the cittie of Venice, ther is one called Murano, about the distance of a little mile, where crystall Glasses are made; and 'tis a rare sight to see a whole street where on the one side there are about twenty furnaces at work perpetually, both day and night. It hath bin observed and tryed, that if one shoed remove a furnace from Murano to Venice herself,—nay, to the other side of the street,—and use the same men, materialls, and fuell, and the same kind of furnace, ev'ry way, yet one cannot be able to make cristall Glasse in the same perfection, for bewty and lustre, as they do at Murano; and the cause they allegd is the qualitie and cleerness of the circumambient air which hangs ore the place, and favoureth the manufacture, which air is purified and attenuated by the concurrent heats of so many furnaces together, which never extinguish, but are like the vestal fyres that allwayes burn."

In another Letter, dated "Venice, the 1st of June, 1621," we find: "The art of Glass-making is very highly valued in Venice; for whosoever comes to be a master of that profession is reputed a gentleman ipsâ arte, for the art's sake: and it is not without reason, it being a rare kind of knowledge and chymistry to transmute the dull bodies of dust and sand, for they are the only main ingredients, to such a disphanous, pellucid, dainty body, as we see cristall Glass is, which hath this property above gold and silver, or any other mineral to endure no poyson. Glasse allso hath this rare qualitie, that it never loseth anything of its first substance and weight, though us'd never so frequently and so long. It is wonderfull to see what diversitie of shapes and strange formes those curious artists will make in Glasse, as I saw a complete gallie, with all her masts, sayles, cables, tackling,