“Sir—Being wholly unused to patronage, I know not how to invoke it, but by plainly saying, that I wish for protection to whatever may be deemed worthy of regard in the following pages.
“I respectfully dedicate the poem to you, sir, from a deep sense of the esteem wherein you are held; and, I openly confess, with considerable anxiety that you may approve, and that your name may sanction and assist my efforts.
“In strictness perhaps I ought to have solicited your permission to do this; but, with the wishes I have expressed, and conscious of the rectitude of my motives, I persuade myself that you will see I could not afford to hazard your declining, from private feelings, a public testimony of unfeigned respect, from a humble and unknown individual.
“I am, sir, your most obedient
And sincerely devoted servant,
“Samuel Richard Jackson.
“Sept. 29, 1826.”
Mr. Jackson has other offspring besides the productions of his muse, and their infant voices may be imagined to proclaim in plain prose that the present volume, and it is a volume—a hundred pages in full sized octavo—is published for the author, by Messrs. Sherwood and Co. “price 4s. in boards.”—Kind-hearted readers will take the hint.
[126] Michaelmas, 1826.