John-the-Giant-Killer

“ Riddling, if I am not mistaken, is the art of both dissembling and undissembling, and, if what a great Politician has asserted to be true, that he who knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign, this art must be eminently useful to Princes, and their Ministers, and not to them only, but to all those who are any ways connected with courts, or concerned in political transactions; for as people in high life do not always speak as they mean, nor promise what they intend to perform ”

“ And in common lifevii how necessary is it for a man to carry this sort of knowledge about him?—Every knave is an Ænigma that you must unriddle before you can safely deal with him, and every fool may be fathomed. ”

“ The art of making riddles is so antique, that it bears date almost with our earliest accounts of time, and is a diversion with which Sampson, the strongest of all mankind, amused himself. Nor has it been confined to common people, as a certain author supposes; for Kings, and even some of the wisest of them, are said to have been adepts in the science;iv for such was the ever-to-be-remembered King Solomon, and such was his friend Hiram the King of Tyre. ”

“ The Public are desired to observe, that F. Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard and Ludgate Street, has not the least Concern in any of the late Mr. John Newbery's Entertaining Books for Children; and, to prevent having paltry Compilation obtruded on them instead of Mr. John Newbery's useful Publications, they are desired to be particularly careful to apply for them to T. Carnan and F. Newbery, Jun. (Successors to the late Mr. John Newbery) at Number 65, near the Bar in St. ”

“ The type is quaint, the illustrations quainter and the grayish tinted paper abounds in obtrusive specks of embedded dirt. For the covers, gaudy Dutch gilt paper was used, or paper with patchy blobs of startlingly contrasted colours laid on with a brush by young people. ”

“ GOOD BOYS and GIRLS
In England, Scotland, and Ireland.
By John-the-Giant-Killer, Esq;
Who Riddles tells, and merry Tale,
O'er nut-brown Cakes and Mugs of Ale.
Homer.
Come riddle me riddle me riddle me Ree,
None are so blind as they that wont see. ”

“ Turner wrote some more Cautionary Stories which became almost as popular as The Daisy. She also wrote other books of poetry for children, including The Crocus, The Pink, and Short Poems; but none had the charm or vogue of The Daisy and The Cowslip.
115
3. NEW RIDDLE-BOOK. By John-the-Giant-Killer, Esquire. 1778.
This covetable little book, published by F (rancis) Newbery, Jun. and T (homas) Carnan, the son and step-son of John Newbery, had been issued by their father at least twenty years earlier than the date on the title-page. ”