All the world bought “Tom and Jerry,” and having roared over the plates, tossed them not unnaturally aside; so that a work, which, in popularity, had been the “Pickwick” of its day, became so wonderfully scarce that when Mr. Thackeray, with whom it had been an early favourite, wanted a copy for a review he was writing upon Mr. George Cruikshank’s works, he applied at all the libraries, including the British Museum, in vain. The work was advertised for in the _Times_ with like result, and he had to depend upon his memory for his description. However, twenty years after, when he wished to make it the subject of one of the most charming of the “Roundabout Papers,” he found that it had been added to the Museum Library. It was, however, with the contemporary popularity that Mr. Virtue was concerned, and by it his business was largely increased. In 1831, his affairs warranted an important move to the vicinity of Paternoster Row, and about this time he married a Miss Sprent, a lady from Manchester. From his new abode the works which he at first issued were of much the same stamp as those which Messrs. Kelly, Hogg, and Cooke had previously spread abroad; but he soon struck out into a higher class of literature. His first very successful book was “A Guide to Family Devotion,” by Dr. Alexander Fletcher. The work was undertaken by Mr. Virtue, as Dr. Fletcher says, “at great expense and some hazard, during the years 1833-1834.” The volume contained 730 prayers, 730 hymns, and 730 selected passages of Scripture, suitable for Morning and Evening Service, throughout the year, and was illustrated by engravings by the best artists. The popularity it achieved was enormous: thirty editions of a thousand each were soon issued, and, as the _Times_ said, “30,000 copies of a book of Common Prayer, recommended by twenty-five distinguished ministers, cannot be dispersed throughout England without effecting some change in the minds of probably 200,000 persons.” In America, the “Guide to Family Devotion” was as successful as at home, and upwards of one hundred ministers there sent in testimonials to its worth. By 1850, the sale is said to have exceeded 50,000 copies. Mr. Virtue, about this time, entered into an engagement with W. Henry Bartlett, who, pencil in hand, travelled over the four quarters of the globe, making sketches, which that enterprising publisher issued in volumes, illustrated with beautiful steel engravings and descriptive letterpress. The first of these was “Switzerland,” published in 1835, in two quarto volumes. This was followed by Scotland, Palestine, the Nile, and America. Of the Switzerland, 20,000 copies were sold; and in the production of the two volumes on Scotland, upwards of one thousand persons were employed at a cost of £40,000. The number of engraved plates in these volumes amounted to a thousand.