* "Scotch reels, corner dances, and waltzes were favourites at the Masons' ball on Tuesday evening.

The reel was a contrivance consisting of a sort of wheel, turned on an axis, used to transfer the yarn from the spools or spindles of the spinning wheels into cuts or hunks.

The Saxons were a superior race, and when the eightsome-reel of the heptarchy became the pas-seul of the kingdom of England, we doubt not that Watling Street was kept in passable condition, and that Alfred, amidst his other noble institutions, invented a highway rate.

Reeling is a comparatively simple operation, consisting solely of winding the yarns from the spinning or twisting bobbins on to a wide swift or reel of a suitable width and of a fixed diameter, or rather circumference.