I IN my first edition, in 1850, I suggested the publication of classical outline borders, which I only carried out in 1856, when my second edition made its appearance; the first part of six outlines, royal quarto, was then produced to try how far the public would appreciate their usefulness. The first attempt proved a decided failure; they remained unsold, because the uninitiated did not know how to apply them, having no model for their guidance. I then tried them with a small fragment, illuminated-in by hand, which, in all cases, forms a complete key as to the effect intended to be produced in the whole remaining border. This met with a decided success; the public eagerly purchased these partially illuminated outlines; and very seldom any plain subjects afterwards were asked for. The demand has ever since become so extensive, that upwards of four hundred different subjects have now been published, some forming complete works in themselves, such as the 119th Psalm (twenty-four subjects) published by Messrs. Longman and Co.; and its companion, the "Sermon on the Mount," "The Beatitudes," etc., on the illumination of which a large staff of lady artists are always employed. My most anxious care was then directed as to the choice of subjects, but above all in the selection of the designs themselves. If, by an extensive sale, I found myself amply rewarded, I conscientiously felt also the importance, that the public should receive none but choice and classical models, from which they could study with advantage. I was less ambitious to furnish them with original ideas of my own, than to illustrate those various styles and periods of art, which would have a tendency to general improvement, and were likely to cause a more healthy taste in the beginner. I therefore carefully selected models from the best specimens in the libraries of Paris, Brussels, Heidelberg, and Amsterdam, besides those to be found in our own Museum, and the Bodleian library, Oxford, and which, with important alterations, I found adaptable for my object. I attempted to illustrate subjects from the seventh to the fifteenth century—from the Byzantine, Anglo-Saxon, Flemish, and Italian schools, which should form a complete grammar of ornamental art, from which the student might learn something better than to daub in a worthless or a meaningless design. I abandoned all pictorial illustrations (in the sacred subjects at all events) which could in the slightest degree be considered as sectarian, or partaking of partiality for any particular religious denomination; all my aim was directed, that the ornamental border should be applicable to the subject and highly artistic, in order to be perfectly and usefully instructive. To pervert the taste, then, by producing decidedly ill-conceived ideas, in the shape of outlines, which any sign-painter might produce with equally good success, I conscientiously opposed. As a stepping-stone towards achieving better things my method only is defensible, as an attempt to awaken the taste of the beginner, which afterwards may tend to develop originality in him; how inexcusable, then, to place rubbish in his hand for the mere purposes of gain. I am sorry my unscrupulous imitators are differing from me; and I am more sorry that a man, whose genius as an illuminator is of European repute, should have been found really capable to endorse with his authoritative approval, the worthless productions of a trading publisher as "most useful models," and insert that statement in one of the most valuable publications on the art of illuminating hitherto published. To put the public on its guard, both as to the malproductions themselves, as well as to the opinions thus promulgated with so much appearance of honest "criticism," and industriously paraded forth in the trade-lists of the speculative publisher, has been my principal motive for introducing this subject into the present volume; as I feel too much interest in the pursuit, not to denounce the worthlessness of these publications, which can only tend to injure a beautiful art. I introduced my outlines with the deliberate object of directing the taste towards the development of a highly pleasing and instructive accomplishment, the interest of which is daily gaining ground with the public, and to lessen the difficulties which surround the illuminator as much as possible; for this purpose I took away from him the responsibility of forming his design, for which his inexperience was not fitted. I left him enough to do, in arranging his colours and producing his effects. It was only when the outline was illuminated, that he could appreciate the beauties of the design; and it is from that appreciation, that his own ideas would become sufficiently matured to invent one of his own. The effect of this truism was amply demonstrated in the fact, that one of my distinguished lady pupils, who for a year had practised on these examples, was successful enough two years ago to carry away the "first prize" for the best original design of the "Beatitudes," awarded to her by the Illuminating Art Union of London; on the merits of which Messrs. Owen Jones and H. Noel Humphries gave their valuable decision. Had she studied from modern and meaningless models, her beautiful Italian border would never have been the result.