. The choice works of Thomas Hood, in prose and verse. ILLUMINATL There was only one more disorder, and it occurred at the very housethat I help to inhabit Not that we were dim by any means, for wehad been liberal customers to Mr Sperm and to Mr Wix : the tallowof one flared in all our panes, and the oil of the other fed a brilliantW. P. Alas ! it was these fiery initials, enigmatical as those at Bel-shazzars banquet, that caused all our troubles. The million couldmake out the meaning of the W, but the other letter, divided in con-jecture among them, was literally a split P. Curiosity increase
. The choice works of Thomas Hood, in prose and verse. ILLUMINATL There was only one more disorder, and it occurred at the very housethat I help to inhabit Not that we were dim by any means, for wehad been liberal customers to Mr Sperm and to Mr Wix : the tallowof one flared in all our panes, and the oil of the other fed a brilliantW. P. Alas ! it was these fiery initials, enigmatical as those at Bel-shazzars banquet, that caused all our troubles. The million couldmake out the meaning of the W, but the other letter, divided in con-jecture among them, was literally a split P. Curiosity increased tofuriosity,^ and what might have happened nobody only knows, if mylandlady had not proclaimed that her W had spent such a doubleallowance of lamps, that her R had been obliged to retrench. To aid her oratory, the rabble were luckily attracted from our owndisplay by a splendour greater even than usual at Number 9. Thewarehouseman of Mr Wix—like Master like Mail—had got up anillumination of his own, by leaving a firebrand among the tallow, that. Ignis Fatuus. soon caused the breaking out of an Insurnction in Grease, and wherecandles had hitherto been lighted only by Retail, they were now ignitedby Wholesale ; or, as my landlady said—All the fat was in the fire !I ventured to ask her, when all was over, what she thought of thelightiui^-up, and she gave me her 0|>inion in the following sentiment,in the prayer of which I most heartily concur. Illuminations, shesaid, were very pretty things to look at, and no doubt new Kingsought to be illuminated ; but what with the toil, and what with theoil, and what with the grease, and what with the mob, she hoped itwould be long, very long before we had a new King again ! * 453
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