[Illustration]




PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.


The success of the first edition of this little work, compels its author
to say a few words on the issue of a second. "Expressive silence" would
now be in him the excessive impudence of not acknowledging, as he
respectfully does acknowledge, that success to be greatly ascribable to
the eminent artists who have drawn and engraved the illustrations.

"A man's worst wish for his enemy is that he might write a book," is a
generally-received notion, of whose accuracy it is hoped there is no
impertinence in suggesting a doubt. To reflect on having contributed,
however slightly, to the innocent amusement of others, without giving
pain to any, is alone an enjoyment well worth writing for. But when even
so unpretending a trifle as this is, can, besides, bring around its
obscure author fresh and valuable friendships, the hackneyed exclamation
would appear more intelligible if rendered thus: "Oh, that my _friend_
would write a book!"

In former days, possibly, things may have been very different from what
they now are. Haply, the literary highway may, heretofore, have been not