CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THE OLD HOUSE IN CRANE COURT.
THE HUNCHBACK OF STRASBOURG.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SHEARS.
THE NIGHTINGALE:
THE TEA-COUNTRIES OF CHINA.
THE GREAT OYER OF POISONING.
NEURALGIA.
ANCIENT GLACIERS IN THE LAKE COUNTRY.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 442. New Series. | SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
THE OLD HOUSE IN CRANE COURT.
The roaring pell-mell of the principal thoroughfares of London iscuriously contrasted with the calm seclusion which is often found atno great distance in certain lanes, courts, and passages, and theeffect is not a little heightened when in these by-places we lightupon some old building speaking of antique institutions or bygonehabits of society. We lately had this idea brought strikingly beforeus on plunging abruptly out of Fleet Street into Crane Court, insearch of the establishment known as the Scottish Hospital. We wereall at once transferred into a quiet narrow street, as it might becalled, full of printing and lithographic offices, tall, dark, andrusty, while closing up the further end stood a dingy building ofnarrow front, presenting an ornamental porch. A few minutes served tointroduce us to a moderate-sized hall, having a long table in thecentre, and an arm-chair at the upper end, while several old portraitsgraced the walls. It was not without a mental elevation of feeling, aswell as some surprise, that we learned that this was a hall in whichNewton had spent many an evening. It was, to be quite explicit, themeeting-place of the Royal Society from 1710 till 1782, and,consequently, during not much less than twenty years of the latterlife of the illustrious author of the Principia, who, as anoffice-bearer in the institution, must have often taken an eminentplace here. We were not, however, immediately in quest of theantiquities of the Royal Society. Our object was to form someacquaintance with the valuable institution which has succeeded to itin the possession of this house.
We must advert to a peculiarity of our Scottish countrymen, which canbe set down only on the credit side of their character—their sympathywith each other when they meet as wanderers in foreign countries.Scotland is just a small enough country to cause a certain unity offeeling