Excerpt
EXPLANATION.
If nearly Forty Years' Residence in the Isle of Wight may be allowed in some degree to qualify an Artist for the office of Guide, the Author has a fair claim to public patronage,—for few could have had better opportunity of acquiring local information.
He has endeavoured to render The Picture an intelligent Cicerone, without being too garrulous or grandiloquous,—but always attentive to the stranger, leading him to every remarkable object, and giving just as much description of each, as would be acceptable to persons enjoying the full use of their eyes. It affords him, at first glance, an Index of what ought to be seen, and how best seen in the shortest time, in every place to which he may be successively conducted. This novelty in the work will prove very frequently of great utility, especially to those visitors who have too little time for their trip, and who, for want of such a laconic memento wherever they go, are known in a thousand instances to pass by the most interesting objects unnoticed,—not being aware even of their proximity.
This being the production of the same hand as several other local works, it is due to the stranger to explain in what respects they differ:—
I.—THE VECTIS SCENERY is a handsome volume in Royal Quarto, substantially bound, containing 36 highly finished line-engravings of all the most celebrated landscapes, accompanied with ample letter-press descriptions, price £1.5.0.
II.—THE PICTURE differs from the above in being intended for a hand-book, it is in fact a Cicerone, and therefore occasionally dwells with a degree of minuteness which could be interesting only to a person actually on the spot; but the "Vectis Scenery" takes the higher rank of an Exhibitor of picturesque scenes which ask little aid from verbal explanation, and is entitled to a place on the drawing-room table with other works of Art. The Engravings in the two publications are quite different.
III.—The PLEASURE-VISITOR'S COMPANION is a compendium of useful information, with the different Tours, &c. and Views of the Country Inns, price 2s., or with Map, 3s.
IV.—The Rev. LEGH RICHMOND'S DESCRIPTION of the Island, with explanatory Notes and illustrative Engravings, price 2s.6d.
V.—A MAP of the Island and the Opposite Coast—with the Tours, &c., in cover, price 1s.6d.
It were useless to complain of the piracies committed upon the Author's labors, both literary and pictorial, by parties in London as well as in the country; but he may be allowed however to remark, that some of the most common facts and delineations are strangely perverted from the Truth in their new dress,—however artfully disguised to prevent the consequences of palpable detection.
In cases even where a professional Author may be engaged by a publisher on a local work, the time allowed is generally too limited for acquiring accurate knowledge of his subjects: he must depend either on prior publications or on his personal intercourse with the residents, for much of his information....