'Mr. Ackermann has his reasons for risking a republication of it in its present form; and I now feel more than common solicitude that it should answer his expectations.... _The Battle of the Books_ was an after-thought, and forms the novelty of this volume. Liberius si Dixero quid, si forte jocosius; hoc mihi juris, Cum veniâ dabis.--HOR. _S._ lib. i. v. 103. 'I have only to add, that though, on a first view of some of the prints, it may appear as if the clerical character were treated with levity, I am confident in announcing a very opposite impression from a perusal of the work.' The origin of _Doctor Syntax_ is ascribed, with characteristic partiality, to John Bannister, the comedian, by his biographer, John Adolphus. 'Of another graphic series, which owed its existence almost entirely to the invention of Bannister, I have the following account:--Dining at a tavern, with him and a third person, Rowlandson was asked, "What are you about, Rolly?" "Why, nothing in particular," he said. "I think my inventive faculty has been very sluggish of late; I wish one of you would give me a hint." Being asked of what kind, he answered, "I feel in a humour to sketch a series where the object may be made ridiculous without much thinking. I have been making a tour in Cornwall and Devonshire with a friend, who, as I have made sketches on the coast for him, wishes me to introduce adventures at inns, and other comic incidents, in which he was the principal party. But what can I do for such a hero?--a walking turtle--a gentleman weighing four-and-twenty stone--for such scenes he is quite out of the question. I want one of a totally different description." And he named a celebrated tourist, who by a recent publication had given much celebrity to the Lakes. '"I have it!" said Bannister. "You must fancy a skin-and-bone hero, a pedantic old prig, in a shovel-hat, with a pony, sketching-stools, and rattletraps, and place him in such scrapes as travellers frequently meet with--hedge alehouses, second and third rate inns, thieves, gibbets, mad bulls, and the like. Come!" he proceeded, warming with the subject, "give us a sheet of paper, and we'll strike out a few hints." The paper was produced, Bannister gave his ideas, Rowlandson adopted them, Combe explained them in a well-written poem; and to this conversation and to the lively invention of Bannister the public is indebted for a highly favoured publication, _The Tour of Doctor Syntax_.'