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Inscription: inscription : printed : within image & recto : : ADVERTISEMENT. / In considering the best mode of re-issuing so popular a work as KAY'S / PORTRAITS, it has been thought advisable rather to adhere to the original text / than to venture on any material alteration or enlargement. The attempt might / indeed have been made to bridge over the interval that has elapsed since the / Portraits were first published, and to indicate the relation in which the personal records and incidents stand to the present time. But the advantage of this is / doubtful, and it would seriously alter the character of the work. The preferable / course has therefore been adopted of presenting the Biographical Sketches in / their original form, with such slight revision as has appeared essential. / It is almost unnecessary to invite attention to a work which is so well / known, and the interest in which, after the lapse of nearly forty years, still / continues unabated. Not only has it the fascination of gossiping biography, / blended with anecdotes and illustrations, but it preserves a record altogether / unique of a state of society just passed away, which has been well characterised / by Mr. Ticknor, in his "Life and Letters," as "the golden age of Edinburgh / society."[footnote 1] Although the Portraits are principally of local interest, they are not / wholly so, as may be seen from such names of wide celebrity as the following:-- / Sir Ralph Abercromby; Duc d'Anbouleme; Comte d'Artois (Charles X.); Bruce, / the Abyssinian Traveller; Bryce the Irish Giant; Grose, the Antiquarian; the / Revs. Rowland Hill and John Wesdley; Lord Chancellor Loughborough; Lunardi, / the Aeronaut; Thomas Paine; William Pitt, etc. / Of the diligent use Kay made of his pencil these volumes furnish ample / testimony, as well as of the admirable manner in which the engraving has / been executed. A few additional plates, not hitherto published (among which) //

Inscription: inscription : printed : within image & recto : footnote to text : 1 Mr. Allibone, in his "Dictionary of English Literature," speaks of Kay's work as "a good book / for a Grangerite," in allusion to the passion for portraits exhibited by James Granger, and excited by / the publication of this work, the "Biographical History of England, adapted to a Methodical Catalogue / of Engraved British Heads," 1769. //

Inscription: inscription : printed : verso : : vi ADVERTISEMENT. / is one of the late Mr. Archibald Constable), having fallen into the hands of the / Publishers, have been added to the Second Volume, together with some notes / on the text by Professor Daniel Wilson, author of "Memorials of Edinburgh / in the Olden Time." / In the preparation of the present Edition no expense has been spared to / obtain the best results as regards the printing of both plates and text. In / point, therefore, of completeness and general execution, this Edition will bear / favourable comparison with its predecessors. / The Publishers have great satisfaction in being enabled to resuscitate this / work; but this, they regret to say, is practicable only to a limited extent, and / they have therefore to announce that the Edition of the engravings now issued / must necessarily be the last of Kay's Original Portraits. / EDINBURGH, November 15, 1877. //