an Hour after Nine o’Clock
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 . '' * * 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 .