A LKEN' S ILL USTRA TIONS. 



collaboration of Surtees with John Leech. The 

 original Henry Aiken was designing sporting pictures 

 for Ackermann at the date of Mytton's Memoirs; his 

 innumerable productions in this field stand unrivalled, 

 and in our own day are proportionately esteemed by 

 collectors and amateurs whose tastes incline to sport- 

 ing delineations. Like his literary confrere, Aiken 

 was on the spot at the right moment ; and never, it 

 may be safely averred, did this genius in sporting 

 illustrations enjoy so tempting a commission, or one 

 more congenial to his special talents. 



The publishers of the present extra-illustrated 

 edition of the " Memoirs of the Life of Jack Mytton " 

 have invited me to record a few particulars concern- 

 ing the "illustrative embellishments," as Ackermann 

 characterised them, when that excellent sporting 

 publisher in the "early Thirties" enlisted the graphic 

 powers of Henry Aiken. 



The numerous editions treasured by sporting col- 

 lectors attest the interest these pictures have excited. 

 Nowadays early editions with the amazing hand- 

 coloured plates are not only keenly sought after but 

 are rare, and proportionately costly. Aiken seems 

 to have designed some twenty leading pictures for 

 the embellishment of Nimrod's narrative ; the entire 



