y tattered
guise, as it was hawked through the streets, and sold for the cheap and
easy price of one penny, though now worth the weight of that penny in
gold. On these the Antiquary dilated with transport, and read, with a
rapturous voice, the elaborate titles, which bore the same proportion to
the contents that the painted signs without a showman's booth do to the
animals within. Mr. Oldbuck, for example, piqued himself especially
in possessing an unique broadside, entitled and called "Strange and
Wonderful News from Chipping-Norton, in the County of Oxon, of certain
dreadful Apparitions which were seen in the Air on the 26th of July
1610, at Half an Hour after Nine o'Clock at Noon, and continued till
Eleven, in which Time was seen Appearances of several flaming Swords,
strange Motions of the superior Orbs; with the unusual Sparkling of
the Stars, with their dreadful Continuations; With the Account of the
Opening of the Heavens, and strange Appearances therein disclosing
themselves, with several other prodigious Circumstances not heard of in
any Age, to the great Amazement of the Beholders, as it was communicated
in a Letter to one Mr. Colley, living in West Smithfield, and attested
by Thomas Brown, Elizabeth Greenaway, and Anne Gutheridge, who were
Spectators of the dreadful Apparitions: And if any one would be
further satisfied of the Truth of this Relation, let them repair to
Mr. Nightingale's at the Bear Inn, in West Smithfield, and they may be
satisfied."*

* Of this thrice and four times rare broadside, the author possesses an
exemplar.

"You laugh at this," said the proprietor of the collection, "and I
forgive you. I do acknowledge that the charms on which we doat are not
so obvious to the eyes of youth as those of a fair lady; but you will
grow wiser, and see more justly, when you come to wear spectacles.--Yet
stay, I have one piece of antiquity, which you, perhaps, will prize more
highly."

So saying, Mr. Oldbuck unlocked a drawer, and took out a bundle of keys,
then pulled aside a piece of the tapestry which concealed the door of
a small closet, into which he descended by four stone steps, and,
after some tinkling among bottles and cans, produced two long-stalked
wine-glasses with bell mouths, such as are seen in Teniers' pieces, and
a small bottle of what he called rich racy canary, with a little bit
of diet cake, on a small silver server of exquisite old workmanship. "I
will say nothing of the server,"