n, who illustrated the edition published in that year.
The edition of 1859 owed embellishments to Crowquill, while Cruikshank
supplied some characteristic woodcuts to that of 1869. Coloured designs
for the travels were executed by a French artist Richard in 1878, and
illustrations were undertaken independently for the German editions
by Riepenhausen and Hosemann respectively. The German artist Adolph
Schroedter has also painted a celebrated picture representing the Baron
surrounded by his listeners. But of all the illustrations yet invented,
the general verdict has hitherto declared in favour of those supplied
to Theophile Gautier's French edition of 1862 by Gustave Dore, who fully
maintained by them the reputation he had gained for work of a similar
_genre_ in his drawings for Balzac's _Contes Drolatiques_. When,
however, the public has had an opportunity of appreciating the admirably
fantastic drawings made by Mr. William Strang and Mr. J. B. Clark for
the present edition, they will probably admit that Baron Munchausen's
indebtedness to his illustrations, already very great, has been more
than doubled.

PREFACE

TO

THE FIRST EDITION

Baron Munnikhouson or Munchausen, of Bodenweder, near Hamelyn on the
Weser, belongs to the noble family of that name, which gave to the
King's German dominions the late prime minister and several other public
characters equally bright and illustrious. He is a man of great original
humour; and having found that prejudiced minds cannot be reasoned into
common sense, and that bold assertors are very apt to bully and speak
their audience out of it, he never argues with either of them, but
adroitly turns the conversation upon indifferent topics and then tells
a story of his travels, campaigns, and sporting adventures, in a manner
peculiar to himself, and well calculated to awaken and shame the common
sense of those who have lost sight of it by prejudice or habit.

As this method has been often attended with good success, we beg leave
to lay some of his stories before the public, and humbly request
those who shall find them rather extravagant and bordering upon the
marvellous, which will require but a very moderate share of common
sense, to exercise the same upon every occurrence of life, and chiefly
upon our English politics, in which _old habits_ and _bold assertions_,
set off by eloquent speeches and supported by constitutional mobs,
associations, volunteers, and foreign influence