to be got up as regards print, paper, and execution
(to follow the model of their Victoria Edition of _Pickwick_ is indeed
an honour to me), but especially for their great liberality in the
matter of the Illustrations, which number more than a hundred. These
were selected in conference by Mr. Fred Chapman, Mr. Kitton, and myself,
and include about fifty original drawings by Mr. Kitton, from sketches
specially made by him for this work. Of the remainder, six are from
Forster's _Life of Dickens_, fifteen from Langton's _Childhood and Youth
of Charles Dickens_, seven from _Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil_, ten
from the Jubilee Edition of _Pickwick_, and five from Rimmer's _About
England with Dickens_. A few interesting fac-similes of handwriting,
etc., have also been introduced. Surely such an eclectic series of
Dickens Illustrations has never before been presented in one volume.

To Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Mr. Robert Langton, F.R.H.S., Messrs. Frank
T. Sabin and John F. Dexter, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., and Messrs.
Chatto and Windus (the proprietors of the above-mentioned works), the
author's acknowledgments are also due, and are hereby tendered. Mr.
Stephen T. Aveling has kindly supplied an illustration of Restoration
House as it appeared in Dickens's time, and Mr. William Ball, J.P.,
generously commissioned a local artist to make a sketch of the Marshes,
which forms the frontispiece to the book, and gives a good idea of the
"long stretches of flat lands" on the Kent and Essex coasts.

To those friends whom we then met for the first time, and from whom we
subsequently received help, the author's most cordial acknowledgments
are due, and are also tendered, for kind information and assistance.
They are a goodly number, and include Mr. A. A. Arnold, Mr. Stephen T.
Aveling, Mr. William Ball, J.P., Mr. James Baird, Mr. Charles Bird,
F.G.S., Major and Mrs. Budden, Mr. W. J. Budden, Mr. R. L. Cobb, Mr. J.
Couchman, The Misses Drage, Mrs. Easedown, Mr. Franklin Homan, Mr. James
Hulkes, J.P., and Mrs. Hulkes, Mr. Apsley Kennette, Mrs. Latter, Mr. J.
Lawrence, Mr. C. D. Levy, Mr. B. Lillie, Mr. J. E. Littlewood, Mr. J. N.
Malleson, Rev. J. J. Marsham, M.A., Mrs. Masters, Mr. Miles, Mr. W.
Millen, Mr. Geo. Payne, F.S.A., Mr. William Pearce, Mr. George Robinson,
Mr. T. B. Rosseter, F.R.M.S., Dr. Sheppard, Mr. Henry Smetham, Dr.
Steele, M.R.C.S., Mr. William Syms, Mrs. Taylor, Miss Taylor, Mr. W. S.
Trood, Major Trousdell, Rev.