ommendation. I trust
I may be pardoned for this little piece of deception, and beg to remind
those who might regard the "ingenious device" with censure, that Sir
Walter Scott and many other writers of celebrity have done the same. If
great and talented persons shrink from making their compositions known
as their own creations, it is not surprising that I, who have no
pretension to literature, should be equally tenacious of my incognito.

I have at this period determined upon publishing a book of instructions,
purely in consequence of feeling quite inadequate to receive, as pupils,
the numerous applicants that daily visit me, and express much anxiety to
be initiated into my method of modelling and grouping.

They are two distinct things--to accomplish an art well, and to impart
it to others. I hope I may not be considered egotistical in boldly
asserting that, as an instructress, I stand pre-eminent. I feel proud,
most proud, in having received repeated assurances from the
distinguished and numerous ladies who have placed themselves under my
tuition, that my method of teaching is such as to enable the most
inexperienced to acquire with facility a perfect knowledge of this
pleasing art.

The distinguished patronage I have from the first received at the hands
of her Most Gracious Majesty, must surely convey to the minds of all,
that I have a right to lay claim to artistic skill.

When I first commenced the agreeable occupation of imitating nature, I
had not the slightest idea of ultimately making it a profession. My
anxious desire, I may say, my ambition, was to produce something that
might be considered worthy the notice of our most Gracious Queen, who at
the period I allude to, 1837, had just ascended the throne.

A spirit of loyalty had been fostered in me from my earliest infancy;
and a pardonable glow of pleasure always animates me, at the remembrance
that I am the daughter of an old officer, who served as surgeon in the
British army the long period of fifty years. The result of my wishes has
been great success. Our beloved Sovereign, ever ready to encourage
talent or industry in any form, condescended to permit a bouquet, which
I designed and executed for her inspection (in token of my loyalty), to
be placed as an ornament in one of the royal palaces. This was indeed an
honour I had scarcely dared to anticipate. Two years after the period
alluded to, the Queen became acquainted with the fact, that a change of
cir