Page:Notes and Queries - Series 4 - Volume 4.djvu/138

 130 NOTES AND QUERIES. [4* s. iv. AUGUST i4,'69. Capt. Balassa's Art of Shoeing without the Application of Force, 1828. Christmas Tales, 1825. Geoffiy Gambado's Academy for Grown Horsemen, 1809, with plates by Rowlandson. Ghost Stories, 6 pi., 1823. Krummacher's Moral Fables, 1823. Barnes's Young Artist's Companion. Parry's Poems. Ignatio Nitrez's Account of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata; translated 1825. Astro-Chronometer, 1821. With the amusing toys of the Panoramacopia, Phanta- scope, Fables in Action, Endless Metamorphoses, Change- able Ladies, Changeable Gentlemen (both in 1819), York and Lancaster, The Sphinx, Sibylline Cards, and Sibyl's Leaves, as well as the Geometrical and Architectural Recreations, both 1820. Special notice should be taken of the forty- three volumes of the World in Miniature, com- menced in 1821 by T. Rowlandson, and finished by W. H. Pyne, 1826, with 637 plates; and also of the "Annual" class of books illustrated with fine engravings. The names of some of Mr. Ackermaim's artistic coadjutors have appeared in the preceding lines : many others might be added; and a long list could be formed by enumerating the literary, musical, and scientific men, of more or less emin- ence, who enjoyed his intimacy. Several of them owed to him a" helping hand, either in their first efforts or in their declining fortunes. To the end of his days he retained a strongly marked German pronunciation of the English language, which gave additional flavour to the banters and jests uttered in his fine bass voice; but he wrote in English with great purity on matters of affection and of business long before middle life. Mr. Jer- dan, in his communication to the Leisure Hour of February 1, 1869, gives a false impression on this and other points. The most general and the "genteelest" New Year's Gift was, for a long period, the Somer- set House Almanack so called from a print of the old palace of our dowager queens, which was folded in and sewed as a frontispiece. A copy of this almanack, bound in yellow, blue, or red morocco, and inserted in a case of the same material ornamented with gold, served our great- grandmothers as a pocket-book. It was suc- ceeded by annual publications which were really diaries under a variety of titles, and were orna- mented with vignettes designed by Stothard, Burney, Corbould, &c., and with small views of mansions from the portfolio of the landscape- gardener Repton. In 1822, Mr. Ackermann con- ceived the idea of rivalling in England the Taschcn-buch of Germany, which was the general name for a class of volumes annually prepared in that country as a diary and collection of tales and line engravings. He therefore produced from 1825 the Forget-me-Not (not as Mr. Jerdan erro- neously says, The Keepsake), edited till its death, in 1847, by Frederic Shoberl, in a form which at that time was unique in England in regard of its typography and pictorial embellishments. The success of this venture excited other pub- lishers to produce similar publications: thus Mr. Relfe started the Friendship's Offering, edited at first bv T. K. Hervey, but afterwards by 0. Knight and T. Pringle (1824-44); while Messrs. Hurst and Co. commenced the Graces, or Literary Souvenir, edited by A. A. Watts; the latter slightly varied from the plan' of Mr. A.ckermann, but the former more nearly re- sembled it; the prints, however, of Friendship's Offering were of a less poetic cast, being views of foreign cities and towns, and the literary portion was not suited to the sentimental title. In 1825 Messrs. Westley and Co. commenced the Amulet, or Christian and Literary Remembrancer, edited by S. C. Hall, which was announced as being in- tended to be more " serious " than its contem- poraries ; and, as the Pledge of Friendship, edited by T. Hood, Mr. Marshall commenced another imitation that took (1829) the title of The Gem. Yet, with all this rivalry, fifteen thousand copies of the Forget-me-Not were sold in 1826. Conse- quently in 1827 The Bijou, edited by H. Nicolas, made its appearance, accompanied by Mr.Heath r s speculation, The Keepsake : both made great pre- tensions to superiority over their predecessors; but the latter, although some of its engravings were unequalled, was considered inferior in its literary portion to any of its predecessors. The same year saw the appearance of the Winter's Wreath, edited by A. H. (1828-32), and of Crofton Croker's Christmas Box. For 1829 were pub-^ listed, The Anniversary, edited by A. Cunning-' ham ; T. Roscoe's Juvenile Keepsake ; Mrs. S. C. Hairs Juvenile Forget-me-Not ; and Mr. Watts's Neio Year's Gift : so that the year 1829 possessed a choice among nine annuals and four juvenile ones, besides one other in French which was pub- lished by Mr. Ackermann. This makes only thirteen English annuals in that year, whereas Mr. Jerdan repeats an assertion that nineteen were then in existence; but he may be right in calculating that, in 1840, there were only nine, and that in 1856 the "Annuals" expired. The Autobiography and Memoirs of Ferdinand Franck, commenced in the Forget-me-Not for 1823, was written by Lewis Engelbach, and published in a complete form in 1825. In 1827 Mr. Acker- mann returned to No. 96, Strand, winch premises ho had rebuilt from the designs of the eminent architect J. B. Papworth, whom he had intro- duced to the service of the King of Wurtembnrg. The friendships made by Mr. Ackermann were so firm that they were unaffected by the great dis-
 * Asiatic Costumes, 44 pi.
 * Nash's Illustrations of the Palace at Brighton, 1826.