Young Folk's Weekly Budget

Young Folk's Weekly Budget, Vol. XIII, No. 414

This cover illustrates "Kairon, the Young Charioteer," a serialized adventure in Young Folk's Weekly Budget, a penny weekly aimed at boys and girls of all ages. The engraved scene depicts a dramatic encounter: a Roman soldier confronts two veiled figures while brandishing a sword, suggesting a moment of conflict or discovery in this historical romance set in ancient times.

Published from 1865 onward, Young Folk's Weekly Budget offered serialized tales of adventure, school exploits, and sea stories alongside historical fiction. Affordable at one or two pence per issue, it reached working-class and middle-class young readers through newsagents and street vendors. The paper's woodcut and engraved illustrations, executed in the Victorian graphic style, brought narrative excitement to tales of empire, antiquity, and youthful derring-do that defined popular juvenile fiction of the era.