er half-quartern measure,
used at the Black Lion, in Wych-street, by Sixteen-string Jack.

There were, likewise, in the collection several interesting relics of
humorous felony; such as the snuff-box of the Cock-lane ghost--the stone
thrown by Collins at William the Fourth's head--a copy of Sir Francis
Burden's speech, for which he was committed to the Tower--an odd black
silk glove, worn by Mr. Cotton, the late ordinary of Newgate--Barrington's
silver tooth-pick--and a stay-lace of Miss Julia Newman.

These were but a small portion of the contents of the museum; but I had
seen enough to make me sick of the exhibition, and I withdrew with the
firm resolution never again, during my life, to enter the house of a
_Criminal Curiosity Hunter_.

X.

* * * * *

ECCENTRICITIES OF THE MINOR DRAMA.

We had intended to have arranged, for the use of future syncretics, a
system of coincidences, compiled from the plots of those magnificent
soul-stirring extravaganzas produced and acted at the modern temples of
the drama--the chaste Victoria--the didactic Sadler's Wells--and the
tramontane Pavilion: but we have found the subject too vast for
comprehension, and must content ourselves with noting some of the more
exorbitant and refined instances of genius and hallucination displayed in
those mighty works. Among these the following are pre-eminent:--

It is a remarkable thing that mothers are always buried on the tops of
inaccessible mountains, and that, when it occurs to their afflicted
daughters to go and pray at their tombs, they generally choose a
particularly inclement night as best adapted for that purpose. It is
convenient, too, if any murder took place exactly on the spot, exactly
twenty years before, because in that case it is something agreeable to
reflect upon and allude to.

It is remarkable that people never lie down but to dream, and that they
always dream quite to the purpose, and immediately on having done
dreaming, they wake and act upon it.

It is remarkable that young men never know definitely whose sons they are,
and generally turn out to belong to the wrong father, and find that they
have been falling in love with their sisters, and all that sort of thing.

N.B. Wanted, a new catastrophe for these incidents, as suicide is going
out of fashion.

It is remarkable that whenever people are in a particular hurry to be off,
they make a point of singing a song to put themselves