See “Kenilworth,” by Sir Walter Scott, who has appropriated Wayland Smith with excellent effect.
“The Berkshire legend of Wayland Smith (‘Wayland Smith,’ by W. S. Singer) is probably but a prototype of Dædalus, Tubal Cain, &c.”—_Wilson’s Prehistoric Annals of Scotland._
See also Mr Thomas Wright’s Essay on Wayland Smith.
The existence of the terms “Jews’ houses,” “Jews’ tin,” “Jews’ leavings,” or “atall,” and “atall Saracen,” prove the connexion of strangers with the Cornish tin mines. The inquiry is too large to be entered on here. I reserve it for another and more fitting place. I may, however, remark in passing, that I have no doubt the Romans were active miners during the period of their possession; and many relics which have been found and ascribed to the Britons are undoubtedly Roman. See further remarks on p. 118, “Who are the Knockers?”
Mr Edmonds supposes that he found in a bronze vessel discovered near Marazion a caldron in which tin was refined. In the first place, a bronze vessel would never have been used for that purpose—chemical laws are against it; and in the second place, it is more than doubtful if ever the “Jews’ tin” was subjected to this process. In all probability, the bronze vessel discovered was a “Roman camp-kettle.” A very full description of bronze caldrons of this description will be found in “The Archæology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,” by Daniel Wilson, p. 274.
It may not be out of place to insert here the tradition of a very important application of this metal.
The use of tin as a mordant, for which very large quantities are now used, is said to have been thus discovered:—
Mr Crutchy, Bankside, married a Scotchwoman. This lady often told her husband that his scarlet was not equal to one she could dye. He set her to work. She dyed a skein of worsted in a saucepan, using the same material as her husband, but produced a better colour. She did not know this was owing to the saucepan’s being tinned, but he detected the fact, and made his fortune as a dyer of scarlet and Turkey-red. The most important Turkey-red dye-works are even now in the neighbourhood of Lochlomond; therefore, this Scotchwoman may have been better acquainted with the process than the story tells.