BLIND GRANNY.
This miserable, wretched, drunken object, who was blind of one eye, used to annoy the passengers in the streets of London, while sober, with licking her blind eye with her tongue, which was of a most enormous length, and thickness; indeed, it was of such a prodigious size, that her mouth could not contain it, and she could never close her lips, or to use a common expression, keep her tongue within her teeth. This wonderful feat of washing her eye with her tongue was exhibited with a view of obtaining money from such as crowded around her, and no sooner had she obtained sufficient means, but she hastened to the first convenient liquor-shop, to indulge her propensity in copious libations, and when properly inspired, would rush into the streets with all the gestures of a frantic maniac, and roll and dance about, until she became a little sobered, which was sometimes accelerated by the salutary application of a pail of water, gratuitously bestowed upon her by persons whose doorway she had taken possession of, as shelter from the persecuting tormentings of boys and girls who generally followed her.
ANCIENT FEMALE COSTUME.
A good specimen of the costume of a female of the higher classes is here given, from an effigy of a lady of the Ryther family, in Ryther church, Yorkshire, engraved in Hollis's Monumental Effigies. She wears a wimple, covering the neck and encircling the head, the hair of which is gathered in plaits at the sides, and covered with a kerchief, which falls upon the shoulders, and is secured by a fillet passing over the forehead. The sleeves of the gown hang midway from the elbow and the wrist, and display the tight sleeve with its rows of buttons beneath. The mantle is fastened by a band of ribbon, secured by ornamental studs. The lower part of the dress consists of the wide gown, lying in folds, and completely concealing the feet, which have been omitted, in order to display the upper part of this interesting effigy to greater advantage.
CHILCOTT, THE GIANT.
1815. Died at Trenaw, in Cornwall, a person known by the appellation of Giant Chilcott. He measured at the breast six feet nine inches, and weighed four hundred and sixty pounds. One of his stockings held six gallons of wheat.