,,social ,,pictorial ,,satire ,frontispiece3 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,candle4 ,from the original drawing by ,,john ,,leech4 ,in the possession of ,,john ,,kendrick ,,bangs4 ,esq4 ,the lower portion has never before been reproduced4 ,,social ,,pictorial ,,satire4 ,by ,,george ,,du ,,maurier1 ,author of ,trilby ,the ,martian c4 ,,with ,,illustrations ,,mdcccxcviii ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,caudle ,john ,leech ,in the ,bay of ,biscay ,o ,a ,specimen of ,pluck ,one of ,mr4 ,briggs's ,adventures in the ,highlands ,thank ,goodness6 ,fly-fishing has begun6 ,the jolly little ,street ,arabs ,doing a little ,business ,a ,tolerably ,broad ,hint ,charles ,keene ,the ,snowstorm1 ,jan4 #b1 #ahfg ,waiting for the ,landlord6 ,a ,stroke of ,business ,none o' your ,larks ,an ,affront to the ,service ,not up to his ,business ,george du ,maurier ,feline ,amenities ,the ,new ,society ,craze ,a ,pictorial ,puzzle ,refinements of ,modern ,speech ,reading without ,tears ,the ,height of ,impropriety ,things one would wish to have expressed differently ,,social ,,pictorial ,,satire ,it is my purpose to speak of the craft to which ,i have devoted the best years of my life1 the craft of portraying1 by means of little pen-and-ink strokes1 lines1 and scratches1 a small portion of the world in which we live2 such social and domestic incidents as lend themselves to humorous or satirical treatment2 the illustrated criticism of life1 of the life of our time and country1 in its lighter aspects4 ,the fact that ,i have spent so many years in the practice of this craft does not of itself1 ,i am well aware1 entitle me to lay down the law about it2 the mere exercise of an art so patent to all1 so easily understanded of the people1 does not give one any special insight into its simple mysteries1 beyond a certain perception and appreciation of the technical means by which it is produced--unless one is gifted with the critical faculty1 a gift apart1 to the possession of which ,i make no claim4 ,there are two kinds of critics of such work as ours4 ,first there is the wide public for whom we work and by whom we are paid2 who lives to please must please to live2 and who lives by drawing for a comic periodical must manage to please the greater number4 ,the judgment of this critic1 though often sound1 is not infallible2 but his verdict for the time being is final1 and by it we1 who live by our wits and from hand to mouth1 must either stand or fall4 ,the other critic is the expert1 our fellow-craftsman1 who has learned by initiation1 apprenticeship1 and long practice the simple secrets of our common trade4 ,he is not quite infallible either1 and is apt to concern himself more about the manner than the matter of our performance2 nor is he of immediate importance1 since with the public on our side we can do without him for a while1 and flourish like a green bay-tree in spite of his artistic disapproval of our work2 but he is not to be despised1 for he is some years in advance of that other critic1 the public1 who may1 and probably will1 come round to his way of thinking in time4 ,the first of these two critics is typified by ,molire's famous cook1 who must have been a singularly honest1 independent1 and intelligent person1 since he chose in all cases to abide by her decision1 and not with an altogether unsatisfactory result to ,mankind6 ,such cooks are not to be found in these days--certainly not in ,england2 but he is an unlucky craftsman who does not possess some such natural critics in his family1 his home1 or near it--mother1 sister1 friend1 wife1 or child--who will look over his shoulder at his little sketch1 and say3 ,tommy or ,papa1 or ,grandpapa1 as the case may be1 that person you've just drawn doesn't look quite natural1 or3 ,that lady is not properly dressed for the person you want her to be--those hats are not worn this year1 and so forth and so forth4 ,when you have thoroughly satisfied this household critic1 then is the time to show some handy brother-craftsman your amended work1 and listen gratefully when he suggests that you should put a tone on this wall1 and a tree1 or something1 in the left middle distance to balance the composition1 and raise or depress the horizon-line to get a better effect of perspective4 ,in speaking of some of my fellow-artists on ,punch1 and of their work1 ,i shall try and bring both these critical methods into play--promising1 however1 once for all1 that such criticism on my part is simply the expression of my individual taste or fancy1 the taste or fancy of one who by no means pretends to the unerring acumen of ,molire's cook1 on the one hand1 and who feels himself by no means infallible in his judgment of purely technical matters1 on the other4 ,i can only admire and say why1 or why ,i don't2 and if ,i fail in making you admire and disadmire with me1 it will most likely be my fault as well as my misfortune4 ,i had originally proposed to treat of ,richard ,doyle1 ,john ,leech1 and ,charles ,keene--and finally of myself1 since that ,i should speak of myself was rather insisted upon by those who procured me the honour of speaking at all4 ,i find1 however1 that there is so much to say about ,leech and ,keene that ,i have thought it better to sacrifice ,richard ,doyle1 who belongs to a remoter period1 and whose work1 exquisite as it is of its kind1 is so much slighter than theirs1 and fills so much less of the public eye2 for his connection with ,punch did not last long4 ,moreover1 personally ,i knew less of him3 just enough to find that to know was to love him--a happy peculiarity he shared with his two great collaborators on ,punch4 ,john ,leech6 ,what a name that was to conjure with1 and is still6 ,i cannot find words to express what it represented to me of pure unmixed delight in my youth and boyhood1 long before ,i ever dreamed of being an artist myself6 ,it stands out of the path with such names as ,dickens1 ,dumas1 ,byron--not indeed that ,i am claiming for him an equal rank with those immortals1 who wielded a weapon so much more potent than a mere caricaturist's pencil6 ,but if an artist's fame is to be measured by the mere quantity and quality of the pleasure he has given1 what pinnacle is too high for ,john ,leech6 ,other men have drawn better2 deeper1 grander1 nobler1 more poetical themes have employed more accomplished pencils1 even in black and white2 but for making one glad1 ,i can think of no one to beat him4 ,to be an apparently hopeless invalid at ,christmas-time in some dreary1 deserted1 dismal little ,flemish town1 and to receive ,punch's ,almanac 7for #aheh1 let us say7 from some good-natured friend in ,england--that is a thing not to be forgotten6 ,i little dreamed then that ,i should come to ,london again1 and meet ,john ,leech and become his friend2 that ,i should be1 alas6 the last man to shake hands with him before his death 7as ,i believe ,i was71 and find myself among the officially invited mourners by his grave2 and1 finally1 that ,i should inherit1 and fill for so many years 7however indifferently71 that half-page in ,punch opposite the political cartoon1 and which ,i had loved so well when he was the artist6 ,well1 ,i recovered from a long and distressing ailment of my sight which had been pronounced incurable1 and came to ,england1 where ,i was introduced to ,charles ,keene1 with whom ,i quickly became intimate1 and it was he who presented me to ,leech one night at one of ,mr4 ,arthur ,lewis's smoking concerts1 in the winter of #ahfj4 ,i remember feeling somewhat nervous lest he should take me for a foreigner on account of my name1 and rather unnecessarily went out of my way to assure him that ,i was rather more ,english than ,john ,bull himself4 ,it didn't matter in the least2 ,i have no doubt he saw through it all3 he was kindness and courtesy itself2 and ,i experienced to the full that emotion so delightful to a young hero-worshipper in meeting face to face a world-wide celebrity whom he has long worshipped at a distance4 ,in the words of ,lord ,tennyson3 ,i was rapt ,by all the sweet and sudden passion of youth ,towards greatness in its elder4444 ,but it so happened at just this particular period of his artistic career and of mine that he no longer shone as a solitary star of the first magnitude in my little firmament of pictorial social satire4 ,a new impulse had been given to the art of drawing on wood1 a new school had been founded1 and new methods--to draw straight from nature instead of trusting to memory and imagination--had been the artistic order of the day4 ,men and women1 horses and dogs1 landscapes and seascapes1 all one can make pictures of1 even chairs and tables and teacups and saucers1 must be studied from the life--from the still-life1 if you will--by whoever aspired to draw on wood2 even angels and demons and cherubs and centaurs and mermaids must be closely imitated from nature--or at least as much of them as could be got from the living model4 ,once a ,week had just appeared1 and ,the ,cornhill ,magazine4 ,sir ,john ,millais and ,sir ,frederick ,leighton were then drawing on wood just like the ordinary mortals2 ,frederick ,walker had just started on his brief but splendid career2 ,frederick ,sandys had burst on the black-and-white world like a meteor2 and ,charles ,keene1 who was illustrating the ,cloister and the ,hearth in the intervals of his ,punch work1 had1 after long and patient labour1 attained that consummate mastery of line and effect in wood draughtsmanship that will be for ever associated with his name2 and his work in ,punch1 if only by virtue of its extraordinary technical ability1 made ,leech's by contrast appear slight and almost amateurish in spite of its ease and boldness4 ,so that with all my admiration for ,leech it was at the feet of ,charles ,keene that ,i found myself sitting2 besides which we were much together in those days1 talking endless shop1 taking long walks1 riding side by side on the knife-boards of omnibuses1 dining at cheap restaurants1 making music at each other's studios4 ,his personal charm was great1 as great in its way as ,leech's2 he was democratic and so was ,i1 as one is bound to be when one is impecunious and the world is one's oyster to open with the fragile point of a lead-pencil4 ,his bohemian world was mine--and ,i found it a very good world and very much to my taste--a clear1 honest1 wholesome1 innocent1 intellectual1 and most industrious ,british bohemia1 with lots of tobacco1 lots of good music1 plenty of talk about literature and art1 and not too much victuals or drink4 ,many of its denizens1 that were1 have become ,royal ,academicians or have risen to fame in other ways2 some have had to take a back seat in life2 surprisingly few have gone to the bad4 ,this world1 naturally1 was not ,leech's2 if it had ever been1 ,i doubt2 his bohemia1 if he ever had lived in one1 had been the bohemia of medicine1 not of art1 and he seemed to us then to be living on social heights of fame and sport and aristocratic splendour where none of us dreamed of seeking him--and he did not seek us4 ,we hated and despised the bloated aristocracy1 just as he hated and despised foreigners without knowing much about them2 and the aristocracy1 to do it justice1 did not pester us with its obtrusive advances4 ,but ,i never heard ,leech spoken of otherwise in bohemia than with affectionate admiration1 although many of us seemed to think that his best work was done4 ,indeed1 his work was becoming somewhat fitful in quality1 and already showed occasional signs of haste and illness and fatigue2 his fun was less genial and happy1 though he drew more vigorously than ever1 and now and again surprised us by surpassing himself1 as in his series of ,briggs in the ,highlands a-chasing the deer4 ,all that was thirty years ago and more4 ,i may say at once that ,i have reconsidered the opinion ,i formed of ,john ,leech at that time4 ,leech1 it is true1 is by no means the one bright particular star1 but he has recovered much of his lost first magnitude3 if he shines more by what he has to say than by his manner of saying it1 ,i have come to think that that is the best thing of the two to shine by1 if you cannot shine by both2 and ,i find that his manner was absolutely what it should have been for his purpose and his time--neither more nor less2 he had so much to say and of a kind so delightful that ,i have no time to pick holes in his mode of expression1 which at its best has satisfied far more discriminating experts than ,i2 besides which1 the methods of printing and engraving have wonderfully improved since his day4 ,he drew straight on the wood block1 with a lead-pencil2 his delicate grey lines had to be translated into the uncompromising coarse black lines of printers' ink--a ruinous process2 and what his work lost in this way is only to be estimated by those who know4 ,true1 his mode of expression was not equal to ,keene's--,i never knew any that was1 in ,england1 or even approached it--but that1 as ,mr4 ,rudyard ,kipling says1 is another story4 ,the story that ,i will tell now is that of my brief acquaintance with ,leech1 which began in #ahfj1 and which ,i had not many opportunities of improving till ,i met him at ,whitby in the autumn of #ahfd--;a memorable autumn for me1 since ,i used to forgather with him every day1 and have long walks and talks with him--and dined with him once or twice at the lodgings where he was staying with his wife and son and daughter--all of whom are now dead4 ,he was the most sympathetic1 engaging1 and attractive person ,i ever met2 not funny at all in conversation1 or ever wishing to be--except now and then for a capital story1 which he told in perfection4 ,illustration3 ,,john ,,leech4 ,the keynote of his character1 socially1 seemed to be self-effacement1 high-bred courtesy1 never-failing consideration for others4 ,he was the most charming companion conceivable1 having intimately known so many important and celebrated people1 and liking to speak of them2 but one would never have guessed from anything he ever looked or said that he had made a whole nation1 male and female1 gentle and simple1 old and young1 laugh as it had never laughed before or since for a quarter of a century4 ,he was tall1 thin1 and graceful1 extremely handsome1 of the higher ,irish type2 with dark hair and whiskers and complexion1 and very light greyish-blue eyes2 but the expression of his face was habitually sad1 even when he smiled4 ,in dress1 bearing1 manner1 and aspect1 he was the very type of the well-bred ,english gentleman and man of the world and good society2 ,i never met any one to beat him in that peculiar distinction of form1 which1 ,i think1 has reached its highest ,european development in this country4 ,i am told the ,orientals are still our superiors in deportment4 ,but the natural man in him was still the best4 ,thackeray and ,sir ,john ,millais1 not bad judges1 and men with many friends1 have both said that they personally loved ,john ,leech better than any man they ever knew4 ,at this time he was painting in oil1 and on an enlarged scale1 some of his more specially popular sketches in ,punch1 and very anxious to succeed with them1 but nervously diffident of success with them1 even with ,greek3 hoi polloi4 ,he was not at his happiest in these efforts2 and there was something pathetic in his earnestness and perseverance in attempting a thing so many can do1 but which he could not do for want of a better training2 while he could do the inimitable so easily4 ,i came back to town before ,leech1 and did not see him again until the following ,october4 ,on ,saturday afternoon1 the #bhth1 ,i called at his house1 ,no4 #f ,the ,terrace1 ,kensington1 with a very elaborate drawing in pencil by myself1 which ,i presented to him as a souvenir1 and with which he seemed much pleased4 ,he was already working at the ,punch ,almanac for '#fe1 at a window on the second floor overlooking the street4 7,i have often gazed up at it since47 ,he seemed very ill1 so sad and depressed that ,i could scarcely speak to him for sheer sympathy2 ,i felt he would never get through the labour of that almanac1 and left him with the most melancholy forebodings4 ,monday morning the papers announced his death on ,sunday1 ,october #bith1 from angina pectoris1 the very morning after ,i had seen him4 ,i was invited by ,messrs4 ,bradbury and ,evans1 the publishers of ,punch1 to the funeral1 which took place at ,kensal ,green4 ,it was the most touching sight imaginable4 ,the grave was near ,thackeray's1 who had died the year before4 ,there were crowds of people1 ,charles ,dickens among them2 ,canon ,hole1 a great friend of ,leech's1 and who has written most affectionately about him1 read the service2 and when the coffin was lowered into the grave1 ,john ,millais burst into tears and loud sobs1 setting an example that was followed all round2 we all forgot our manhood and cried like women6 ,i can recall no funeral in my time where simple grief and affection have been so openly and spontaneously displayed by so many strangers as well as friends--not even in ,france1 where people are more demonstrative than here4 ,no burial in ,westminster ,abbey that ,i have ever seen ever gave such an impression of universal honour1 love1 and regret4 ,whom the gods love die young4 ,he was only forty-six6 ,i was then invited to join the ,punch staff and take ,leech's empty chair at the weekly dinner--and bidden to cut my initials on the table1 by his2 his monogram as it was carved by him is ,j4,l4 under a leech in a bottle1 dated #ahed2 and close by on the same board are the initials ,w4,m4,t4 ,i flatter myself that convivially1 at least1 my small ,d4,m41 carved in impenetrable oak1 will go down to posterity in rather distinguished company6 ,if ever there was a square ,english hole1 and a square ,english peg to fit it1 that hole was ,punch1 and that peg was ,john ,leech4 ,he was ,john ,bull himself1 but ,john ,bull refined and civilised--,john ,bull polite1 modest1 gentle--full of self-respect and self-restraint1 and with all the bully softened out of him2 manly first and gentlemanly after1 but very soon after2 more at home perhaps in the club1 the drawing-room1 and the hunting-field1 in ,piccadilly and the ,park1 than in the farm or shop or market-place2 a normal ,englishman of the upper middle class1 with but one thing abnormal about him1 viz41 his genius1 which was of the kind to give the greater pleasure to the greater number--and yet delight the most fastidious of his day--and ,i think of ours4 ,one must be very ultra-aesthetic1 even now1 not to feel his charm4 ,he was all of a piece1 and moved and worked with absolute ease1 freedom1 and certainty1 within the limits nature had assigned him--and his field was a very large one4 ,he saw and represented the whole panorama of life that came within his immediate ken with an unwavering consistency1 from first to last2 from a broadly humorous1 though mostly sympathetic point of view that never changed--a very delightful point of view1 if not the highest conceivable4 ,hand and eye worked with brain in singular harmony1 and all three improved together contemporaneously1 with a parallelism most interesting to note1 as one goes through the long series of his social pictures from the beginning4 ,he has no doubts or hesitations--no bewildering subtleties--no seeking from twelve to fourteen o'clock--either in his ideas or technique1 which very soon becomes an excellent technique1 thoroughly suited to his ideas--rapid1 bold1 spirited1 full of colour1 breadth1 and movement--troubling itself little about details that will not help the telling of his story--for before everything else he has his story to tell1 and it must either make you laugh or lightly charm you--and he tells it in the quickest1 simplest1 down-rightest pencil strokes1 although it is often a complicated story6 ,for there are not only the funny people and the pretty people acting out their little drama in the foreground--there is the scene in which they act1 and the middle distance1 and the background beyond1 and the sky itself2 beautiful rough landscapes and seascapes and skyscapes1 winds and weathers1 boisterous or sunny seas1 rain and storm and cloud--all the poetry of nature1 that he feels most acutely while his little people are being so unconsciously droll in the midst of it all4 ,he is a king of impressionists1 and his impression becomes ours on the spot--never to be forgotten6 ,it is all so quick and fresh and strong1 so simple1 pat1 and complete1 so direct from mother ,nature herself6 ,it has about it the quality of inevitableness--those are the very people who would have acted and spoken in just that manner1 and we meet them every day--the expression of the face1 the movement and gesture1 in anger1 terror1 dismay1 scorn1 conceit1 tenderness1 elation1 triumph4444 ,whatever the mood1 they could not have looked or acted otherwise--it is life itself4 ,an optimistic life in which joyousness prevails1 and the very woes and discomfitures are broadly comical to us who look on--like some one who has sea-sickness1 or a headache after a ,greenwich banquet--which are about the most tragic things he has dealt with4 7,i am speaking of his purely social sketches4 ,for in his admirable large cuts1 political and otherwise serious1 his satire is often bitter and biting indeed2 and his tragedy almost ,hogarthian47 ,like many true humorists1 he was of a melancholy temperament1 and no doubt felt attracted by all that was mirthful and bright1 and in happy contrast to his habitual mood4 ,seldom if ever does a drop of his inner sadness ooze out through his pencil-point--and never a drop of gall2 and ,i do not remember one cynical touch in his whole series4 ,in his tastes and habits he was by nature aristocratic2 he liked the society of those who were well dressed1 well bred and refined like himself1 and perhaps a trifle conventional2 he conformed quite spontaneously and without effort to upper-class ,british ideal of his time1 and had its likes and dislikes4 ,but his strongest predilections of all are common to the ,british race3 his love of home1 his love of sport1 his love of the horse and the hound--especially his love of the pretty woman--the pretty woman of the normal1 wholesome ,english type4 ,this charming creature so dear to us all pervades his show from beginning to end--she is a creation of his1 and he thoroughly loves her1 and draws her again and again with a fondness that is half lover-like and half paternal--her buxom figure1 her merry bright eyes and fresh complexion and flowing ringlets1 and pursed-up lips like ,cupid's bow4 ,nor is he ever tired of displaying her feet and ankles 7and a little more7 in gales of wind on cliff and pier and parade1 or climbing the ,malvern ,hills4 ,when she puts on goloshes it nearly breaks his heart1 and he would fly to other climes6 ,he revels in her infantile pouts and jealousies and heart-burnings and butterfly delights and lisping mischiefs2 her mild1 innocent flirtations with beautiful young swells1 whose cares are equally light4 ,she is a darling1 and he constantly calls her so to her face4 ,her favourite seaside nook becomes the mermaid's haunt2 her back hair flies and dries in the wind1 and disturbs the peace of the too susceptible ,punch4 ,she is a little amazon pour rire1 and rides across country1 and drives 7even a hansom sometimes1 with a pair of magnificent young whiskerandoes smoking their costly cigars inside72 she is a toxophilite1 and her arrow sticks1 for it is barbed with innocent seduction1 and her bull's-eye is the soft military heart4 ,she wears a cricket-cap and breaks ,aunt ,sally's nose seven times2 she puts her pretty little foot upon the croquet-ball--and croquet'd you are completely6 ,with what glee she would have rinked and tennised if he had lived a little longer6 ,illustration3 ,,in ,,the ,,bay ,,of ,,biscany ,o ,the ,last ,sweet ,thing in ,hats and ,walking-,sticks4--,punch1 ,september #bg1 #ahfb4 ,she is light of heart1 and perhaps a little of head6 ,her worst trouble is when the captain gives the wing of the fowl to some other darling who might be her twin-sister2 her most terrible nightmare is when she dreams that great stupid ,captain ,sprawler upsets a dish of trifle over her new lace dress with the blue satin slip2 but next morning she is herself again1 and rides in the ,row1 and stops to speak with that great stupid ,captain ,sprawler1 who is very nice to look at1 whose back is very beautiful1 and who sprawls most gracefully over the railings1 and pays her those delightful1 absurd compliments about her and her horse being such a capital pair1 while1 as a foil to so much grace and splendour1 a poor little snub-nosed1 ill-dressed1 ill-conditioned dwarf of a snob looks on1 sucking the top of his cheap cane in abject admiration and hopeless envy6 ,then she pats and kisses the nice soft nose of ,cornet ,flinders's hunter1 which is deucedly aggravating for ,cornet ,flinders1 you know--but when that noble sportsman is frozen out and cannot hunt1 she plays scratch-cradle with him in the boudoir of her father's country house1 or pitches chocolate into his mouth from the oak landing2 and she lets him fasten the skates on to her pretty feet4 ,happy cornet6 ,and she plays billiards with her handsome cousin--a guardsman at least--and informs him that she is just eighteen to his love--and stands under the mistletoe and asks this enviable relation of hers to show her what the garroter's hug is like2 and when he proceeds to do so she calls out in distress because his pointed waxed moustache has scratched her pretty cheek2 and when ,mr4 ,punch is there1 at dinner1 she and a sister darling pull crackers across his ,august white waistcoat1 and scream in pretty terror at the explosion2 to that worthy's excessive jubilation1 for ,mr4 ,punch is ,leech himself1 and nothing she does can ever be amiss in his eyes6 ,sometimes1 indeed1 she is seriously transfixed herself1 and bids ,mr4 ,tongs1 the hairdresser1 cut off a long lock of her hair where it will not be missed---and she looks so lovely under the smart of ,cupid's arrow that we are frantically jealous of the irresistible warrior for whom the jetty tress is destined4 ,in short1 she is innocence and liveliness and health incarnate--a human kitten4 ,when she marries the gilded youth with the ambrosial whiskers1 their honeymooning is like playing at being married1 their heartless billings and cooings are enchanting to see4 ,she will have no troubles--,leech will take good care of that2 her matrimonial tiffs will be of the slightest2 hers will be a well-regulated household2 the course of her conjugal love will run smooth in spite of her little indiscretions--for1 like ,bluebeard's wife1 she can be curious at times1 and coax and wheedle to know the mysteries of ,freemasonry1 and cry because ,edwin will not reveal the secret of ,mr4 ,percy1 the horse-tamer2 and how ,edwin can resist such an appeal is more than we can understand6 ,but soon they will have a large family1 and live happy ever after1 and by the time their eldest-born is thirteen years old1 the darling of fourteen years back will be a regular materfamilias1 stout1 matronly1 and rather severe2 and ,edwin will be fat1 bald1 and middle-aged1 and bring home a bundle of asparagus and a nice new perambulator to celebrate the wedding-day6 ,and he loves her brothers and cousins1 military or otherwise1 just as dearly1 and makes them equally beautiful to the eye1 with those lovely drooping whiskers that used to fall and brush their bosoms1 their smartly waistcoated bosoms1 a quarter of a century ago6 ,he dresses them even better than the darlings1 and has none but the kindliest and gentlest satire for their little vanities and conceits--for they have no real vices1 these charming youths1 beyond smoking too much and betting a little and getting gracefully tipsy at race-meetings and ,greenwich dinners--and sometimes running into debt with their tailors1 ,i suppose6 ,and then how boldly they ride to hounds1 and how splendidly they fight in the ,crimea6 how lightly they dance at home6 ,how healthy1 good-humoured1 and manly they are1 with all their vagaries of dress and jewellery and accent6 ,it is easy to forgive them if they give the whole of their minds to their white neckties1 or are dejected because they have lost the little gridiron off their chatelaine1 or lose all presence of mind when a smut settles on their noses1 and turn faint at the sight of ,mrs4 ,gamp's umbrella6 ,and next to these enviable beings he loves and reveres the sportsman4 ,one is made to feel that the true sportsman1 whether he shoots or hunts or fishes1 is an ,august being1 as he ought to be in ,great ,britain1 and ,leech has done him full justice with his pencil4 ,he is no subject for flippant satire2 so there he sits his horse1 or stalks through his turnip-field1 or handles his rod like a god6 ,handsome1 well-appointed from top to toe1 aristocratic to the finger-tips--a most impressive figure1 the despair of foreigners1 the envy of all outsiders at home 7including the present lecturer76 ,illustration3 ,a ,,specimen ,,of ,,pluck ,,ruggles4 ,hold hard1 ,master ,george4 ,it's too wide1 and uncommon deep6 ,,master ,,george4 ,all right1 ,ruggles6 ,we can both swim6--,punch4 ,he has never been painted like this before6 ,what splendid lords and squires1 fat or lean1 hook-nosed or eagle-eyed1 well tanned by sun and wind1 in faultless kit1 on priceless mounts6 ,how redolent they are of health and wealth1 and the secure consciousness of high social position--of the cool business-like self-importance that sits so well on those who are knowing in the noblest pursuit that can ever employ the energies and engross the mind of a well-born ,briton2 for they can ride almost as well as their grooms1 these mighty hunters before the ,lord1 and know the country almost as well as the huntsman himself6 ,and what sons and grandsons and granddaughters are growing up round them1 on delightful ponies no gate1 hedge1 or brook can dismay--nothing but the hard high-road6 ,it is a glorious1 exhilarating scene1 with the beautiful wintry landscape stretching away to the cloudy ,november sky1 and the lords and ladies gay1 and the hounds1 and the frosty-faced1 short-tempered old huntsman1 the very perfection of his kind2 and the poor cockney snobs on their hired screws1 and the meek clod-hopping labourers looking on excited and bewildered1 happy for a moment at beholding so much happiness in their betters4 ,illustration3 ,,one ,,of ,,mr4 ,,brigg',s ,,adventures ,,in ,,the ,,highlands ,after aiming for a ,quarter of and ,hour ,mr4 ,b4 fires both of his ,barrels--and--misses6666 ,tableau--,the ,forester's ,anguish--,punch1 #ahfa4 ,to have seen these sketches of the hunting-field is to have been there in person4 ,it is almost the only hunting that ,i ever had--and probably ever shall have--and ,i am almost content that it should be so6 ,it is so much easier and simpler to draw for ,punch than to drive across country6 ,and then1 as a set-off to all this successful achievement1 this pride and pomp and circumstance of glorious sport1 we have the immortal and ever-beloved figure of ,mr4 ,briggs1 whom ,i look upon as ,leech's masterpiece--the example above all others of the most humorous and good-natured satire that was ever penned or pencilled4 ,the more ridiculous he is the more we love him2 he is more winning and sympathetic than even ,mr4 ,pickwick himself1 and ,i almost think a greater creation6 ,besides1 it took two to make ,mr4 ,pickwick1 the author and the artist1 whereas ,mr4 ,briggs issued fully equipped from the brain of ,leech alone6 ,not indeed that all unauthorised gallopers after the fox find forgiveness in the eyes of ,leech4 ,woe to the vulgar little cockney snob who dares to obtrude his ugly mug and his big cigar and his hired1 broken-winded rip on these hallowed and thrice-happy hunting-grounds6--an earthenware pot among vessels of brass2 the punishment shall be made to fit the crime2 better if he fell off and his horse rolled over him than that he should dress and ride and look like that6 ,for the pain of broken bones is easier to bear than the scorn of a true ,british sportsman6 ,illustration3 ,,thank ,,goodness6 ,,fly-,,fishing ,,has ,,begun6 ,,miller4 ,don't they really1 perhaps they'll bite better towards the cool of the evening1 they mostly do4--,punch1 #aheg4 ,then there are the fishermen who never catch any fish1 but whom no stress of weather can daunt or distress4 ,there they sit or stand with the wind blowing or the rain soaking1 in dark landscapes with ruffled streams and ominous clouds1 and swaying trees that turn up the whites of their leaves--one almost hears the wind rush through them4 ,one almost forgets the comical little forlorn figure who gives such point to all the angry turbulence of nature in the impression produced by the mise en scne itself--an impression so happily1 so vividly suggested by a few rapid1 instructive pencil strokes and thumb smudges that it haunts the memory like a dream4 ,he loves such open-air scenes so sincerely1 he knows so well how to express and communicate the perennial charm they have for him1 that the veriest bookworm becomes a sportsman through sheer sympathy--by the mere fact of looking at them4 ,and how many people and things he loves that most of us love6--it would take all night to enumerate them--the good authoritative pater- and materfamilias2 the delightful little girls2 the charming cheeky school-boys2 the jolly little street ,arabs1 who fill old gentlemen's letter-boxes with oyster-shells and gooseberry-skins2 the cabmen1 the busmen2 the policemen with the old-fashioned chimney-pot hat2 the old bathing-women1 and ,jack-ashores1 and jolly old tars--his ,british tar is irresistible1 whether he is hooking a sixty-four pounder out of the ,black ,sea1 or riding a ,turk1 or drinking tea instead of grog and complaining of its strength6 ,there seems to be hardly a mirthful corner of ,english life that ,leech has not seen and loved and painted in this singularly genial and optimistic manner4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,jolly ,,little ,,street ,,arabs ,from the original drawing for ,punch in possession of ,john ,kendrick ,bangs1 ,esq4 ,his loves are many and his hates are few--but he is a good hater all the same4 ,he hates ,mawworm and ,stiggins1 and so do we4 ,he hates the foreigner--whom he does not know1 as heartily as ,thackeray does1 who seems to know him so well--with a hatred that seems to me a little unjust1 perhaps3 all ,france is not in ,leicester ,square2 many ,frenchmen can dress and ride1 drive and shoot as well as anybody2 and they began to use the tub very soon after we did--a dozen years or so1 perhaps--say after the coup d'tat in #ahea4 ,then he hates with a deadly hatred all who make music in the street or next door--and preach in the crossways and bawl their wares on the parade4 ,what would he have said of the ,salvation ,army8 ,he is haunted by the bark of his neighbour's dog1 by the crow of his neighbour's ,cochin ,china cock2 he cannot even bear his neighbour to have his chimney swept2 and as for the ,christmas waits--we all remember that tragic picture6 ,this exaggerated aversion to noises became a disease with him1 and possibly hastened his end4 ,among his pet hates we must not forget the gorgeous flunky and the guzzling alderman1 the leering old fop1 the rascally book-maker1 the sweating ,jew tradesman1 and the poor little snob 7the ',arry of his day7 who tries vainly to grow a moustache1 and wears such a shocking bad hat1 and iron heels to his shoes1 and shuns the ,park during the riots for fear of being pelted for a haristocrat1 and whose punishment ,i think is almost in excess of his misdemeanor4 ,to succeed in over-dressing one's self 7as his swells did occasionally without marring their beauty7 is almost as ignominious as to fail2 and when the failure comes from want of means1 there is also almost a pathetic side to it4 ,illustration3 ,,doing ,a ,,little ,,business ,,old ,,equestrian4 ,well1 but--you're not the boy ,i left my horse with6 ,,boy4 ,no1 sir2 ,i jist spekilated1 and bought 'im of t'other boy for a harpenny4--,punch4 ,and he is a little bit hard on old frumps1 with fat ankles and scraggy bosoms and red noses--but anyhow we are made to laugh--quod erat demonstrandum4 ,we also know that he has a strong objection to cold mutton for dinner1 and much prefers a whitebait banquet at ,greenwich1 or a nice well-ordered repast at the ,star and ,garter4 ,so do we4 ,and the only thing he feared is the horse4 ,nimrod as he is1 and the happiest illustrator of the hunting-field that ever was1 he seems for ever haunted by a terror of the heels of that noble animal he drew so well--and ,i thoroughly sympathise with him6 ,in all the series the chief note is joyousness1 high spirits1 the pleasure of being alive4 ,there is no ,weltschmerz in his happy world1 where all is for the best--no hankering after the moon1 no discontent with the present order of things4 ,only one little lady discovers that the world is hollow1 and her doll is stuffed with bran2 only one gorgeous swell has exhausted the possibilities of this life1 and finds out that he is at loss for a new sensation4 ,so what does he do8 ,cut his throat8 ,go and shoot big game in ,africa8 ,no2 he visits the top of the ,monument on a rainy day1 or invites his brother-swells to a ,punch and ,judy show in his rooms1 or rides to ,whitechapel and back on an omnibus with a bag of periwinkles1 and picks them out with a pin6 ,even when his humour is at its broadest1 and he revels in almost pantomimic fun1 he never loses sight of truth and nature--never strikes a false or uncertain note4 ,robinson goes to an evening party with a spiked knuckle-duster in his pocket and sits down4 ,jones digs an elderly party called ,smith in the back with the point of his umbrella1 under the impression that it is his friend ,brown4 ,a charming little street ,arab prints the soles of his muddy feet on a smart old gentleman's white evening waistcoat4 ,tompkyns writes ,henrietta on the stands under two hearts transfixed by an arrow1 and his wife1 whose name is ,matilda1 catches him in the act4 ,an old gentleman1 maddened by a bluebottle1 smashes all his furniture and breaks every window-pane but one--where the bluebottle is4 ,and in all these scenes one does not know which is the most irresistible1 the most inimitable--the mere drollery or the dramatic truth of gesture and facial expression4 ,the way in which every-day people really behave in absurd situations and under comically trying circumstances is quite funny enough for him2 and if he exaggerates a little and goes beyond the absolute prose of life in the direction of caricature1 he never deviates a hair's-breadth from the groove human nature has laid down4 ,there is exaggeration1 but no distortion4 ,the most wildly funny people are low comedians of the highest order1 whose fun is never forced and never fails2 they found themselves on fact1 and only burlesque what they have seen in actual life--they never evolve their fun from the depths of their inner consciousness2 and in this naturalness1 for me1 lies the greatness of ,leech4 ,there is nearly always a tenderness in the laughter he excites1 born of the touch of nature that makes the whole world kin6 ,illustration3 ,a ,,tolerably ,,broad ,,hint ,oh1 ,i beg your pardon1 sir1 but you didn't say as we were to pull up anywhere1 did you1 sir8--,punch1 #ahei4 ,where most of all he gives us a sense of the exuberant joyousness and buoyancy of life is in the sketches of the seaside--the newly discovered joys of which had then not become commonplace to people of the middle class4 ,the good old seaside has grown rather stale by this time--the very children of to-day dig and paddle in a half-perfunctory sort of fashion1 with a certain stolidity1 and are in strange contrast to those highly elate and enchanting little romps that fill his seaside pictures4 ,indeed1 nothing seems so jolly1 nothing seems so funny1 now1 as when ,leech was drawing for ,punch4 ,the gaiety of one nation at least has been eclipsed by his death4 ,is it merely that there is no such light humorist to see and draw for us in a frolicsome spirit all the fun and the jollity8 ,is it because some of us have grown old8 ,or is it that the ,british people themselves have changed and gone back to their old way of taking their pleasure sadly8 ,everything is so different1 somehow2 the very girls themselves have grown a head taller1 and look serious1 stately1 and dignified1 like ,olympian goddesses1 even when they are dancing and playing lawn-tennis4 ,i for one should no more dream of calling them the darlings than ,i should dare to kiss them under the mistletoe1 were ,i ever so splendid a young captain4 ,indeed ,i am too prostrate in admiration--,i can only suck the top of my stick and gaze in jealous ecstasy1 like one of ,leech's little snobs4 ,they are no longer pretty as their grandmothers were--whom ,leech drew so well in the old days6 ,they are beautiful6 ,and then they are so cultivated1 and know such a lot--of books1 of art1 of science1 of politics1 and theology--of the world the flesh1 and the devil4 ,they actually think for themselves2 they have broken loose and jumped over the ring-fence2 they have taken to the water1 these lovely chicks1 and swim like ducklings1 to the dismay of those good old cocks and hens1 their grandparents6 ,and my love of them is tinged with awe1 as was ,leech's love of that mighty1 beautiful1 but most uncertain quadruped1 the thoroughbred horse--for1 like him1 when they are good1 they are very1 very good1 but when they are bad1 they are horrid4 ,we have changed other things as well3 the swell has become the masher1 and is a terrible dull dog2 the poor little snob has blossomed into a blatant ',arry1 and no longer wears impossible hats and iron heels to his boots2 he has risen in the social scale1 and holds his own without fear or favour in the ,park and everywhere else4 ,to be taken for a haristocrat is his dream6--even if he be pelted for it4 ,in his higher developments he becomes a bounder1 and bounds away in most respectable ,west ,end ball-rooms4 ,he is the only person with any high spirits left--perhaps that is why high spirits have gone out of fashion1 like boxing the watch and wrenching off door-knockers6 ,and the snob of our day is quite a different person1 more likely than not to be found hobnobbing with dukes and duchesses--as irreproachable in dress and demeanour as ,leech himself4 ,thackeray discovered and christened him for us long ago2 and he is related to most of us1 and moves in the best society4 ,he has even ceased to brag of his intimacy with the great1 they have become so commonplace to him2 and if he swaggers at all1 it is about his acquaintance with some popular actor or comic vocalist whom he is privileged to call by his christian-name4 ,and those splendid old grandees of high rank1 so imposing of aspect1 so crushing to us poor mortals by mere virtue not of their wealth and title alone1 but of their high-bred distinction of feature and bearing--to which ,leech did such ample justice--what has become of them8 ,they are like the snows of yester-year6 ,they have gone the way of their beautiful chariots with the elaborate armorial bearings and the tasselled hammercloth1 the bewigged1 cocked-hatted coachman1 and the two gorgeous flunkies hanging on behind4 ,sir ,gorgeous ,midas has beaten the dukes in mere gorgeousness1 flunkies and all--burlesqued the vulgar side of them1 and unconsciously shamed it out of existence2 made swagger and ostentation unpopular by his own evil example--actually improved the manners of the great by sheer mimicry of their defects4 ,he has married his sons and his daughters to them and spoiled the noble curve of those lovely noses that ,leech drew so well1 and brought them down a peg in many ways1 and given them a new lease of life2 and he has enabled us to discover that they are not of such different clay from ourselves after all4 ,all the old slavish formulae of deference and respect--,your ,grace1 ,your ,ladyship1 ,my ,lord--that used to run so glibly off our tongues whenever we had a chance1 are now left to servants and shopkeepers2 and my slight experience of them1 for one1 is that they do not want to be toadied a bit1 and that they are very polite1 well-bred1 and most agreeable people4 ,if we may judge of our modern aristocracy by that very slender fragment of our contemporary fiction1 mostly ,american1 that still thinks it worth writing about1 our young noble of to-day is the most good-humoured1 tolerant1 simple-hearted1 simple-minded1 unsophisticated creature alive--thinking nothing of his honours--prostrate under the little foot of some fair ,yankee1 who is just as likely as not to jilt him for some transatlantic painter not yet known to fame4 ,compare this unpretending youth to one of ,bulwer's heroes1 or ,disraeli's1 or even ,thackeray's6 ,and his simple old duke of a father and his dowdy old duchess of a mother are almost as devoid of swagger as himself2 they seem to apologise for their very existence1 if we may trust these ,american chroniclers who seem to know them so well2 and ,i really think we no longer care to hear and read about them quite so much as we did--unless it be in the society papers6 ,but all these past manners and customs that some of us can remember so well--all these obsolete people1 from the heavily whiskered swell to the policeman with the leather-bound chimney-pot hat1 from good pater- and mater-familias who were actually looked up to and obeyed by their children1 to the croquet-playing darlings in the pork-pie hats and huge crinolines--all survive and will survive for many a year in ,john ,leech's ,pictures of ,life and ,character4 ,except for a certain gentleness1 kindliness1 and self-effacing modesty common to both1 and which made them appear almost angelic in the eyes of many who knew them1 it would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast to ,leech than ,charles ,keene4 ,charles ,keene was absolutely unconventional1 and even almost eccentric4 ,he dressed more with a view to artistic picturesqueness than to fashion1 and despised gloves and chimney-pot hats1 and black coats and broadcloth generally4 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,keene ,from a photograph by ,elliott and ,fry1 ,london4 ,scotch tweed was good enough for him in town and country alike4 ,though a ,tory in politics1 he was democratic in his tastes and habits4 ,he liked to smoke his short black pipe on the tops of omnibuses2 he liked to lay and light his own fire and cook his mutton-chop upon it4 ,he had a passion for music and a beautiful voice1 and sang with a singular pathos and charm1 but he preferred the sound of his bagpipes to that of his own singing1 and thought that you must prefer it too6 ,he was for ever sketching in pen and ink1 indoors and out--he used at one time to carry a little ink-bottle at his buttonhole1 and steel pens in his waistcoat-pocket1 and thus equipped he would sketch whatever took his fancy in his walks abroad--houses1 'busses1 cabs1 people--bits of street and square1 scaffoldings1 hoardings with advertisements--sea1 river1 moor1 lake1 and mountain--what has he not sketched with that masterly pen that had already been so carefully trained by long and arduous practice in a life-school8 ,his heart was in his work from first to last2 beyond his bagpipes and his old books 7for he was a passionate reader71 he seemed to have no other hobby4 ,his facility in sketching became phenomenal1 as also his knowledge of what to put in and what to leave out1 so that the effect he aimed at should be secured in perfection and with the smallest appearance of labour4 ,among his other gifts he had a physical gift of inestimable value for such work as ours--namely1 a splendid hand--a large1 muscular1 well-shaped1 and most workman-like hand1 whose long deft fingers could move with equal ease and certainty in all directions4 ,i have seen it at work--and it was a pleasure to watch its acrobatic dexterity1 its unerring precision of touch4 ,it could draw with nonchalant facility parallel straight lines1 or curved1 of just the right thickness and distance from each other--almost as regular as if they had been drawn with ruler or compass--almost1 but not quite4 ,the quiteness would have made them mechanical1 and robbed them of their charm of human handicraft4 ,a cunning and obedient slave1 this wonderful hand1 for which no command from the head could come amiss--a slave1 moreover1 that had most thoroughly learned its business by long apprenticeship to one especial trade1 like the head and like the eye that guided it4 ,leech1 no doubt1 had a good natural hand1 that swept about with enviable freedom and boldness1 but for want of early discipline it could not execute these miracles of skill2 and the commands that came from the head also lacked the preciseness which results from patiently acquired and well-digested knowledge1 so that ,mr4 ,hand was apt now and then to zigzag a little on its own account--in backgrounds1 on floors and walls1 under chairs and tables1 whenever a little tone was felt to be desirable--sometimes in the shading of coats and trousers and ladies' dresses4 ,but it never took a liberty with a human face or a horse's head2 and whenever it went a little astray you could always read between the lines and know exactly what it meant4 ,there is no difficulty in reading between ,keene's lines2 every one of them has its unmistakable definite intimation2 every one is the right line in the right place6 ,we must remember that there are no such things as lines in nature4 ,whether we use them to represent a human profile1 the depth of a shadow1 the darkness of a cloak or a thunder-cloud1 they are mere conventional symbols4 ,they were invented a long time ago1 by a distinguished sportsman who was also a heaven-born amateur artist--the ,john ,leech of his day--who engraved for us 7from life7 the picture of mammoth on one of its own tusks4 ,and we have accepted them ever since as the cheapest and simplest way of interpreting in black and white for the wood-engraver the shapes and shadows and colours of nature4 ,they may be scratchy1 feeble1 and uncertain1 or firm and bold--thick and thin--straight1 curved1 parallel1 or irregular--cross-hatched once1 twice1 a dozen times1 at any angle--every artist has his own way of getting his effect4 ,but some ways are better than others1 and ,i think ,keene's is the firmest1 loosest1 simplest1 and best way that ever was1 and--the most difficult to imitate4 ,his mere pen-strokes have1 for the expert1 a beauty and an interest quite apart from the thing they are made to depict1 whether he uses them as mere outlines to express the shape of things animate or inanimate1 even such shapeless1 irregular things as the stones on a sea-beach--or in combination to suggest the tone and colour of a dress-coat1 or a drunkard's nose1 of a cab or omnibus--of a distant mountain with miles of atmosphere between it and the figures in the foreground4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,snowstorm1 ,,jan4 #b1 #ahfg ,,cabby 7petulantly--the ,cabbies even lose their tempers74 ,it's no use your a-calling o' me1 ,sir6 ,got such a ,job with these 'ere ,two as'll last me a ,fortnight66--,punch1 ,january #ai1 #ahfg4 ,his lines are as few as can be--he is most economical in this respect and loves to leave as much white paper as he can2 but one feels in his best work that one line more or one line less would impair the perfection of the whole--that of all the many directions1 curves1 and thicknesses they might have taken he has inevitably hit upon just the right one4 ,he has beaten all previous records in this respect--in this country1 at least4 ,i heard a celebrated ,french painter say3 ,he is a great man1 your ,charles ,keene2 he take a pen and ink and a bit of paper1 and wiz a half-dozen strokes he know 'ow to frame a gust of wind6 ,i think myself that ,leech could frame a gust of wind as effectually as ,keene1 by the sheer force of his untaught natural instinct--of his genius2 but not with the deftness--this economy of material--this certainty of execution--this consummate knowledge of effect4 ,to borrow a simile from music1 there are certain tunes so fresh and sweet and pretty that they please at once and for ever1 like ,home1 ,sweet ,home1 or ,the ,last ,rose of ,summer2 they go straight to the heart of the multitude1 however slight the accompaniment--a few simple chords--they hardly want an accompaniment at all4 ,leech's art seems to me of just such a happy kind2 he draws--,i mean he scores like an amateur who has not made a very profound study of harmony1 and sings his pretty song to his simple accompaniment with so sweet and true a natural voice that we are charmed4 ,it is the magic of nature1 whereas ,keene is a very ,sebastian ,bach in his counterpoint4 ,there is nothing of the amateur about him2 his knowledge of harmony in black and white is complete and thorough2 mere consummate scoring has become to him a second nature2 each separate note of his voice reveals the long training of the professional singer2 and if his tunes are less obviously sweet and his voice less naturally winning and sympathetic than ,leech's1 his aesthetic achievement is all the greater4 ,it is to his brother-artists rather than to the public at large that his most successful appeal is made--but with an intensity that can only be gained by those who have tried in vain to do what he has done1 and who thereby know how difficult it is4 ,his real magic is that of art4 ,this perhaps accounts for the unmistakable fact that ,leech's popularity has been so much greater than ,keene's1 and ,i believe is still4 ,leech's little melodies of the pencil 7to continue the parallel with the sister art7 are like ,volkslieder--national airs--and more directly reach the national heart4 ,transplant them to other lands that have pencil ,volkslieder of their own 7though none1 ,i think1 comparable to his for fun and sweetness and simplicity7 and they fail to please as much1 while their mere artistic qualities are not such as to find favour among foreign experts1 whereas ,keene actually gains by such a process4 ,he is as much admired by the artists of ,france and ,germany as by our own--if not more4 ,for some of his shortcomings--such as his lack of feeling for ,english female beauty1 his want of perception1 perhaps his disdain1 of certain little eternal traits and conventions and differences that stamp the various grades of our social hierarchy--do not strike them1 and nothing interferes with their complete appreciation of his craftsmanship4 ,illustration3 ,,waiting ,,for ,,the ,,landlord6 ,,ribbonman 7getting impatient74 ,bedad1 they ought to be here be this toime6 ,sure1 ,tiriace1 ,i hope the ould gintleman hasn't mit wid an accidint666--,punch1 ,july #bg1 #ahgh4 ,perhaps1 also1 ,leech's frequent verification of our manly ,british pluck and honesty1 and proficiency in sport1 and wholesomeness and cleanliness of body and mind1 our general physical beauty and distinction1 and his patriotic tendency to contrast our exclusive possession of these delightful gifts with the deplorable absence of them in any country but our own1 may fail to enlist the sympathies of the benighted foreigner4 ,whereas there is not much to humiliate the most touchy ,french or ,german reader of ,punch1 or excite his envy1 in ,charles ,keene's portraiture of our race4 ,he is impartial and detached1 and the most rabid ,anglophobe may frankly admire him without losing his self-esteem4 ,the ,english lower middle class and people1 that ,keene has depicted with such judicial freedom from either prejudice or pre-possession1 have many virtues2 but they are not especially conspicuous for much vivacity or charm of aspect or gainliness of demeanour2 and he has not gone out of his way to idealise them4 ,also1 he seldom if ever gibes at those who have not been able to resist the temptations 7as ,mr4 ,gilbert would say7 of belonging to other nations4 ,thus in absolute craftsmanship and technical skill1 in the ease and beauty of his line1 his knowledge of effect1 his complete mastery over the material means at his disposal1 ,charles ,keene seems to me as superior to ,leech as ,leech is to him in grace1 in human naturalness and geniality of humour1 in accurate observation of life1 in keenness of social perception1 and especially in width of range4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,stroke ,,of ,,business ,,village ,,hampden 7who with dauntless breast has undertaken for sixpence to keep off the other boys74 ,if any of yer wants to see what we're a ,paintin' of it's a ',alfpenny a ',ead1 but you marn't make no ,remarks4--,punch1 ,may #d1 #ahfg4 ,the little actors on ,leech's stage are nearly all of them every-day people--types one is constantly meeting4 ,high or low1 tipsy or sober1 vulgar or refined1 pleasant or the reverse1 we knew them all before ,leech ever drew them2 and our recognition of them on his page is full of delight at meeting old familiar friends and seeing them made fun of for our amusement4 ,whereas a great many of ,keene's middle-class protagonists are peculiar and exceptional1 and much of their humour lies in their eccentricity1 they are characters themselves1 rather than types of ,english characters4 ,are they really observed and drawn from life1 do they really exist just as they are1 or are they partly evolved from the depths of an inner consciousness that is not quite satisfied with life just as it is8 ,illustration3 ,,none ,o' ,,your ,,larks ,,gigantic ,,navvy3 ,let's walk between yer1 ,gents2 folks 'll think you've took up a ,deserter4--,punch1 ,october #ai1 #ahfa4 ,they are often comic1 with their exquisitely drawn faces so full of subtlety--intensely comic6 ,their enormous perplexities about nothing1 their utter guilelessness1 their innocence of the wicked world and its ways1 make them engaging sometimes in spite of a certain ungainliness of gesture1 dress1 and general behaviour that belongs to them1 and which delighted ,charles ,keene1 who was the reverse of ungainly1 just as the oft-recurring tipsiness of his old gentlemen delighted him1 though he was the most abstemious of men4 ,i am now speaking of his middle-class people--those wonderful philistines of either sex2 those elaborately capped and corpulent old ladies2 those muttonchop-whiskered1 middle-aged gentlemen with long upper lips and florid complexions1 receding chins1 noses almost horizontal in their prominence2 those artless damsels who trouble themselves so little about the latest fashions2 those feeble-minded1 hirsute swells with the sloping shoulders and the broad hips and the little hats cocked on one side2 those unkempt1 unspoiled1 unspotted from the world brothers of the brush1 who take in their own milk1 and so complacently ignore all the rotten conventionalism of our over-civilised existence4 ,when he takes his subjects from the classes beneath these1 he is1 if not quite so funny1 at his best1 ,i think4 ,his costermongers and policemen1 his omnibus drivers and conductors and cabbies1 are inimitable studies2 and as for his 'busses and cabs1 ,i really cannot find words to express my admiration of them4 ,in these1 as in his street scenes and landscapes1 he is unapproached and unapproachable4 ,nor must we forget his canny ,scotsmen1 his ,irish labourers and peasants1 his splendid ,english navvies1 and least of all his volunteers--he and ,leech might be called the pillars of the ,volunteer movement1 from the manner1 so true1 so sympathetic1 and so humorous1 in which they have immortalised its beginning4 ,illustration3 ,,an ,,affront ,,to ,,the ,,service ,,omnibus ,,driver 7to ,coster74 ,now then1 ,irish6 pull a one side1 will you8 ,what are you gaping at8 ,did you never see a ,milisher man before8 ,a disgustingly ignorant observation in the opinion of young ,longslip1 ,lieutenant in ,her ,majesty's ,fusileer ,guards--,punch1 ,march #g1 #ahfc4 ,charles ,keene is seldom a satirist4 ,his nature was too tolerant and too sweet for hate1 and that makes him a bad and somewhat perfunctory hater4 ,he tries to hate ',arry1 but he can't1 for he draws an ideal ',arry that surely never was1 and thus his shaft misses the mark3 compare his ',arry to one of ,leech's snobs1 for instance6 ,he tries to hate the haw-haw swell1 and is equally unsuccessful4 ,when you hate and can draw1 you can draw what you hate down to its minutest details--better1 perhaps1 than what you love--so that whoever runs and reads and looks at your pictures hates with you4 ,who ever hated a personage of ,keene's beyond that feeble kind of aversion that comes from mere uncongeniality1 a slightly offended social taste1 or prejudice8 ,one feels a mere indulgent and half-humorous disdain1 but no hate4 ,on the other hand1 ,i do not think that we love his personages very much--we stand too much outside his eccentric world for sympathy4 ,from the pencil of this most lovable man1 with his unrivalled power of expressing all he saw and thought1 ,i cannot recall many lovable characters of either sex or any age4 ,here and there a good-natured cabby1 a jolly navvy1 a simple-minded flautist or bagpiper1 or a little street ,arab1 like the small boy who pointed out the jail doctor to his pal and said1 ,that's my medical man4 ,whereas ,leech's pages teem with winning1 graceful1 lovable types1 and here and there a hateful one to give relief4 ,but1 somehow1 one liked the man who drew these strange people1 even without knowing him2 when you knew him you loved him very much--so much that no room was left in you for envy of his unattainable mastery in his art4 ,for of this there can be no doubt--no greater or more finished master in black and white has devoted his life to the illustration of the manners and humours of his time2 and if ,leech is even greater than he--and ,i for one am inclined to think he is--it is not as an artist1 but as a student and observer of human nature1 as a master of the light1 humorous1 superficial criticism of life4 ,illustration3 ,,not ,,up ,,to ,,his ,,business ,,cross ,,bus ,,driver4 ,now why didn't you take that there party8 ,,conductor3 ,said they wouldn't go4 ,,cross ,,bus ,,driver4 ,said ,,they wouldn't go8 ,,they said they wouldn't go8 ,why1 what do you suppose you're put there for8 ,you call that conductin' a buss4 ,oh6 ,,they wouldn't go6 ,i like that1 c41 c4-- ,punch1 ,september #a1 #ahfj4 ,charles ,keene died of general atrophy on ,january #d1 #ahia4 ,it was inexpressibly pathetic to see how patiently1 how resignedly he wasted away2 he retained his unalterable sweetness to the last4 ,his handsome1 dark-skinned face1 so strongly lined and full of character2 his mild and magnificent light-grey eyes1 that reminded one of a ,st4 ,bernard's2 his tall1 straight1 slender aspect1 that reminded one of ,don ,quixote2 his simplicity of speech and character2 his love of humour1 and the wonderful smile that lit up his face when he heard a good story1 and the still more wonderful wink of his left eye when he told one--all these will remain strongly impressed on the minds of those who ever met him4 ,i attended his funeral as ,i had attended ,leech's twenty-six years before2 ,canon ,ainger1 a common friend of us both1 performed the service4 ,it was a bitterly cold day1 which accounted for the sparseness of the mourners compared to the crowd that was present on the former occasion2 but bearing in mind that all those present were either relations or old friends1 all of them with the strongest and deepest personal regard for the friend we had lost1 the attendance seemed very large indeed2 and all of us1 ,i think1 in our affectionate remembrance of one of the most singularly sweet-natured1 sweet-tempered1 and simple-hearted men that ever lived1 forgot for the time that a very great artist was being laid to his rest4 ,illustration3 ,,george ,,du ,,maurier ,from an unpublished photograph by ,fradelle and ,young1 ,london4 ,and now1 in fulfilment of my contract1 ,i must speak of myself--a difficult and not very grateful task4 ,one's self is a person about whom one knows too much and too little--about whom we can never hit a happy medium4 ,sometimes one rates one's self too high1 sometimes 7but less frequently7 too low1 according to the state of our digestion1 our spirits1 our pocket1 or even the weather6 ,in the present instance ,i will say all the good of myself ,i can decently1 and leave all the rating to you4 ,it is inevitable1 however unfortunate it may be for me1 that ,i should be compared with my two great predecessors1 ,leech and ,keene1 whom ,i have just been comparing to each other4 ,when ,john ,leech's mantle fell from his shoulders it was found that the garment was ample to clothe the nakedness of more than one successor4 ,john ,tenniel had already1 it is true1 replaced him for several years as the political cartoonist of ,punch4 ,how admirably he has always filled that post1 then and ever since1 and how great his fame is1 ,i need not speak of here4 ,linley ,sambourne and ,harry ,furniss1 so different from each other and from ,tenniel1 have also1 since then1 brought their great originality and their unrivalled skill to the political illustrations of ,punch--,sambourne to the illustration of many other things in it besides1 but which do not strictly belong to the present subject4 ,i am here concerned with the social illustrators alone1 and1 besides1 only with those who have made the sketches of social subjects in ,punch the principal business of their lives4 ,for very many artists1 from ,sir ,john ,millais1 ,sir ,john ,gilbert1 ,frederick ,walker1 and ,randolph ,caldecott downward1 have contributed to that fortunate periodical at one time or another1 and not a few distinguished amateurs4 ,miss ,georgina ,bowers1 ,mr4 ,corbould1 and others have continued the fox-hunting tradition1 and provided those scenes which have become a necessity to the sporting readers of ,punch4 ,to ,charles ,keene was fairly left that part of the succession that was most to his taste--the treatment of life in the street and the open country1 in the shops and parlours of the lower middle class1 and the homes of the people4 ,and to me were allotted the social and domestic dramas1 the nursery1 the school-room1 the dining and drawing rooms1 and croquet-lawns of the more or less well-to-do4 ,i was particularly told not to try to be broadly funny1 but to undertake the light and graceful business1 like a jeune premier4 ,i was1 in short1 to be the tenor1 or rather the tenorino1 of that little company for which ,mr4 ,punch beats time with his immortal baton1 and to warble in black and white such melodies as ,i could evolve from my contemplations of the gentler aspect of ,english life1 while ,keene1 with his magnificent1 highly trained basso1 sang the comic songs4 ,we all became specialised1 so to speak1 and divided ,leech's vast domain among us4 ,we kicked a little at first1 ,i remember1 and whenever 7to continue the musical simile7 ,i could get in a comic song1 or what ,i thought one1 or some queer fantastic ditty about impossible birds and beasts and fishes and what not1 ,i did not let the opportunity slip2 while ,keene1 who had a very fine falsetto on the top of his chest register1 would now and then warble1 pianissimo1 some little ballad of the drawing-room or nursery4 ,illustration3 ,,feline ,,amenities ,but gradually we settled into our respective grooves1 and ,i have grown to like my little groove very much1 narrow though it be--a poor thing1 but mine own6 ,iwish you hadn't asked ,captain ,wareham1 ,lizzie4 ,horrid man6 ,i can't bear him6 ,dear me1 ,charlotte--isn't the world big enough for you both8 ,yes2 but your little ,dining-room isn't6--,punch1 ,february #af1 #ahhi4 ,moreover1 certain physical disabilities that ,i have the misfortune to labour under make it difficult for me to study and sketch the lusty things in the open air and sunshine4 ,my sight1 besides being defective in many ways1 is so sensitive that ,i cannot face the common light of day without glasses thickly rimmed with wire gauze1 so that sketching out of doors is often to me a difficult and distressing performance4 ,that is also partly why ,i am not a sportsman and a delineator of sport4 ,i mention this infirmity not as an excuse for my shortcomings and failures--for them there is no excuse--but as a reason why ,i have abstained from the treatment of so much that is so popular1 delightful1 and exhilarating in ,english country life4 ,if there had been no ,charles ,keene 7a terrible supposition both for ,punch and its readers71 ,i should have done my best to illustrate the lower walks and phases of ,london existence1 which attracts me as much as any other4 ,it is just as easy to draw a costermonger or a washerwoman as it is a gentleman or lady--perhaps a little easier--but it is by no means so easy to draw them as ,keene did6 ,and to draw a cab or an omnibus after him 7though ,i have sometimes been obliged to do so7 is almost tempting ,providence6 ,if there had been no ,charles ,keene1 ,i might1 perhaps1 with practice1 have become a funny man myself--though ,i do not suppose that my fun would have ever been of the broadest4 ,before ,i became an artist ,i was considered particularly good at caricaturing my friends1 who always foresaw for me more than one change of profession1 and ,punch as the final goal of my wanderings in search of a career4 ,for it was originally intended that ,i should be a man of science4 ,dr4 ,williamson1 the eminent chemist and professor of chemistry1 told me not long ago that he remembers caricatures that ,i drew1 now forty years back1 when ,i was studying under him at the ,laboratory of ,chemistry at ,university ,college1 and that he and other grave and reverend professors were hugely tickled by them at the time4 ,indeed1 he remembers nothing else about me1 except that ,i promised to be a very bad chemist4 ,i was a very bad chemist indeed1 but not for long6 ,as soon as ,i was free to do as ,i pleased1 ,i threw up test-tubes and crucibles and went back to ,paris1 where ,i was born and brought up1 and studied to become an artist in ,m4 ,glyre's studio4 ,then ,i went to ,antwerp1 where there is a famous school of painting1 and where ,i had no less a person than ,mr4 ,alma-,tadema as a fellow-student4 ,it was all delightful1 but misfortune befell me1 and ,i lost the sight of one eye--perhaps it was the eye with which ,i used to do the funny caricatures2 it was a very good eye1 much the better of the two1 and the other has not improved by having to do a double share of the work4 ,and then in time ,i came to ,england and drew for ,punch1 thus fulfilling the early prophecy of my friends and fellow-students at ,university ,college--though not quite in the sense they anticipated4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,new ,,society ,,craze ,,the ,,new ,,governess 7through her pretty nose74 ,waall--,i come right slick away from ,ne',york ,city1 an' ,i ain't had much time for foolin' around in ,europe--you bet6 ,so ,i can't fix up your ,gals in the ,eu- rpean languages1 no-how6 ,,belgravian ,,mamma3 7who knows there's a ,duke or two still left in the ,matrimonial ,market74 ,oh1 that's of no consequence4 ,i want my ,daughters to aquire the ,american ,accent in all its purity--and the ,idioms1 and all that4 ,now ,i'm sure you will do admirably6-- ,punch1 ,december #a1 #ahhh4 ,i will not attempt a description of my work--it is so recent and has been so widely circulated that it should be unnecessary to do so4 ,if you do not remember it1 it is that it is not worth remembering2 if you do1 ,i can only entreat you to be to my faults a little blind1 and to my virtues very kind6 ,i have always tried as honestly and truthfully as lies in me to serve up to the readers of ,punch whatever ,i have culled with the bodily eye1 after cooking it a little in the brain4 ,my raw material requires more elaborate working than ,leech's4 ,he dealt more in flowers and fruits and roots1 if ,i may express myself so figuratively--from the lordly pineapple and lovely rose1 down to the humble daisy and savory radish4 ,i deal in vegetables1 ,i suppose4 ,little that ,i ever find seems to me fit for the table just as ,i see it2 moreover1 by dishing it up raw ,i should offend many people and make many enemies1 and deserve to do so4 ,i cook my green pease1 asparagus1 ,french beans1 ,brussels sprouts1 ,german sauerkraut1 and even a truffle now and then1 so carefully that you would never recognise them as they were when ,i first picked them in the social garden4 ,and they do not recognise themselves6 ,or even each other6 ,and ,i do my best to dish them up in good1 artistic style4 ,oh that ,i could arrange for you a truffle with all that culinary skill that ,charles ,keene brought to the mere boiling of a carrot or a potato6 ,he is the cordon bleu par excellence4 ,the people ,i meet seem to me more interesting than funny--so interesting that ,i am well content to draw them as ,i see them1 after just a little arrangement and a very transparent disguise--and without any attempt at caricature4 ,the better-looking they are1 the more my pencil loves them1 and ,i feel more inclined to exaggerate in this direction than in any other4 ,sam ,weller1 if you recollect1 was fond of pootiness and wirtue4 ,i so agree with him6 ,i adore them both1 especially in women and children4 ,i only wish that the wirtue was as easy to draw as the pootiness4 ,but indeed for me--speaking as an artist1 and also1 perhaps1 a little bit as a man--pootiness is almost a wirtue in itself4 ,i don't think ,i shall ever weary of trying to depict it1 from its dawn in the toddling infant to its decline and setting and long twilight in the beautiful old woman1 who has known how to grow old gradually4 ,i like to surround it with chivalrous and stalwart manhood2 and it is a standing grievance to me that ,i have to clothe all this masculine escort in coats and trousers and chimney-pot hats2 worse than all1 in the evening dress of the period6--that ,i cannot surround my divinity with a guard of honour more worthily arrayed6 ,thus1 of all my little piebald puppets1 the one ,i value the most is my pretty woman4 ,i am as fond of her as ,leech was of his2 of whom1 by-the-way1 she is the granddaughter6 ,this is not artistic vanity2 it is pure paternal affection1 and by no means prevents me from seeing her faults2 it only prevents me from seeing them as clearly as you do6 ,please be not very severe on her1 for her grandmother's sake4 ,words fail me to express how much ,i loved her grandmother1 who wore a cricket-cap and broke ,aunt ,sally's nose seven times4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,pictorial ,,puzzle ,,tenor ,,warbler 7with passionate emphasis on the first word of each line7-- ,me-e-e-e-e-e-t me once again1 ,m-e-e-e-e-t me once aga-a-ain-- ,why does the ,cat suddenly jump off the ,hearth-rug1 rush to the ,door1 and make frantic ,endeavors to get out8--,punch4 ,will my pretty woman ever be all ,i wish her to be8 ,all she ought to be8 ,i fear not6 ,on the mantelpiece in my studio at home there stands a certain lady4 ,she is but lightly clad1 and what simple garment she wears is not in the fashion of our day4 ,how well ,i know her6 ,almost thoroughly by this time--for she has been the silent companion of my work for thirty years6 ,she has lost both her arms and one of her feet1 which ,i deplore2 and also the tip of her nose1 but that has been made good6 ,she is only three feet high1 or thereabouts1 and quite two thousand years old1 or more2 but she is ever young-- ,age cannot wither her1 nor custom stale ,her infinite variety6 and a very giantess in beauty4 ,for she is a reduction in plaster of the famous statue at the ,louvre4 ,they call her the ,venus of ,milo1 or ,melos6 ,it is a calumny--a libel4 ,she is no ,venus1 except in good looks2 and if she errs at all1 it is on the side of austerity4 ,she is not only pootiness but wirtue incarnate 7if one can be incarnate in marble71 from the crown of her lovely head to the sole of her remaining foot--a very beautiful foot1 though by no means a small one--it has never worn a high-heel shoe6 ,like all the best of its kind1 and its kind the best1 she never sates nor palls1 and the more ,i look at her the more ,i see to love and worship--and1 alas6 the more dissatisfied ,i feel--not indeed with the living beauty1 ripe and real1 that ,i see about and around--mere life is such a beauty in itself that no stone ideal can ever hope to match it6 ,but dissatisfied with the means at my command to do the living beauty justice--a little bit of paper1 a steel pen1 and a bottle of ink--and1 alas6 fingers and an eye less skilled than they would have been if ,i had gone straight to a school of art instead of a laboratory for chemistry6 ,and now for social pictorial satire considered as a fine art4 ,they who have practised it hitherto1 from ,hogarth downward1 have not been many--you can count their names on your fingers6 ,and the wide popularity they have won may be due as much to their scarcity as to the interest we all take in having the mirror held up to ourselves--to the malicious pleasure we all feel at seeing our neighbours held up to gentle ridicule or well-merited reproof2 most of all1 perhaps1 to the realistic charm that lies in all true representation of the social aspects with which we are most familiar1 ugly as these are often apt to be1 with our chimney-pot hats1 and trousers that unfit us1 it seems1 for serious and elaborate pictorial treatment at the hands of the foremost painters of our own times--except when we sit to them for our portraits2 then they have willy-nilly to make the best of us1 just as we are6 ,illustration3 ,,refinements ,,of ,,modern ,,speech 7,,scene--,a ,drawing-room in ,passionate ,brompton47 ,,fair ,,aesthetic 7suddenly1 and in deepest tones to ,smith1 who has just been introduced to take her in to ,dinner74 ,are you ,intense8--,punch1 ,june #ad1 #ahgi4 ,the plays and novels that succeed the most are those which treat of the life of our own day2 not so the costly pictures we hang upon our walls4 ,we do not care to have continually before our eyes elaborate representations of the life we lead every day and all day long2 we like best that which rather takes us out of it--romantic or graceful episodes of another time or clime1 when men wore prettier clothes than they do now--well-imagined1 well-painted scenes from classic lore--historical subjects--subjects selected from our splendid literature and what not2 or1 if we want modern subjects1 we prefer scenes chosen from a humble sphere1 which is not that of those who can afford to buy pictures--the toilers of the earth--the toilers of the sea--pathetic scenes from the inexhaustible annals of the poor2 or else1 again1 landscapes and seascapes--things that bring a whiff of nature into our feverish and artificial existence--that are in direct contrast to it4 ,and even with these beautiful things1 how often the charm wears away with the novelty of possession6 ,how often and how soon the lovely picture1 like its frame1 becomes just as a piece of wall-furniture1 in which we take a pride1 certainly1 and which we should certainly miss if it were taken away--but which we grow to look at with the pathetic indifference of habit--if not1 indeed1 with aversion6 ,chairs and tables minister to our physical comforts1 and we cannot do without them4 ,but pictures have not this practical hold upon us2 the sense to which they appeal is not always on the alert2 yet there they are hanging on the wall1 morning1 noon1 and night1 unchanged1 unchangeable--the same arrested movement--the same expression of face--the same seas and trees and moors and forests and rivers and mountains--the very waves are as eternal as the hills6 ,music will leave off when it is not wanted--at least it ought to6 ,the book is shut1 the newspaper thrown aside4 ,not so the beautiful picture2 it is like a perennial nosegay1 for ever exhaling its perfume for noses that have long ceased to smell it6 ,but little pictures in black and white1 of little every-day people like ourselves1 by some great little artist who knows life well and has the means at his command to express his knowledge in this easy1 simple manner1 can be taken up and thrown down like the book or newspaper4 ,they are even easier to read and understand4 ,they are within the reach of the meanest capacity1 the humblest education1 the most slender purse4 ,they come to us weekly1 let us say1 in cheap periodicals4 ,they are preserved and bound up in volumes1 to be taken down and looked at when so disposed4 ,the child grows to love them before he knows how to read2 fifty years hence he will love them still1 if only for the pleasure they gave him as a child4 ,he will soon know them by heart1 and yet go to them again and again2 and if they are good1 he will always find new beauties and added interest as he himself grows in taste and culture2 and how much of that taste and culture he will owe to them1 who can say8 ,nothing sticks so well in the young mind as a little picture one can hold close to the eyes like a book--not even a song or poem--for in the case of most young people the memory of the eye is better than that of the ear--its power of assimilating more rapid and more keen4 ,and then there is the immense variety1 the number6 ,illustration3 ,,reading ,,without ,,tears ,,teacher4 ,and what comes after ,s1 ,jack8 ,,pupil4 ,t6 ,,teacher4 ,and what ,comes after ,t8 ,,pupil4 ,for all that we have ,received1 c41 c4--,punch1 ,february #ag1 #ahfi4 ,our pictorial satirist taking the greatest pains1 doing his very best1 can produce1 say1 a hundred of these little pictures in a twelvemonth1 while his elder brother of the brush bestows an equal labour and an equal time on one important canvas1 which will take another twelvemonth to engrave1 perhaps1 for the benefit of those fortunate enough to be able to afford the costly engraving of that one priceless work of art1 which only one millionaire can possess at a time4 ,happy millionaire6 happy painter--just as likely as not to become a millionaire himself6 ,and this elder brother of the brush will be the first to acknowledge his little brother's greatness--if the little brother's work be well done4 ,you should hear how the first painters of our time1 here and abroad1 express themselves about ,charles ,keene6 ,they do not speak of him as a little brother1 ,i tell you1 but a very big brother indeed4 ,thackeray1 for me1 and many others1 the greatest novelist1 satirist1 humorist of our time1 where so many have been great1 is said to have at the beginning of his career wished to illustrate the books of others--,charles ,dickens's1 ,i believe1 for one4 ,fortunately1 perhaps1 for us and for him1 and perhaps for ,dickens1 he did not succeed2 he lived to write books of his own1 and to illustrate them himself2 and it is generally admitted that his illustrations1 clever as they are1 were not up to the mark of his writings4 ,it was not his natural mode of expression--and ,i doubt if any amount of training and study would have made it a successful mode3 the love of the thing does not necessarily carry the power to do it4 ,that he loved it he has shown us in many ways1 and also that he was always practising it4 ,most of my hearers will remember his beautiful ballad of ,the ,pen and the ,album-- ,i am my master's faithful old gold pen4 ,i've served him three long years1 and drawn since then ,thousands of funny women and droll men 444 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,height ,,of ,,impropriety ,,miss ,,grundison1 ,,junior4 ,there goes ,lucy ,holyroyd1 all alone in a ,boat with young ,snipson as usual4 ,so impudent of them6 ,,her ,,elder ,,sister4 ,yes2 how shocking if they were ,upset and ,drowned-- without a ,chaperon1 you know6--,punch1 ,august #h1 #ahia4 ,now conceive--it is not an impossible conception--that the marvellous gift of expression that he was to possess in words had been changed by some fairy at his birth into an equal gift of expression by means of the pencil1 and that he had cultivated the gift as assiduously as he cultivated the other1 and finally that he had exercised it as sedulously through life1 bestowing on innumerable little pictures in black and white all the wit and wisdom1 the wide culture1 the deep knowledge of the world and of the human heart1 all the satire1 the tenderness1 the drollery1 and last1 but not least1 that incomparable perfection of style that we find in all or most that he has written--what a pictorial record that would be6 ,think of it--a collection of little wood-cuts or etchings1 with each its appropriate legend--a series of small pictures equal in volume and in value to the whole of ,thackeray's literary work6 ,think of the laughter and the tears from old and young1 rich and poor1 and from the thousands who have not the intelligence or the culture to appreciate great books1 or lack time or inclination to read them4 ,all there was in the heart and mind of ,thackeray1 expressed through a medium so simple and direct that even a child could be made to feel it1 or a chimney-sweep6 ,for where need we draw the line8 ,we are only pretending4 ,now ,i am quite content with ,thackeray as he is--a writer of books1 whose loss to literature could not be compensated by any gain to the gentle art of drawing little figures in black and white--thousands of funny women and droll men4 ,all ,i wish to point out--in these days when drawing is pressed into the service of daily journalism1 and with such success that there will soon be as many journalists with the pencil as with the pen--is this1 that the career of the future social pictorial satirist is full of splendid possibilities undreamed-of yet4 ,it is a kind of hybrid profession still in its infancy--hardly recognised as a profession at all--something halfway between literature and art--yet potentially combining all that is best and most essential in both1 and appealing as effectively as either to some of our strongest needs and most natural instincts4 ,it has no school as yet2 its methods are tentative1 and its few masters have been pretty much self-taught4 ,but ,i think that a method and a school will evolve themselves by degrees--are perhaps evolving themselves already4 ,the quality of black and white illustrations of modern life is immeasurably higher than it was thirty or forty years ago--its average and artistic quality--and it is getting higher day by day4 ,the number of youths who can draw beautifully is quite appalling2 one would think they had learned to draw before learning to read and write4 ,why shouldn't they8 ,well1 all we want1 for my little dream to be realised1 is that among these precocious wielders of the pencil there should arise here a ,dickens1 there a ,thackeray1 there a ,george ,eliot or an ,anthony ,trollope1 who1 finding quite early in life that he can draw as easily as other men can spell1 that he can express himself1 and all that he hears and sees and feels1 more easily1 more completely1 in that way than in any other1 will devote himself heart and soul to that form of expression--as ,i and others have tried to do--but with advantages of nature1 circumstances1 and education that have been denied to us6 ,illustration3 ,,things ,,one ,,would ,,wish ,,to ,,have ,,expressed ,,differently ,,he4 ,the fact is ,i never get any wild fowl shooting--never6 ,,she4 ,oh1 then you ought to come down to our ,neighborhood in the ,winter4 ,it would just suit you1 there are such a lot of ,geese about-- a--a--,i mean ,wild ,geese of course6--,punch1 ,november #ba1 #ahia4 ,hogarth seems to have come nearer to this ideal pictorial satirist than any of his successors in ,punch and elsewhere4 ,for he was not merely a light humorist and a genial caricaturist2 he dealt also in pathos and terror1 in tragic passion and sorrow and crime2 he often strikes chords of too deep a tone for the pages of a comic periodical4 ,but the extent of his productiveness was limited by the method of his production2 he was a great painter in oils1 and each of his life scenes is an important and elaborate picture1 which1 moreover1 he engraved himself at great cost of time and labour1 after the original time and labour spent in painting it4 ,it is by these engravings1 far more than by his pictures1 that he is so widely known4 ,it is quite possible to conceive a little sketchy woodcut no larger than a cut in ,punch1 and drawn by a master like ,charles ,keene1 or the ,german ,adolf ,menzel1 giving us all the essence of any picture by ,hogarth even more effectively1 more agreeably1 than any of ,hogarth's most finished engravings4 ,and if this had been ,hogarth's method of work1 instead of some fifty or sixty of those immortal designs we should have had some five or six thousand6 ,almost a library6 ,so much for the great pictorial satirist of the future--of the near future1 let us hope--that ,i have been trying to evolve from my inner consciousness4 ,may some of us live to see him6