Embellished with an exact likeness of the veritable Mother Goose, and PHILADELPHIA: GEO. S. APPLETON, 164 CHESTNUT ST. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY, 1851. THE NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY 38467B ASTO LENOX AND TILDER FOUNDATIONS P 1939 PREFACE.. AN edition of the real, original, and uncorrupted melodies of Mother Goose has long been desired by the lovers of ancient poetry. Being myself a lineal descendant of that venerable person, and having in my possession all her original manuscripts with her latest corrections, I was fortunately able to supply this want in a manner which shall leave nothing further to be desired. The present edition, therefore, which I have edited with great care and immense labour, may henceforward be considered the standard edition-the family edition, setting at nought all editions of outside personages who have no connexion with the Goose Family. The embellishments are from the sketches of an artist who was a contemporary of Mother Goose, and they were presented to her by him shortly before her lamented death. I found them in a portfolio in the drawer of a very ancient black walnut bureau, preserved in the family as a relic. Of course they have never before been published. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by Geo. S. Appleton, in the Clerk's |