Description: THE PENNY MAGAZINE Dec. 8, 1832 This is a paper which is over 190 years old! It is printed in a small format, measuring 7.5 by 11 in size, and is 8 pages long. The issue has some minor browning spots from age; typical slight disbinding marks at the spine from coming from a bound volume; and a sliver of the front page at the bottom spine margin is missing. This does not reach any text, however, and the paper retains an attractive appearance, and is still in very good condition overall. This issue leads with a page and a half on THE OSTRICH OF SOUTH AFRICA. It is illustrated with a charming wood engraving on the front page of Male and Female Ostrich. It begins with a description of the Great Karroo desert region of the Cape Colony in South Africa, and then discusses the distinctive birds, saying in part: The ostrich of South Africa is a prudent and wary animal, and displays little of that stupidity ascribed to this bird by some naturalists. On the borders of the Cape Colony, at least, where it is eagerly pursued for the sake of its valuable plumage, the ostrich displays no want of sagacity in providing for its own safety or the security of its offspring. . . . In relieving each other in hatching, the birds are said to be careful not to be seen together at the nest, and are never observed to approach it in a direct line. . . . Some of the Cape colonists, on the skirts of the Great Karroo and other remote districts, make the pursuit of the ostrich one of their principal and most profitable amusements. Du Ploit showed us five or six skins of ostriches that he had lately killed. . . it was extremely difficult to get within shot of them, owing to their constant vigilance, and the great distance to which they can see. The fastest horse, too, will not overtake them . . . His cry at a distance so much resembles that of the lion, that even the Hottentots are said to be sometimes deceived by it. The center of the paper includes an article of a page and a half on CARISBROOK CASTLE on the Isle of Wight. It is illustrated with two small woodcuts, of The Keep and Carisbrook Castle, shewing the window from which Charles I. attempted to escape. Its text is runs to about 160 lines, and begins: There are few edifices now remaining in England that lay claim to so venerable an antiquity as the celebrated pile of which we are about to give an account. . . . The paper also contains has an article on MOUNT VESUVIUS, describing the volcano's eruption in 1822. This takes up a total of over one full page, also running about 160 lines in length. ************** Background on this publication: The Penny Magazine was a weekly 8-page paper put out by Londons Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Throughout the 1830s, an American edition was very popular in the United States, only to dwindle into extinction during the following decade. The paper did not cover the current news of the day, and carried no advertising. Instead, the Penny Magazine provided excellent essays on a wide array of subjects, such as architecture, science, geography and natural history. The paper was a compact 7.5 x 11 inches in size, and every issue was illustrated with several fine woodcut engravings. 44 _gsrx_vers_1680 (GS 9.8.3 (1680))
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Location: Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
End Time: 2024-11-05T23:34:13.000Z
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