Evangeline.
FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF LONGFELLOW.
ILLUSTRATED BY SIR JOHN GILBERT, R.A., P.R.W.S.
By permission of Messrs. George Routledge & Sons.
Frederick Warne, a really clever, many-sided man, has now retired, but his three sons—all men worthy of their father—continue to conduct their large business on the old lines.
Of the many illustrated books which it has been our lot to superintend and issue to the world, there are two for which we are to a great extent exclusively responsible: these are "The Spirit of Praise," a collection of hymns, and "Golden Thoughts from Golden Fountains," a collection of such literary extracts from favourite authors as the title of the book will fully explain—one of us having spent much of his leisure hours in collecting and arranging their contents. The first of these volumes was originally published in the usual quarto form, with decorative borders and initial letters, printed in gold and colours, and subsequently much enlarged by the addition of many hymns as an octavo volume. The other, "Golden Thoughts," was in its main lines uniform with the first edition of "The Spirit of Praise." In both of these books are many of our own contributions, both in pen and pencil, in addition to several very fine examples of A. B. Houghton.
"The Abbotsford Edition" of the Waverley Novels did not prove a marked financial success, and when the property was acquired by Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, Edward H. Corbould, R.I., was commissioned to do a large number of illustrations for their new edition of these books, nearly all of which were entrusted to us to engrave.
In the early part of Queen Victoria's reign Corbould held a high position as a painter in water colour, and was one of the original members of the "Royal Institute of Water Colour Painters"—then called the "New Water Colour Society"—and so highly was his artistic ability appreciated by the Prince Consort that he was selected as art tutor to the Royal children. Perhaps no better selection could at that time have been made; for, though somewhat severe in style, he was a good draughtsman, painstaking, and of a kindly, genial disposition. He was ever full of amusing anecdotes of the sayings and doings of the Queen, Prince Albert, and his pupils.
Corbould did not appear to think it possible for any of those young people to commit a fault. In his eyes they were all sweetness and the perfection of goodness, "being," as he said, "without the least appearance of affectation." When asked if any of the young Princes or Princesses were clever, he invariably evaded a direct answer by saying: