"What becomes of all the pins?" a question every day asked, received an answer, a few years since, upon the opening of an old sewer for repair, in Rea-street, Birmingham. At the bottom of it was a deposit as hard as the "slag" from a blast furnace, and in this deposit a vast number of pins were embedded: a piece about the size of a man's fist bristled with them, and this was but a specimen of a great mass of such matter. In another way, too, the deposit was a curiosity; for, independently of the pins, it inclosed a heterogeneous collection of old pocket-knives, marbles, buttons, &c. Anciently, there were local springs, known as _Pin Wells_, in passing which the country maids dropped into the water a crooked pin to propitiate the fairy of the well. In some places, rich and poor believed this superstition. PROVISIONS: BREAD-MAKING, GROCERY, AND CONFECTIONERY. Under the designation of _Panis_, Mr. Hudson Turner thinks that grain and flour, as well as bread, were included. It would appear that bread of different degrees of fineness was used. Thus, in the Household Expenses of Eleanor, Countess of Leicester, third daughter of King John, and wife of the celebrated Simon de Montfort, 1265, "the earliest known memorial of the domestic expenditure of an English subject," we find that there was "bread purchased for the Countess," and "bread for the kitchen." Loaves or cakes were made of bolted flour, are twice mentioned, as well as cakes, or wastells, perhaps biscuits; on one occasion half a quarter of flour is set down for pastry. It is inferred that the bread generally used in the family was made of a mixture of wheat and rye. As the dogs were fed with corn, it may be concluded that the servants fared no worse: at any rate there is no distinct notice of bread made of barley, oats, or the more inferior grain which were commonly used in France and other countries. It is not clear that their bread was leavened with yeast, as that article occurs but once, and then in connexion with malt. The price of the quarter of wheat or rye varied from 5_s_. to 5_s_. 8_d_.; of oats, from 2_s_. to 2_s_. 4_d_.; twenty-five quarters, however, were bought at Sandwich, at 1_s_. 10_d_. When grain was brought from the Countess' manors, some of the prices were rather below the average. The bailiff of Chalton was allowed 5_s_. the quarter for wheat, 4_s_. for barley, and 2_s_. 4_d_. for oats; the bailiff of Braborne had 4_s_. 4_d_. for wheat, and 1_s_. 3_d_. for oats. The Manchet is a fine white roll, named, according to Skinner, from _michette_, French; or from _main_, because small enough to be held in the hand: "No manchet can so well the courtly palate please As that made of the meal fetch'd from my fertil leaze." Drayton's _Polyolbion_. Here are two olden recipes for manchets: