title-page - of that in the arrangement of the letters in the word Finis.
There was, it seemed, no peculiar distinction, however trifling or minute, which
might not give value to a volume, providing the indispensable quality of
scarcity, or rare occurrence, was attached to it.
    Not the least fascinating was the original broadside - the Dying Speech,
Bloody Murder, or Wonderful Wonder of Wonders, - in its primary 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.«4
    »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