to speak in the language of a good old proverb, that

"Early to bed and early to rise,

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.' Indeed, such was his punctuality, that he was never

known to commit a single mistake but one, by ringing the bell at eleven in place of ten at night.

"This occurred very lately, and when joked with on the subject, he remarked that he had surely become fey.

"A melancholy event attached to the death of this humble, but honest and really ingenious person. The room in the belfry of the mid-steeple was the great scene of Tom's exploits, and he may be also said to have died at his post. On Saturday last, at ten o'clock at night, his hand touched the ropes for the last time, and, though many were astonished, both at the shortness and irregularity of the chime, all were as unconscious as the ringer himself, that he was engaged in tolling his own knell. But it was even so. Struck with something like an apoplectic fit, he staggered, as is supposed, against an old chest, cut his head slightly, sank on the floor, and remained all night in this forlorn and pitiable situation, without a friend to help him to a cup of cold water, or wipe away the damps of death that were fast gathering on his venerable brow. For some years past, a person had assisted him in ringing the bells on Sundays, and when this individual visited the steeple at seven o'clock in the morning, he had to force the inner door of the belfry before the state of the deceased could be ascertained. Though he still breathed, he was unable to speak, and was immediately carried to his own house in a state of utter insensibility. A surgeon was sent for, who attempted to bleed him without success, and though every other remedy was tried, he only survived till three o'clock of the same day.

"Thomas Wilson has left behind him an honest fame. As a man he was singularly benevolent and kind; as a Christian humble, cheerful, devout; regular in his attendance at public worship, and at religious societies for the diffusion of the gospel. Morning and evening he regularly performed his devotions in the steeple,

though he was careful to conceal this fact from his friends; and though above asking charity for himself, he was never ashamed to apply for others. Many a destitute creature in fact was more befriended by Blind Tom than by persons who had much more power, and at the periodical divisions of the poor's money his representations were always listened to with the greatest attention both by elders and ministers. Everybody knew that he was perfectly disinterested, and that, so far from appropriating anything to himself, he would rather have taxed his own very slender means. Though humble in station, his moral worth and integrity were high, and, independently of his age and services, a more deserving character never carried to the grave the regrets, we may say, of a whole community.'

Due honour was done to the remains of Blind Tom; the corporation and upwards of three hundred respectable persons attended his funeral, and a subscription has been opened for erecting a suitable monument to his memory.

REMARKS ON INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENTS.

KNITTING, NETTING, ETC.

The employment of knitting is perhaps the most widely diffused and the oldest of those carried on by the blind. We find that about the year 1550, Joan Wast, one of the four blind martyrs of England, maintained herself by knitting stockings, which occupation must have produced considerable profit before the invention of the stocking-weaving machine. The adoption of knitting by the blind at such an early date is the more remarkable, as it appears from Sellon White's History of Inventions, that the art had only just been introduced into England from the Continent. It is believed that knitting is the only occupation