MANUFACTURING CELERITY. SOME years ago, a gentleman made a bet of one thousand guineas, that he would have a coat made in the course of a single day, from the first process of shearing the sheep, to its completion by the tailor. The wager was decided at Newbury, on the 25th of June, 1811, by Mr. John Coxeter of Greenham Mills, near that place. At five o'clock that morning Sir John Throckmorton presented two South Down wether sheep to Mr. Coxeter. Accordingly, the sheep were shorn, the wool spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed and wove; the cloth burred, milled, rowed, dyed, dried, sheared and pressed, and put into the hands of the tailor by four o'clock that afternoon. At twenty minutes past six, the coat, entirely finished, was presented by Mr. Coxeter to Sir John Throckmorton; and he appeared with it before an assembly of five thousand spectators, who expressed their surprise and congratulation, with loud acclamations. VALUE OF MANUFACTURED STEEL. AN article may be manufactured from a pound of iron, which is the value of one half-penny, to realize the enormous sum of 35,000 guineas.—A pound of crude iron costs one half-penny; it is converted into steel; that steel is made into watch springs, every one of which is sold for half-a-guinea, and weighs only the tenth of a grain. After deducting for waste, there are in a pound weight 7000 grains; it therefore affords steel for 70,000 watch springs, the value of which, at half a guinea each, is 35,000 guineas. YOUTHFUL DEVOTION RECOMMENDED For New Year's Day, 1848. BY THE REV. T. TIMPSON, LEWISHAM. "When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek."-Psalm xxvii. 8. Almighty Sovereign, LORD, Most High, Goodness and mercy, gracious Lord, I ask not wealth, nor power, nor fame, But O, record my humble name, With those of heavenly birth! Enrolled in heaven, enriched by grace, Furnish me for my Christian race, My future days I leave to Thee: Grant that, on earth, through all my days, O that I may, in worlds of light, With saints and angels move; J. Unwin, Gresham Steam Press, 31, Bucklersbury, London. RECULVER AND THE TWO SISTERS. EVERY inquisitive young voyager, sailing down the river Thames to the sea, or visiting, by our commodious steam vessels, Herne Bay, Margate, or Ramsgate, is attracted by the "Two SISTER TOWERS," of popular celebrity, and which stand as a noted sea-mark, at Reculver. Our engraving will lead us to give, therefore, some brief historical notices of "Reculver," and the interesting "Story of the Sisters." B Reculver is a very small village, with a population of about 300, on the sea-coast of Kent, nearly four miles east of Herne Bay, nine miles west from Margate, and the same distance north from Canterbury. It was a place of much note under the Romans and Saxons; the former called it Regulbium; it was called by the latter, Raculf, to which cester, a castle, was added, Raculfcester; and after the erection of the monastery or abbey, minster was added,-Raculf-Minster. The castle, enclosing about eight acres of land, was built A.D. 206, by the Roman emperor Severus, who died at York, A.D. 211. The fortification was enlarged and garrisoned by the first cohort of the Velastians. Ethelbert, king of Kent, the first Saxon prince that embraced Christianity, having given his palace at Canterbury to the Popish missionary Augustine, retired to Reculver, and built here a palace for himself; so that it became a royal residence for the kings of Kent. In 669, king Egbert gave some lands in this parish to an Anglo-Saxon lord, named Basso, who built a monastery there, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary. At this time, the river Wantsume, now the Stour, was navigable from its mouth at Reculver to Rectupium, or Richborough, near Sandwich, and this passage, guarded at each end by a castle, was used for shipping, instead of the dangerous voyage round the North Foreland. Batteley, an author of note, speaks of this "Port of Rectupium : "This haven has two mouths, the one open to the north, the other to the east. The castle of Regulbium was built near to the former; the castle of Rectupium near the latter; by which, well garrisoned, the haven was formerly closed on each side. From these towers, the ships of invaders and pirates might be seen at a great distance, and their entrance prevented, while the Roman fleets were securely drawn on shore. A wide valley, or level now lies between these castles, in which, I think, the haven of Rectupium must hav ebeen placed; for though meadows now intervene, and a rivulet, confined within a very narrow channel, flows between them, yet, if we recollect the old face of the country, as it is drawn by ancient writers, and view it with the eye of the mind, we shall soon discover the port of Rectupium, the most celebrated in all Britain. The scantiness of water, which now appears, was not of old; for Solinus, the first Roman writer who mentions the Isle of Thanet, says that it was washed by the straits of Gaul, and separated from the continent of Britain by a small estuary, which, Bede says, was about three furlongs in breadth. We read in our Saxon Chronicle,' that an English fleet, sailing to Sandwich, continued there; that Turkill with his fleet, came to England, and being joined by another innumerable fleet of the Danes, entered the haven of Sandwich; that the fleet of Harold, after ravaging the eastern coast of Kent, proceeded from Sandwich to Northmuth, or the northern mouth of the Wantsume, and thence towards London, so large was the river ! " Hence the Monks of St. Augustine's claimed all wrecks of ships in their manors of Menstre, Chistelet, and Stodmersch, which were in this level land. After the close of the Saxon 828, through the ravages of the sand of the sea increasing at the Heptarchy, A.D. Danes, and the mouths of this |