CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 343 



tliam. — In the box lobby at the Adelphi Theatre last night, Mr. Smith 

 called Mr. Brown a fool, and Mr. Brown called Mr. Smith an ass, further 

 particulars in our next. — Last Wednesday the metropolis was visited by 

 one of the most tremendous thunder storms in the memory of man. The 

 hailstones were as big as cabbages, but the thunder could not be heard 

 on account of the noise of the omnibuses and the bawling of the chim- 

 ney sweepers. — Mr. Clarke has purchased Mr. Simpson's famous horse 

 Blunderer, that ran against a brick wall last Greenwich Fair." 



** There, now, what an immense deal of important intelligence is com- 

 municated to the provincial public in the compass of one short paragraph ! 

 But sometimes it happens that events of a more awful, serious, and 

 mysterious nature are to be communicated to the readers, and then no 

 curtailment or abridgment can be allowed, and instead of Multum in 

 Parvo we have Parvum in Multo, as ; Remarkable and mysteriotis occurrence. 

 " On Tuesday last the family of Mr. Walter Wiggins, a most intelligent, 

 upright, honest, and conscientious grocer, tea-dealer, tallow-chandler, 

 cheesemonger and hop-merchant, of No. 76, Snipe-street, Wapping, was 

 thrown into considerable alarm by the following extraordinary and mys- 

 terious occurrence. It appears, from all that we can learn, that Mr. 

 Wiggins and his family, consisting of himself, his wife, two sons, three 

 daughters, a shop-boy, and a maid of all- work, had retired to rest at their 

 usual hour, half past ten ; but they had not been in bed more than three 

 quarters of an hour, when Mr. Wiggins, who is not the best sleeper in 

 the world, thought that he heard a noise at the front door. Alarmed as 

 he naturally might be at this unusual and mysterious occurrence, Mr. 

 Wiggins woke Mrs. Wiggins out of her first sleep, in order to consult 

 what was best to be done in this emergency. Mrs. Wiggins, who is a 

 woman of great fortitude and discretion, immediately, with the most 

 praiseworthy presence of mind, and without the slightest hesitation, 

 recommended her husband to dress himself with all speed, and to take a 

 poker in one hand and a blunderbuss in the other, and go down stairs 

 to the street-door and ask, * who's there ?' This advice Mr. Wiggins 

 took, without more delay, and strange to say when he got to the door 

 and proposed the question so recommended by Mrs. Wiggins, there was no 

 answer. Again, in a louder voice, and with a still bolder and more 

 determinate tone, he said, * who's there, I say ? why don't you answer ? 

 Speak, or I'll blow your brains out.' Still there was no answer ; Mr. 

 Wiggins, therefore, being tired of asking questions to which he could 

 get no reply, returned to his bed, and lay awake nearly an hour longer, 

 listening with the closest attention, but in vain, for a repetition of the 

 knocking. The strictest inquiry has been made to ascertain if possible 

 who the miscreant was, that knocked at the door and ran away. Miss 

 Wiggins has positively declared that, had she not been asleep at the time, 

 it is very likely she should have gone into hysterics. Scarcely anything 

 else is talked about in Wapping, and it forms a prominent topic of con- 

 versation in the coteries of Shad well, Limehouse and Poplar. Our read- 

 ers may rest assured that we shall spare neither pains nor expense to 

 obtain all possible further information on this mysterious matter." 



** Paragraphs of this nature are highly valuable to country readers, 

 who thereby gain a knowledge of metropolitan manners, customs, and 

 interests. But if such be the beauty of the general information, greater 

 still is the importance of the local information, which, being supplied by 

 a variety of correspondents, exhibits a corresponding variety of style ; but 

 all of them are eloquent — very eloquent. 



" It seems to be taken for granted that no language is fit to make its 

 appearance in the columns of a country newspaper, except it be adorned 



June, 1835. — vol, ii. no. xi. 2 y 



