The chap-books were little paper books hawked by chap-men, or traveling peddlers, who went from village to village with "Almanacks, Bookes of Newes, or other trifling wares." These little books were usually from sixteen to twenty-four pages in bulk and in size from two and one half inches by three and one half inches to five and one half inches by four and one quarter inches. They sold for a penny or six-pence and became the very popular literature of the middle and lower classes of their time. After the nineteenth century they became widely published, deteriorated, and gradually were crowded out by the _Penny Magazine_ and _Chambers's Penny Tracts and Miscellanies_. For many years before the Victorian period, folk-lore was left to the peasants and kept out of reach of the children of the higher classes. This was the reign of the moral tale, of Thomas Bewick's _Looking Glass of the Mind_ and Mrs. Sherwood's _Henry and His Bearer_. Among the chap-books published by William and Cluer Dicey, may be mentioned: _The Pleasant and Delightful History of Jack and the Giants_ (part second was printed and sold by J. White); _Guy, Earl of Warwick; Bevis of Hampton; The History of Reynard the Fox_, dated 1780; _The History of Fortunatus_, condensed from an edition of 1682; _The Fryer and the Boy; A True Tale of Robin Hood_ (Robin Hood Garland Blocks, from 1680, were used in the London Bridge Chap-Book edition); _The Famous History of Thomas Thumb; The History of Sir Richard Whittington_; and _The Life and Death of St. George. Tom Hickathrift_ was printed by and for M. Angus and Son, at Newcastle-in-the-Side: _Valentine and Orson_ was printed at Lyons, France, in 1489; and in England by Wynkyn de Worde. Among the chap-books many tales not fairy tales were included. With the popularity of _Goody Two Shoes_ and the fifty little books issued by Newbery, the realistic tale of modern times made a sturdy beginning. Of these realistic chap-books one of the most popular was _The History of Little Tom Trip_, probably by Goldsmith, engraved by the famous Thomas Bewick, published by T. Saint, of Newcastle. This was reprinted by Ed. Pearson in 1867.