PUBLISHED BY ALEX. GARDNER, PAISLEY, Publisher to Her Majesty the Queen, And 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON. Edited by ROBERT FORD. 128 Pages. 8vo. Price 1s. Post Free, 1s. 2d. each. Popular Scotch Readings. Containing Selections, by permission, from the writings of Robert Buchanan, Popular English Readings. In Prose and Verse. Containing Selections, by permission, from the writings of Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, George Augustus Sala, Samuel K. Cowan, Robert Overton, Tom Hood, Charles Dickens, W. S. Gilbert, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, James Payn, Wilkie Collins, George R. Sims, Douglas Jerrold, Lord Lytton, Jerome K. Jerome, Clement Scott, Walter Baynham, &c. Thistledown. A Book of Scotch Humour, Character, Folk-Lore, Story, and Anecdote. By ROBERT FORD. 350 pages. Price 6s.; cheaper edition, 3s. 6d. Post Free. "Mr. Ford is an experienced raconteur, and he has a keen sense of the ludicrous that enables him to seize upon the main point in a story and to emphasise it in the most telling manner. He has exhibited the humour to be found in all classes of society, from the minister to the village fool, in the pulpit and the pew, at the Bench and at the Bar; and his pages are replete with wit and overflowing with genuine merriment. Many a pleasant hour may be spent in innocent mirth over the amusing pages of Thistledown."-Dundee Advertiser. Auld Scots Ballants. Edited by Robert FORD. Fcap. 8vo, cloth antique, 250 pp. Price 6s. Post free. "A capital collection of ballads and poems of kindred form. It comprises genuine ballads and the poetic wares of the vagrant chapman ; old ballads such as Chevy Chase" and "Helen of Kirkconnell," and modern examples. Where a choice of versions is possible, Mr. Ford is, so far as we have consulted the book, to be commended, while the selection of chap ballads is altogether excellent. In this division are included rare and notable specimens not accessible to the general reader. Mr. Ford's collection is a book for ballad-lovers to rejoice in as a companion. The introductory notes are good and sufficient.-Saturday Review. POPULAR AMERICAN READINGS IN PROSE AND VERSE EDITED BY ROBERT FORD 66 Author of "Thistledown," Humorous Scotch Readings," Publisher to Her Majesty the Queen PAISLEY; AND 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON 2715 PREFACE. THE extraordinary immediate success which attended the publication of the two distinctive collections of pieces in prose and verse suited to the purpose of public recital-namely, POPULAR SCOTCH READINGS and POPULAR ENGLISH READINGS-which I issued through the same Publisher exactly a year ago, and the steady and active demand which still continues for copies of these compilations, is, as I regard it, a sufficient reason and excuse for the presentation to the public of a collection of AMERICAN pieces of a similar character, selected and prepared with the same care and discrimination. To quite a number of poems and sketches which no representative book of selections from American literature might be regarded as intelligent, impartial, or complete without, I have been able to add as many more—not so well known, or so easily got at the quality, and freshness, and variety of which should render the work specially attractive to the constantly increasing class in the community who are ever on the outlook for new and entertaining matter for platform or family use. Wherever abridgement has been necessary in order to bring a piece within popular compass, I have endeavoured to effect this with the greatest possible respect to the author's text: and together with the pen-names of such authors as have habitually concealed their identity behind a nom de plume I have, with one exception, given the real name also. The solitary exception is the author of "Jud Brownin's Account of Rubinstein's Playing," the late Dr. George W. Bagby, of Richmond, Virginnia, who, among other literary aliases, at one time employed that of "Mozis Addums" (hence "M. Adams," the only name that has hitherto been adhibited to the piece in this country), whose real name I did not discover until after most of the book had been printed. This will be followed almost immediately by a collection of POPULAR IRISH READINGS. ROBERT FORD. |