ABSTRACT
First published in The Indicator, I, 24 May 1820, pp. 257–63. Hunt never seems better in The Indicator essays then when lighting upon a topic as unpromising as this one, whose utter woodenness of possibility throws his fertile powers of imaginative association into sparkling relief. Amazingly, as if to flaunt his ability to enliven any subject, he actually finds a way to add ‘A Word or Two More on Sticks’ two weeks later in an alleged letter from a correspondent named ‘An Odd Stick’ (7 June 1820, pp. 278–9). The globetrotting amble through world history and literature, the pausing for homely anecdotes, the slightly racy insinuations of the stick going against the gowns of two ladies, the preposterous neologisms popping up throughout, such as ‘Sceptrosophy’, all go to show why Hunt the Indicator charmed so many and made Wednesday (the day of The Indicator’s weekly publication), as Lamb put it, ‘the sweetest of the week’ (above, p. 222). For details on the history and structure of The Indicator, see headnote above, pp. 222–4.
