Genre:

Serial—Introduction, Drollery; Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Societies, Education, Mental Illness, Collecting, Amateurism

    Disappointed with the results of the 'public examination of the juvenile members' of the society. The 'infant philosophers' were required to answer such questions as 'the distance, in miles, from the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum to the Tuesday in Easter week'. Reports the 'creditable progress' of the 'School of Design and Drawing' including one student's controversial design for a monument to Horatio Nelson (Viscount Nelson). Reports various additions to the society's museum including 'A small lizard, caught in Regent's Park, preserved in gin-and-water, in a soda-water bottle, and denominated by the librarian "a heffut"'. Notes various library acquisitions including 'bound copy of Sermons preached at Hookham-cum-Snivey Church, by the Reverend Peter Twaddle'.