Plate glass for mirrors and coach windows was introduced into England by the second Duke of Buckingham, who brought over workmen from Venice, and established a manufactory at Lambeth, where the works were carried on successfully according to the process in use at Venice.
The first manufactory for cast plate glass, according to the process invented by Abraham Thévart, was established in 1773, at Prescot in Lancashire, by a society of gentlemen, to whom a royal charter was granted, under the name of the "British Plate Glass Company."
_Maps of Africa_ (Vol. v., p. 236.).--As your correspondent has no faith in Spruner, but appears to have confidence in Kiepert, it may serve him to be informed that there is a General Map of Africa by Kiepert published in 1850, and that Drs. Barth and Overweg, the travellers in Africa, have this map with them: also, that Kiepert published a map of Algiers, Fez, and Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, &c. There is also another map by Kiepert, of the Roman Empire in the first centuries of the Christian era, which includes the northern coast of Africa.
_Cromwell's Skull_ (Vol. v., p. 275.).--In answer to J. P., I beg to inform him that the skull of Cromwell is in the possession of W. A. Wilkinson, Esq., of Beckenham, Kent, at whose house a relation of mine saw it. I have no doubt that Mr. Wilkinson would feel pleasure in stating the arguments on which the genuineness of the interesting relic is based.
The publication of _The Works of Sir Thomas Browne_, vol. iii., containing "Urn Burial," "Christian Morals," "Miscellanies," "Correspondence," &c., edited by Simon Wilkins, completes this important contribution to Bohn's _Antiquarian Library_. We could have wished that it had not been included in this series, for we fear that circumstance may deter many from purchasing it; and the writings of Browne may still be read by all with interest and advantage, for, "of the esteem of posterity," said Johnson, "he will not easily be deprived, while learning shall have any reverence among men; for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success;" and these writings, with Mr. Wilkins's notes, may now be placed upon our shelves for fifteen shillings!