PREFACE. FEW literary enterprises, of so bold and original a character as that of the PEOPLE'S GALLERY OF ENGRAVINGS, have been conducted to a close with a more uninterrupted share of public approbation. It was imagined by some, that its unexampled cheapness would have induced neglect—by others, that the spirit of the Publishers would have abated before the work could have reached a reasonable extent. Both suppositions have proved groundless,—for no work of art, in the present century, has had a more extensive sale; and the closing illustrations are from the pencils of those artists who furnished the earliest specimens. History, portrait, landscape, and scripture, in succession, adorn the pages of these volumes; and the selection being made from an extensive gallery of admirable works, each is entitled to the merit of being a gem of its peculiar class. During the two entire years in which the People's Gallery was being published, many events occurred that gave new interest, or that rendered remarkable scenes and localities known, though sometimes little remembered; and many individuals, eminent for their virtues, their talents, their social position, passed from the theatre of their celebrity. Amongst the events here alluded to may be mentioned the visits of her Majesty to Belvoir Castle, to Chatsworth, and other seats of the nobility, as well as to the cities on the Rhine. Amongst the public characters whose loss their country has had to deplore, during the same period, were Earl Grey, Earl Spencer, Mrs. Fry, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Sir Henry Halford, &c. Well-executed portraits of these eminent individuals, were introduced simultaneously with their decease; by which means a permanent character is given to the People's Gallery, and its pages rendered illustrative of the times in which they appeared. These volumes close, therefore, with every confidence in the reputation they have acquired, from the abilities of the writers whose labours enrich them, from the talent of the artists whose works adorn them; and while the Publishers congratulate themselves upon having been enabled to sustain a perfect equality amongst the illustrations from the commencement to the conclusion, the Editor is rewarded by the approbation which public patronage has so unequivocally expressed. CAXTON PRINTING OFFICE, MARCH 31ST, 1846. |