C.H. SPURGEON, or (and
this is the most likely hypothesis) PRINCE GEORGE of Wales.
No. 102. _Miniature of a Lady Unknown_. It is impossible at this
lapse of time to identify the original of this portrait. No doubt
she belonged to a short-lived and somewhat degraded class known as
"professional beauties." In one hand she holds an instrument called an
opera-glass, which was used in the last century at trials for murder
at the Old Bailey. The hair she wears on her head is evidently false,
and has been supplied from some foreign peasantry. Her hat is adorned
with a stuffed bird, suggestive of the cruelty of her nature. As she
holds in her other hand a book labelled, "_The Art of Nursing_,"
it may be conjectured that she is a frequent visitor to the
Dissecting-Room, or the Accident Ward of a London Hospital. On the
whole, perhaps, it is fortunate that her name has not been preserved
by succeeding generations. She must, indeed, have been a contrast to
her angelic descendants of the present day.
No. 2478. _An Utensil Made of Brass_. This strange-looking object
may have been used by our ancestors as a helmet, or perhaps as a
fish-kettle.
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