Preface to the Keepsake of 1829: Transcription

                        PREFACE.
                         ______

   In presenting another volume of the Keepsake 
to the public, it may, perhaps, be deemed necessary 
to make a few general observations. 
   The universal approbation which the embellish- 
ments of the previous number excited, and its un- 
precedented sale, have determined the Proprietor to  
make the most strenuous exertions to render the  
present, as perfect as possible, both in literary 
matter, and in pictorial illustration. 
   In prosecution of this design, and on the various 
departments of the Keepsake, the enormous sum of 
eleven thousand guineas has been expended. 
     "Necesse est facere sumptum, qui quaerit lucrum." 
   In a speculation so extensive, the Proprietor is
induced to hope that his book will not be a mere
fleeting production, to die with the season of its birth,



iv                      PREFACE.

but live, a reputed and standard work in every well-
selected library.
   With this view, such a list of authors has been
obtained as perhaps never before graced the pages
of any one volume of original contributions:  it is not
however necessary to enumerate them here, as they 
will be found subjoined to the Table of Contents.
   Neither is it necessary to particularize any of 
their contributions except two; one of which, as 
posthumous, and the other, as the gift of an indivi-
dual, not its author:  allusion is made to an Essay
and Fragments by Percy Bysshe Shelley, for the
possession of which, the Editor is indebted to the
kindness of the Author of Frankenstein; and to a 
poem called Extempore by Thomas Moore.
   So many, and such varied contents, could not,
of course, be contained in the limits of the previous 
volume:  in this present one, therefore, three addi-
tional sheets of letter-press have been inserted.
   The Engravings have been considerably aug-
mented in size, and, it is presumed, in value; no
exertion having been spared to render them superior
even to those of last year.  The type, too, has been



                        PREFACE.                          v

altered, and the binding and gilding materially im-
proved; in fact, as before stated, every effort has 
been made to render the Keepsake perfect in all its 
departments.
   To his Grace the Duke of Bedford, the Proprietor
offers his grateful and respectful acknowledgments
for the permission of engraving the Portrait of the 
Duchess of Bedford; similar acknowledgments he
also returns to the Right Honourable Robert Peel,
for a like permission with regard to the Portrait of
Mrs. Peel; as well as to the Right Honourable
William Adam, Lord Chief Commissioner of the 
Jury Court in Scotland, for the picture of "A Scene
at Abbotsford;" and to Godfrey Windus, Esq., for 
the drawings of Lucy on the Rock, and of the Garden
of Boccacio.
   To the Artists, both painters and engravers, the
Proprietor feels especially obliged for their exertions 
in maintaining the reputation of the work.
   The Editor begs to return his sincere thanks to
his contributors, generally; to specify any in par-
ticular, would be but an invidious act towards those
omitted.