We have often had giants ...
The Times, 1824-05-31T00:00:00

Wehave often had giants and dwvarfs amongst us, and the race is stil kept up and kept dowvn in the astonishing extremes of na- ture's sportive and unaccountable variety. There is at present in Pic. cadilly, a Swiss giantess, of stupendous proportiors a fit subject for the mountain scenery ofher country, and just such a one as, were we unable to account by optical means for the phenomenon, must have cast her shadow across the path of the traveller in those high regsons where the reflection and refraction of the rays of light are known to reflect tho human form in such gigantic proportions, and yet this lady is affable and inviting, mild with her strength, and some say forbearing: such a heroine as a Pataonian lover might lead to the altar ef poor Belzoni's Temple of the Sun, for where else could the ceremony be performed, without destroying the effect ofarchitectural proportions? Near this lady, in New Bond-street, and exciting our wonder in a very different degree, Mliss Crachami, the Sicilian dwarf, holds her dailylevee. She has had the advantage of the giantess, by a Court introduction, having been presented to -te King, by Sir Everard Home-an elegant compliment, we presume, intended to confer honour, andtheretore protection, upon the help- lessness of her sex, of which she is so peculiar and interesting an ex- ample. Our country has had its full share of the presence and history of dwarfs; but mostly of such as were alike remarkable for their deformity and diminutiveness, and who made the poets associate the shape and passions of goblins and fiends with those of "Airy elves by moonlight shadow seen." This little Sicilian is in every respect of the better elass, under 10 yearsofage, 19 inches in height, slender in proportion, her weight lOlb.,andnot unfit, if wecould institute themysteries, and people the class, to be admitted into the Genii, the Pens, or the elves of our romance. The only drawback from the infantile form of the figure is in the hollowness and hectic complexion of the facc, which, with the helplessness of motion, notwithstanding the mechanical move- ments of the child, denote the terms upon which Nature departs from the general order of her works. This singularly diminutive object is described as being healthy, kind, and affectionate. She is evi- dently susceptible of the rudiments of education, and attached to the trifles which children are fond of possessing; and is for her stinted growth, the most perfect in symmetry of aU the iwarfs *e have hitherto heard of She is also unquestionably the most diminutive. IVORCESTERsHSRr SOCIaTY.-The ninth anniversary dinner of this instituxtion took place on Saturday. at the Albion Ta- vern. The company was select, butnotnumerous, consisting of Sir Charles Cockere=.Bart.,M.P., in the chair; thie Ealof Beubamp; Lord Deerhurst, Al. P.; the E{on. Colonel Lygon, 31. P. ; the Hon. and Rev. Thomas Covextry; J. Martin, Enq., Af. P.; lVm. Mfad. docks, Esq., AI. P.; *Win. Oldnall Russell, 13sn., Patrick RtYan Esq., and about 50 other gentlemen of respectability. After several Introductory toasts were drunk, the boys who have become the ob- jects of thc lnstitution's bounty, about five and twenty in number, were introduced,and walked round the room; upon which the Chair. man gave "Success to this $ociety," and the Secretary, Villiam Grane, Esq., read the Committee's report. The object of the cha- rity is to raise a fund,by donations and annual subscriptions, for ap- prenticing children of necessitous persons, natives of the county of Forcester, and afterwards for assisting them in beginning business; and the report stated that they were steadily advancing towards the accomplishment of~ this most laudable and useful object, the Earl of Coventry havin, accepted the office of patron and the Earl of Beau. champ, Lsord Viscount Dadley and WVard, tlae Dean Of lVorcester and other individuals of influence in the county, having been added to the list of its members. The Society had also begun to invest part of its fiunds, by purchasing 1001. 3 per cent. Consols, to meet ontingencies. But the applications for its assistance were becom- ing extremely ntumerous; no less than eleven petitions having been presented for this anniversary. MIELANCHOLY CASB OF POISONING.-On Saturday an inquest was held before Charles Jeinmett, Esq., coroner for Sur- rey, at the lNoah's Ark Tavern, Rotherhithie, on the body of Susan- nah Baldwin, aged 16 years, who died in consequence of taking poi- son. The deceased was a very pretty girl, as remarkable for her correct conduct as for her lively and amiable disposition. She had resided with her unele and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Pitt, of Rotherhithe, for somne years, and was treated as one of their own children. On Thursday, the 21st inst., a quarrel took place between lr. and Mrs. Pitt, during w-hich iMrs. Pitt insinuated to her husband that his afflections were estranged from her, aMd that he had formed an improper intitnacy with her niece. Dlr. Pitt replied, that he was not surprised at anything, however monstrous, which her jealous disposition -night imagine. The deceased heard the dreadful accu saton of her aunt, and appeared overwhelmed with agony. On the folowing morning she sent one of the servants to a chymist's for two penny-worth of oil of vitriol, under the pretence that it was to be used for cleaning some of the culinary utensils. As soon as the liquid was brought, sbe went to the back of the house and drank it, and, on entering the house again, she thiew down the empty cup. The servant said, " Good God ! you have not drank it?" She re- plied, " Yes, I have drank it all; I have been accused of what 1 am not guilty of; 1 cannot prove my innocence_I must die, and 1 will die." ler undcl and aunt were informed of the shockin event, and they were inconsolable. A medicalgentleman was caUed in, who administered an antidote. She ling*ed till Thursday night last, and then expired. On her body being opened, the coat of the stomach was found to be destroyed, and her intestines in a state of mortification. Thejuryreturned a verdict of-" Died from taking poison, being in a state of temporary mental derangement at the Lime."