Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/415

375 KELLY AND VIRTUE. 375 Fletcher. The work was undertaken by Mr. Virtue, as Dr. Fletcher says, " at great expense and some hazard, during the years 1833 1834." The volume contained 730 prayers, 730 hymns, and 730 selected passages of Scripture, suitable for Morning and Even- ing Service, throughout the year, and was illustrated by engravings by the best artists. The popularity it achieved was enormous : thirty editions of a thousand each were soon issued, and, as the Times said, " 30,000 copies of a book of Common Prayer, recommended by twenty-five distinguished ministers, cannot be dispersed throughout England without effecting some change in the minds of probably 200,000 persons." In America, the " Guide to Family Devotion " was as successful as at home, and upwards of one hundred ministers there sent in testimonials to its worth. By 1850, the sale is said to have exceeded 50,000 copies. Mr. Virtue, about this time, entered into an engage- ment with W. Henry Bartlett, who, pencil in hand, travelled over the four quarters of the globe, making sketches, which that enterprising publisher issued in volumes, illustrated with beautiful steel engravings and descriptive letterpress. The first of these was " Switzerland," published in 1835, in two quarto volumes. This was followed by Scotland, Palestine, the Nile, and America. Of the Switzerland, 20,000 copies were sold ; and in the production of the two volumes on Scotland, upwards of one thousand persons were employed at a cost of .40,000. The number of engraved plates in these volumes amounted to a thousand. When Mr. Virtue commenced these illustrated volumes, the Fine Art tastes of the public were in a very uneducated condition ; but, selecting the best