Books: A Ass, A Idiot

THE MYSTERY OF ELIZABETH CANNING—Barretf R. Wellington—J. Ray Peck ($3).

THE STRANGEST CASES ON RECORD—John Allison Duncan—Reilly & Lee ($3)..

Elizabeth Canning, a virtuous serving wench, vanished into the labyrinthine London night on New Year's, 1753. Four weeks later she reappeared, bloodstained, gaunt with hunger, clad in rags. Before Magistrate Henry Fielding she told a tale which might have been sliced from his own Tom Jones. She claimed that she was seized by two ruffians, robbed, dragged to a bawdyhouse where a gypsy hag with a nightmare face ripped her stays (value: 10/) from her, locked her up in the loft. There Elizabeth...

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