PREFACE.

In the preface to the Literary Souvenir for 1826, I ventured to express my doubt of being able to include a more attractive series of embellishments, or a greater variety of interesting literary contributions from distinguished pens, than was obtained for that publication. I was led to confess thus much, from my conviction that in the preparation of a volume, depending for its value upon the efforts of so many individuals, it was next to impossible to calculate upon the precise degree of success which might be attained. As it regards several of the plates in the last volume, however, the very qualities which rendered me apprehensive of not being able to equal, or at least improve upon them, in future, have been the means of opening to me facilities which I might not otherwise have en

joyed. Many distinguished artists and collectors who would have scrupled to allow of their pictures being engraved in an inferior style, have willingly favoured me with the loan of paintings and drawings of first-rate excellence for the present publication; and have thus enabled me to include the most splendid series of prints ever introduced in any work of the same class; a series which will, I confidently anticipate, as a whole, be found even more attractive than that of the preceding year.

I should have considered these remarks unnecessary, had not a report been circulated, with much industry, that the failure of Messrs. Hurst, Robinson, and Co. would deprive me of many of the advantages I formerly enjoyed, through their medium, of getting up a work of this description. Nothing could be more unfounded than such an insinuation; since the subjects of the last volume were chosen by myself, and the whole of its literary contents obtained without reference to its publishers. The above statement,

however, was not the only one circulated, with the view of injuring this publication. First, the Literary Souvenir for 1827 would not be published at all; next, if published, its embellishments could not be of the same character as heretofore, because it would appear under different auspices; and lastly, the assignees of the estate of Messrs. Hurst and Co. intended to prohibit its sale under its accustomed title. The two first of these assertions were not likely to produce much injury to the work. The last was of a more plausible complexion; and as the perplexities occasioned me by the failure of my booksellers, prevented me from making the final arrangements for its publication until an unusually late period of the year, it was calculated to effect no inconsiderable mischief. Booksellers residing at remote distances from the metropolis could have had no means of ascertaining the falsehood of the statement; so that it will doubtless, by this time, have effected one part of the object of its propagators. But to turn to a more grateful theme, my obligations to

those artists and collectors whose politeness has enabled me to make the volume what it now is in point of embellishment:

The "Girl in a Florentine Costume of A.D. 1500," exhibited with so much eclat at the Royal Academy several years ago, and again the year before last at the exhibition of the gems of modern art at the British Institution, was lent, for the purposes of this work, from the collection of N. W. Ridley Colborne, Esq. M. P., whose warm encouragement of native art is so well known and appreciated.

The Portrait of Lord Byron, painted by Mr. W. E. West, an American artist, who, encouraged by the patronage which has been bestowed upon his countrymen, Leslie, Newton, and Alston, has lately taken up his abode in England, will, I think I may safely anticipate, be considered one of the most attractive features of the present volume. Those persons, whose impressions of Lord Byron have been formed from the well known portraits of Phillips, Harlow, and Westall, may find some difficulty in reconciling themselves to the

present resemblance of what he really was a short time before his death. In an interesting article in the number of the New Monthly Magazine for March last, it is justly observed, that in the outset of Lord Byron's career, the novelty of reputation transported him into an affectation of singularity, and he chose to be represented as nothing but a corsair and a misanthrope. What we have long wanted, is a resemblance of him at a period when his variable character had undergone its utmost change. Mr. West's portrait was taken so late as August, 1822; and the most gratifying testimony has been borne to its authenticity, by all who have had opportunities of seeing the original within a few years of his death; and among others, by Mr. J. C. Hobhouse and Mr. Leigh Hunt; either of whom must be regarded as competent authority on the subject. That Lord Byron considered Mr. West's portrait the most correct likeness of any that had been painted of him, is sufficiently attested by his anxiety to have it engraved by Raphael Morghen, at his own price. The following letter, the autograph of which is in