THE FOLLOWING PETITION, 

 CONTAINING 



A PROSPECTUS 



FOR THE PUBLICATION OF 



AN ENGLISH DICTIONARY, 



Was designed to have been presented to the House 

 of Commons during the Session of 1827; but on its 

 being placed in the hands of one of the leading mem- 

 bers of the House, it was found, as it was in effect, a 

 Petition for a pecuniary grant, that it could not be pre- 

 sented without the sanction of the Crown. It is, therefore, 

 now made public, in the hope it may excite that attention 

 which it is believed the plan deserves. 



To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of 

 Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. 



The humble Petition of James Jennings, of Dalby 

 Terrace, City Road, Gentleman, 



Sheweth, 



That your Petitioner has been for many 

 years engaged in the composition of several Literary 

 Works, among others, of the Family Cyclopedia; — Observa- 

 tions on the Dialects of the West of England, particularly 

 Somersetshire, with a Glossary of Words now in use there, 

 and Poems and other Pieces exemplifying the Dialect ; — and 

 of Ornithologia, or the Birds, a Poem, with an Introduction 

 to their Natural History, and copious Notes. That he has 

 also devoted much of his time to the study of Lexicography, 

 as his work on the Somerset Dialect will shew, and is de- 

 sirous of preparing a Dictionary of the English Language 

 that shall be at once the most copious in words, the most 



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