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diff --git a/36663.txt b/36663.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f32719 --- /dev/null +++ b/36663.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5998 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Leech, His Life and Work. Vol. 1, by +William Powell Frith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Leech, His Life and Work. Vol. 1 + +Author: William Powell Frith + +Release Date: July 8, 2011 [EBook #36663] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN LEECH *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Chris Curnow and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + JOHN LEECH + + His Life and Work + + +[Illustration] + + + JOHN LEECH + + His Life and Work + + BY + WILLIAM POWELL FRITH, R.A. + +[Illustration] + + _WITH PORTRAIT AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + IN TWO VOLUMES + VOL. I. + + + + + LONDON + RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON + Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen + 1891 + + [_All rights reserved_] + + + I Dedicate this Book + TO + CHARLES F. ADAMS, + + LEECH'S EARLIEST, WARMEST, AND MOST CONSTANT FRIEND; + WITH MY GRATEFUL THANKS + FOR THE INTEREST HE HAS TAKEN IN MY WORK, + AND FOR THE VALUABLE ASSISTANCE AFFORDED + IN THE EXECUTION OF IT. + + + + +PREFACE + + +I am very conscious of the many sins of commission and omission of which +I have been guilty in my attempt to write the "Life and Work of John +Leech"; but, that ingratitude may not figure amongst my shortcomings, I +take advantage of the usual preface to acknowledge my obligations to +friends and strangers from whom I have received assistance, and to +express my warmest thanks for their kindness. + +The time that has elapsed since Leech's death has terribly thinned the +ranks of his friends and contemporaries; but the leveller has spared and +dealt tenderly with one of his earliest and most constant friends, Mr. +Charles F. Adams, whose store of Leech's letters, together with many +pleasing reminiscences, have been placed unreservedly at my disposal. +From Mr. Kitton's memoir of Leech I have derived, through the author's +kindness, much advantage; and to Mr. Thornber, a well-known collector of +Leech's works, I owe the opportunity of selecting some of the best +illustrations that grace the book. + +I also desire to express my gratitude to the proprietors of _Punch_, +who, though unable to comply with my unreasonable demand to the full +extent of it, have given me most important help in my endeavours to do +honour to the genius who was such an honour to _Punch_. I owe to those +gentlemen no less than eight of the full-page illustrations, to say +nothing of numbers of small cuts. + +I take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Grego, my neighbour Mr. +McKenzie, Mr. Willert Beale, and Mr. Maitland for their help in various +ways; not forgetting the Eton boy, whose anonymity I preserve according +to his desire. + +To Sir John Millais, Mr. Ashby Sterry, Mr. Horsley, Mr. Holman Hunt, and +Mr. Cholmondeley Pennel I also offer my warmest acknowledgment for the +papers they have so kindly contributed. + +In conclusion, I permit myself a few words in explanation of that which +I know will be laid to my charge, namely, that my book tells too little +of Leech and too much of his work, and that it is chronologically +deficient. In excuse I plead that the life of Leech as I knew it from +its early days was, like that of most artists, entirely devoid of such +incidents as would interest the public; and that from the difficulty of +acquiring certain information, and the varying times at which it was +supplied, chronological accuracy was impossible. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + PROLOGUE 1 + + I. EARLY DAYS 3 + + II. EARLY WORK 20 + + III. MR. PERCIVAL LEIGH AND LEECH 75 + + IV. MEETING OF MULREADY AND LEECH 95 + + V. "THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EVENING PARTIES," BY ALBERT SMITH 104 + + VI. JOHN LEECH AND THE ETON BOY 130 + + VII. MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR 137 + + VIII. "THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS," BY ALBERT SMITH 151 + + IX. "THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS"--CONTINUED 163 + + X. "A MAN MADE OF MONEY," BY DOUGLAS JERROLD 178 + + XI. ALBERT SMITH AND LEECH 206 + + XII. MR. ADAMS AND LEECH 233 + + XIII. "COMIC GRAMMAR" AND "COMIC HISTORY" 255 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + PORTRAIT OF JOHN LEECH _Frontispiece_ + + HERCULES RETURNING FROM A FANCY BALL _To face p._ 3 + + PHYSICIAN AND GENERAL PRACTITIONER 27 + + "WHERE 'AVE WE BIN? WHY, TO SEE THE COVE 'UNG, TO BE SURE!" 29 + + AN EYE TO BUSINESS 31 + + BUT AUGUSTUS'S HEART WAS TOO FULL TO SPEAK 33 + + "SIR! PLEASE, MR.! SIR! YOU'VE FORGOT THE DOOR-KEY!" 38 + + ETON BOY (_loq._): "Come, governor! just one toast--'The Ladies'!" 39 + + THE RETURN FROM THE DERBY 43 + + THE DERBY EPIDEMIC 44 + + SOMETHING LIKE A HOLIDAY 46 + + ALARMING SYMPTOMS ON EATING BOILED BEEF AND GOOSEBERRY-PIE 47 + + "SO YOU HAVE TAKEN ALL YOUR STUFF, AND DON'T FEEL ANY BETTER, EH?" 50 + + AWFUL APPARITION TO A GENTLEMAN WHILST SHAVING IN THE EDGWARE ROAD, + SEPTEMBER 29, 1846. 51 + + "A HOLDER AND A THINNER WINE" 53 + + "HOLLO! HI! HERE, SOMEBODY! I'VE TURNED ON THE HOT WATER, AND I + CAN'T TURN IT OFF AGAIN!" 54 + + SYMPTOMS OF A MASQUERADE 55 + + THE RISING GENERATION 57 + + THE IRREPRESSIBLE JUVENILE 58 + + THE RISING GENERATION 59 + + SERVANT-GAL-ISM 63 + + THE RISING GENERATION 65 + + SPECIAL CONSTABLE: "Now mind, you know--if I kill you, it's + nothing; but if you kill me, by Jove! it's murder!" 67 + + RECREATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY 69 + + CABMAN IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE TAKEN A WRONG TURNING, THAT'S ALL 70 + + MR. BRIGGS DOES A LITTLE SHOOTING 73 + + "FIDDLE-FADDLE" FASHIONS 90 + + "FIDDLE-FADDLE" FASHIONS 91 + + THE MULREADY ENVELOPE 96 + + FORES'S COMIC ENVELOPE 97 + + MAMMA AND THE GIRLS 106 + + TWO RUDE YOUNG MEN 107 + + THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE 108 + + AN OLIVE-BRANCH 109 + + TWO "GANGLING" YOUNG MEN 110 + + PREPARING FOR THE BALL 111 + + THE ASSISTANT-WAITER 112 + + THE BAND 112 + + WALLFLOWERS 114 + + MR. LEDBURY 115 + + MR. LEDBURY AND MISS HAMILTON 116 + + THE WALTZ 118 + + IN THE CONSERVATORY 119 + + THE BELLE OF THE EVENING 120 + + MR. LEDBURY'S HAT 121 + + MR. PERCIVAL JENKS 123 + + CLOWN: "Oh, see what I've found!" 127 + + MISS CINTHIA SINGS 128 + + DREADFUL FOR YOUNG OXFORD 131 + + MISS LUCY AND MR. SPONGE 149 + + LE PREMIER PAS _To face p._ 160 + + DEATH OF ST. CROIX " 172 + + A FAMILY PICTURE 189 + + AND THERE STOOD JERICHO 203 + + MR. SIMMONS'S ATTEMPT AT REFORM 215 + + THE BELLE OF THE MONTH--AUGUST--TAKING A "CONSTITUTIONAL" IN + KENSINGTON GARDENS. TIME, 8 A.M. 221 + + THE BALCONY NUISANCE 223 + + THE BELLE OF THE MONTH--NOVEMBER--"IN DISTRESS OFF A + LEE-SHORE--BRIGHTON PIER" 229 + + "NOW, JACK, MY BOY! THERE'S NO TIME TO LOSE! WE'VE TEN MILES TO + GO TO COVER" 245 + + EFFECTS OF A FALL 253 + + BILLY TAYLOR 256 + + "WHERE GOT'S THOU THAT GOOSE? LOOK!" 257 + + QUEEN ELEANOR AND FAIR ROSAMOND 261 + + KING EDWARD INTRODUCING HIS SON AS PRINCE OF WALES TO HIS + NEWLY-ACQUIRED SUBJECTS 262 + + UNSEEMLY CONDUCT OF HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES 263 + + THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER GOES INTO MOURNING FOR HIS LITTLE NEPHEWS 264 + + MARY'S ELOPEMENT 266 + + + + +JOHN LEECH: + +_HIS LIFE AND WORK_ + +PROLOGUE. + + +_"'Leech' (spelt 'leich') is an old Saxon word for 'surgeon,'" writes a +friend to me. "Hence, as you know, the employment of the word 'leech' as +a term applied in former times to doctors."_ + +_Though Leech is not a common name, I have met with several bearers of +it under every variety of spelling that the word was capable of--Leech, +Lietch, Leich, Leeche, Leitch, etc. Only two of the owners of these +names became known to fame--John, of immortal memory, and, longo +intervallo, William Leitch, a Scottish artist, and landscape-painter of +considerable merit, whose pictures, generally of a classic character, +found favour amongst a certain class of buyers. A large subject of much +beauty was engraved, and, I think, formed the prize-engraving for the +year for the Art Union of London. I have no doubt William Leitch was +frequently asked if he were related to John. The sound of the names was +similar, and few inquirers knew of the difference in the spelling. +Whether William was asked the question or not I cannot speak to with +certainty; but that John was I am sure, because he told me so himself, +and, as well as I can recall them, in the following words:_ + +_"I was asked the other day if I were related to a man of the same +name--a Scotchman--a landscape-painter. He spells his name L-e-i-t-c-h, +you know. I said, 'No; the Scotch gentleman's name is spelt in the +Scotch way, with the 'itch in it.' Not bad, eh? I hope nobody will tell +him!"_ + +_I met William Leitch several times (he died long ago), and was always +charmed by his refined and gentle manner; but we never became intimate, +so I cannot say I had the following anecdote from himself; but it was +told me by an intimate friend of the artist, who assured me that he had +it from Leitch direct._ + +_Leitch had a considerable practice as a drawing-master, chiefly amongst +the higher classes. He taught the very highest, for he gave lessons to +the Queen herself. I have never had the honour of seeing any of her +Majesty's drawings, but I have had the advantage of her criticism, and I +can well believe in the reports of the excellence of her work._ + +_The story goes that one day, in the course of a lesson, the Queen let +her pencil fall to the ground. Both master and pupil stooped to pick it +up; and, to the horror of Leitch, there was a collision--the master's +head struck that of his royal pupil! and before he could stammer an +apology, the Queen said, smiling:_ + +_"Well, Mr. Leitch, if we bring our heads together in this way, I +ought to improve rapidly."_ + +[Illustration: _"Hercules" returning from a Fancy Bail._ + +_R. E. & S. 1888._] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EARLY DAYS. + + +On the 29th of August, 1817, a boy was born in London gifted with a +genius which, in the short time allowed for its development, delighted +and astonished the world. The child's name was Leech, and he was +christened John. The Leech family was of Irish extraction. From +information received, it appears that the father of Leech, also called +John, was possessed of an uncle who had made a large fortune as the +owner of the London Coffee-House, Ludgate Hill. With this fortune he +retired, leaving his nephew to reign in his stead at the Coffee-House, +not without a reasonable hope and expectation that the nephew would +follow in the uncle's prosperous footsteps. But times had changed. Clubs +were being formed, and the customers of the Ludgate Hill place of +entertainment preferred to be enrolled as members of the novel +institutions rather than subject themselves to the somewhat mixed +company at the Coffee-House. Leech's establishment, however, struggled +on into my early time, for I can well remember being advised, if I +wished for a good and wonderfully cheap dinner, consisting--as per +advertisement--of quite startling varieties of dishes, my desire might +be gratified by payment of eighteen-pence to the authorities at the +London Coffee-House, Ludgate Hill. + +I do not know the precise time at which the doors of the Coffee-House +were finally closed and the father Leech, with his large family, was +thrown upon the world; but it must have been some years after the +subject of this memoir had been enrolled amongst the Charterhouse +scholars, an event that took place when he was seven years old. Previous +to this by about four years, some feeble buds of the genius that +blossomed so abundantly afterwards are said to have shown themselves, +and to have been observed by Flaxman as the child sat with pencil and +paper on his mother's knee. The great sculptor is reported to have said: + +"This drawing is wonderful. Do not let him be cramped by +drawing-lessons; let his genius follow its own bent. He will astonish +the world." + +I venture to think that for this story a grain of salt would be by no +means sufficient. No drawing done by a child of three years old, however +gifted, could be "wonderful" in the estimation of Flaxman; and that such +an artist as he was should have said anything so foolish as what is +tantamount to advising a parent against "learning to draw" I take the +liberty of disbelieving. Flaxman was a friend of the Leeches, and in +after years, while John Leech was still a youth, the sculptor again +examined some of his sketches, and, after looking well at them, he very +likely said, as is reported: + +"That boy must be an artist; he will be nothing else." + +A child of seven seems almost cruelly young to be subjected to the +hardships of a public school. + +"I thought," wrote John's father, "that I was not wrong in sending him +thus early, as Dr. Russell, the head-master, had a son of the same age +in the school, and John was in the same form with him." + +No doubt the elder Leech felt much the parting from his little son, but +to Mrs. Leech the boy's leaving home was a severe blow; the mother's +heart would no doubt realize and exaggerate the perils to mind and body +arising from contact with something like six hundred fellow-pupils, +scarcely one so young, and none so loving and lovable as her little boy. +John was boarded at a house close by the Charterhouse, and only allowed +to go home at rare intervals. The fond mother, however, could not live +without seeing him, and to enable her to gratify her longing, a room was +hired in a house overlooking the boy's playground, from which, carefully +hidden, she could see her little son as he walked and talked with the +form-fellow, "the particular friend" to whom a sympathetic nature had +attached him; or watch him as he joined heart and soul in some game--not +too rough--for a fall from his pony, by which his arm had been broken +and was still far from strong, made such rough sports as are common to +schoolboys too dangerous to be indulged in. + +The Charterhouse rejoiced in a drawing-master named Burgess. Upon what +principles that master proceeded to train the youth of Charterhouse I am +unable to speak; they were most likely those in vogue at the time of +young Leech's sojourn. If they were of that description, it was +fortunate that Leech paid--as is said--little or no attention to them, +finding a difficulty, no doubt, in applying them to the sketches that +constantly fell from him on to the pages of his school-books. + +It may be urged that when Flaxman warned the boy's mother against +teaching as being sure to cramp her son's genius, he alluded to the +Burgess method. That may have been so. But a man like Flaxman, who had +possessed himself by severest study as a young man of the means by which +his powers were developed, would, I think, have been sure to warn Mrs. +Leech of the difference between the teaching that would be mischievous, +and that which is proved to be indispensable by the universal practice +of the greatest painters. I am aware I shall be confronted with the case +of John Leech, who was, so to speak, entirely self-taught; but Leech was +not a painter, and certainly never could have become a good one without +training; besides, he was altogether exceptional--unique, in fact. In my +opinion, we are as likely to see another Shakespeare or Dickens as +another Leech. + +This is a digression, for which I apologize. I cannot find that my +hero--I may call him such, for he was ever a hero to me--paid much +attention to classical knowledge. Latin verses were impossible to him, +but they had to be done; so, as he said, he "got somebody to do them for +him." In spite of his weak arm, he fenced with Angelo, the school +fencing-master; but, beyond the advantage of the exercise, the +accomplishment was of no use to him. + +Here I cannot resist an anecdote of which the fencing reminds me. + +Some years before Leech's death the editor of a newspaper, who was +remarkable for the severity of his criticisms and for his extreme +personal ugliness, had made some caustic remarks on Leech's work in +general, and on some special drawings in particular. + +"If that chap," said Leech to me, "doesn't mind what he is about, I will +_draw_ and defend myself"--an idle threat, for nothing could have +provoked that gentle, noble nature into personality, no trace of which +is to be found in the long list of his admirable works. + +Several letters, delightfully boyish, written by Leech to his father +from the Charterhouse, are in my possession. Some of them, I think, may +appropriately appear in this place. + + + "Septr 19 1826 + + "DEAR PAPA + + "I hope you are quite well. I beg you will let me come out to see you +for I am so dull here, and I am always fretting about, because I wrote +to you yesterday and you would not let me come out. I will fag hard if +you will let me come out, and will you write to me, and the letter that +you write put in when you are going to Esex and when you return for I +want to very particularly + +"How is Mamma, Brother and Sisters + +"I hope Ester is quite well, + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH + +"I am very sorry that I stayed away from School with ---- but I promise +never to do it again and I beg you will let me come out on Sunday." + + + "Charter House October 2 _1826_ + + "MY DEAR PAPA. + +"You told me to write to you when the reports where made out, they are +made out now, and mine is, does his Best. I hope you are quite well, and +Mamma the same. I hope Tom Mary Caroline, and Ester are quite well. I +have not spoken to Mr Chapman yet about the tuter, and drawing Master, +because I had not an oppertunity, send me a cake as soon as it is +convenient + + "Your affectionate son + "J LEECH." + + + [_No date._] + + "MY DEAR PAPA. + +"I write this note to know how poor little Polly is I hope she is better +to day pray write to me before the day is over and tell me how she is. I +hope you and Mamma Tom and Fanny are all well since I left you last +night. + +"I am happy to say I am at the very top off the Form + +"Tell Mamma not to forget to come and see me on Wenesday as she said she +would. I would write to Polly now only I have not time pray give Polly a +1000 kiss for me and Fanny and Tom the same. As I said before I hope +poor little Polly is better. + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH." + + + "MY DEAR PAPA, + +"My report was made out yesterday but I forgot to write to you +therefore I tell you to-day, it was (generally attentive) If any +afternoon or morning that you have time I should be very happy to see +you. You can see me in the morning from 12 to half-past two and in the +evening from 4 till 9. + +"Send me another suit of clothes if you please and a cap. Mind the +gloves. I hope Polly continues to get better and I hope you and Mamma +Brother and sisters are quite well. Send me a penknife if you please. I +remain + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH." + + + "DEAR PAPA + +"Will you let me come out to see you once before my sisters go to +school, for I feel quite unhappy here and miserable. I am afraid I shall +not be able to get promoted yet, therefore I am afraid I shant be able +to come out. But you promised me that if I did not get promoted you +would let me come out. I try as much as I can to get promoted. Do let me +come out once before my Sisters go to School. + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH + +"Tell Mamma to send me a cake as soon as she can + +"Send me some money as soon as you can." + + + + "September 14 1827 + + "MY DEAR PAPA. + +"I am happy to say that Mr Baliscombe says that for my Holiday Task I +deserve promotion and says it is very well done indeed. Come and see me +as soon as you can. I think I shall get promoted when Dr Russell sees my +Holiday Task--In fact Mr Baliscombe is going to ask him to put me up. I +hope you and Mamma are quite well. Springett went to the play he tells +me and did not come back till the morning. I hope dear old Camello and +the dear little Baby Bunning are quite well, would you mind sending Mrs +Jeffkins some partridges for I know she would like some. Tell Mamma to +write to me as soon as she possibly can. + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH + +"P.S. I would not send the porter only I have got neither wafer nor +seal'wax." + + + "Sepr 16th 1827 + + "MY DEAR PAPA. + +"I am very happy indeed to say that I am promoted for I know it makes +you happy. Let me come out next Saturday and come and see me to-morrow. +I have no sealing wax or would not send the porter. + +"I hope you are quite well and Mamma and Old Camello and the little Baby +Bunning the same + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH." + + + "DEAR PAPA + +"As I am rather short of money and want to keep my money I've got, I +should be much obliged if you would give my ambassador 18 pence or so as +I've promised a boy at school one of those small bladders to make +balloons of, if you remember you bought me one once. I hope you are all +well + + "I remain + "Your affectionate son + "J LEECH." + + + "DEAR PAPA + +"Will you be so kind as to send me half a crown by the porter and +allowence me every week + +"I was obliged to send the porter + +"I hope you Mamma Brothers and sisters are quite well. + + "Your affectionate son + "J LEECH." + + + [_No date._] + + "MY DEAR MAMMA + +"I understand that you came to see me yesterday, and me being in the +green, you did not see me, so that made me still more unhappy, I beg you +will come and see me on Saturday for I am very unhappy. + +"I want to see you or Papa very much indeed. + + "Your affectionate son + "J LEECH." + + + "MY DEAR PAPA. + +"You desired me to send you my report I have not had it since the last +one. I went into be examined by Dr Russell yesterday but I did not get +promoted but I did not lose more than one or two places. I will send you +my next report. I hope you are quite well. + +"Mamma and Brother and sisters the Same + + "Your affectionate + "Son + "J LEECH. + +"I would have written to you sooner but _I had not time_." + + +Leech made no way at the Charterhouse; never approaching the position +held by Thackeray, who was four years his senior: indeed, I doubt that +they saw, or cared to see, much of each other, little dreaming that they +would ultimately become dear and fast friends till death separated them, +only to meet again, as we believe, after the sad, short interval that +elapsed between the deaths of each. + +I cannot say I believe in inherited talent, but the fact that the elder +Leech was said to be a remarkable draughtsman seems to strengthen the +theory held by some people. I have never seen any specimens of the +father's drawing, nor did I ever hear the son speak of it. Anyway, Leech +_pere_ had no faith in the practice of art as a means of livelihood for +his son, for he informed the youth, after a nine years' attendance at +the Charterhouse, that he was destined for the medical profession. There +is no record of any objection on the part of Leech to his father's +decision, at which I feel surprise; for the flame which burnt so +brilliantly in after-life must have been always well alight, and very +antagonistic to the kind of work required from the embryo surgeon. +Leech's gentle yielding nature influenced him then as always; and he +went to St. Bartholomew's, where under Mr. Stanley, the surgeon of the +hospital, he worked hard and delighted his master by his excellent +anatomical drawings. From these studies may be traced, I think, much of +the knowledge of the human form, and above all of _proportion_, always +displayed in his work; for in those wonderful drawings, whether a figure +is tall or short, fat or thin, whether he deals with a child or a giant, +with a dog or a horse, no disproportion can be found. + +It appears that the elder Leech's affairs were already in such an +embarrassed condition, that an intention to place his son with Sir +George Ballingall, an eminent Scottish doctor, was abandoned, and after +a time he was placed with a Mr. Whittle, a very remarkable person, who +figures under the name of Rawkins in a novel written by Albert Smith and +illustrated by Leech. Smith's work, with the title of "The Adventures of +Mr. Ledbury and his Friend Jack Johnson," was first published in +_Bentley's Miscellany_. + +"Mr. Rawkins," says Albert Smith, "was so extraordinary a person for a +medical practitioner that, had we only read of him instead of having +known him, we should at once have put him down as the far-fetched +creation of the author's brain. He was about eight-and-thirty years old, +and of herculean build except his legs, which were small in comparison +with the rest of his body. But he thought that he was modelled after the +statues of antiquity, and, indeed, in respect of his nose, which was +broken, he was not far wrong in his idea--that feature having been +damaged in some hospital skirmish when he was a student. His face was +adorned with a luxuriant fringe of black whiskers, meeting under his +chin, whilst his hair, of a similar hue, was cut rather short about his +head, and worn without the least regard to any particular style or +direction. But it was also his class of pursuits that made him so +singular a character. Every available apartment in his house not +actually in use by human beings was appropriated to the conserving of +innumerable rabbits, guinea-pigs, and ferrets. His areas were filled +with poultry, bird-cages hung at every window, and the whole of his roof +had been converted into one enormous pigeon-trap. It was one of his most +favourite occupations to sit, on fine afternoons, with brandy-and-water +and a pipe, and catch his neighbours' birds. He had very little private +practice; the butcher, the baker, and the tobacconist were his chief +patients, who employed him more especially with the intention of working +out their accounts. He derived his principal income from the retail of +his shop, his appointments of medical man to the police force and parish +poor, and breeding fancy rabbits. These various avocations pretty well +filled up his time, and when at home he passed his spare minutes in +practising gymnastics--balancing himself upon one hand and laying hold +of staples, thus keeping himself at right angles to the wall, with other +feats of strength, the acquisition of which he thought necessary in +enabling him to support the character of Hercules--his favourite +impersonation--with due effect." + +It is not to be wondered at that Mr. Whittle, _alias_ Rawkins, should +find that stealing his neighbours' pigeons, together with his other +unprofitable accomplishments, to say nothing of the sparseness of paying +patients, could have only one termination--bankruptcy. Mr. Whittle ended +his career in a public-house, of which he became proprietor after +marrying the widow who kept it. Here he put off his coat to his work, +and in his shirt-sleeves served his customers with beer. Leech and +Albert Smith, and others of his pupils took his beer readily, though +they had always declined to take his pills. It is said that he was +originally a Quaker, and that he died a missionary at the Antipodes. + +Leech stayed but a short time with the pigeon-fancying Whittle, whom +he left to be placed under Dr. John Cockle, afterwards Physician to the +Royal Free Hospital. Leech seems to have been a pretty regular attendant +at anatomical and other lectures, and it goes without saying that his +notes were garnished with sketches, for which his fellow-students sat +unconsciously; and plenty of them remain to prove the impossibility of +checking an inclination so strongly implanted in such a genuine artist +as John Leech. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +EARLY WORK. + + +It was at St. Bartholomew's that Leech made acquaintance, which soon +ripened into friendship, with Albert Smith, Percival Leigh (a future +comrade on the _Punch_ Staff, and author of the "Comic Latin Grammar," +"Pips' Diary," etc.), Gilbert a Beckett and many others, all or most of +whom served as models for that unerring pencil. + +The impecunious condition of Leech senior before John had reached his +eighteenth year was such as to make his chances of getting a living by +medicine or surgery, even if successful, so remote as to place them +beyond consideration. No doubt the elder Leech's misfortunes were +"blessings in disguise," for we owe to them the necessity that compelled +the younger man to devote himself to art. + +The art of drawing upon wood, to which Leech in his later years almost +entirely confined himself, dates back from very early times. +Lithography, or drawing upon stone, is a comparatively modern invention, +and, until the introduction of photography, was used for varieties of +artistic reproduction. It was to that process we owe the first published +work of Leech. The artist was eighteen years old when "Etchings and +Sketchings," by A. Pen, Esq., price 2s. plain, 3s. coloured, was offered +tremblingly to the public. The work was in the shape of four quarto +sheets, which were covered with sketches, more or less caricatures, of +cabmen, policemen, street musicians, hackney coachmen with their +vehicles and the peculiar breed of animal attached to them, and other +varieties of life and character common to the streets of London. This +work is now very rarely to be met with; it consisted chiefly, I believe, +of characteristic heads and half-length figures. To "Etchings and +Sketchings" the young artist added some political caricatures, also in +lithography, of considerable merit. With these, or, rather, with the +heavy stones on which they were drawn, we may imagine the weary +wanderings from publisher to publisher; the painful anxiety with which +the verdict, on which so much depended, was waited for; the hopes that +brightened at a word of commendation, only to be scattered by a few +stereotyped phrases, such as, "Ah, very clever, but these sort of things +are not in our way, you see; there is no demand," and so on. + +1836, when Leech was still a boy, saw the production of works called +"The Boy's Own Series," "Studies from Nature," "Amateur Originals," "The +Ups and Downs of Life; or, The Vicissitudes of a Swell," etc. + +The delicate touch and the grasp of character peculiar to the artist are +recognised at once in many examples. + +Leech's struggle for bread for himself and others must have been +terrible at this time; indeed, up to the establishment of Rowland Hill's +penny post, when, by what may be called a brilliant opportunity, Leech +attracted for the first time the public attention, which never deserted +him. + +The title of this book is "The Life and _Work_ of John Leech." Of the +former, as I have shown, there is little to tell; on the latter, +volumes, critical, descriptive, appreciative, might be written. An +artist is destined to immortality or speedy oblivion according to his +work, and it was my earnest hope, on undertaking this memoir, that I +should be able to prove, by the finest examples of Leech's genius, that +an indisputable claim to immortality was established for him. To a great +extent I have been permitted to do so; but the law of copyright has +debarred me from the selection of many brilliant pictures of life and +character on which my, perhaps unreasonably covetous, eyes had rested. +The proprietors of _Punch_ and also of the copyright of most of Leech's +other works are, no doubt, properly careful of their interests, and I +can imagine their surprise at the extent of my first demands upon their +good-nature. In my ignorance I had thought that as my object was the +honour and glory of John Leech--a feeling, no doubt, shared by them--the +treasures of _Punch_ would be spread before me, with a request that I +would help myself. I do not in the least complain that I found myself +mistaken. There are, no doubt, good reasons for the limits to which I +was restricted, though I am unable to see them; and, granting the +existence of those reasons, I should be ungrateful if I did not express +my thanks for the small number of illustrations from _Punch_ and other +sources which I am allowed to use. I confess I was delighted to find +that the first few years of the existence of _Punch_ were free by lapse +of time from copyright protection, and as some of Leech's best work +appears in the volumes between 1841 and 1849, I am able to show my +readers further proofs of the justice of the artist's claim to be +remembered for all time. + +Leech's hatred of organ-grinding began very early in his career. + + "WANTED, BY AN AGED LADY OF VERY NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT, A PROFESSOR, WHO + WILL UNDERTAKE TO MESMERIZE ALL THE ORGANS IN HER STREET. SALARY, SO + MUCH PER ORGAN." + +The drawing which appeared in _Punch_ in 1843, with the above title, was +the first of the humorous series that continued almost unbroken for more +than twenty years. It is pitiable to think of the long martyrdom that +Leech suffered from an abnormal nervous organization, which ultimately +made street-noises absolute agony to him. In the illustration the +singular difference of dress in the organ-grinder of fifty years ago and +him of the present time is noticeable, as also are the perfect +expressions of the small audience. Leech's chief contributions to +_Punch_ at this time were the large cuts, in which Peel, Brougham, the +great Duke of Wellington, and others, play political parts in matters +that would be of little interest to the reader of to-day, nor are the +drawings of exceptional merit. + +In 1844 there appeared an irresistible little cut, the precursor of so +many admirable variations of skating and sliding incidents. + + "NOW, LOBSTER, KEEP THE POT A-BILING." + +What could surpass the impudence of the vigorous youngster, or the +expression of the guardsman of amused wonder as he looks down upon the +audacious imp, as Goliath might have looked upon David? + +The sensation created by the first appearance of the dwarf Tom Thumb +remains vividly in my memory. I saw him in all his impersonations; that +of Napoleon, in which he was dressed in exact imitation of the Emperor, +was very droll. The little creature was at Waterloo, taking quantities +of snuff from his waistcoat pocket, giving his orders for the final +charge which decided his fate; and when he saw that all was lost, his +distress was terrible: he wrung his little hands and wept copiously, +amidst the uproarious applause and laughter of the audience. Then he was +at St. Helena, and, standing on an imaginary rock, he folded his arms, +and gazed wistfully in the direction of his beloved France. After a +long, lingering look, he shook his little head, and with a sigh so loud +as to astonish us, he dashed the tears from his eyes, and made his bow +to the audience, some of whom affected to be shocked by the laughter of +the unthinking, and loudly expressed their sympathy with the great man +in his fall. I well remember the great Duke going to see the amusing +dwarf, but why Leech should have represented him in the dancing +attitude, as shown in the illustration, seems strange. Surely a more +serious imitation of a Napoleonic attitude would have been more telling +and more comic. + +The next print illustrates a paper in _Punch_ called "Physicians and +General Practitioners." + +"The physician almost invariably dresses in black," says the writer, +"and wears a white neck-cloth. He also often affects smalls and gaiters, +likewise shirt-frills" (fancy a physician in these days thus dressed!). +He appears, no doubt very properly, in perpetual mourning. The general +practitioner more frequently sports coloured clothes, as drab trousers +and a figured waistcoat. With respect to features, the Roman nose, we +think, is more characteristic of physicians; while among general +practitioners, we should say, the more common of the two was the snub. + +The general practitioner and the physician often meet professionally, +on which occasion their interests as well as their opinions are very apt +to clash; whereupon an altercation ensues, which ends by the physician +telling the general practitioner that he is an "impudent quack," and the +general practitioner's replying to the physician that he is "a +contemptible humbug." + +[Illustration] + +How perfectly Leech has realized the scene for us the drawing +abundantly shows. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that he never +surpassed in drawing, expression, and character, these two admirable +figures; full of contempt for each other, the emotion is expressed +naturally, and with due regard to the peculiarities, widely varying, of +each of the disputants. + +More years ago than I care to remember, I met at dinner Mr. Gibson, the +Newgate surgeon. At that time an agitation was afoot respecting public +executions, the advocates maintaining that the sight of a +fellow-creature done to death acted as a deterrent on any of the +sight-seers who were disposed to risk a similar fate, the objectors +declaring that the exhibition only made brutes more brutal, and was in +no way a deterrent. As Mr. Gibson had had a long experience of criminals +and their ways, it was thought worth while to ask his opinion of the +matter in dispute. The surgeon said that, feeling strongly on the +subject of public hanging, he had made a point of asking persons under +sentence of death if they had ever attended executions, and he found +that over three-fourths--he told us the exact number, but I cannot trust +my memory on the point--had witnessed the finishing of the law. So much +for the deterrent effect. The disgraceful scenes that took place at the +execution of the Mannings produced a powerful letter to the press from +Dickens, and an equally powerful article in the _Daily News_, by Mr. +Parkinson. Parliament was aroused, and public executions ceased. + +[Illustration: "WHERE 'AVE WE BIN? WHY, TO SEE THE COVE 'UNG, TO BE +SURE!"] + +The Leech drawing which follows appeared in 1845, some years before the +Manning murder, and a considerable time previous to the agitation on the +subject of hanging in public. If ever a moral lesson was inculcated by a +work of art, this powerful drawing is an example. Who knows how much it +may have done towards hastening the time when those horrible exhibitions +ceased? + +Is this squalid group, with debauchery and criminality in evidence in +each figure, likely to be morally impressed by the sight of a public +hanging? What are they but types of a class that always frequented such +scenes? The dreadful woman has carried her child with her; the little +creature's attenuated limbs point to the neglect and ill-usage sure to +be met with from such parents. + +To those unacquainted with the "Caudle Lectures" by Douglas Jerrold, +which appeared at this time in _Punch_, I recommend the perusal of those +inimitable papers. One of their merits is their having given occasion +for an admirable drawing by Leech. Lord Brougham was, in the eyes of +_Punch_ and many others, a firebrand in the House of Lords. He was +irrepressible, contentious, and brilliant on all occasions, quarrelsome +in the extreme, and a thorn in the side of whatever Government was in +power unless he was a member of it. The Woolsack, more especially the +object of his ambition, was made a very uneasy seat to any occupant. +Behold him, then, as Mrs. Caudle--an excellent likeness--making night +hideous for the unhappy Caudle, whose part is played by the Lord +Chancellor--Lyndhurst--while the Caudle pillow is changed into the +Woolsack. + + "THE MRS. CAUDLE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS." + + "What do you say? _Thank heaven! you are going to enjoy the recess, + and you'll be rid of me for some months?_ Never mind. Depend upon it, + when you come back, you shall have it again. No, I don't raise the + House and set everybody by the ears; but I'm not going to give up + every little privilege, though it's seldom I open my lips, goodness + knows!"--"Caudle Lectures" (improved). + +[Illustration: "AN EYE TO BUSINESS."] + +Whether such a scene as the following ever took place may be doubted; +but that it might have happened, and may happen again, there is no +doubt. One meets with strange seaside objects, and to bathe at the same +time as one's tailor is within the bounds of possibility. Leech +evidently thought so, hence this delightful little cut, wherein we see +the creditor--evidently a tailor--improving the occasion to remind his +fellow-swimmer of his little bill. See the businesslike aspect of the +one and the astonishment and alarm of the other, who in the next few +vigorous strokes will place himself beyond the reach of his creditor. + +Full of sympathy, as Leech was, for human suffering, and frequently as +he dealt with sea-sickness, he certainly never showed the least pity for +the sufferers by that miserable malady. Its ludicrous aspect was +irresistible to him, as numbers of illustrations sufficiently prove, and +none more perfectly than the one introduced in this place, with the +title of "Love on the Ocean," representing a couple evidently married on +the morning of this tempestuous day. "Why, oh why," I can hear the +unhappy bridegroom say to himself, "did we not arrange to pass our +honeymoon in some pleasant place in England, and so have avoided +crossing this dreadful sea?" To be ill in the dear presence of--oh, +horror! And the lady is so unconscious, so serenely unconscious, of the +impending catastrophe! She enjoys the sea, and, being of a poetical +turn, she thus improves the occasion: + +"Oh, is there not something, dear Augustus, truly sublime in the +warring of the elements?" + +[Illustration: "BUT AUGUSTUS'S HEART WAS TOO FULL TO SPEAK."] + +Let anyone who suffers at sea fancy what it is to be spoken to at all, +when the fearful sensations, the awful precursors of the inevitable, +have full possession of him, and then to suffer in the very presence of +the dear creature from whom every human weakness has been hitherto +carefully hidden! The drawing is followed by a poem, in which the +position of the unhappy Augustus is described. He could not speak in +reply to his bride's appeal; in the words of the poet: + + "She gazed upon the wave, + Sublime she declared it; + But no reply he gave-- + He could not have dared it. + + "Oh, then, 'Steward!' he cried, + With deepest emotion; + Then tottered to the side, + And leant o'er the ocean." + +Poor miserable Augustus! his face is pale as death, his treasured locks +blown out of shape; his eyeglass swings in the wind; the distant steamer +is making mad plunges into the heaving wave; the rain falls, and let us +hope the romantic bride turns away as her young husband "leans o'er the +ocean." + +Only those who have passed from the tableland of life can recollect the +passion for speculation in railways that took possession of the public +in 1845 and the two or three following years. I myself caught the +disease, and, acting on the advice of "one who knew," I bought a number +of shares in one of the new lines; these were L25 shares, on which L8 +each had been paid. I was assured by my adviser that I should receive +interest at the rate of eight per cent. till the year 1850; after that +time the line would pay ten. I awoke one morning to find that a panic +was in full blast, and all railway property depreciated. My feelings may +be imagined, for I certainly cannot describe them, when I found, on +reference to the _Times_, that my L8 shares--L17 being still due upon +each--were quoted at half a crown apiece! My friend had the courage of +his opinions, for he had invested the whole of his property in railway +stocks. He was completely ruined in mind and body, and died miserably +before the panic was over. + +Multiply these examples by thousands, and you will arrive at a clear +idea of the nature of a panic, which seems to mystify the young +gentleman immortalized by Leech in the drawing illustrating the +following dialogue: + + "I SAY, JIM, WHAT'S A PANIC?" + + "BLOWED IF I KNOW; BUT THERE IS VON TO BE SEEN IN THE CITY." + +It has been my fate in the course of a long life to attend several +fancy-dress balls, but I can scarcely call to mind a single example of +the successful assumption of an historical character, or, indeed, of any +character that could disguise the very modern young lady or gentleman +who was masquerading in it. My first acquaintance with Mark Lemon, so +long the esteemed editor of _Punch_, began in the Hanover Square Rooms, +at a fancy-dress ball given by a society--chiefly, I think, composed of +the better class of tradespeople--called the Gothics. On that occasion +might have been seen a young gentleman in the dress of one of Charles +II.'s courtiers, and looking about as unlike his prototype as +possible--in earnest conversation with another courtier, of the time of +George II. I was of the Charles' period, Lemon of that of the Georges. +Those who remember Lemon's figure later in life would have been +surprised by the change that time had made in it, if they could have +witnessed the interview between the two young men, one scarcely stouter +than the other. In proof of my idea that the greater number of guests +were in trade, I might give scraps of conversation between Mary Queen of +Scots and Guy Fawkes, or between Henry VIII. and Edward the Black +Prince, that would leave no doubt on the subject; nay, later in the +evening I had convincing proof of the correctness of my surmise, as you +shall hear. I danced with a Marie Antoinette of surpassing beauty, with +whom I fell incontinently in love. More than once I danced with her, and +when supper was announced, my earnest appeal to be allowed to conduct +her to the banquet was successful. My lovely friend was full of the +curiosity peculiar to her sex, which showed itself in her anxiety to +know who and what I was. To tell the truth, I was equally curious to +know who she was, and what her friends were. + +"Well," said I, "if you will tell me who you are, I will tell you who I +am and what I am." + +"Oh," was the reply, "I think I know what you are; but what's your +name?" + +"You know what I am?" said I, surprised; "what am I?" + +"Well, you are in the same line that we are, I fancy." + +"And what line is that?" + +"The army tailoring. Am I right?" + +In the illustration that accompanies these remarks Leech has succeeded +in presenting to us a Norman knight completely characteristic, a +Crusader more real, I think, than any modern could have rendered him. +The lady he escorts, in a dress a few hundred years after Crusading +times, is very lovely. The capital little Marchioness, with the big +door-key, the four-wheeler, and the laughing crowd, make up a scene of +inimitable humour. + +We now come to the first of those precocious youths in whose mannish +ways, whose delightful impertinence to their elders, whose early +susceptibility to the passion of love for ladies three times older than +themselves, are shown by Leech in many a scene I should have given to my +readers, but over them the Copyright Act stands guard. "'Tis true, 'tis +pity, pity 'tis, 'tis true," that in a book intended solely to do honour +to Leech's genius, so many of the most perfect examples of it are denied +to us. + +[Illustration: "SIR! PLEASE, MR.! SIR! YOU'VE FORGOT THE DOOR-KEY!"] + +Well may the governor stare with open-mouthed astonishment at such a +proposal from such a creature! Look at him as he throws his little arm +over his chair in the swaggering attitude he has so often observed in +his elders, and raises a full glass of claret! "Just as the twig is bent +the tree's inclined;" but that we know that in this instance the twig is +indulging in a harmless freak, one might be inclined to dread the tree's +inclining. + +[Illustration: ETON BOY (_loq._): "Come, governor! just one toast--'The +Ladies'!"] + +The political opinions of the writer of this book are of no consequence +to himself or anybody else. It would perhaps be pretty near the truth if +he were to admit that he had no political opinions worth speaking of. To +those, however, who were interested in the struggle for Free Trade, +which in the year 1846 raged with great fury, the question was, and +still is, one of vital interest. The landed interest, headed by most of +the aristocracy on the one side, and the manufacturing interest, +championed by Cobden and Bright, on the other, raised a storm in which +language the reverse of parliamentary was tossed from side to side. Peel +was Prime Minister, and his ultimate conversion to the principles of +Free Trade, and consequent advocacy of the repeal of the Corn Laws, +horrified his supporters--by whom, notably by Disraeli, he became the +object of envenomed attack--but led to a settlement of the question, and +gave Leech an opportunity for the production of drawings of the victor +and the vanquished, entitled, Cobden's "Bee's Wing" and Richmond's +"Black Draught," two of the most successful of the political cartoons. + +"The Brook Green Volunteer" gave Leech the opportunity for many +illustrations which, to my mind, are nearer approaching caricature than +most of his work; nor have they, as a rule, the beauty or human interest +that so many of his drawings show. I fear I must charge the volunteer +himself with being in possession of an impossible face and a no less +impossible figure; his action also is exaggerated. In compensation we +have a delightful family group. The mother with that naked baby +perambulating her person is beyond all praise. Women do strange things, +but I deny the possibility of such a woman as Leech has drawn ever +finding it in her heart to marry that volunteer. The little thing +standing on tip-toe to dabble in baby's basin for the benefit of her +doll, the delighted lookers-on, not forgetting the warrior riding his +umbrella into action, are invested with the charm that Leech, and Leech +only, could give them. + +The year 1846 gave birth to the first fruit from a field in which Leech +found such a bountiful harvest. The racecourse gave opportunities for +the exhibition of life and character of which the great artist took +advantage in numberless delightful examples. Pen and pencil record +adventures by road and rail. Whether the excursionist is going to the +Derby or returning from it, whether he is high or low, a Duke or a +costermonger, that unerring hand is ready to note his follies or his +excesses, always with a kindly touch, or to point a moral if a graver +opportunity presents itself. + +A madman, they say, thinks all the world mad but himself; and it is not +uncommon for a drunken man to imagine himself to be the only sober +person in the company. That some feeling of this kind possesses the +rider in the drawing opposite, as he addresses the stolid postboy, is +evident enough; his drunken smile, his battered hat, and his dishevelled +dress, are eloquent of his proceedings on the course; and if his return +from the Derby is not signalized by a fall from his horse, he will be +more fortunate than he deserves to be. In works of art the value of +contrast is well known, and a better example than the face of the +postboy offers to that of his questioner could not be imagined. He +drunk, indeed! not a bit of it. + +A pretty creature in the background must not be overlooked. She is a +perfect specimen of Leech's power of creating beauty by a few +pencil-marks. Her beauty has evidently attracted notice, and caused +complimentary remarks from passers-by, which are resented by the old +lady in charge, who tells the speaker to "_go on with his imperdence_!" + +[Illustration: "THE RETURN FROM THE DERBY." + + SMITH: "Hollo! Poster, ain't you precious drunk, rather?" + + POSTBOY: "Drunk! not a bit of it!"] + +I cannot resist presenting my readers with another Derby sketch. It +is more than probable that if either of these young gentlemen had asked +for leave of absence from his official duties for the purpose of going +to the Derby, he would have met with stern denial. The attraction, +however, is irresistible, and though the subterfuge by which it is +achieved is not to be defended, who is there that is not glad that the +wicked boy is penning that audacious letter, as it is the cause of our +having a picture that is a joy for ever? As a work of art, whether as a +composition of lines and light and shadow, in addition to perfect +character and expression, this drawing takes rank amongst the best of +Leech's works. Note the admirable action of the youth who is putting on +his coat--a momentary movement caught with consummate skill. + +[Illustration: "THE DERBY EPIDEMIC."] + + "GENTLEMEN, + +"Owing to sudden and very severe indisposition, I regret to say that I +shall not be able to attend the office to-day. I hope, however, to be +able to resume my duties to-morrow. + + "I am, gentlemen, + "Yours very obediently, + "PHILLIP COX." + +Doctors differ, as everybody knows; and in no opinion do they differ +more than in the way children should be treated. One of the faculty will +tell you that a healthy child should be allowed to eat as much as he or +she likes; another advises that as grown-up people are disposed to eat a +great deal more than is good for them, a boy is pretty sure to do the +same unless a wholesome check is imposed upon his unruly appetite. A +great authority is reported to have said that as many people are killed +by over-eating as by over-drinking; "in fact," said he, "they dig their +graves with their teeth." If that be so, the young gentleman in +"Something like a Holiday" is destined for an early tomb. + +Comment on this wonderful youth is needless. We can only share the +alarm and astonishment so admirably expressed in the pastrycook's face. +That this awful juvenile's memory should serve him so perfectly when he +has taken such pains to cloud it, as well as every other faculty, is +also surprising. + +[Illustration: + + PASTRYCOOK: "What have you had, sir?" + + BOY: "I've had two jellies; seven of those, and eleven of these; and + six of those, and four bath-buns; a sausage-roll, ten almond-cakes, + and a bottle of ginger-beer."] + +[Illustration: + + "ALARMING SYMPTOMS ON EATING BOILED BEEF AND GOOSEBERRY-PIE." + + LITTLE BOY: "Oh lor, ma! I feel just exactly as if my jacket was + buttoned."] + +If "a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," the boy in the following +drawing would have delighted in the society of the _gourmet_ at the +pastrycook's. Boiled beef and gooseberry-pie are good things enough in +their way, but one may have too much of a good thing, with the +inevitable result of the tightening of the jacket. This greedy-boy +drawing appeared in 1846, and created a great sensation in the youth of +that day, and many days since. Careful parents have been known to use +this terrible example of over-eating as a warning to their offspring +that a fit of apoplexy frequently followed the tightening of the jacket. + +I think my married reader of the rougher sex will agree with me when I +say that there are few more uncomfortable, not to say alarming, moments +than those spent in the awful interview with the parents of his beloved, +during which he has to prove beyond all doubt that he is in every +respect an individual to whom the happiness of a "dear child" can be +safely entrusted. What a bad quarter of an hour that is before the +meeting, when he has grave doubts as to the sufficiency of his income! +Will it, with other future possibilities, be considered sufficient to +assure to "my daughter, sir, the comforts to which she has been +accustomed"? This he will have to answer satisfactorily, together with a +few score more questions more or less agonizing. Leech drew a scene of +common application when he produced the picture that follows, which he +calls "Rather Alarming"--"On Horror's Head, Horrors accumulate." Look at +that terrible female and prospective mother-in-law!--think of satisfying +such a woman that you are worthy of admission into her family! How +sincerely one pities that poor little Corydon, and how heartily one +wishes him success! + + "RATHER ALARMING." + + LADY: "You wished, sir, I believe, to see me respecting the state of + my daughter's affections with a view to a matrimonial alliance with + that young lady. If you will walk into the library, my husband and I + will discuss the matter with you." + + YOUNG CORYDON: "Oh, gracious!" + +Leech treats--how admirably!--another greedy boy, or, rather, two greedy +boys. + + JACKY: "Hallo, Tommy! what 'ave you got there?" + + TOMMY: "Hoyster!" + + JACKY: "Oh, give us a bit!" + +A Calais oyster, no doubt--large enough for both; but Tommy will not +share his happiness. Intensity of expression pervades him from his open +mouth to his fingers' ends. Jacky's face and figure are no less +expressive of eagerness to join in the banquet. + +[Illustration: + + "SO YOU HAVE TAKEN ALL YOUR STUFF, AND DON'T FEEL ANY BETTER, EH? + WELL, THEN, WE MUST ALTER THE TREATMENT. YOU MUST GET YOUR HEAD + SHAVED; AND IF YOU WILL CALL HERE TO-MORROW MORNING ABOUT ELEVEN, MY + PUPIL WILL PUT A SETON IN THE BACK OF YOUR NECK."] + +If ever man suffered from _embarras de richesse_, I am that individual +in making a selection from the early drawings of Leech; where all, or +nearly all, are so perfect, choice becomes difficult indeed. I cannot +resist, however, the one that follows this remark. For perfection of +character and richness of humour, it seems to me unsurpassable. The +doctor's attitude as he contemplates his victim--who seems to have +brought with her the huge empty physic-bottles to prove that she has +taken all her "stuff"--to say nothing of his startling individuality, is +Nature itself; and that immortal pupil with the big knife, smiling in +anticipation of the operation "to-morrow about eleven"! One can read on +the face of the patient a dull realization of the doctor's announcement +that only a seton in the back of her neck--whatever that may mean to +her--will be of any service now; and to render the operation successful, +she must have her head shaved. + +[Illustration: + + "AWFUL APPARITION TO A GENTLEMAN WHILST SHAVING IN THE EDGWARE ROAD, + SEPTEMBER 29, 1846."] + +The statue of the Duke of Wellington, which so long disgraced Hyde Park +Corner, has disappeared, to the satisfaction of the world in general, +though there were, I believe, a few dissentients who saw, or said they +saw, beauty in one of the most hideous objects ever perpetrated by the +hand of man; yet the "ayes had it," and the monster has departed. + +The effigy was manufactured in a studio near Paddington Green, and it +was on its journey through the Edgware Road to the arch now on +Constitution Hill that the gentleman in Leech's cartoon was startled by +a very remarkable object, to say the least of it. + +Speaking from my own experience, I have always found a difficulty in +giving the effect of wind in a picture; the action of it on drapery, +trees, skies, etc., is--from the almost momentary nature of the +gusts--far from an easy task. No one who ever handled a brush or a +pencil has been so successful as Leech in conveying the action of wind +on every object, and never did he succeed more completely than in an +"Awful Scene on the Chain Pier at Brighton," which is, no doubt, +somewhat farcical; but how intensely funny! Master Charley has gone, and +his ma's parasol has accompanied him. The horror-struck nursemaid is +almost blown off her feet; and Charley's brother, also terror-stricken, +will be down on his back in a moment; whilst his little sister maintains +her equilibrium with great difficulty. The flying hat, and the couple +staggering against the blast in the distance, all help to realize for us +the exact effect of a wind-storm. + + NURSEMAID: "Lawk! there goes Charley, and he's took his ma's parasol! + What _will_ missus say?" + +[Illustration: + + WAITER: "Gent in No. 4 likes a holder and a thinner wine, does he? I + wonder how he'll like this bin!"] + +As there is no condition in life that has not proved food for Leech's +pencil, that of the waiter was fruitful in many never-to-be-forgotten +scenes. I introduce one which is very humorous, and scarcely an +exaggeration. It is called "How to Suit the Taste." A guest seems to +have found his port too new and strong. + +[Illustration: + + "HOLLO! HI! HERE, SOMEBODY! I'VE TURNED ON THE HOT WATER, AND I CAN'T + TURN IT OFF AGAIN!"] + +One of the peculiarities of Leech's art is that "time cannot wither it, +nor custom stale its infinite variety." I defy the most serious +Scotchman to look at the sketch below without laughing at it. As the +gentleman who is on the highroad to being parboiled is in one of the +sketches of 1846, many of my readers may see him for the first time. I +envy that man; but though I am very familiar with the wonderful little +drawing, a renewed acquaintance is always a delight to me. We know the +bather can jump out of the scalding water when he likes, but there he +is, with clouds of steam rising about him, screaming in deadly terror +for "somebody" to come to his rescue. + +[Illustration: "SYMPTOMS OF A MASQUERADE." + + BETTER-HALF (_loq._): "Is this what you call sitting up with a sick + friend, Mr. Wilkins?"] + +Here follows a drawing of a different character, opening up very +appreciable possibilities, and not very pleasant consequences for the +hero of the piece. Mr. Wilkins left the domestic hearth to sit up with a +sick friend. "Yes, my dear," I can hear him say to his spouse, "I may be +late; for if I find I can comfort the poor fellow by my conversation, I +cannot find it in my heart to hurry away from him." Wicked Mr. Wilkins! +What was there wrong in going to a masquerade? and if it was criminal to +do so, why leave the evidence of your guilt where Mrs. W. could find it? +Was that a _lady's_ mask? In the eyes of the outraged wife I dare say it +was, though it may only have been used to cover the homely features of +the deceiver, whose pale face and empty soda-water bottle plainly prove +that the evening's entertainment will not bear the morning's +reflections. + +[Illustration: + + JUVENILE: "I say, Charley, that's a jeuced fine gurl talking to young + Fipps! I should like to catch her under the mistletoe."] + +The first drawings of "The Rising Generation," in which are portrayed +the premature affections and the amusing affectations of the manners and +sayings of their elders that, according to Leech, distinguished the +_jeunesse dore_ of England, appeared in 1846, and have been so admirably +described by Dickens elsewhere as to leave me only the task of placing +some of the drawings before the reader, carefully avoiding those the +great writer has noticed so felicitously. The young gentleman in the +drawing introduced here would like to catch the pretty creature talking +to the fascinating young man under the mistletoe, no doubt! We know his +wicked intentions; but how would he carry them out? He is not tall +enough to reach the lady's elbow; but love in such passionate natures +laughs at difficulties, and he will find a way; and he calls a man old +enough to be his father _young_ Fipps! Delightful little dog! and no +less delightful is his friend Charley, who smiles encouragement, and +would do likewise. These works of Leech possess what it is not too much +to call an historical interest, as they chronicle truly the dresses of +the time. In the object of our young friend's admiration, I fancy I see +the approach of crinoline, while her ringlets afford a striking contrast +to the fringes of the present day. An old lady would now create a +sensation indeed if she appeared in a turban like that which bedecks the +sitting figure. + +[Illustration: + + JUVENILE: "Uncle!" + + UNCLE: "Now, then, what is it? This is the fourth time you've woke me + up, sir." + + JUVENILE: "Oh! just put a few coals on the fire and pass the wine, + that's a good old chap!"] + +Again the irrepressible juvenile, under different conditions. Behold him +practising upon a very testy old gentleman, who has been so rude, in the +estimation of his young nephew, as to go to sleep after dinner. + +[Illustration: "THE RISING GENERATION." + + JUVENILE: "Ah, it's all very well! Love may do for boys and gals; but + we, as men of the world, know 'ow 'ollow it is."] + +In his notices of the freaks of the rising generation Leech did not +confine himself to juveniles of the higher and middle ranks, but +occasionally he shows us the young snob, of whom he makes--with +modifications--the same mannish and amusingly vain creature as his +confreres, the little swells. As an illustration, I present my reader +with a scene in a coffee-house, in which two friends are refreshing +themselves, and exchanging philosophical reflections on the vanities of +human life. These lads look like shop-boys, but--in their own +estimation--with souls far above their positions in life. The spokesman +has found the truth of the poet's description of the course of true love +in the conduct of some barmaid who has jilted him, hence his bitterness. + +In the year 1847 Leech produced much of his best work, and in +justification of this dictum I advise the study of a drawing full of +character, humour, and beauty. Thousands of heads of households could +vouch for the truth of the situation depicted there, and where is the +mistress whose mind has not misgiven her when a request from her pretty +servant has been urged that she might "go to chapel this evening"? +"Chapel, indeed!" one can hear her mutter to herself; "I've not the +least doubt the baker's man is waiting for her round the corner!" I am +loath to find fault with such a work as this, but I _do_ think that +perfect maid deserved a more presentable lover than the pudding-faced, +knock-kneed soldier who is personating the "bit of ribbin." The artist +appears to me to charge his story-telling maid with very bad taste +indeed. Would the drawing have lost, or gained, if Leech had given us a +handsome young guardsman instead of this ugly fellow? He would, at any +rate, have made the little fib a little more pardonable. The other +figures deserve careful attention--notably, the youth absorbed in the +study of natural history. + + SERVANT-MAID: "If you please, mem, could I go out for half an hour to + buy a bit of ribbin, mem?" + +If there be amongst my readers any who are unfamiliar with Cruikshank's +illustrations of "Oliver Twist," I advise them to turn to them, where +they will find a drawing of Fagin in the condemned cell at Newgate, one +of the most awful renderings of agonized despair ever depicted by the +hand of an artist. This great work is travestied by Leech in a manner so +admirable as to make the travesty take rank with the original. Instead +of Fagin, see King Louis Philippe smarting under the failure of his +schemes and the impending fall of his dynasty. By the Spanish marriages +the veteran trickster destroyed the power which he sought to +consolidate. + +Domestic troubles and misadventures were represented by Leech in many +examples, with a sympathetic humour that never wearies. A party may be +assembled for a dinner which is strangely delayed; conversation flags +into silence. The host and hostess become uneasy, when a button-boy +appears with the ominous "Oh, if you please, 'm, cook's very sorry, 'm, +could she speak to you for a moment?" Something has happened; but we are +left in uncertainty as to what it was. + +Or the dinner is served, when an alarming announcement is made: + + SERVANT (_rushing in_): "Oh, goodness gracious, master! There's the + kitchen chimley afire, and two parish ingins a-knocking at the street + door." + +One of the happiest of the servant-gal-isms appears this year--the +precursor of many excellent tunes on the same string--delightfully +illustrative of the vanity which we all share, more or less, with our +maids. In the picture that follows, the sight of the old lady's new +bonnet and a convenient looking-glass have provided an opportunity that +the pretty servant could not resist. She must see how she looks in +it--and behold the result! + +[Illustration: + + DOMESTIC (_soliloquizing_): "Well, I'm sure, missis had better give + this new bonnet to me, instead of sticking such a young-looking thing + upon her old shoulders." (The impudent minx has immediate warning.)] + +I must refer my readers to _Punch's_ almanac for 1848, copiously +illustrated by Leech, for many admirable examples of his many-sided +powers. Alas! my space forbids the reproduction of any of them. Amongst +the rest there is one of a gentleman suffering from influenza, which, by +the way, seems to have been as prevalent in 1848 as it has been +recently, though not so fatal in its effects. Our sufferer is visited by +a condoling friend: he sits with his feet in hot water, and, with his +hand on the bell-pull, he says, "This is really very kind of you to +call. Can I offer you anything? A basin of gruel, or a glass of cough +mixture? Don't say no!" + +Another of a rich old lady, who stands before a pyramid of +oyster-barrels, all sent to her at Christmas by her poor relations. +Another--but I must pause, and again refer my reader to the almanac. + +I find yet one more of the "Rising Generation" series quite +irresistible. The two little bucks are perfect, and the idea of such a +report as that one of them was engaged to the magnificent woman--whose +face we long to see--is so ludicrous as almost to reach the sublime of +absurdity. Look at the eagerness with which the precocious youth +impresses upon his friend the necessity of contradicting the rumour, and +the well-bred and considerate way in which the friend receives a +communication which does not surprise him. He does not smile at it. +There is nothing astonishing in a man's being in love with such a fine +woman, and he will certainly contradict anyone who repeats the report, +as his friend desires. If the creatures had been six feet high instead +of not so many more inches, they could not have conducted themselves +more naturally. + +[Illustration: + + JUVENILE: "Oh, Charley, if you hear a report that I am going to be + married to that girl in black, you can contradict it. There's nothing + in it."] + +1848 witnessed the fall of the French throne and the tottering of +others in Europe. It was a terrible time, and though the English throne +was safe enough, a great deal of vague alarm existed in this country. +The Chartists met in their thousands, and prepared a bill of grievances +with signatures, making a document, it was said, some miles long. This +petition they announced their intention of presenting to Parliament, +accompanied by a procession, which was really to be some miles long; but +they reckoned without their host--of opponents. Special constables were +enrolled (amongst whom was Louis Napoleon), soldiers were at hand, +skilfully hidden by the great Duke, and the Chartist procession was +peacefully stopped long before it got to Westminster. + +There were firebrands then as now, and a meeting was called by one of +them to be held in Trafalgar Square--see how history repeats +itself!--where a ragamuffin assembly appeared; so did the police, and +nothing came of it except a few broken heads and the inimitable drawings +by Leech. How admirable they are! + +The person who wanted more liberty, equality, and fraternity than was +good for him or anybody else, was a Mr. Cochran, and his adherents were +called Cochranites. + + COCHRANITE: "Hooray! Veeve ler liberty!! Harm yourselves!! To the + palis!! Down with heverythink!!!!" + +In the second picture the Cochranite has collapsed. A stalwart +policeman has taken him in hand, and he cries, "Oh, sir--please, sir--it +ain't me, sir. I'm for God save the Queen and Rule Britannier. +Boo-hoo!--oh dear! oh dear!" (bursts into tears). + + +Below we have another result of the agitation, touched in Leech's +happiest manner. A special constable endeavours to arrest an agitator, +who evidently objects, and prepares for resistance. + +[Illustration: + + SPECIAL CONSTABLE: "Now mind, you know--if I kill you, it's nothing; + but if you kill me, by Jove! it's murder!"] + +A certain Master Jackey was a great favourite of Leech's. In an +elaborate work this youth's pranks are chronicled under the heading of +"Home for the Holidays." Whether the hero of those adventures is the +same as he who is pictured in the work I present to my readers I know +not. In all probability the taste for practical joking which flourished +so vigorously in the holiday scenes began, as we see, in the nursery. +Master Jackey has been to the play, where he has witnessed the +performances of a contortionist, and, emulous of rivalling the +professor, he perils the limbs and lives of his brothers and sisters in +his operations. We know of the tendency to imitate in all children, but +when the propensity shows itself in the imitation of tricks that require +long practice before they can be performed with safety, the game, though +amusing to the players, may be very dangerous to the played upon. It is +to be hoped that the rush of the terrified mother in this capital scene +may be in time to save the baby from a perilous fall. The little +brothers have already tasted the consequence of Master Jackey's +imitation. + +The accompanying drawing was suggested by myself during an after-dinner +conversation at a friend's house. The talk had turned on the difficulty +that the pronunciation of certain words would prove to one who had dined +not wisely but too well, when it occurred to me that "Plesiosaurus" or +"Ichthyosaurus" would be troublesome, and I said so. Leech smiled, and +said nothing, but in _Punch_ of the week following his idea of the +difficulty appeared. + +[Illustration: "RECREATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY." + + FIRST NATURALIST: "What, the s-s-she-sherpent a-an (hic!) + Ich-(hic!)-thyosaurus! Nonshence!" + + SECOND NATURALIST: "Who said Ich-(hic!)-Ichthy-o-saurus? I said + Plesi-o-(hic!)-saurus plainenuff."] + +The cabman who doesn't know his way about London is exceptional, but he +is met with occasionally, and very provoking he is; but to have his +little trap-door knocked off its hinges because he takes a wrong turning +is a punishment in excess of his fault. The young gentleman passenger is +of an impatient turn, and he will find that his impatience will have to +be paid for unless the cabman is more good-natured than he looks. + +[Illustration: "CABMAN IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE TAKEN A WRONG TURNING, THAT'S +ALL."] + +Flunkeiana cannot be omitted in this short summary of Leech's work, +more especially as the first of a long series is one of the best. +Nothing can be conceived more perfect than the man and the maid at the +seaside--the girl, French from top to toe; the flunkey, a most perfect +type of the class. + + FRENCH MAID: "You like--a--ze--seaside--M'sieu Jean Thomas?" + + JOHN THOMAS: "Par bokhoo, mamzelle--par bokhoo. I've--aw--been so + accustomed to--aw--gaiety in town, that I'm--aw--a'most killed with + arnwee down here." + +The immortal Briggs made his first appearance in _Punch_ in the year +1849, and with one or two records of his career I regret to say I must +close my selected list of Leech's early works. To say I regret this is +to say little, for I am obliged to forego numberless delightful works, +many as good as, and some perhaps better than, those I have presented to +my readers. Mr. Briggs first appears with newspaper in hand in his snug +breakfast-room, listening to a complaint from the housemaid that a slate +is off the roof, and the servant's bedroom in danger of being flooded. +Mr. Briggs replies that the sooner it is put to rights the better, +before it goes any further--and he will see about it. Mr. Briggs does +see about it; he sees the builder, who tells him that "a little compo" +is all that is wanted. The drawings show that eight or ten men are +required to manage the little compo, much to Mr. Briggs' astonishment. + +In the next scene a huge scaffolding is raised, and a small army of +labourers are at work on Mr. Briggs's roof. A noise enough to wake the +dead has awoke Mr. Briggs at the unpleasant hour of five in the morning. +Flower-pots and bricks fall past his dressing-room window. He finds "no +time has been lost, and that the workpeople have already commenced +putting the roof to rights." The builder would not be true to his craft +if he did not improve the occasion and show his employer how easy, now +that the workpeople were about, it would be to make certain additions in +the shape of a conservatory, etc., to the house. Briggs weakly listens +to the voice of the charmer; walls are battered down to enlarge the +dining-room, and the entrance-hall is enlarged. Mr. Briggs's health +gives way, and he calls in the doctor, who prescribes horse exercise. + +I think it was at one of those never-to-be-forgotten dinners at Egg's +that, the talk having turned upon shooting experiences, Dickens said +that the sudden rising of a cock-pheasant under one's nose was like a +firework let off in that uncongenial locality. The following week Leech +subjected Mr. Briggs to the startling experience so admirably recorded +in the drawing which faces this page. + +[Illustration] + +For a further acquaintance with Mr. Briggs's performances on +horseback, as well as his escapades with gun and fishing-rod, I must +content myself with referring those curious on the matters to the pages +of _Punch_, where they will find entertainment that is inexhaustible. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MR. PERCIVAL LEIGH AND LEECH. + + +In the death of Mr. Percival Leigh, which took place a short time ago, +the last member of the original staff of _Punch_ passed away. Mr. Leigh +never married, and died at a very advanced age. I frequently met him in +society, where his refined and gentle manners, and his quaintly humorous +conversation, were what might have been anticipated from the author of +"Pips his Diary," the "Comic Grammars," and other contributions to the +paper to which he was so long and so faithfully attached. From the days +of their fellow-studentship at St. Bartholomew's (with a short +interval), to the time of Leech's death, a firm friendship existed +between these two distinguished men. + +Much alike in their sense of humour, they also resembled each other in +numberless amiable qualities of heart and mind. Leigh's pen was as free +from personality, and as conspicuous for the gentleness with which it +dealt with folly, as Leech's pencil. In early and late days, when Leech +was in trouble, Leigh's was the hand--amongst others--ever ready to +help; and to those who can read between the lines in the paper which Mr. +Leigh has contributed to this book, there will be little difficulty in +discovering the "friend" who found purchasers for work that the producer +was barred (in a double sense) from selling for himself. + +I see little or no reason for weakening my assertion that Leech arrived +at his supreme eminence without any art education; for the slight +mechanical knowledge of the art of drawing upon wood which he acquired +from Mr. Orrin Smith, a wood-engraver, is no more worthy the name of +art-teaching, than the few lessons in etching given to Leech by George +Cruikshank can be called art-education. Following the example of Sir +John Millais, Mr. Percival Leigh (to whom, it will be remembered, +Millais recommended my predecessor, Mr. Evans, to apply) furnished the +following remarks for this memoir. + +Said Mr. Leigh: "Orrin Smith has been dead many years. How long Leech +was with him I cannot say precisely. Perhaps a twelvemonth or +thereabouts. Smith was a sociable and rather a clever man, but according +to Leech, occasionally so economical that he would now and then try to +get a little gratuitous work out of him. On one occasion Smith asked him +to introduce a few figures, so as to put a touch of action into a +drawing on wood, meant to illustrate a serious little book, the work of +a clergyman. The scene represented was a quiet churchyard. Leech +improved it with a group of little boys larking and boxing. + +"Of course these embellishments, on discovery, were objected to as +painfully incongruous, and had to be cancelled. I forget whether or no +they had been actually engraven before they were taken out." + +Thus far Mr. Leigh. I think I can interpret the incongruity. I fancy I +can hear Leech say, after previous unrequited sketches, "Oh, hang it! +this is too bad. Well, here goes; he shall have a few figures, and I +hope he'll like 'em." + +Mr. Leigh continues: "The post-office envelope was one of Leech's +successes; so were the 'Comic Histories' of England and Rome, and the +'Comic Blackstone'; but his growth in popularity was gradual. He had +previously illustrated 'Jack Brag' for Bentley, and subsequently various +articles for _Bentley's Miscellany_, particularly the 'Ingoldsby +Legends,' as well as other ephemeral works of the same publisher; +amongst them the 'Comic Latin' and 'English' Grammars, and the 'Children +of the Mobility,' a travesty of the 'Children of the Nobility,' long +since out of print. He also furnished coloured illustrations to the +'Fiddle-Faddle Fashion-book,' a whimsical satire on the fopperies and +literary absurdities of the period, also out of print." + +I venture again to interrupt the current of Mr. Leigh's narrative with a +word or two on the "Fiddle-Faddle" book. A copy of it, date 1840, has +been lent to me. The literary portion, consisting mainly of a thrilling +story of brigand life, the blood-curdling tenor of which may be imagined +from the title, "Grabalotti the Bandit; or, The Emerald Monster of the +Deep Dell," is the work of Mr. Leigh. The story opens thus: + +"Italia! oh, Italia! blooming birthplace of beauty! land of lazzaroni +and loveliness! clime of complines and cruelty, of susceptibility and +sacrilege, of roses and revenge! thy bright, blue, boundless skies +serene I love; thy verdant vales, volcanoes, vines, and virgins! Thy +virgins? ay, thy bright-eyed, dark-haired virgins. I love them--how I +love them, though mine, alas! they ne'er can be! And there was one who, +in earlier, happier hours, before these locks were--no matter. Let me +proceed with the calmness becoming a narrator with my tale." + +And he proceeds "with a vengeance" to let us know that the spokesman of +the above is an artist who had "halted in a deep ravine in the Abruzzi +(where, on each side, the cliffs frowned like fiends upon the quailing +traveller) to transfer to my portable sketch-book a slight souvenir of +the celestial scene. Absorbed in my enthralling occupation, I heeded not +the approach of a visitant; it was therefore with surprise, not +unmingled with alarm, that I was aroused by a tap upon the shoulders, +accompanied by the following sarcastic greeting: + +"'Is thy maternal parent, young man, aware of thine absence from home?' + +"'Quite so,' I replied, in a tremulous tone, anxiously glancing round to +behold the speaker. + +"My acquaintance with literature--to say nothing of my constant +attendance at the opera--at once convinced me that I was in the hands of +a brigand." + +Had there been "any possible doubt whatever," it would have been +instantly dispelled; for after "smiling in demoniacal derision," the +disturber of the sketcher said, "deliberately and tranquilly, as he +levelled a pistol at my head: + +"'Thy wealth or thy existence!' + +"My sole remaining ducat was offered in vain. At the shrill sound of his +whistle the crags bristled with bandits, and fifty carbines were pointed +at my person. Blue with boiling agony, I made as a last resource the +Masonic sign. It succeeded. At another signal every carbine was lowered, +and breathless expectation brooded over the heart of its bearer." + +The bandits, however, were not so easily satisfied; for "a murmur of +impatience, mingled with discontent, arose, like the billows of emotion, +amongst the troop, and some twenty weapons again kissed with their +stocks as many manly shoulders. + +"'Back, slaves, for your lives!' shouted the infuriated Grabalotti, +throwing himself in front of me. 'One moment more, and, by the +blood-stained power of the thundering Avalanche, the foremost of you +dies!' + +"Cowering in cream-like humility, each individual reversed his +implement of death--all but one. A ball from the pistol of Grabalotti +instantly crashed through his brain. For a moment he writhed in sable +pangs; then all was over, and darkness mantled over his impetuosity for +ever. Then, turning towards me, the brigand chief gave me a civil +invitation to spend the day with him, which, under existing +circumstances, I thought it best to accept. On our way I took the +opportunity thus furnished me to survey my lawless companion. He was at +least six feet and a half, independent of the coverings of his feet, in +height; his air was stern and commanding; raven ringlets clustered down +to his shoulders. Premature intensity glowed in his volcanic eyes; his +nose was Roman, and he wore mustachios. The lines in the lower part of +his face were indicative of death-fraught concentration; and the teeth, +frequently disclosed by his smile of pervading bitterness, were +remarkably white. The gloom of his conical hat was mocked by gay +ribands. He wore a jacket of green velvet (an expensive article), +lustrously gemmed with gold buttons; and those portions of his dress for +which our language has no proper appellation were richly meandered with +superior lace. His legs were variously swathed in the manner so +characteristic of his profession. The carbine that slept in a snowy belt +at his back; the pistols bickering in his girdle; and the stiletto +reposing, like candid innocence, in its silver sheath, with its ivory +handle protruding from his sash, were all of the most ornamental and +valuable description." + +This extraordinary robber and the artist arrive at "the dwelling of the +bandit, which was eligibly situate among the most romantic scenery." + +Signor Grabalotti conducted his visitor to a "table groaning with fruit, +and supporting six sacramental chalices filled with the richest wine." + +The brigand has made a great haul of prisoners, whose friends have not +shown the alacrity in rescuing them required by their captor, who, by +way of entertaining his guest, orders them all, to the amount of a +dozen, into his presence, and, arranging them in a row "along a trench +in the background," with the assistance of twelve of his men, has them +all shot. + +"Almost ere the smoke had cleared away, the earth was shovelled over the +bodies. + +"'And now,' said the chief, 'for a dance in honour of our guest.' + +"Four-and-twenty brisk young bandits, clad in jackets, green array, were +instantly joined by as many maidens, each wearing the square _coiffure_, +short dress, and _petite_ apron, and otherwise fully attired in the +costume of the country. Each robber provided himself with a partner, and +a festive dance was performed with great spirit to a popular air. + +"Their gaiety was at its height, when suddenly the sound of a distant +bell stole with milky gentleness on the ear. In an instant all present +fell on their knees, and, with their arms devoutly crossed upon their +breasts, raised, in heavenly unison, their hymn of votive praise to the +Virgin." + +Here endeth the first chapter of the "Emerald Monster of the Deep Dell." + +As "a satire on the literary absurdities of the day," to quote its +author, this capital fooling could not be surpassed; indeed, to those +who remember, as the present writer can distinctly, the effusions in +prose and verse--or, as Jerrold called it, "prose and worse"--that more +or less filled the pages of the Keepsakes, the Books of Gems and Beauty +of a long bygone time, the "Monster of the Deep Dell" is scarcely a +caricature. + +But I have not yet done with him. The second chapter is devoted to an +account in Grabalotti language of the early life and loves of the +interesting bandit: + +"Rino Grabalotti is my name," he says. "Italy is my nation; the Deep +Dell is my dwelling-place, and--but no! never shall monkish cant pollute +the lips to baleful imprecation attuned for ever. Let the blue and +hideous glare of the lightning, and the ghastly gleam of the hag-ridden +meteor, illumine the deeds of my doing. Growl, ye thunders! Roar, ye +tempests! Yell, ye fiends, and howl in hideous harmony a prelude to my +tale!" + +He then proceeds to inform the artist (who, with an eye for copy, +ventures to hint "that an outline of his history would be interesting") +that he was the son of a priest, and born in Naples; and naturally much +annoyed by the scandalous irregularity of his birth, he devotes his life +to robbing and murdering as many of his fellow-creatures as good fortune +places in his hands in the practice of his profession. + +But I anticipate. Grabalotti declines to say much about his infancy; he +seems to have been pretty often reminded of the scandal of his birth, +and as often he registered a vow that, sooner or later, he would close +for ever the mouths of the slanderers. + +"It was in my sixteenth summer," he continues, "that I really began to +live. Though in years a boy, I was in all else a man. Passion hurtled in +my darkening eye, and plunged my heart in lava. I loved; what Italian at +my age does not? Yes; I--the ruthless, the scathed, the smouldering, the +sanguinary, the Emerald Monster of the Deep Dell--I, even I, gasped with +tortuous anguish in the maddening transports of Cupid." + + +Giulia is the name of the fair creature who has caused the eruption of +this volcanic passion; and on what the bandit-lover calls "an evening of +rosy gladness," he seeks his fair enslaver's window, guitar in hand. But +the voice, "which was the best at a barcarole of any in Naples," had +raised a very few love notes, when a rough voice exclaims: + +"'What dost thou here, spurious offspring of sacrilege?' accompanying +the inquiry by an equally rough salutation from behind (oh, +madness!)--'begone!' + +"Confusion simmered in my brain. Frenzied, I turned; one stroke of my +stiletto, and my wounded honour was salved--with gore. It was that of +Giulia's father!" + +This sudden death of the author of her being offended Giulia, and she +solemnly renounced young Grabalotti for ever. This intimation, conveyed +in a mixture of "indignation mingled with scorn," had an extraordinary +effect. Says the lover: + +"Twisting in bitterness awhile I lingered, then rushed distracted from +the spot, and fled hissing with desperation to the mountains." + +The beauties of the Deep Dell produced no soothing effect on the +desperate bitterness that twisted the soul of Grabalotti; he issued from +the Dell to "soak and steep his heart in blood." + +"The dewy wail of infancy, the piercing zest of female innocence, and +the tremulous pleading of piping feebleness, all mocked at the radiance +of the crimson steel, have poured their bootless incense o'er my +breast.... Ha, ha! The nun, her dove-like innocence devastated, has +broiled like a chestnut amid the ashes of her convent," etc. + +More "copy" in the style of the above is imparted to the artist. But an +interruption takes place. A brigand enters, and so irritates the monster +by the abruptness of his appearance that, had not the pistol with which +his impatient master received him missed fire, his brains would have +been scattered to the winds of heaven. + +"'Ha! dost thou dare to break in upon my mood?' roared Grabalotti. + +"'Come to tell you,' said the robber (speaking in the greatest possible +haste), 'that the nun who escaped the sacking of the convent has been +taken.' + +"'Do as you list with her, and chop her head off! Stay, I would fain see +it when it is done; and here, take this purse for the risk thou hast +encountered.'" + +Yet another interruption--this time in the person of a brigand spy +disguised as a peasant. The chief anticipates startling and perhaps +unpleasant news, and saying: "'Excuse me, signor, for a few moments,' he +retires with his emissary." + +Grabalotti was absent some little time, during which the artist "added +another sketch to his small collection," when the monster returned, and +informed his guest "in a lively tone" that they were about to have "some +fun." + +"'Of what description?' inquired the artist. + +"'In an hour's time we shall be attacked by the military,'" to whom he +promises a warm reception; and in the event of the robbers being +overpowered by numbers, "a train communicates with the magazine below." + +"Here the head of the unfortunate nun made its appearance on a silver +dish. Its loveliness, even in death, was intensely overpowering. With a +grin of fiendish malice, Grabalotti seized it by the hair, but no sooner +did the features meet his eye, than he relinquished his hold and fell, +senseless, backwards, faintly gasping, like a dying echo, ''Tis she! +'Tis Giulia!!'" + +Unless the artist guest was possessed of courage uncommon among our +fraternity, he could not have contemplated being blown into the air with +the robbers, or being shot by the soldiers, with equanimity; and he must +have been much relieved in any case by Grabalotti, who, when "the +violence of frantic ferocity" had given way to "the calm profundity of +despair," muttered in a low and suppressed tone: "Nay, thou shalt live +to tell the world my story!" and to enable his guest to do this +eventually, "in a tone of sweetest melancholy" he said: + +"Stranger, hence! thy further stay is perilous. Yon by-path will conduct +thee to the valleys." + +Rising from "the valleys" was a crag, to the summit of which half an +hour's walk would take the artist, and from thence he was assured that +"if he turned his gaze backwards he should see something worth seeing." + +The narrator tells us that he reached the crag in twenty-nine minutes +exactly. + +"For one minute I gazed in the direction of the Brigands' Haunt, from +which, precisely at the expiration of that time, a vivid flash of flame, +shooting into the air, accompanied by a dense column of smoke, and +followed by a terrific explosion, proclaimed too plainly the last +achievement of the Emerald Monster of the Deep Dell." + +Mr. Percival Leigh contributes a second story to the "Fiddle-Faddle +Fashion-book," in which the novel of fashionable life, not uncommon +fifty years ago, is satirized under the title of "Belleville: a Tale of +Fashionable Life," not less happily than the sanguinary and terribly +romantic writers are treated in the burlesque of Grabalotti. The "Clara +Matilda poets" of the Keepsake time are also amusingly parodied in some +short poems, which, with comic advertisements, occasionally very +humorous, fill up the literary portion of the "Fiddle-Faddle +Fashion-book." + +This book is not the only one in which Leech's powers have been +enlisted--I was nearly saying prostituted--in publications devoted to +eccentricities in dress and the caprices of fashion. In illustrations by +him of the tale of fashionable life, or of Grabalotti, the genius of +that great artist would have had full play; but as the draughtsman of +fashion-plates it was, in my opinion, degraded. In vindication of my +judgment I present my readers with two plates from the "Fiddle-Faddle" +book, in which Leech portrays--no doubt under direction--caprices of +fashion which could only have existed in his own imagination, and +produced with a feeling of caricature that is so conspicuous by its +absence in his usual work. + +I now return to the paper which Mr. Leigh wrote with a view to this +memoir. + +[Illustration] + +That Leigh and Leech first met as students at St. Bartholomew's +Hospital, I have noted elsewhere; and the details of his apprenticeship +to the eccentric surgeon, which Mr. Leigh heard from Leech himself, I +have also given, with the exception of one incident of which I was +ignorant. + +[Illustration] + +"In his dispensary," says Mr. Leigh, "the doctor had one drawer amongst +his boxes, in which there were pills of gentle efficacy, intended to be +served out (they were made, I believe, of bread and soap) to the +generality of his customers. This receptacle bore the label of 'Pil. +Hum.,'--abbreviation of humbug--or, as their concoctor used to call +them, 'Humbugeraneous Pills.' The Dr. Cockle to whom, Mr. Leigh says, +Leech went after he left Mr. Whittle, was the son of the inventor of +Cockle's Pills. + +"No sooner had he become of age," continues Mr. Leigh, "than he was +induced, in order to meet difficulties for which he was not responsible, +to accept an accommodation bill, which the drawer of, when it fell due, +failed to supply the means of meeting. Leech was consequently arrested +for debt at the suit of this discounter, and lodged in a sponging-house +kept by a sheriff's officer, a Jew, by name (I think) of Levi, in Newman +Street. There he remained about a fortnight, supporting himself in the +meanwhile by drawing cartoons and caricatures. He lithographed them on +stone for Spooner, in the Strand, at a guinea each, a _friend_ having +negotiated their sale. + +"At last, an advance of money on a projected publication sufficient to +discharge the debt having been obtained, he was liberated. But not long +after, a second scrape--a repetition of the first--cost him another +temporary sojourn with another Jew in another sponging-house in Cursitor +Street. This detention, however, lasted but a few days. _From that +period to the close of his life_ he remained subject to repeated demands +for pecuniary assistance under continued pressure, which, as at the +outset, he could not withstand. The deficits he had to defray were +always heavy; the last of them, as I understand, a thousand pounds. It +cost him very hard work to make it good. Excess of generosity was his +greatest failing." + +I have no means of knowing, nor do I desire to know, who the borrowers +were to whom Percival Leigh alludes; but his revelations make the fact +of Leech having died a comparatively poor man comprehensible enough. If +ever man was killed by overwork, Leech was that man, and this must be a +painful reflection for those whose incessant demands upon him made it +only possible for him to meet them by the incessant exertions which +destroyed him. + +Mr. Leigh's paper concludes with the anecdote that follows: + +"Leech and Albert Smith worked together very harmoniously as illustrator +and writer in several books--'Ledbury,' 'Brinvilliers,' and many +others--and one day when they were leaving Smith's house together, a +street-boy stepped up to them, and scoffing at the inscription on +Smith's large brass door-plate, cried: + +"'Oh yes! Mr. Albert Smith, M.R.C.S., Surgeon-Dentist.' + +"'Good boy!' said Leech, putting a penny into the boy's hand; 'now go +and insult somebody else.'" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MEETING OF MULREADY AND LEECH. + + +Mr. Mulready, R.A., was commissioned by the authorities to design a +postal envelope for general use, a penny stamp affixed insuring free +delivery of letters all over England. The design, which should have been +of a simple character, was far too ornate and elaborate. At the top +Britannia was represented in the act of despatching winged messengers +with letters to all parts of the world, and down the sides of the +envelope were the recipients of letters which had conveyed +heart-breaking news to one side, and good tidings to the other. As a +work of art the Mulready envelope has, in my opinion, great merit, but +it was ludicrously inappropriate to the purposes for which it was +intended. Leech saw and seized the opportunity, with the result +appended. + +The signature of the bottled leech, so familiar afterwards, is used +here as Mulready's signature, and "thereby hangs a tale," which, though +the burden of it deals with a future time, I venture to introduce in +this place. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: FORES'S COMIC ENVELOPES N^o. 1] + +My friend Augustus Egg, R.A., who lived in a charming house in Queen's +Road, Bayswater, was not only well known as an excellent artist, but +also as being the Amphitryon whose hospitality was famous, and whose +dinners were still more famous by reason of the guests who were wont to +surround his table. Where is the hungry man who would not have been +enchanted to meet Dickens and Leech, Mark Lemon and John Forster +(Dickens's biographer), Hawkins, Q.C. (now the judge), Landseer, +Mulready, Webster, and other artists less famous? Of these dinners I +shall have something to say by-and-by; at present I confine myself to +one special occasion. + +It was on one day during the year 1847 that Egg said to me: + +"You know Mulready better than I do; I wish you would go and get him to +fix a day to dine here--any day next week will suit me. Leech wants to +meet him; and, somehow or other, though both have dined here frequently, +they have never met." + +"Good," said I; "I will do your bidding." + +And on the following Sunday I called upon Mulready. + +"Egg will be pleased if you will dine with him any day next week, sir, +that you may be disengaged. He expects the usual set--Dickens, Landseer, +Leech, and the rest. You have never met Leech, I think; he is very +desirous to make your acquaintance." + +"Ah, is he? Well, I don't care about knowing Leech." + +"Really, sir" (it was always the Johnsonian _sir_ to the old gentleman), +said I, when I had recovered from my surprise, "may I ask why you won't +meet Leech?" + +"Yes, you may," said the old painter, "and I will tell you. Of course +you remember that unfortunate postal envelope that I designed? Well, +Leech caricatured it. You needn't look so surprised--you don't think I +am such a fool as to mind being caricatured; but I do mind being +represented as a _blood-sucker_! What else can he mean by using that +infernal little leech in a bottle in the front of his caricature as my +signature? You know well enough, Frith, that I have never asked +monstrous prices for my pictures. You fellows get better paid for your +work than I ever did, and you wouldn't like to be called blood-suckers, +I expect." + +Mr. Mulready was an Irishman, and rather a peppery one; and I am happy +to say that I overcame my disposition to laugh in his face mainly +through a feeling of astonishment that my old friend could be ignorant +of the ordinary way in which Leech signed his drawings. + +"Do you happen to have a number of _Punch_ by you, Mr. Mulready?" said +I. + +"No; as a languid swell said when he was asked that same question, 'I am +no bookworm; I never see _Punch_.'" + +As I could not give my angry friend ocular proof of his mistake by +producing the usual signature to _Punch_ drawings, I set to work to +explain how the little leech came into the bottle, and, without much +difficulty, convinced my old friend that an insult to him was not +intended. + +The two artists met; and it was delightful to watch Leech's handsome +face as Mulready himself told of his misconception. First there was a +serious, almost pained, expression, which, no doubt, arose in that +tender heart from being the innocent cause of pain to another; the +serious look passed off, to give place to a smile, which broadened into +a roar of laughter. From that moment Leech and Mulready were fast +friends. + +With an apology for the interruption, I return to my narrative. + +Alas! I can well remember the appearance of the "Sketches by Boz," to +be so quickly followed by the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club." +None but those who witnessed it can conceive the enthusiasm with which +that immortal work was received by an eager public, who welcomed each +number as it appeared, month after month, with hearty appreciation. Of +course, there were carping critics, one of whom is reported to have said +the author would "go up like a rocket and come down like a stick." That +prophet, a man of much literary ability, drank himself into a debtors' +prison, where, I was told, he died of delirium tremens. + +There is, I think, a vein of melancholy unusually developed in the +nature of almost all humorists. As an instance, I may give the actor +Liston, whose humour on the stage was to me unparalleled; off it, he was +gloom personified. Gillray, the caricaturist, died melancholy mad; and +poor Seymour, the first illustrator of "Pickwick," committed suicide. I +may remark in this place the surprise with which I heard Leech say that +he could see no fun in any of Seymour's sketches. + +In a walk that we took together, I tried to convert him by naming +several examples of what appeared to me humorous work. + +"No," said Leech; "the only drawing I ever saw by Seymour that appeared +funny to me was one in which two cockneys were represented out shooting. +They are about to load their guns, when one says to the other: + +"'I say, which do you put in first--powder or shot?' + +"'Why, powder, to be sure,' said his friend. + +"'Do you?' was the reply. 'Then I don't!'" + +I can vividly recall the shock occasioned by Seymour's death. He was +fairly prosperous, I believe. His engagement to illustrate "Pickwick" +was a lucrative one, and he was much employed in other work. In spite of +all these advantages, the humorist's melancholy was fatal to him. + +I was present at the banquet at the Royal Academy when Thackeray, in +returning thanks for literature--Dickens being present--told us how, on +finding there was a vacancy for an illustrator of "Pickwick," he took a +parcel of drawings to the author and applied for the place. From my own +knowledge of Thackeray's limited powers as an artist, I should have been +sure of the failure of his application. Very different would have been +the fate of Leech, who was also anxious to supply Seymour's place; but +he was too late, for Dickens had already chosen Hablot K. Browne, who, +under the sobriquet of "Phiz," worked in harmony with his author for +very many years. There was no doubt a disposition on the part of "Phiz" +to exaggeration in his illustration of Dickens' characters (already +fully charged, so to speak, by their author), sometimes to the verge of +caricature, and even beyond it; this fault Leech would have avoided, as +his exquisite etchings in Dickens' Christmas books fully prove. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EVENING PARTIES," BY ALBERT SMITH. + + +I have already spoken of the extreme difficulty of collecting material +for this book, and to difficulty must be added the expense which is +incurred by my publisher. I bear the latter affliction with the +equanimity common to those who escape it; indeed, there is a kind of +satisfaction in finding that books which are perfectly worthless as +literary productions are so highly valued on account of the prints which +illustrate them. I venture to give an instance in a very little book +called "The Physiology of Evening Parties," written by Albert Smith. My +reader will be able to judge by the extracts given in explanation of the +drawings, of the merits of Mr. Smith's part in the "Physiology." This +work, published at 2s. 6d. when clean and new, costs 18s. 6d. when well +"worn on the edge of time," yellow, dirty, and unbound. The "Physiology" +first saw the light in 1840. I plead again for forgiveness for +chronological shortcomings, which my difficulties make unavoidable. + +My first illustration represents a mamma and her two daughters in the +serious business of selecting guests for an evening party. + +"It is evening," says Mr. Albert Smith; "mamma and her two daughters are +seated at a table arranging the names of the visitors upon the back of +an old letter, having turned out the dusty record of the card-basket +before them in order that no one of importance may be forgotten. + +"ELLEN (_loc_.): 'I am sure I don't see why we should invite the +Harveys, mamma. They have been here twice, and never asked us back +again.' + +"FANNY: 'And we shall see those dreadful silver poplins again; they must +be intimately acquainted with the cane-work of all the rout-seats in +London.' + +"ELLEN: 'And William Harvey is so exceedingly disagreeable; he always +looks at the ciphers on the plate to see if it is borrowed or not.' + +"FANNY: 'And last year he declared the pine-apple ice was full of +little square pieces of raw potato; and when Mr. Edwards broke a tumbler +at supper he told him "not to mind, for they were only tenpence apiece +in Tottenham Court Road." The low wretch! he thought he had made a +capital joke.' + +"MAMMA: 'Well, my dears, I think your papa will be annoyed if they are +left out; but never mind him--we won't ask them.'" + +[Illustration: "MAMMA AND THE GIRLS."] + +The discussion respecting the guests goes on, opinion as to eligibility +widely differing. Mamma proposes Mr. and Mrs. Howard and the four girls, +to which Miss Ellen says: + +"All dressed alike, and standing up in every quadrille. I declare I +will get George Conway to put an ice in Harriet's chair for her to sit +down upon, in revenge for her waltzing last year, when she brushed down +the Joan of Arc, and knocked its head off." + +This refined conversation continues till Miss Ellen speaks of her +brother's disposition to interfere with the invitation-list; she says: + +"'We must tell Tom not to overdo us so much with his own friends. I +declare last year I did not know half the young men in the room; and it +was so very awkward when you had to introduce them.' + +[Illustration: "TWO RUDE YOUNG MEN."] + +"FANNY: 'And they were not nice persons. Two of them were in the pit of +the Lyceum the next night, and, seeing us in Mr. Arnold's box, would +stare us out of countenance. With a single glass, too!'" + +"And in this style," says our author, "the list is arranged, the hostess +gradually becoming a prey to isinglass and acute mental inquietude, +which gradually increases as the day draws nearer, until upon the +morning of its arrival her very brain is almost turned to blancmange +from the intensity of her anxiety!" + +[Illustration: "THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE."] + +The whole house is, of course, turned topsy-turvy; and Leech gives us a +picture of the master of the mansion surrounded by some of the +consequences of giving an evening party. + +"This state of things," says the chronicler, "much delights the +olive-branches of the family, who, left entirely alone, and quite +overlooked in the general _melee_, divert themselves by poking their +little puddy fingers into the creams, and scooping out the insides of +divers patties with a doll's leg," etc., etc. + +[Illustration: "AN OLIVE-BRANCH."] + +The ball begins under sundry difficulties. A most desirable person, +"_one_ for whom the party was almost given, sends a melancholy statement +of the very acute attack of influenza under which _they_ are labouring," +which they extremely regret will prevent their accepting, etc. Then one +of the intended _belles_ of the evening is obliged to go suddenly into +the country, to see a sick aunt, but "she sends her two brothers--tall, +_gangling_, awkward young men who wear pumps and long black stocks, and +throw their legs about when they are dancing everywhere but over their +shoulders," etc., etc., says the author. Here is what Leech thinks of +the two brothers. + +[Illustration: "TWO 'GANGLING' YOUNG MEN."] + +I have never met with the word "gangling" before; is it an invention of +Mr. Albert Smith's? I can speak to the truth of the dress of these long +brothers, for I who write have worn the long black stock and the +peculiarly cut coat and waistcoats at many an evening party. + +The numerous illustrations of "The Physiology" are such perfect examples +of Leech's earlier work, and in themselves so good, that I am induced to +produce several more of them. I don't know whether the fascinating +person under the hands of the hair-dresser is Miss Ellen or Miss Fanny. +I confess I can scarcely believe she would talk like either of them; +happy barber! perfect you are as you ply your vocation; and in that +vocation--insomuch as you have that sweet creature to contemplate--to be +envied indeed! + +[Illustration: "PREPARING FOR THE BALL."] + +Then we have the greengrocer, "who is to assist in waiting.... He wears +white cotton gloves with very long fingers, and was never known to +announce a name correctly, so the astonished visitor is ushered into the +room under any other appellation than his own." + +[Illustration: "THE ASSISTANT-WAITER."] + +[Illustration: "THE BAND."] + +The band must not be forgotten. "The music arrives," says the writer, +"sometimes in the shape of a single pianist of untiring fingers and +unclosing eyes; sometimes as a harp, piano, and cornopean, who are +immediately installed in a corner of the room with two chairs, a +music-stool, and a bottle of marsala." + +I ask my reader to note the individuality in the four faces in this +drawing--and in the figures no less than in the heads--each a +strongly-marked personality precisely appropriate to the instrument upon +which he performs. How admirable is the cornet-a-piston gentleman +contrasted with the pianoforte player! + +The mistress of the house is described as making "uphill attempts at +conversation" pending the arrival of a sufficient number of guests to +make up a quadrille. Two old ladies, however, have already put in an +appearance, and have taken possession of the best seats to "see the +dancing," from which all attempts to move them to the card-room are +successfully resisted. There they sit, poor old wallflowers! with all +the advantage that "false hair and turbans" can give them. Though the +execution of this drawing lacks the perfection of workmanship of Leech's +later manner, he never surpassed it in expression and character. + +The music "strikes up," the lady of the house throws a comprehensive +_coup d'oeil_ over her assembled visitors, and at last pitches upon a +tall young man--_whom some of you may have met before_--with short hair, +spectacles, and turned-up wristbands, as if he was about to wash his +hands with his coat on. His fate is sealed, and she advances towards +him, blandly exclaiming: + +[Illustration: "WALLFLOWERS."] + +"_Mr. Ledbury_, allow me to introduce you to a partner." + +My own readers have heard of Mr. Ledbury; but as I think they are +unacquainted with his personal appearance, I propose to introduce him to +them, and here he is-- + +[Illustration: "MR. LEDBURY."] + +Mr. Ledbury is "presented to a bouquet with a young lady attached to +it"--a Miss Hamilton--who freezes him completely. A quadrille is formed. +Mr. Ledbury cudgels his brains for five minutes. The young partner seems +to be "searching after some imaginary object amongst the petals of her +bouquet." The mountainous Ledbury brain is in labour. Behold the +production! + +"MR. L. 'Have you been to many parties this season?' + +"MISS H. 'Not a great many.' + +Miss Hamilton continues the bouquet investigation. The gentleman invents +another sentence. + +"MR. L. 'What do you think of Alfred Tennyson?' + +"MISS H. 'I am sorry to say I have not heard his poetry. Have you?' + +[Illustration: "MR. LEDBURY AND MISS HAMILTON."] + +"MR. L. 'Oh yes! several times." + +Mr. Ledbury waits to be asked about "Mariana" and "Locksley Hall." No +inquiry, so he "rubs up an idea upon another tack": + +"MR. L. 'What do you think of our _vis-a-vis_?' + +"MISS H. 'Which one?' + +"MR. L. 'The lady with that strange head-dress. Do you know her?' + +"MISS H. 'It is Miss Brown--my cousin.'" + +Mr. Ledbury wishes he could fall through a trap in the floor. + +The quadrille continues, with occasional attempts on the part of the +brilliant couple to make conversation. The acme of imbecility seems to +be reached when the lady asks if Mr. L. plays any instrument? He replies +that he plays the flute a little. Does she admire it? + +"Oh, so very much!" she says. + +A waltz is proposed, but that form of dancing is, says our author, +"never established without a prolonged desire on the part of everybody +to relinquish the honour of commencing it. At last the example is set by +one daring pair, timidly followed by another couple, and then by +another, who get out of step at the end of the first round, and after +treading severely upon the advanced toes of the old lady in a very +flowery cap and plum-coloured satin (one of our faded wallflowers), who +is sitting out at the top of the room, and who from that instant +deprecates waltzing as an amusement not at all consistent with her ideas +of feminine decorum." + +[Illustration: "THE WALTZ."] + +The young lady in this drawing has much of Leech's charm; but I should +scarcely have selected it were it not for the figure of the gentleman, +which exactly resembles that of Leech himself as I first knew him. If +conservatories, or even staircases, could speak, what flirtations they +could chronicle, what love-tales they could tell! Mr. Smith says "you +will have to confess your inability to imagine what on earth the +gentleman with the long hair, who is carefully balancing himself on one +leg against the flowerpot-stand, and the pretty girl with the bouquet, +can find to talk about so long, so earnestly." + +I for one beg Mr. Albert Smith's pardon. I can easily imagine what they +are talking about. + +[Illustration: "IN THE CONSERVATORY."] + +It would be a grave omission if "The Belle of the Evening" were left +out of these extracts from the "Physiology of Evening Parties." Let me +present her, then. Now listen to the flourish with which the author +introduces her: + +"Room for beauty! The belle of the evening claims our next attention, +the lovely dark-eyed girl so plainly yet so elegantly dressed, who wears +her hair in simple bands over her fair forehead, unencumbered by flower +or ornament of any kind, and moves in the light of her own beauty as the +presiding goddess of the room, imparting fragrance to the enamoured air +that plays around her!" + +[Illustration: "THE BELLE OF THE EVENING."] + +Rather tall talk, this, but excusable, perhaps, as applied to the lovely +creature Leech has drawn for us. + +I feel I cannot close these extracts more appropriately than by +allowing Mr. Ledbury to appear again at the moment of his departure from +a scene in which he has so distinguished himself by his conversational, +as well as by his terpsichorean, powers. He was destined to be guilty of +one more folly--that of thinking he had but to ask for his hat to get +it. + +[Illustration: "MR. LEDBURY'S HAT."] + +"He walks downstairs," says Mr. Smith, "under the insane expectation of +finding his own hat, or madly deeming that the ticket pinned upon it +corresponds with the one in his waistcoat pocket." + +Here I take my leave of "The Physiology of Evening Parties" in +presenting my reader with this charming little drawing, in which one +scarcely knows which to admire most--the bewildered expression of Mr. +Ledbury as he ruefully contemplates the rim of his hat, or the +sympathetic, half-laughing face of the perfect little maid. The artistic +qualities of this illustration are excellent. I say good-bye to "Evening +Parties" only to meet Mr. Albert Smith again in a work by him called +"Comic Tales and Pictures of Life," published, I think, about the time +of the "Evening Parties," or perhaps earlier, for the illustrations are, +on the whole, inferior to those in the latter production. The work under +notice is composed of a series of short stories, in which love, comedy, +and deep tragedy play alternate parts. Leech's attention is mainly +devoted to the comic scenes. + +We are told of a Mr. Percival Jenks, whose frequent visits to the +theatre have led to the loss of his heart to a beauteous ballet-girl. +"The third ballet-girl from the left-hand stage-box, with the golden +belt and green wreath, in the Pas des Guirlandes, or lyres, or +umbrellas, or something of the kind, had enslaved his susceptible +affections." + +[Illustration: "MR. PERCIVAL JENKS."] + +No one knew who Mr. Jenks was, or what he was. Even his landlady's +information about him was confined to the idea that he was "something in +a house in the City." That idea proved to be well founded, for Mr. J. +was discovered by the head-clerk at the house in the City, spoiling +blotting-paper by drawing little opera-dancers all over it; thus +neglecting his accounts, which he had to "stay two hours after time to +make up. At half price, nevertheless, he was at the play again, his +whole existence centred on an airy compound of clear muslin and white +satin that was twirling about the stage." Mr. Jenks burned to know his +enslaver's name with a view to an introduction; and for that purpose he +haunted the stage-door, but utterly failed to recognise, amongst the +faded cloaks, and drabby bonnets that issued from that portal, the +angelic form of his charmer. He then took to haunting the places where +minor actors and other employes of the theatre most do congregate for +the purpose of social intercourse and refreshment; here at last he is +rewarded. + +"Do you know the young lady," he says to a habitue, "who dances in the +ballet with a green wreath round her head?" + +"And a gilt belt round her waist?" asked the friend in turn. "Oh, it's +Miss--Miss--I shall forget my own name next." + +Percival was about to suggest Rosiere, Celeste, Amadee, and other pretty +cognomens, when his companion caught the name, and exclaimed: + +"Miss Jukes; I thought I should recollect it." + +The name certainly was not what Percival had expected; still, what was +in a name? Jenks was not poetical, and Jukes was something like it. + +"Could you favour me with an introduction to her?" he asked. + +"In a minute, if you wish it," replied his companion. + +"You know her intimately then?" + +"Very; I buy all my green-grocery of her." + +The introduction takes place. Gracious powers! how a minute broke the +enchantment of many weeks! "The nymph of the Danube was habited in a +faded green cloak and straw bonnet, with limp and half-bleached pink +ribbons clinging to its form. Her pallid and almost doughy face was +deeply pitted with smallpox; her skin was rough from the constant layers +of red and white paint it had to endure," etc., etc. He fell back with a +convulsive start. + +From internal evidence I find the date of "Comic Tales," etc., to be +1841, contemporary, therefore, with the establishment of _Punch_. There +is a drawing of so pretty a conceit as to warrant my selecting it, +though artistically it is inferior to Leech's work even at that time. +The drawing heads a paper entitled "Speculations on Marriage and Young +Ladies," and as it tells its own story, quotation from Mr. Smith is +needless. + +In one amusing paper in "Comic Tales," the author treats us to "an Act +for amending the representation of certain public sights, termed +equestrian spectacles, in the habit of being represented at a favourite +place of resort, termed the Royal Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge." The +paper is framed in the form of an Act of Parliament, and the author +forbids the use of ancient jokes or stereotyped phrases in a very +humorous manner. + +"Be it enacted," he announces, after condemning a variety of +objectionable practices, "that the clown shall not, after the first +equestrian feat, exclaim: 'Now I'll have a turn to myself!' previous to +his toppling like a coach-wheel round the ring; nor shall he fall flat +on his face, and then collecting some sawdust in his hand, drop it down +from the level of his head, and say his nose bleeds; nor shall he +attempt to make the rope-dancers' balance-pole stand on its end by +propping it up with the said sawdust; nor shall he, after chalking the +performers' shoes, conclude by chalking his own nose, to prevent his +foot slipping when he treads upon it; nor shall he pick up a small piece +of straw, for fear he should fall over it, and afterwards balance the +said straw on his chin as he runs about; neither shall the master of the +ring say to the clown, when they are leaving the circus: 'I never follow +the fool, sir!' nor shall the fool reply: 'Then I do!' and walk out +after him." + +I would draw attention to the figure of the clown in this cut, which is +simply perfect in expression and character. The affected strut of the +ring-master also is admirably caught. + +A paper on Christmas pantomimes is illustrated by such a perfect clown +that I cannot resist my inclination to present him to my readers. + +[Illustration: CLOWN: "Oh, see what I've found!"] + +"Comic Tales and Pictures of Life" contains, at least, one drawing that +is equal to Leech at his best. The cut illustrates an article on +"Delightful People," a short essay, amusing enough. + +[Illustration: "MISS CINTHIA SINGS."] + +Music, whether performed by the band or by musical guests, is an +important factor in an evening party. Mr. Albert Smith tells us that "a +lady of his acquaintance" had secured those "Delightful People, the +Lawsons," for a large evening party she was about to give; and after +lauding the charming qualities of Mr. and Mrs. Lawson, she put a final +touch to the Lawson attractions by informing her friend that their +daughter, Miss Cinthia Lawson, was not only a delightful girl, but that +"she sings better than anyone you ever heard in private." In the +interval of dancing Cinthia sings. "The young lady now dressed in plain +white robes, with her hair smoothed very flat round her head _a la +Grisi_, whom she thought she resembled both in style of singing and +features, and consequently studied all her attitudes from the clever +Italian's impersonation of Norma.... At last the lady begun a _bravura_ +upon such a high note, and so powerful, that some impudent fellows in +the square, who were passing at the moment, sang out 'Vari-e-ty' in +reply. Presently, a young gentleman, who was standing at her side, +chanced to turn over too soon, whereupon she gave him _such_ a look, +that, if he had entertained any thoughts of proposing, would effectually +have stopped any such rash proceeding; but her equanimity was soon +restored, and she went through the aria in most dashing style until she +came to the last note, whose appearance she heralded with a _roulade_ of +wonderful execution." + +I remember Grisi, and I cannot share Miss Lawson's conviction of her +resemblance to that great singer--personal resemblance, I mean--and, in +all probability, she had as feeble a claim to an equality of genius; but +that she had a powerful voice, and that she gave it full effect, is +evident by Leech's perfect rendering of that wonderful mouth, from which +one can almost hear the _roulade_. All the lines of the figure, with the +movement of the hands, and the backward action of the singer, are true +to Nature. The assistant at the music-book and the stolid old gentleman +are also excellent. + +With this, the best of the drawings in "Comic Tales," I take my leave +of the book. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +JOHN LEECH AND THE ETON BOY. + + +I had been told that a friend whose acquaintance I made many years ago +was in possession of some correspondence with Leech of considerable +interest. I wrote to him on the subject, and received the following +reply: + + "DEAR MR. FRITH, + +"I had intended waiting till my return to town to see whether I could +find John Leech's letters before writing to you; but as you ask for the +story, here it is, to the best of my recollection, and it is heartily at +your service. When I was a boy at Eton I sent to _Punch_ an incident +which happened at a dance. Young Oxford complaining to his partner of +the dearth of 'female society' at the University, she retorts, 'What a +pity you didn't go to a girls' school instead!' Its appearance beneath +an illustration of Leech's caused great excitement in our house at Eton, +and as great tales of Mr. Punch's liberality were current--as, for +example, that the sender of the advice 'To persons about to +marry--_don't_,' had received L100--I began to look anxiously for some +tip for my contribution. An enterprising pal said, 'It's a beastly +shame; and if you'll go halves, I'll write to _Punch_ and wake 'em up.' +This speedily resulted in the receipt of a post-office order for two +guineas from John Leech, accompanied by a rather dry note, to the effect +that Mr. Punch considered that he had already done enough in providing +an original illustration to my joke. I was indignant, and wrote back to +Leech returning the money, but he would not hear of this. He told me I +could buy gloves with the money for the young lady if I liked--which I +am afraid I didn't. Several kind letters from him followed, with an +invitation, gladly accepted, to call and see him in the holidays, and a +present, which I still treasure, of two volumes of his 'Life and +Character.' + +[Illustration: "DREADFUL FOR YOUNG OXFORD." + + LADY: "Are you at Eton?" + + YOUNG OXFORD: "Aw, no! I'm at Oxford." + + LADY: "Oxford! Rather a nice place, is it not?" + + YOUNG OXFORD: "Hum!--haw! pretty well; but then I can't get on without + female society!" + + LADY: "Dear! dear! pity you don't go to a girls' school, then!"] + + "At the time I remember my schoolfellows considered me a born + caricaturist, an opinion I naturally shared. Leech was most indulgent + to my early efforts--gave me some wood-blocks to work upon, and + encouraged me to persevere, which, alas! I have not done, etc. + + "Yours truly." + +Here follows Leech's "dry note": + + + "32, Brunswick Square, London, + "June 6, 1859. + + "DEAR SIR, + +"The editor of _Punch_ is the person who should be addressed upon all +money matters connected with that periodical. However, in the present +instance, perhaps it will answer every purpose if I adopt the suggestion +of your 'great _friend_ and _confidant_,' and '_do the handsome_ and +send a _tip direct_,' which I do in the shape of a post-office order for +one guinea; or, as your 'entirely _disinterested_' young friend is to +have half of what you get, it will be even better if I make the order +for two guineas instead, as I do, only you must not look upon this as a +precedent. I am afraid Mr. Punch would have considered that the trouble +and expense he was at to have an original design made to your few lines +would have been ample recompense. In future send to the editor your +notion of what you expect for any contribution, and he will accept or +reject accordingly, I dare say. + + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +The Eton boy was "indignant, and wrote back to Leech returning the +money," to which Leech replied as follows: + + "32, Brunswick Square, + "November 8, 1859. + + "DEAR SIR, + +"No, no; it must be as it is; besides, the order is made out in your +name, and can be used by no one else. After all, your contribution was +very amusing, and pray consider yourself as quite entitled to the sum +offered. If you have any doubt as to how you should spend the money, +why, then, buy some gloves for the young lady who said the smart thing +to the Oxford man. As to my being offended, dismiss the notion from your +mind at once. Your first note I consider perfectly good-natured, and +your second as frank and gentleman-like. I hope you will do me the +favour to accept two volumes of my sketches, in which I hope you will +find some amusement. + +"I will direct the volumes to be sent to you this afternoon. + + "Believe me, dear sir, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +Encouraged by Leech's kindness, and being, as he says, "a born +caricaturist in the opinion of his friends," the Eton boy sent some +sketches for Leech's opinion. To this application he received the +following reply: + + "32, Brunswick Square, + "June 11, 1859. + + "MY DEAR SIR, + +"I am very busy, so you must excuse a rather short note. Your sketches I +have looked at carefully, however, and I have no hesitation in saying +that they show a great perception of humour on your part. They seem to +me to be altogether very good; and I have no doubt that with practice +you might make your talent available in _Punch_ and elsewhere. I don't +know about your taking lessons, except from Nature, and learn from her +as much as possible. Try your hand at some initial letters--if drawn on +the wood clearly, so much the better--and I will, with great pleasure, +hand them to the editor of _Punch_. 'The Pleasures of Eton' is capital; +the style, I take it, founded a little upon Doyle's works. I would not +do that too much. You have quite cleverness enough to strike out a path +of your own, and with my best wishes for your success, + + "Believe me, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +In sending these letters the Eton boy of old says he is "sure that +nothing would more thoroughly exemplify Leech's genial wit and courteous +kindliness than these replies to an unknown schoolboy." I suppose the +letter in which my friend was invited to call upon Leech "in the +holidays" is not to be found. But that he did call and received a +present of "wood-blocks to work upon," accompanied by "encouragement to +persevere," which, alas! he has not done, we have from himself. + +This incident is especially delightful, as it reflects perfectly the +quality of heart and mind so characteristic of Leech. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. + + +Mr. Surtees, the writer of the sporting novels, possessed considerable +powers of invention, which he indulged--amongst other vagaries--in +giving names to most of the characters in his books, which served to +enlighten his readers as to their physical and mental peculiarities, and +never more happily than when he christened the hero of this sporting +tour Mr. Soapy Sponge. "Mr. Sponge," says our author, "wished to be a +gentleman without knowing how;" but what Mr. Sponge did know was how to +sponge upon everybody with whom he could force an acquaintance, and this +he effected with surprising success. Hunting and good hunting quarters +were the objects of Mr. Sponge's machinations, and upon a half-hearted +invitation from a Mr. Jawleyford, of Jawleyford Court, an invitation +given without an idea that it would be accepted (as sometimes happens), +Mr. Sponge found himself installed in the ancestral mansion of the +Jawleyfords. Mr. Jawleyford was "one of the rather numerous race of +paper-booted, pen-and-ink landowners," says Mr. Surtees, "whose +communications with his tenantry were chiefly confined to dining with +them twice a year in the great entrance-hall after the steward, _Mr. +Screwemtight_, had eased them of their rents." Then Mr. Jawleyford would +shine forth the very impersonification of what a landlord ought to be. +Dressed in the height of fashion, he would declare that the only really +happy moments of his life were those when he was surrounded by his +tenantry. + +In the background of this admirable drawing we see Mr. Jawleyford's +portrait, flanked by his ancestors, on canvas and in armour, hanging on +the panelled walls of his gorgeous home. The variety of character in the +"chawbacons," each a marked individuality, contrasts effectually with +his _quasi_ fashionable landlord. For the first banquet at Jawleyford +Court, "Mr. Sponge," says the author, "made himself an uncommon swell." +His dress is minutely described, and faithfully depicted by Leech, in +the etching in which we see the sponger conducting a very portly Mrs. +Jawleyford, followed by her daughters, to the dining-room. The young +ladies who have entered the drawing-room "in the full fervour of +sisterly animosity," according to the author, seem--in the lovely group +that Leech makes of them--to have speedily made up their quarrel, as +their entwined arms and pretty, happy faces prove. The solemn butler, +who looks with awe at his aristocratic master, is in Leech's truest +vein, while Mr. Jawleyford himself is simply perfect. In the footmen and +page the illustration is less successful; they seem to approach, if not +to reach, caricature. + +When Mr. Sponge found himself in good quarters, no hint however strong, +no looks however cold, no manner however unpleasant, would move him, +until he had provided himself with others to his liking. Under the +impression that he was rich, the Misses Jawleyford set their caps at +him. Amelia and Emily rivalled each other in tender attentions to the +adventurer, who, after hesitating as to which of them he should throw +the handkerchief to, fixed upon Miss Amelia, who found her sister "in +the act of playing the agreeable" with Mr. Sponge as she "sailed" into +the drawing-room before dinner; then, "with a haughty sort of sneer and +toss of the head to her sister, as much as to say, 'What are you doing +with my man?'--a sneer that suddenly changed into a sweet smile as her +eye encountered Sponge's--she just motioned him off to a sofa, where she +commenced a _sotto-voce_ conversation in the engaged-couple style." + +During his stay at Jawleyford Court, Mr. Sponge's time was passed in +hunting, smoking all over the house--a habit the owner detested--and in +making love to Miss Amelia; taking care, however, not to commit himself +until he had discovered from papa what the settlements were to be. We +who are behind the scenes know that Jawleyford Court is "mortgaged up to +the chimney-pots," and that Mr. J. is over head and ears in debt +besides. We know also that Mr. Sponge is impecunious, his hunters are +hired; he is, in fact, as his author describes him, "a vulgar humbug." +"Jawleyford began to suspect that Sponge might not be the great 'catch' +he was represented," says the author. No doubt in finding himself +baffled in his attempts to sound his host upon the subject of +settlements, Mr. Sponge also "began to suspect" that neither of the +Misses Jawleyford would be the "catch" that he wanted. Still, he held on +to his quarters in defiance of the attempts to get rid of him. He was +removed from the best bedroom to one in which it was impossible to light +a fire, or, rather, to endure it when it was alight, because of an +incurable smoky chimney. He was given poor food and corked wine, still +he stayed, until he had provided himself with a temporary home at the +house of a hunting gentleman named Puffington. + +Mr. Puffington, who made Sponge's acquaintance at the covert-side where +Lord Scamperdale's hounds met, "got it into his head" that Mr. Sponge +was a literary man, whose brilliant pen was about to be employed in the +interest of fox-hunting in general, and of certain runs of Mr. +Puffington's hounds in particular. Mr. Puffington "was the son of a +great starch-maker at Stepney." Puffington, senior, made a large +fortune, which enabled his son to become the owner of Hanby House, and +of the "Mangeysterne--now Hanby-Hounds," because he thought they would +give him consequence. Our author says, Mr. Puffington "had no natural +inclination for hunting," but he seems to have become M.F.H. so that he +might entertain some of the sporting friends he had made at college, +such "dashing young sparks as Lord Firebrand, Lord Mudlark, Lord +Deuceace, Sir Harry Blueun, Lord Legbail, now Earl of Loosefish," and so +on. + +My space, or, rather, the want of it, prevents my telling how it was +that Mr. Sponge "awoke and found himself famous" as an author. In +conjunction with a friend, who steered him through the spelling and +grammar, he concocted an article for the _Swillingford Patriot_--Grimes, +editor--which "appeared in the middle of the third sheet, and was +headed, 'Splendid Run with Mr. Puffington's Hounds.'" Mr. Grimes was +ably assisted in his editorial duties by "his eldest daughter, Lucy--a +young lady of a certain age, say liberal thirty--an ardent Bloomer, with +a considerable taste for sentimental poetry, with which she generally +filled the Poet's Corner." + +As Mr. Puffington quite expected to be immortalized in some work of +general circulation, his indignation knew no bounds when he found +himself relegated to a corner of the county paper, and all his hopes of +his doings being read by "the Lords Loosefish, the Sir Toms and Sir +Harrys of former days" grievously disappointed. Never, surely, were +disgust, disappointment, and rage more perfectly expressed than in the +second portrait of Mr. Puffington: not only the face, but the whole +figure--one can fancy how the hand in the pocket of the dressing-gown is +clenched--denotes the surprise and exasperation of the miserable man. + +Mr. Sponge's literary effort has "done for him" with Mr. Puffington. He +must go. Easier said than done. + +"Couldn't you manage to get him to go?" asked Mr. Puffington of his +valet. + +"Don't know, sir. I could try, sir--believe he's bad to move, sir," said +the valet. + +Driven to despair, the host "scrawled a miserable-looking note, +explaining how very ill he was, how he regretted being deprived of Mr. +Sponge's agreeable society--hoped he would come another time," and so +on. Even the "sponger" felt the difficulty of parrying such a palpable +notice to quit. "He went to bed sorely perplexed," and in his waking +moments trying to remember "what sportsmen had held out the hand of good +fellowship and hinted at hoping to have the pleasure of seeing him"; he +could think of no one to whom he could volunteer a visit. But Fortune +favours the brave sponger, as she often does unworthy people, and in Mr. +Jogglebury Crowdey, an eccentric individual whose acquaintance Sponge +had made in the hunting-field, he found another host. At the suggestion +of Mrs. Jogglebury, who, without the slightest reason, had taken it into +her head that Mr. Sponge was a wealthy man, and would make a +satisfactory godfather to one of her children, Mr. Jogglebury called on +Mr. Sponge at the Puffington mansion, and invited him to "pay us a +visit." + +No sooner does our hero grasp the situation than he says: + +"Well, you're a devilish good fellow, and I'll tell you what, as I am +sure you mean what you say, I'll take you at your word and go at once." + +And in this determination he persists, though Mr. J. pleads for some +delay, as Mrs. Jogglebury Crowdey requires some little time for +preparation in receiving so distinguished a guest. + +The visit to Puddingpote Bower, as the Jogglebury dwelling was called, +proved as unfortunate as the previous visits; the more people saw of Mr. +Sponge the less they liked him, and this time the dislike was mutual. +"Jog and Sponge," says the author, "were soon most heartily sick of each +other." Mr. Sponge soon began to think that it was not worth while +staying at Puddingpote Bower for the mere sake of his keep, "seeing +there was no hunting to be had from it." + +Within twelve or thirteen miles from the Bower there lived Sir Harry +Scattercash, a very fast young gentleman indeed. He kept "an +ill-supported pack of hounds, that were not kept upon any fixed +principles; their management was only of the scrimmaging order," but Mr. +Sponge, scenting an invitation, determined to make one amongst the +field. + +In his attempt to "go it," my lord "was ably assisted by Lady +Scattercash, late the lovely and elegant Miss Glitters, of the Theatre +Royal, Sadler's Wells. Lady Scattercash could ride--indeed, she used to +do scenes in the circle (two horses and a flag), and she could drive, +and smoke, and sing, and was possessed of many other accomplishments." + +What a winning creature Leech has made of her, and the scarcely less +delightful little tiger behind her, may be seen in the illustration +which the law of copyright prevents me from introducing, as it also +prohibits the appearance here of Sir Harry, her husband, the happy +possessor of the charming Lady Scattercash. + +"Sometimes," says the author of "Sponge," "Sir Harry would drink +straight on end for a week!" Mr. Sponge made desperate efforts to take +up his abode at Nonsuch House, but Sir Harry was surrounded by congenial +spirits, who, one and all, had taken prejudice against that worthy; so, +beyond a hunting dinner, at which everybody, including the ladies, took +more wine than was good for them, Mr. Sponge and Nonsuch House were +strangers to each other for a time. But, as the hunting-field is open to +all and sundry, Mr. Sponge, not easily daunted, put in a frequent +appearance, in the sure and certain hope that admission to free quarters +at Sir Harry's was only delayed. Beyond what is elegantly called "peck +and perch," Nonsuch House contained a very powerful attraction in the +form of Miss Lucy Glitters, sister to Lady Scattercash. Miss Lucy was a +lovely person, and her charms were increased in Mr. Sponge's eyes +because he persuaded himself that the sister-in-law of a baronet must +necessarily be a rich woman. Miss Lucy had also the conviction that Mr. +Sponge was a rich man; how else could he spend his time in the sports of +the field, with all their expensive accompaniments? Miss Glitters was a +bold rider, and that accomplishment also endeared her to the gentleman +in whom the passion of love burned suddenly, and with a very furious +flame indeed; till on one fateful hunting day the amorous couple found +themselves "in at the death": they had distanced the field, they were +alone. Mr. Sponge secured the brush, and said: + +"We'll put this in your hat, alongside the cock's feathers." + +I now quote my author: "The fair lady leant towards him, and as he +adjusted it becomingly in her hat, looking at her bewitching eyes, her +lovely face, and feeling the sweet fragrance of her breath, a something +shot through Mr. Sponge's pull-devil pull-baker coat, his corduroy +waistcoat, his Eureka shirt, angola vest, and penetrated to the very +cockles of his heart. He gave her such a series of smacking kisses as +startled her horse and astonished a poacher who happened to be hid in +the adjoining hedge." + +On the return of the happy pair Lucy rushes to her sister with the good +news. Lady Scattercash was delighted, because "Mr. Sponge was such a +nice man, _and so rich_! She was sure he was rich--couldn't hunt if he +wasn't. Would advise Lucy to have a good settlement, in case he broke +his neck." On further inquiry, however, her ladyship had good reason to +suspect that a red coat and two or three hunters were not satisfactory +proofs of wealth; and in reply to one who knew, she retorted, "Well, +never mind, if he has nothing, she has nothing, and nothing can be +nicer." With the conviction that nothing could be nicer, "Lady +Scattercash warmly espoused Mr. Sponge's cause," the consequence being +his instalment in splendid quarters at Nonsuch House, where he made +himself thoroughly at home. "It was very soon 'my hounds,' 'my horses,' +and 'my whips,' etc., being untroubled by his total inability to keep +the angel who had ridden herself into his affections, for he made no +doubt that something would turn up." If it were not for the introduction +of a delightful drawing by Leech, I should take no note of a +"Steeplechase," in which Mr. Sponge comes before us for the last time. +This function is not a favourite with Mr. Surtees, nor is it looked upon +without much anxiety by Miss Lucy. "She has made Mr. Sponge a white silk +jacket to ride in, and a cap of the same colour. Altogether, he is a +great swell, and very like a bridegroom," says the author. + +[Illustration] + +If this drawing suffered in the hands of the wood-engraver, it must +have been beyond imagination beautiful, for, as it is, it shows us Leech +in his full strength. Nothing, it seems to me, could surpass the figure of +Lucy, whose expression of loving fear for the safety of the bold Sponge is +shown to us in one of the prettiest faces conceivable. Sponge himself is +no less successfully rendered as he smiles reassuringly at his beloved. +The race--admirably described by the author--is run, and won by Mr. +Sponge. "And now for the hero and heroine of our tale. The Sponges--for +our friend married Lucy shortly after the steeplechase--stayed at Nonsuch +House till the bailiffs walked in. Sir Harry then bolted to Boulogne, +where he afterwards died. Being at length starved out of Nonsuch House," +says the historian, "he--Sponge--arrived at his old quarters, the Bantam, +in Bond Street, where he turned his attention very seriously to providing +for Lucy and the little Sponge, who had now issued its prospectus. He +thought over all the ways and means of making money without capital.... +Professional steeplechasing Lucy decried, declaring she would rather +return to her flag exercises at Astley's as soon as she was able than have +her dear Sponge risking his neck that way. Our friend at length began to +fear fortune-making was not so easy as he thought; indeed he was soon sure +of it." Something had to be done; "accordingly, after due consultation +with Lucy, he invested his all in fitting up and decorating the splendid +establishment in Jermyn Street, St. James's, now known as the SPONGE CIGAR +AND BETTING ROOMS, where noblemen, gentlemen, and officers in the +Household troops may be accommodated with loans on their personal security +to any amount." We see by Mr. Sponge's last advertisement that he has +L116,000 to lend at 31/2 per cent. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS," BY ALBERT SMITH. + + + "December 20, 1844. + + "MY DEAR SIR, + +"Here we are at the 20th of the month, and I have only four pages of +Smith's new story--no incident. Really, it is too much to expect that I +can throw myself at a moment's notice into the seventeenth century, with +all its difficulties of costume, etc., etc. What am I to do? There is a +great want of system somewhere. I received a note from Mr. Marsh last +night, stating for the first time that there would be _two_ +illustrations to 'The Marchioness of Brinvilliers,' and also urging me +to be very early with the plates, it being Christmas and all that! But, +as I said before, I have not the matter to illustrate. _What am I to +do?_ Added to all this, I must be engaged one day in the early part of +next week on the melancholy occasion of the funeral of a poor little +sister of mine. Pray, my dear sir, do what you can to expedite matters, +and + + "Believe me, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "---- MORGAN, ESQ." + + +The above is one of the many letters that might be quoted to show the +aggravating delays and difficulties under which so much of Leech's work +was produced. I take Mr. Morgan to have been one of the officials of Mr. +Richard Bentley's establishment, whose patience must have been sorely +tried again and again by the pranks of that _genus irritabile_, the +writer. Judging from the humorous character of Albert Smith's "Ledbury" +and other works, one is hardly prepared for the horrors that make us +shudder over the pages of "The Marchioness of Brinvilliers"--horrors in +which the writer seems to revel with a zest as keen as that he takes in +the fun and frolic of Ledbury. + +The "shilling shocker" of the present day is a mild production indeed, +in comparison with the history of the poisoner and adulteress, +Brinvilliers, in which "on horror's head horrors accumulate." The +authors of the modern productions are, for the most part, inventors of +the blood-and-murder scenes that adorn their books. Not so Mr. Albert +Smith, whose pages describe but too truly the career of the most +notorious of the many criminals that flourished in the most profligate +period of French history. Louis XIV. set an example in debauchery to his +subjects which the highest of them eagerly followed; but the most +fearful factor of this terrible time was poison, by which the possessors +of estates who "lagged superfluous on the scene" were made to give place +to greedy heirs; husbands, inconveniently in the way, were put out of it +by their wives, whose affections had been disposed of elsewhere; state +officers, whose positions were desired by aspirants unwilling to wait +for them, were struck by sudden and mysterious illness, speedily +followed by death, for which the faculty of the time could in no way +account. + +Marie, Marchioness of Brinvilliers, lived with her husband in the Rue +des Cordeliers in Paris. The Marquis was a man of easy morals, and the +Marchioness was a woman of still easier morals, for she had many lovers; +she also amused her leisure hours by the study of the nature and +properties of a great variety of deadly poisons; thinking, no doubt, as +she was of a jealous disposition, that the time might arrive when her +knowledge would be useful in depriving her lover of the temptation which +had led him to forget his duty to her. The Marchioness was a very +beautiful woman; she had eyes of a tender blue; her complexion was of +dazzling whiteness, with cheeks of a delicate carnation; her expression +was angelic, and she wore her hair of pale gold in bushy ringlets, in +obedience to the fashion of the time. We first become acquainted with +the Marchioness under painful circumstances, for she made--and kept--an +appointment with one lover without being sufficiently careful to +disguise her doings from another. That other was the Chevalier Gaudin de +Sainte-Croix, who proceeded to the lodgings of his rival, M. Camille +Theria. + +"'The Marchioness of Brinvilliers is here, I believe,' said Gaudin to +the grisette at the door. 'Will you tell her she is wanted on pressing +business?' + +"The Marchioness appeared. A stifled scream of fear and surprise, yet +sufficiently intense to show her emotion at the sight of Gaudin, broke +from her lips as she recognised him. But she immediately recovered her +impassibility of features--that wonderful calmness and innocent +expression which afterwards was so severely put to the proof without +being shaken--and she asked, with apparent unconcern: + +"'Well, monsieur, what do you want with me?' + +"'Marie!' exclaimed Gaudin, 'let me ask your business here at this hour' +(it was rather late) 'unattended, and in the apartment of a scholar of +the Hotel Dieu?' + +"'You are mad, Sainte-Croix,' said the Marchioness. 'Am I to be +accountable to you for all my actions? M. Theria is not here, and I came +to see his wife on my own affairs.' + +"'Liar!' cried Gaudin." + +The lady had not told the truth, for M. Theria had no wife, and he was +so near by that he heard the angry voice of M. Sainte-Croix, who so +convinced the Marchioness of her perfidy that "in an instant the +accustomed firmness of the Marchioness deserted her, and she fell upon +her knees at his feet on the cold, damp floor of the landing." + +In this powerful etching nothing could surpass the beauty of the face +and figure of the Marchioness; she exactly realizes our ideal. But the +Chevalier, though full of passion, is, to my mind, verging on the +theatrical. + +Finding that her entreaties to the Chevalier to "go away" have no +effect, she threatens suicide. + +"There is but one resource left," she says, as she "springs up from her +position of supplication." + +"Where are you going?" asked Sainte-Croix, as she rushed to the top of +the flight of stairs. + +"Hinder me not!" returned Marie. "To the river!" + +But before she could reach the river--to which she would no doubt have +given a very wide berth--she fainted, or pretended to faint, in the +courtyard at the bottom of the staircase. Here the pair were overtaken +by M. Theria. + +"A few hot and hurried words passed on either side, and the next instant +their swords were drawn and crossed. The fight was short, and ended in +Sainte-Croix thrusting his rapier completely through the fleshy part of +the sword-arm of the student, whose weapon fell to the ground. + +"'I have it!' cried Camille. 'A peace, monsieur! I have it!' he +continued, smiling, as he felt that his wound, though slight, was too +serious to have been received in so unworthy a cause. + +"As he was speaking, Marie opened her eyes and looked around. But the +instant she saw the two rivals, she shuddered convulsively, and again +relapsed into insensibility. + +"'She is a clever actress,' continued Camille, smiling. + +"'We have each been duped,' answered Gaudin. + +"'She will play me no longer. As far as I am concerned,' said Theria, +'you are welcome to all her affections, and I shall reckon you as one of +my best friends for your visit this evening.'" + +The visit was destined to have an unexpected end, however, for the +attention of the Guet Royal, or night-guard, had been called to the +clashing of swords. + +"Some young men, who had come up with the guard as they were returning +from their orgies, pressed forward with curiosity to ascertain the cause +of the tumult. But from one of them a fearful cry of surprise was heard +as he recognised the persons before him. Sainte-Croix raised his eyes, +and found himself face to face with Antoine, Marquis of Brinvilliers!" + +The late combatants threw dust in the eyes of the lady's husband +cleverly enough by pretending that Sainte-Croix had rescued her from the +unwelcome attentions of Theria, who had mistaken her in the uncertain +light for a lady with whom he had an appointment. The cloak which the +Marchioness wore, together with the darkness of the night, had prevented +his discovering that she was not the person he expected until her cries +had brought in Sainte-Croix, who was passing, as he said himself, "to +his lodgings in the Rue des Bernardins." + +The lady went home with her husband, and Sainte-Croix retired to his +lodgings, there to meditate on the perfidy of his mistress. The +Chevalier de Sainte-Croix was even more learned in poisons, and less +scrupulous in the use of them, than his mistress; and in his first gusts +of passion, on discovering her treachery, he was inclined--in the hate +of her that took temporary possession of him--to subject her to their +effect; but reflection produced demoniacal results. She should be spared +to kill those who ought to be near and dear to her! + +"'I will be her bane--her curse!' he exclaimed. 'I will be her bad +angel!... And I will triumph over that besotted fool, her husband,' etc. + +"He opened a small, iron-clamped box, and brought from it a small +packet, carefully sealed, and a phial of clear, colourless fluid. + +"'I have it! It is here--the source, not of life, but of death!' + +"Almost as he speaks, he is summoned by the _femme de chambre_ of the +Marchioness to an interview at her residence at her father's house, the +Hotel d'Aubray. The Chevalier found the enchantress in studied disarray. +She might have been made up after one of Guido's Magdalens," says the +author, "so beautiful were her rounded shoulders, so dishevelled her +light hair," etc. + +The lovers were speedily reconciled, but the lady had an important +communication to make--no less than the discovery of their intimacy by +her husband, whom she felt sure had revealed the fact to her father, M. +d'Aubray. A long pause, broken by Sainte-Croix: + +"'Marie,' he said, 'they must die, or our happiness is impossible.'" + +The Marchioness was not yet hardened enough to receive this announcement +with equanimity; and the lovers were still discussing the _pros_ and +_cons_ of it, when they were surprised by Monsieur d'Aubray, who, +entering by a secret door, "stood looking on the scene before him." Any +doubts of guilty intimacy, if he had any, were dispelled; and, after +ordering his daughter to her chamber, he turned to Sainte-Croix, and +said: + +"'Monsieur de Sainte-Croix, I will provide you with a lodging where you +will run no risk of compromising the honour of a noble family.'" + +And so saying, he produced a _lettre de cachet_, armed with which the +exempts, who were waiting for him, speedily deposited M. de Sainte-Croix +at the Bastille. The Marchioness, separated from her children and her +husband, was exiled to Offremont, a family place some distance from +Paris. Here she lived with her father, who so entirely believed in her +repentance and determination to lead a new life that he proposed a +speedy return to Paris. + +"'I have no wish to go, _mon pere_,' replied the hypocrite; 'I would +sooner remain here with you--for ever!'" + +After much talk and reiterated professions of sorrow for the past, the +Marchioness says, in reply to her father's order that "she shall never +speak to Sainte-Croix--who had been released from the Bastille--or +recognise him again: + +"'You shall be obeyed, monsieur--too willingly.'" + +The words had not long left her lips when she placed a lamp in the +window of the room, to guide her lover to a prearranged assignation. + +The awful interview that followed is described in Mr. Smith's book. + +The greater villain ran the risk of interruption in his lengthened +arguments in favour of parricide; but hearing approaching footsteps, +Sainte-Croix hurried away. + +[Illustration] + +M. d'Aubray had gone to bed. A servant suggested the night-drink. + +"'I will give it to him myself, Jervais,' said the Marchioness." + +Taking a jug from the man, she poured the contents into an old cup of +thin silver; then, "with a hurried glance round the room, she broke the +seals of the packet Sainte-Croix had left in her hands, and shook a few +grains of its contents into the beverage. No change was visible; a few +bubbles rose and broke upon the surface, but this was all." + +Sleep had surprised M. d'Aubray. His daughter touched him lightly, and +he "awoke with the exclamation of surprise attendant upon being suddenly +disturbed from sleep. + +"'I have brought your wine, _mon pere_,' said the murderess. + +"'Thanks, thanks, my good girl,' said the old man, as he raised himself +up in bed, and took the cup from the Marchioness. He drank off the +contents, and then, once more bestowing a benediction upon his daughter, +turned again to his pillow." + +Let those who desire to see how beauty can be retained, though +disfigured by devilish passion, study the face of the Marchioness in +this drawing. For skilful arrangement of light and shade, and of the +objects that go to make up the _mise en scene_, and for natural action +in the figures; this drawing takes the lead of all the admirable +illustrations in the "Marchioness of Brinvilliers." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"THE MARCHIONESS OF BRINVILLIERS" (_continued_). + + +A great reception was given at Versailles by the King. M. d'Aubray was +"suffering from a sudden and fearful indisposition, but he insisted upon +his daughter accepting an invitation, were it only to establish her +_entree_ into society." + +There, amongst the trees in the gardens, the Marchioness encounters +Sainte-Croix. "His face looked ghastly in the moonbeams, and his eyes +gleamed with a light that conscience made demoniac in the eyes of the +Marchioness." + +"'You here!' she exclaimed. + +"'Where should I be but in the place of rejoicing just now?' replied +Gaudin through his set teeth, and with a sardonic smile. 'I am this +moment from Paris. We are free!' + +"'My father?' cried the Marchioness, as a terrible expression +overspread her countenance. + +"'He is dead,' returned Sainte-Croix, 'and we are free!'" + +There was a pause, and they looked at each other for nearly a minute. + +"'Come,' at length said the Marchioness, 'come to the ball.'" + +A prominent and very interesting figure in Mr. Smith's book is Louise +Gauthier, a girl of comparatively humble birth, who had the misfortune +to love Sainte-Croix with the intense self-sacrificing love that good +women so often show for bad men, who return their affection with +coldness and neglect. This girl, who had become the friend of Marotte +Dupre, one of the actresses in the plays of Moliere which were part of +the attraction at the Versailles fete, accompanied the actress to +Versailles, where she accidentally overheard a conversation between the +Marchioness of Brinvilliers and M. de Sainte-Croix, which not only +convinced her that the love for her that Sainte-Croix had once professed +was given to another, but that some fearful tie existed between the two, +caused by actions which had destroyed their happiness here and their +hopes of it hereafter. + +She came from her concealment, and was received with jealous fury by +the Marchioness, who believed, or affected to believe, that the girl was +at "the grotto" by appointment with Sainte-Croix. She bestowed what is +commonly called "a piece of her mind" upon her lover, and concluded her +rhapsody by informing him that from henceforth "we meet no more." +Louise, however, convinced the passionate Marchioness that she had made +no appointment, but was at "the grotto" by, "perhaps, a dispensation of +Providence," in order that she might, having overheard their guilty +conversation, so act upon their consciences as to "save them both." + +The first result of her good intentions is a declaration to the +Marchioness by Sainte-Croix that, though there had been some +love-passages between him and the girl, they were "madness, +infatuation--call it what name you will; but you are the only one I ever +loved." Thus the ruffian speaks in the presence of the woman he had +betrayed; but her love, though crushed, still urges her to become the +man's good angel, and, seizing his arm, she cries: + +"'Hear me, Gaudin. By the recollection of what we once were to each +other--although you scorn me now, and the shadowy remembrance of old +times--before these terrible circumstances, whatever they may be, had +thus turned your heart from me and from your God, there is still time to +make amends for all that has occurred. I do not speak for myself, for +all those feelings have passed, but for you alone. Repent and be happy, +for happy now you are not!'" + +"Gaudin made no reply, but his bosom heaved rapidly, betraying his +emotion. + +"'This is idle talk,' said the Marchioness.... 'Will you not come with +me, Gaudin?' + +"'Marie!' cried Gaudin faintly, 'take me where you list. In life or +after it, on earth or in hell, I am yours--yours only!' + +"A flush of triumph passed over her face as she led Sainte-Croix from +the grotto," etc. + +By the death of her father the Marchioness hoped, not only to have freed +herself and her lover from an ever-recurring obstacle to their +intercourse, but also to have inherited a much-needed sum of money--no +less than "one hundred and fifty thousand livres were to have been the +legacy to his daughter, Madame de Brinvilliers--and, what was more, her +absolute freedom to act as she pleased. The money had passed to her +brothers, in trust for her, and she was left entirely under their +surveillance. + +"'This must be altered,' said the Chevalier Sainte-Croix in an +interview with the _alter ego_ of an Italian vendor of poisons named +Exili.'" + +This man undertakes the "alteration," or, in other words, the murder, of +the two brothers for a "consideration" in the form of "one-fifth of +whatever may fall to the Marchioness thereupon. + +"'Of course, there is a barrier between the brothers of Madame de +Brinvilliers and myself,' said Sainte-Croix to his accomplice, 'that +must for ever prevent our meeting. I will provide the means, and you +their application.'" + +Sainte-Croix had the right to claim the merit of this scheme for +enriching the Marchioness, and at the same time relieving her from a +guardianship that was impenetrable by her lover. The murder of her +brothers seemed a trifling affair after the poisoning of her father, and +she readily consented to assist in procuring a situation for the +poisoner's assistant--a man named Lechaussee--in the household of her +brothers, who happened, very fortunately, to be in want of a servant at +the moment. How this wretch administered the poison to the two brothers, +who died instantly from its effect, the curious reader may +ascertain--together with the other dramatic particulars--by consulting +Mr. Albert Smith's book, in which the incidents are told with great +force and skill. + +By eavesdropping in somewhat improbable places--notably at a grand fete +at the Hotel de Cluny, given by the Marquis de Lauzan, the Italian +poisoner Exili becomes master of the guilty pair's secrets. The +Marchioness's jealousy had been aroused during the evening by +Sainte-Croix's attention to an actress; and she left the great _salon_, +and retired with her friend to a cabinet, in which, after the usual +denial and reconciliation, secure, as they thought, from interruption, +they discussed their demoniacal schemes. As they were about to pass from +the room, "a portion of a large bookcase, masking a door, was thrown +open, and Exili stood before them." + +The somewhat theatrical character that Leech gives to the figure of +Sainte-Croix is much less apparent in this powerful drawing; and in the +figures of Exili and the Marchioness there is not a trace of it. Though +the Brinvilliers is masked according to a habit of the time, we feel +that the mask conceals a beautiful face, distorted by fear, no doubt, +but still lovely. The Italian is altogether excellent. + +Exili loses no time in turning his information to account, and in reply +to Sainte-Croix, who asks him what he wants, he replies that his trade +as a sorcerer is failing, and as a poisoner he is in "a yet worse +position, thanks to the Lieutenant of Police, M. de la Regnie. + +"'I must have money,' he adds, 'to enable me to retire and die elsewhere +than on the Greve.'" + +He ends by extorting from Sainte-Croix an undertaking to share with him +the wealth obtained through the murder of the brothers. But if Exili +relied upon the bond as a security of value, he displayed a degree of +ignorance of the human nature of such individuals as Sainte-Croix that +was surprising in so astute a person. + +"To elude the payment of Exili's bond," says the author, "he had +determined upon destroying him, running the risk of whatever might +happen subsequently through the physician's knowledge of the murders." +And he had, therefore, ordered a body of the "Guard Royal to attend, +when they would receive sufficient proof of the trade Exili was driving +in his capacity of alchemist." + +Sainte-Croix visited the Italian with excuses for the non-payment of +the money early in the evening of the day on which the arrest was +planned to take place later. To those excuses the poisoner listened +angrily; he discovered some valuable jewels which Sainte-Croix wore. He +had purposely brushed his hand against Sainte-Croix's cloak, and in the +pocket of it he felt some weighty substance. The chink assured him it +was gold. + +"'You cannot have that,' said Gaudin confusedly; 'it is going with me to +the gaming-table to-night.' + +"'You have rich jewels, too, about you,' continued Exili, peering at him +with a fearful expression. 'The carcanet becomes you well. That diamond +clasp is a fortune in itself.' + +"'Not one of them is mine,' said Sainte-Croix. 'They belong to the +Marchioness of Brinvilliers.'" + +The Italian affected to be satisfied with the assurance that the money +should be paid next day, and Sainte-Croix's doom was sealed. The +alchemist "turned to the furnace to superintend the progress of some +preparation that was evaporating over the fire. + +"'What have you there?' asked Gaudin, who was anxious to prolong the +interview till the guard could arrive. + +"'A venom more deadly than any we have yet known--that will kill like +lightning, and leave no trace of its presence to the most subtle tests.' + +"'You will give me the secret?' asked Gaudin. + +"'As soon as it is finished, and the time is coming on apace. You have +arrived opportunely to assist me.' + +"He took a mask with glass eyes, and tied it round his face. + +"'If you would see the preparation completed, you must wear one as +well.' + +"Exili took another visor, and, under pretence of rearranging the +string, he broke it from the mask; and then, fixing it back with some +resinous compound that would be melted by the heat of the furnace, he +cautiously fixed it to Sainte-Croix's face. + +"'I will mind the furnace whilst you go,' said Gaudin, in reply to the +alchemist, who said he must fetch some drugs required for further +operations. + +"At that moment Sainte-Croix heard an adjacent bell sound the hour at +which he had appointed the guard to arrive. + +"'There is no danger in this mask, you say?' + +"'None,' said Exili. + +"Anxious to become acquainted with the new poison, and in the hope that +as soon as he had acquired the secret of its manufacture the guard would +arrive, Gaudin bent over the furnace. Exili had left the apartment, but +as soon as his footfall was beyond Sainte-Croix's hearing he returned, +treading as stealthily as a tiger, and took up his place at the door to +watch his prey. As Gaudin bent his head to watch the preparation more +closely, the heat of the furnace melted the resin with which the string +had been fastened. It gave way, and the mask fell on the floor, whilst +the vapour of the poison rose full in his face almost before, in his +eager attention, he was aware of the accident. + +"One terrible scream--a cry which, once heard, could never be +forgotten--not that of agony, or terror, or surprise, but a shrill and +violent indrawing of the breath, resembling rather the screech of some +huge, hoarse bird of prey irritated to madness, than the sound of a +human voice--broke from Gaudin's lips. Every muscle of his face was +contorted into the most frightful form; he remained a second, and no +more, wavering at the side of the furnace, and then fell heavily on the +floor. He was dead." + +This terrible death-scene has found a perfect illustrator in John Leech. +How admirable is the fiendish expression of the poisoner as he gloats +over the body of his victim, which is drawn with a power and +truthfulness altogether perfect! Every detail of the laboratory how +skilfully introduced, how effectively rendered! + +The alchemist behaved on the occasion as might be expected. + +[Illustration] + +"He darted at the dead body like a beast of prey; and drew forth the +bag of money, which he transferred to his own pouch. He next tore away +every ornament of any value that adorned Gaudin's costly dress...." + +While at this congenial occupation, "the bristling halberts of the guard +appeared. + +"'Back!' screamed Exili. 'Keep off, or I will slay you and myself, so +that not one shall live to tell the tale! Your lives are in my hands,' +continued the physician, 'and if you move one step forward they are +forfeited.' + +"He darted through a doorway at the end of the room as he spoke, and +disappeared. The guard pressed forward; but, as Exili passed out at the +arch, a mass of timber descended like a portcullis and opposed their +further progress. A loud and fiendish laugh sounded in the _souterrain_, +which grew fainter and fainter, till they heard it no more." + +The poisoner escaped--for a time. He was captured afterwards, tried, +and, of course, condemned to death--a merciful death compared with that +which befell him on his way to execution at the hands of the infuriated +people, by whom his guards were overpowered, and after being almost torn +to pieces, he was thrown into the Seine. + +The toils were now closing round the miserable Marchioness de +Brinvilliers. The wretched woman had reached the inconceivable condition +of degradation said to be common to successful murderers when impunity +has followed their first crimes--that of killing for killing's sake. She +put on the clothes of a _religeuse_, attended the hospitals, and +poisoned the patients. Their dying cries were music to her, their +agonies afforded her the keenest pleasure. To the student of French +criminal history this is no news. I note it here so that the historian +of the woman's crimes should not be thought to have invented incidents +that existed only in his imagination. Mr. Smith had the best authority +for all the murders with which he charges Madame de Brinvilliers. + +The death of Sainte-Croix was followed by the usual police regulation +where foul play is suspected. Seals were affixed to his effects, amongst +which poisons were discovered that were proved to be the property of the +Marchioness of Brinvilliers. The murderess, terror-stricken, fled from +Paris; and, though hotly pursued, she escaped into Belgium, and sought +refuge in a religious house, where she took "sanctuary." The pursuers +were so near that, as she jumped from her carriage at the convent-door, +she left her cloak in the hands of the exempt. She turned upon him, says +the author, "with a smile of triumph that threw an expression of +demoniac beauty over her features, and cried: + +"'You dare not touch me, or you are lost body and soul!'" + +I must again refer my reader to Mr. Albert Smith's book if he wishes to +learn how the exempt, disguised as an abbe, beguiled the Marchioness +from her sanctuary, and content myself with showing--or rather in +letting Leech show--how she looked when the police-officer dropped his +disguise and she found herself seized by his men. + +The details given by Mr. Albert Smith of the last hours of Madame de +Brinvilliers are, though painful reading, very remarkable. The Docteur +Pirot, who passed nearly the whole of his time at the Conciergerie, has +left records of which the author has availed himself, as well as from +the letters of Madame de Sevigne. Those who wish to "sup full of +horrors" can satisfy themselves by reading the account of the torture by +water which was inflicted upon the miserable woman to induce her to +betray her accomplices. But there were none to betray. Her only +accomplice was dead. Her sufferings on the rack very nearly cheated the +headsman, for, as they culminated "in a piercing cry of agony, after +which all was still, the graffier, fearing that the punishment had been +carried too far, gave orders that she should be unbound." On her way to +execution, she was attended by the constant Pirot. The tumbrel stopped +before the door of Notre Dame, and a paper was put into her hands, from +which she read, in a firm voice, a confession of her crimes. The tumbrel +again advanced with difficulty through the dense crowds, portions of +which, "slipping between the horses of the troops who surrounded it, +launched some brutal remark at Marie with terrible distinctness and +meaning; but she never gave the least sign of having heard them, only +keeping her eyes intently fixed upon the crucifix which Pirot held up +before her." + +In this drawing Leech's power over individual character may be noted in +the diversity of type amongst the hooting crowd round the tumbrel. The +shrinking form of the prisoner is very beautiful. + +When the Place de Greve was reached the execrations of the mob had +ceased, and "a deep and awful silence" prevailed, "so perfect that the +voices of the executioner and Pirot could be plainly heard," says the +chroniclers. I pass over harrowing details. The beautiful head of the +poisoner was struck off by a single sword-stroke, and the executioner, +turning to Pirot, said: + +"'It was well done, monsieur, and I hope madame has left me a trifle, +for I deserve it.'" + +He then "calmly took a bottle from his pocket and refreshed himself with +its contents." + +If the short extracts from the history of this great criminal have +enabled my readers more clearly to understand and enjoy Leech's +illustrations, my object in selecting them has been realized. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +"A MAN MADE OF MONEY."--DOUGLAS JERROLD. + + +Knowing that this extraordinary book was illustrated by John Leech, and +hearing that it contained some of his best work, it became my duty to +make a sufficient acquaintance with the book to enable me to criticise +and explain the drawings to my readers. I tried "skimming," but the +power of the book, and the brilliancy of the wit in it, so attracted me +that I read the whole of it. + +It is not my province, and it is certainly not in my power, to pose as +a critic of literary work; and the hero--the man made of money, with a +heart made of bank-notes instead of flesh and blood, containing within +himself a bank that could be drawn upon to any amount--is so wonderful a +being as to place him out of the category of human creatures, and +altogether beyond criticism. This gentleman's name was Jericho. He had +waited till he was forty, and then he married a widow with three +children; two of them were girls, the third a young gentleman of whom +those who knew him best said, "He was born for billiards." There was no +love lost between Mr. Jericho and his step-children; in fact, they +cordially hated him, and he returned the compliment. Their name was +Pennibacker, inherited from their father, Captain Pennibacker, whose +loving wife "was made a widow at two-and-twenty by an East Indian +bullet." Mr. Jericho was one of that large class which, though really +needy, manoeuvres successfully to be considered wealthy. His +step-children considered him as "a rich plum-cake, to be sliced openly +or by stealth among them." The widow Pennibacker was first attracted to +him by "a whispered announcement that he was a City gentleman. Hence +Jericho appeared to the imagination of the widow with an indescribable +glory of money about him." + +Mrs. Jericho desired to make a few purchases, and she approached her +husband with a cry familiar to most of us: + +"'Mr. Jericho, when can you let me have some money?'" + +The lady's confidence in her husband's wealth ought to have been shaken +by what followed her application. Mr. Jericho turned a deaf ear to the +appeal, which was repeated in every variety of tone and accent. + +At length, "waving her right hand before her husband's face with a +significant and snaky motion," she reiterated her demand with a terrible +calmness: + +"'When can I have some money?' + +"'Woman!' cried Jericho vehemently, as though at once and for ever he +emptied his heart of the sex; and, rushing from the room, he felt +himself in the flattering vivacity of the moment a single man. 'I'm +sure, after all, I do my best to love the woman,' thought Jericho, 'and +yet she will ask me for money.'" + +Disgusted with these unreasonable demands for money, Mr. Jericho +determines to revenge himself by taking a day's pleasure with three +special friends, to be ended by "a quiet banquet at which the human +heart would expand in good fellowship, and where the wine was above +doubt." + +The dinner was a great success. It was very late--or rather somewhat +early, as the sparrows were twittering from the eaves--when Mr. Jericho +sought the marital couch, in which, too, his "wife Sabilla" was +evidently "in a sound, deep, sweet sleep." + +"Untucking the bed-clothes, and making himself the thinnest slice of a +man, Jericho slides between the sheets; and there he lies feloniously +still, and he thinks to himself--Being asleep, she cannot tell how late +I came to bed. At all events, it is open to dispute, and that is +something. + +"'Mr. Jericho, when can you let me have some money?' + +"With open eyes, and clearly ringing every word upon the morning air, +did Mrs. Jericho repeat this primal question. + +"And what said Jericho? With a sudden qualm at the heart, and with a +stammering tongue, he answered: + +"'Why, my dear, I thought you were sound asleep.'" + +Here follows a dialogue in the vein of the "Caudle Lectures," in which +Jerrold gives his wit and humour full play. To the perusal of the +"give-and-take" passage of arms I cordially commend my readers. The +dialogue closes with these words: + +"'I'm sure it's painful enough to my feelings, and I feel degraded by +the question, nevertheless I must and will ask you--_When will you let +me have some money?_'" + +This was the last straw, and Jericho groaned out: + +"'I WISH TO HEAVEN I WAS MADE OF MONEY!'" + +To which Mrs. Jericho retorted, "in a low, deep, earnest voice: + +"'I wish to Heaven you were!'" + +Silence came at last, and in the midst of it Jericho "subsided into +muddled sleep; snoring heavily, contemptuously, at the loneliness of his +spouse." + +And now _two fleas_--an elder and younger flea--come upon the scene, and +proceed to dine, or sup, upon Mr. Jericho's brow. + +A long conversation ensues between these interesting creatures, in which +the elder flea describes to his son how a man's heart was changed into +inexhaustible bank-notes. + +"'Miserable race!' said the father flea, with his beautiful bright eye +shining pitifully upon Jericho; 'miserable, craving race, you hear, my +son! Man in his greed never knows when he has wherewithal. He gorges to +gluttony; he drinks to drunkenness; and you heard this wretched fool who +prayed to Heaven to turn him--heart, brain, and all--into a lump of +money.'" + +How the operation was effected may be learnt from Mr. Jerrold's book. +One result of it was a most troubled and miserable night to the dreamer +Jericho, whose complaints to his wife when he awoke met with no +sympathy. + +"'If I were to live a thousand years, I shouldn't forget last night!' +groaned Jericho. + +"'Very likely not,' said Mrs. Jericho; 'I've no doubt you deserve to +remember it. I shouldn't wonder----'" + +Mrs. Jericho's want of money is intensified by the wants of her son +Basil, whose luck at billiards may have failed him just when his +creditors were most pressing. + +"'Well, what does the old fellow say, the scaly old griffin? What's he +got to answer for himself?'" This was "the sudden question put to Mrs. +Jericho on her return to the drawing-room, after the interview with her +husband. 'Come, what is it? Will he give me some money? In a word,' +asked young hopeful, 'will he go into the melting-pot, like a man and a +father?' + +"'My dear Basil, you mustn't ask me,' replied Mrs. Jericho. + +"'Oh, mustn't I, though!' cried Basil. 'Ha, you don't know the lot of +people that's asking me; bless you, they ask a hundred times to my +once!'" + +The Jerichos have some rich friends, the Carraways, who live in a +mansion called Jogtrot Hall, "the one central grandeur, the boast and +the comfort of the village of Marigolds." To a fete at the Hall comes an +invitation to the Jerichos. It had always been Mrs. Jericho's ambition +that her girls should--"in her own nervous words"--make a blow in +marriage, and she felt that perhaps the time had come. But the girls' +dresses--the "war-paint," as Mr. Basil put it--there was the difficulty, +only to be surmounted by Mr. Jericho's yielding to the repeated cry, +"When will you let me have some money?" + +With but faint hopes of success, Mrs. Jericho seeks her husband in his +study. In a long colloquy, she urges the importance of her daughters' +appearance at this "grand party," and the necessity for an advance to +enable them to do so properly. Mr. Jericho turns a deaf ear to her +appeal, till suddenly a wonderful change comes over him. + +"Quite a new look of satisfaction gleamed from his eyes, and his mouth +had such a strange smile of compliance! What could ail him?" + +The charm was working, the marvellous change was in operation. Mrs. +Jericho fears for her husband's sanity. "'He doesn't look mad,' thought +Mrs. Jericho, a little anxious. + +"'I feel as if I had got new blood, new flesh, new bones, new brain! +Wonderful!' Jericho trod up and down the room and snapt his fingers. +'Something's going to happen,' said he." + +And something did indeed happen. The transformation was complete; the +hard heart had given place to illimitable money. + +"'You will let me have the money?' repeated Mrs. Jericho. + +"Jericho answered not a word, but withdrew his hand from his breast. +Between his finger and his thumb he held in silver purity a virgin Bank +of England note for a hundred pounds. Mrs. Jericho ran delightedly off +with the money. + +"And Jericho sat with his heart beating faster. Again he placed his hand +to his breast, again drew forth another bank-note. He jumped to his +feet, tore away his dress, and, running to a mirror, saw therein +reflected, not human flesh, but over the region of the heart a loose +skin of bank-paper, veined with marks of ink. He touched it, and still +in his hand lay another note. His thoughtless wish had been wrought into +reality. Solomon Jericho was in very truth a Man made of Money." + +The fete at Jogtrot Hall was a great success. The guests were many, and +some of them distinguished. The Honourable Mr. Candytuft, Colonel Bones, +Commissioner Thrush, and Dr. Mizzlemist, of Doctors' Commons, must be +noted, as they have to be dealt with pictorially by Leech hereafter. +After a variety of entertainments, some twenty or thirty hungry guests +graced a table under a long, wide tent, on which "there were the most +delicious proofs of the earth's goodness, with every kitchen mystery." +The host, Mr. Carraway, took the head of the table; Mr. Jericho, +"dignified and taciturn, graced the board." The orator on the occasion +was Dr. Mizzlemist, who had been seized with a passion to drink +everybody's health. For the third time he rose to give "the health of +Solomon Jericho, Esquire, an honour to his country." + +"In the course of his speech the Doctor delivered himself with so much +energy that at the same time he stuck the fork, which had served him in +emphasizing the Jericho virtues, between the bones of Mr. Jericho's +right hand, pinning it where it lay. + +"'It is nothing,' said the philosophic Jericho." + +The change in Mr. Jericho's appearance, from the full-faced, +healthy-looking individual of Leech's first drawing, to the spare, +hollow-cheeked man at the banquet, is to be accounted for by the fact +that, after each application to the strange bank established in Mr. +Jericho's breast, his whole form shrinks; he becomes thinner and +thinner, to the alarm of his tailor, who "says, as he measures the +changed man: + +"'Six inches less round the body, as I'm a sinner! Six inches less, Mr. +Jericho, and I last took your measure six weeks ago.'" + +At the Carraway fete the Misses Jericho made, and improved, the +acquaintance of the Hon. Mr. Candytuft, and of an incredible idiot, Sir +Arthur Homadod. The idiot was as beautiful as he was foolish; he was +therefore handsome beyond the dreams of beauty. Whatever had taken the +place of the mind in the baronet was impressed by Miss Agatha +Pennibacker, and that virgin's heart being free, she lost it to Sir +Arthur. The Hon. Mr. Candytuft, having an eye to the enormous fortune +supposed to be possessed by Mr. Jericho, and being desirous to secure +the portion of it that would of course fall to his step-daughter, made +love to Miss Monica with considerable success. + +In the meantime the ladies wish to go to Court; in this they are +encouraged by Candytuft; and, to enable them to make a proper figure +there, costly jewels are required. To Candytuft and Jericho enter Mrs. +J., "with a magnificent suite of jewels. + +"'Aren't they beautiful, my dear Solomon?' said she.... + +"'You know, my dear,' said Mrs. Jericho, in her sweetest, most +convincing voice, 'it would be impossible to go to Court without +diamonds. One isn't dressed without diamonds.' + +"'Court!' Jericho opened his eyes, and a wan smile broke on his thin, +blank cheek. 'Are you going to Court?' + +"'Why, of course--are we not, dear Mr. Candytuft? What would be thought +of us if we did not pay our homage to----' + +"The sentence was broken by the sudden appearance of Monica and Agatha, +each bearing a jewel-case, and looking radiant with the possession. + +"'Thank you, dear papa,' said Monica, curtseying and smiling her best to +Jericho. + +"'They're beautiful. Thank you--dear, dearest papa,' cried the more +impulsive Agatha. + +"'Look!' said Monica, and she exhibited her treasure. + +"'Look!' cried Agatha, and she half dropped upon one knee, on the other +side, to show her jewels. + +"'Beautiful!' cried Candytuft. 'Pray, ladies, don't stir.' + +"The girls, with pretty wonder on their faces, kept their positions on +either side of Jericho. + +"'My dear madam'--and Candytuft appealed to Mrs. Jericho--'is not this +a delightful group--an exquisite family picture? It ought to be +painted.'" + +[Illustration: _A Family Picture._] + +Mr. Candytuft is right. The graceful figures of the girls, the +attenuated figure of papa, in whose hopeless expression one sees the +dread of further attenuation, together with his own perfect presentment, +would make--indeed, does make--an admirable picture. The jewels cost one +thousand pounds: ten calls have to be made upon the supernatural bank. +They are made, and the jeweller is paid. And the result! For some +minutes after the departure of the tradesman Jericho sat motionless--all +but breathless. He would, however, know his fate. He took out the silk +lace with which an hour ago he had measured his chest. Again he passed +it round his body. He had drawn upon the bank, and he had shrunk an +inch. + +Truly he was a man made of money--money was the principle of his being, +for with every note he paid away a portion of his life. + +Poor Mr. Carraway was ruined through no fault of his own. Jogtrot Hall +was sold, and Jericho bought it. Thirty thousand pounds' worth of flesh +had he sacrificed to buy to himself a country mansion. He had become a +member of Parliament, and at the same time become so thin that his +tailor declared, "It's like measuring a penknife for a sheath." "Why," +said the tailor to his wife, "he isn't a man at all, but a cotton-pod. +He can't have no more stomach than a 'bacco-pipe." In fact, it was the +growing belief of a large circle that Jericho was no flesh, no man, at +all. "He was made up of coats," ran the rumour, "like an onion." + +The insolence that is sometimes the accompaniment of great riches took +full possession of Mr. Jericho, and he found an occasion to treat +Colonel Bones to a specimen of it. Almost without provocation the +Colonel was called "a toad-eater! a bone-picking pauper!" etc. For this +insult the Colonel declared he would have Mr. Jericho's blood, and in +pursuance of that object he sent the millionaire a challenge. Jericho +fought very hard to avoid fighting, but his second, Mr. Candytuft, +prevailed, and the belligerents met in Battersea Fields. Mr. +Commissioner Thrush waited upon the angry Colonel, and the celebrated +Dr. Dodo was there to attend to the wounded. The seconds confer; the men +are placed. Candytuft looked at them with an eye of admiration. The +signal was given. + +"Colonel Bones fires, and his ball goes clear through Jericho's bosom, +knocking off a button in its passage, and striking itself flat against a +pile of bricks." + +"'A dead man!' cried the doctor, running to Jericho. + +"'My friend,' exclaimed Candytuft, 'have you made your will?' + +"'Eh? What's the matter?' said Jericho. + +"'Matter!' exclaimed Dr. Dodo, and he pointed his cane to the hole in +the front of Jericho's coat, immediately over the region of his heart. +'Matter! It's the first time I ever heard a man with a bullet clean +through his breast ask--What's the matter!'" + +The Colonel's ball had passed through Jericho's bank-note-paper breast, +and Jericho lived and moved and was none the worse for it. Jericho fired +in the air. + +An ugly atmosphere was collecting about Mr. Jericho, and he was aware of +it. "His own family saw in him a man of mysterious attributes. Monica +turned pale at the smallest courtesy of her parent, and Agatha, suddenly +meeting him on the staircase, squealed and ran away as from a fiend. + +"Mr. Jericho went on a rejoicing conqueror. His huge town mansion, +burning with gold--massive, rich, and gorgeous; for the Man of Money was +far the most substantial, the most potent development of his creed, +whereby to awe and oppress his worshippers----" + +Mrs. Jericho had made up her mind that it was time her daughters were +"settled in life, and she said as much to her husband." + +"'Your girls, my dear, have my free permission to settle when and where +they like,' said the husband. + +"But in sounding Mr. Jericho as to his intentions in the matter of +settlements, she could make no way whatever. At last she put the +point-blank question: + +"'What do you propose to give the dear child?' (alluding to Monica, for +whose hand Candytuft was about to ask). + +"'Give! I'll give a magnificent party on the occasion.' + +"'But the dowry; what dowry do you give?' + +"'Dowry! I thought, my dear, you observed marriage was no bargain? Why, +you're making it quite a ready-money transaction!'" + +At this point the conversation was interrupted by Mr. Candytuft, who, +before advocating his own case, warmly espoused that of his foolish +friend, Sir Arthur Homadod, the accepted of Agatha. + +"'He's as bashful as--as--upon my life I am at a loss for a simile. And +as he and I are old friends, and as he knew that I should see you--in +fact, he's in the house at this moment, and came along with me--he +desired me to inform you that Miss Agatha had consented to fix +the--the--what d'ye call it--the happy day.' + +"'Wish them joy,' said Jericho. + +"'As to the young lady's dowry?' hesitated Candytuft. + +"'I can't give a farthing; can't afford it, my dear Candytuft.'" + +The ambassador then speaks for himself: + +"'You may have remarked my affection for Miss Monica? You must have +remarked it?' + +"'I beg a thousand pardons,' said the wag Jericho, 'but it has quite +escaped me.' + +"Candytuft wanly smiled. + +"'In a word, my dear sir, we have come to the sweet conclusion that we +were made for one another.' + +"'Dear me! Well, how lucky you should have met!'" + +Mr. Candytuft beats about the bush for awhile, but at last comes +abruptly to the point, saying: + +"'I _must_ ask--you force me to be plain--what will you give with the +young lady?' + +"'Not a farthing!' cried Jericho. 'Not one farthing!' said the man of +money with determined emphasis. + + +"'What is the matter?' said Mrs. Jericho, who entered the room at this +juncture. + +"'Pooh! you know well enough,' cried Jericho. 'Mr. Candytuft wants to +marry rich; but that's not all--he wants to be handsomely paid for the +trouble.'" + +After awhile Jericho affects to agree to dower his step-daughter, and he +says: + +"'Let us settle the sum, eh! Well, then, what sum would satisfy you?'" + +It was a delicate question to put thus nakedly. + +"'Come, name a figure. Say five thousand pounds.'" + +Candytuft looked blankly at Jericho, moving not a muscle. + +"'What do you say to seven?' + +"Candytuft gently lifted his eyebrows, deprecating the amount. + +"'Come, then, we'll advance to ten?' + +"The lover's face began to thaw, and he showed some signs of kindly +animation. + +"'At a word, then,' cried Jericho with affected heartiness, 'will you +take fifteen thousand?' + +"'From you--yes,' cried Candytuft; and he seized Jericho's hand. + +"The man of money looked at Candytuft with a contemptuous sneer, and +with a wrench twisted his hand away. He then dropped into a chair, and a +strange, diabolical scowl possessed his countenance. The man of money +looked like a devil. + +"'And where--where do you think this money is to come from? Where?' +asked Jericho, and he rose from his chair, and it seemed as though the +demon possessing him would compel the wretch to talk--would compel him +to make terrible revelations. Each word he uttered was born of agony. +But there he stood, forced to give utterances that tortured him. 'I will +tell you,' roared Jericho, 'what this money is. Look about you! What do +you see?--fine pictures, fine everything. Why, you see me--tortured, +torn, worked up, changed. The walls are hung with my flesh--my flesh you +walk upon. I am worn piecemeal by a hundred thieves, but I'll be shared +among them no longer.'" + +By this time the girls and Sir Arthur Homadod, alarmed by the cries of +Jericho, had entered the room. + +"'And you had a fine feast, had you not?' cried the possessed man of +money, writhing with misery and howling his confession. 'And what did +you eat?--my flesh. What did you drink?--my blood!'" + +It would be impossible to imagine a more satisfactory realization of +this powerful scene than Leech's rendering of it. The shrinking figure +of Candytuft as he retreats before the fury of the moneyed man; the +awful passion of the shrivelled Jericho; above all, the vacuous +expression of Sir Arthur, all are done to perfection and without +exaggeration. Beyond the endeavour to make the meaning of the +illustrations in the "Man made of Money" clear to my readers, I have +little or nothing to do with the story. I may note, however, that young +Basil Pennibacker falls in love with Bessy, the pretty daughter of the +ruined merchant Carraway, and that bold bankrupt, who is about to seek a +new fortune at the Antipodes, calls upon Jericho to ask his consent to +his stepson's marriage. How the announcement of the engagement was +received may be imagined, or if my reader be not satisfied with his idea +of what may have taken place, he can read in Mr. Jerrold's book how Mr. +Carraway was met by his old friend. He will also find an illustration of +an interview between "The Pauper and the Man of Money," but as I do not +think it quite worthy of Leech, I do not reproduce it. I may as well add +that Basil--who turns out to be a very good fellow--does marry Bessy, +and the happy pair, with the parent pair of Carraways, depart for +Australia in the good ship _Halcyon_. + +Mr. Jericho's explosion, and his unpleasant conduct +generally--especially regarding Monica's dowry--had altered Mr. +Candytuft's matrimonial intentions for the present: there were delays. +"He had suddenly discovered some dormant right to some long-forgotten +property, and he meant to secure that, and lay it as an offering at the +feet of his bride." How the foolish Sir Arthur agreed to marry Agatha +without a dowry, to the intense delight of Jericho--how splendid +preparations for the wedding were made--how the wedding-party, Jericho +included, waited at the church for the bridegroom, who never came (he +had overslept himself in consequence of an overdose of medicine taken to +steady his nerves)--for these details my reader is again referred to Mr. +Jerrold, who describes the whole most enjoyably. Leech draws the baronet +awakened by his servant, but too late: the canonical hour has passed. A +report was spread that Sir Arthur had taken poison to avoid the Jericho +connection. + +Just at this time Mr. Jericho was offered a most satisfactory +mortgage--so any way there was land for his money--no less than +five-and-forty thousand pounds, by his friend the Duke of St. George. + +Jericho lent the money, in the hope of climbing into the House of Lords +with the assistance of the Duke; but this last drain upon his resources, +with its penalty of attenuation, had left very little of him to go +anywhere. + +"He had shrunk," says the author. "How horribly he had dwindled, how +wretchedly small he had become! Ay, how small! He would measure himself, +he would know the exact waste. Whereupon Jericho took the silken cord +and passed it round his breast. Why, it would twice encircle him--twice! +and a piece to spare. With horror and loathing he flung the cord into +the fire. He would never again take damning evidence against himself." + +It became evident to Jericho that, if he desired to retain enough of his +person to enable his friends and relations to recognise him, the drain +upon the chest notes must cease. + +"He would, therefore, not draw another note--no, not another. He would +live upon what he had. He would turn the foolish superfluities about him +into hard, tangible money." + +Bent upon turning everything belonging not only to himself, but to his +wife and daughters, into cash, he sent for Mrs. Jericho. + +"The trembling wife had scarcely power to meet the eyes of her +helpmate. In two days twenty years seemed to have gathered upon him. His +face looked brown, thin, and withered as last year's leaf. His whole +body bent and swayed like a piece of paper moved by the air. As he held +his hand aloof, the light shone through it. It was plain there was some +horrid compact between her lord and the infernal powers, or--it was all +as one--the tyranny of conscience had worn him to his present condition. + +"'Mrs. Jericho, madam, you will instantly bring me all your +diamonds--jewellery--all. Give like orders to your daughters, the +mincing harpies that eat me.'" + +The terrified woman remonstrated, asked for an explanation, offered to +send for the doctor. + +"'Away with you! do as I command. Bring me all your treasures--all. And +your minxes! See that they obey me too, and instantly.' + +"'Yes, my love, to be sure,' said Mrs. Jericho, for she was all but +convinced that Solomon's reason was gone or going. It was best to humour +him. 'And why, my love, do you wish for these things? Of course you +shall have them, but why?' + +"'To turn them into money, madam,' cried Jericho, rubbing his hands. +'We have had enough of the tomfoolery of wealth--I now begin to hunger +for the substance. I'll do without fashion. I'll have power, +madam--power!'" + +The conversation continued, and Mrs. Jericho became more and more +convinced that her husband was mad. + +"'Oh that Dr. Stubbs would make a morning call!' silently prayed the +wife." + +The man of money, having determined to dismantle his house and send his +wife and daughters adrift, retired with one servant, all the rest being +discharged, into "one of his garrets, a den of a place," where the +scullion had slept. The servant was the pauper grandfather of one of his +footmen, an old man of "congenial weakness with Jericho. Indeed, there +looked between them a strange similitude, twin brethren damned to the +like sordidness, the like rapacity." + +Jericho had nicknamed the old man Plutus. Jericho and Plutus were in +face and expression as like as two snakes. + +Mrs. Jericho, assured of her husband's madness, took counsel with her +friends. Drs. Stubbs and Mizzlemist, Colonel Bones, Commissioner Thrush, +and Candytuft met in conclave and listened to Mrs. Jericho's account of +her husband's ravings; but she failed to convince the doctors that what +a jury would consider insanity, was apparent in anything that the man of +money had said or done. As Dr. Mizzlemist delivered this opinion, a +crash was heard in an adjoining room--another, and another, and then a +loud triumphant laugh from the throat of Jericho. + +Wife and daughters, with jury of friends, started to their feet. +Candytuft, ere he was aware--for had he reflected "a moment, he would as +soon have unbarred a lion's cage--opened the doors. And there stood +Jericho, laden with spoil." + +Though Mr. Jericho was voted sane by the doctors, his conduct displayed +a brutality for which madness would be the only excuse. The Jews were +coming, everything was to be sold. + +"'Why stay you here?' cried the man of money to his wife. 'Why will you +not be warned? In a few hours there will not be a bed for your fine +costly bones to lie upon. Now will you depart?'" + +The Jews wandered about the rooms, appraising everything. Jericho was +anxious to avoid a "public hubbub," as he called a sale. + +"'I want,' said he to the brokers, 'at a thought, to melt all you see, +and have seen, into ready money. Take counsel together, I say, and make +me an offer, a lumping offer, for the whole--eh?'" + +[Illustration: "_And there stood Jericho._"] + +The man of money ascended to his garret and awaited the Jews' offer, +which was promised for the evening. He was alone, "evening closed in, +and the moon rose and looked reproachfully at the miser." + +The garret door opened, and Plutus appeared. + +"'Well, has it come?' cried the master. + +"'Here it is,' answered the servant, as he laid a letter upon the table. + +"'Well, now for their conscience!' exclaimed the man of money." + +Light was required; there was a candle upon the table, and paper +prepared to light it. + +"Most precious paper--the heart's flesh and blood of the man of money! +For the devilish serving-man had folded a note (how obtained can it +matter?)--a note peeled from the breast of his master, a piece of money, +a part of the damned Jericho sympathizing with him. + +"The man of money took the paper--the devil, with his ear upturned, +crept closer to the door--and thrust it amidst the dying coals. A +moment, and the garret is rent as with a lightning flash. + +"Yelling, and all on fire, the man of money falls prostrate with hell +in his face. Then his lips move, but not a sound is heard. And the fire +communicated by the sympathy of the living note--the flesh of his +flesh--like a snake of flame glides up his limbs, devouring them. And so +he is consumed: a minute, and the man of money is a thin black paper +ash. Now the night wind stirs it, and now a sudden breeze carries the +cinereous corpse away, fluttering it to dust impalpable." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ALBERT SMITH AND LEECH. + + +In July, 1851, a new work appeared, under the name and title of the +_Month_: "a View of Passing Subjects and Manners, Home and Foreign, +Social and General, by Albert Smith and John Leech." The publication was +a serial one--monthly, in fact; and as it contained many amusing skits +by Albert Smith, and much of Leech's best work, notice of it is +incumbent upon a writer of Leech's life. + +Eighteen fifty-one, as everybody knows, was the year of the Great +Crystal Palace Exhibition in Hyde Park. I well remember visiting the +huge glass building in February, 1851, in company with Dickens and Sir +Joseph Paxton. Dickens was wrapped in furs, and we shivered through the +place, which was only partially roofed; and seemed altogether so far +from completion as to cause great doubts in our minds of the possibility +of its being ready for its contents by the first of May. + +I put the question to Paxton, and his reply was: + +"I _think_ it will; but, mind, I don't _say_ it will." + +Paxton's thought was justified; for the Exhibition was opened by the +Queen in great state at the date fixed, though many of its intended +exhibits were still to come. + +I confess I shared the foolish dread that the opening would be so +crowded as to be very uncomfortable, if not dangerous, to sight-seers; +and I therefore declined to accompany my brother, who was braver than I; +and sorry enough I was when I found that the panic had been so universal +as to enable the few courageous visitors to have the show, as my brother +expressed it, "all to themselves." + +The first number of the _Month_ appeared in July, 1851, and the last +was issued towards the close of that year. It seems to have been the +intention of the authors to have taken typical young ladies, and, under +the heading of "Belles of the Month," have used them as prefixes to each +monthly part. Unfortunately, I think this idea was only partially +carried out. True, we have Belles of the Park, and Belles of the Ball, +and one or two Belles of the Month, so charmingly done by Leech as to +make it a matter of surprise that such great attractions were not more +frequently admitted to the paper. + +The literary portion which begins the _Month_ is very Albert Smithian +indeed. In proof, I quote some of his description of "The Hyde Park +Belle": + +"The charming young lady introduced to me," says Mr. Smith, "was of +middling stature, with oval face, chestnut hair, dark eyes, and very +white and regular teeth. She had on a white transparent bonnet, and +light muslin dress all _en suite_. In answer to my questions, she +replied as follows: + +"'I shall be nineteen in August, and have been out two years and a +half. Have I ever been engaged? Only once, and that was broken off +because I went on a drag to Richmond with the officers of the --th. Lady +Banner was inside--it was all perfectly proper. She is a very nice +woman--always ready to chaperone anybody anywhere if her share is paid. +Only sometimes she bores one dreadfully. Edmund went to India. I don't +know where he is now; I have not heard. I dare say he is somewhere. He +bored me dreadfully at last. I work very hard--oh, very hard +indeed!--that is, in the season. My maid always sits up to make tea for +me when I come home. Her hours are very regular, considering. She goes +to bed every morning about four; but, then, she doesn't have to dance +half the night. Yes; I like the Crystal Palace. Oh! I get so tired +there--walking, and walking, and walking, you can't think how far! I +know the Crystal Palace fountain and Dent's clock, and the stuffed +animals and the envelope-machine. I don't think I have seen anything +else; I have never been out of the nave and the transept--nobody goes +anywhere else. I did not know that there was anything to see upstairs, +except large carpets. I am sure they would bore me dreadfully. We are +engaged every night.... We had scarcely time to dress for the Grapnels' +dinner-party; and then we went to Mrs. Crutchley's, to meet the Lapland +Ambassador. We could not get into the room, and stood for two hours on +the landing. Old Mr. Tawley was there, and would keep talking to me; he +always bores me dreadfully. He is going to take mamma and me to see some +pictures somewhere. I hate seeing pictures; they bore me dreadfully. +After Lady Crutchley's, we went to Mrs. Croley's amateur concert, which +was nearly over. She had only classical music. I don't know what +classical music is; I only know it bores me dreadfully. Ashton Howard +says the same people who like classical music buy old china and wear +false hair. I wish people would give up classical music. It never amuses +anybody--that is, anybody worth amusing. I don't know whether "The +Huguenots" is classical music or not; I only know that when they give it +at the Royal Italian Opera nobody seems bored _then_. I don't know that +I am exactly.'" + +Whether in these boxes full of beauties one amongst them is intended by +Leech to personate Mr. Smith's "dreadfully bored" young lady, I cannot +say. Certainly there is not one who seems in the condition described as +not being "exactly bored." + +The Belle of Hyde Park continues: + +"'I go into the Park every day with mamma, but it bores me dreadfully. +I see nothing but the same people, and I know all the trees and rails by +heart. I ride sometimes; I like it better than the carriage. But papa +don't ride very often; and if he don't I can't, except with the +Pevenseys and their brothers. John Pevensey is very stupid, and talks to +me about farming. I get very tired; but I am obliged to go, because the +Pevenseys know so many receivable people. But they bore me dreadfully; +in fact, I don't know who or what does not. I long for the season to be +over; and when I go into the country, I long for it to begin again. I +wish I could do as I pleased, like Marshall--that's my maid--when she +has a holiday. She is going to marry the man at the hairdresser's; and +last Sunday they went down all by themselves to Gravesend. I see mamma's +face if Ashton Howard was to propose to take me to Gravesend next +Sunday, and without Lady Banner! I wish sometimes I was Marshall. Now +and then I would give a good deal for a good cry. I can't tell you +why--I don't know; only that everything is a trouble, and bores me +dreadfully.'" + +In reply to further inquiries from Mr. Smith, the young lady tells him +what she pays for her satin shoes, which are worn out after two parties. +Does she have her gloves cleaned? + +"'Certainly; but not for evening parties--the men's coats blacken them +in an instant. They do very well for the opera and evening +concerts--nothing else. The Pevenseys wear cleaned gloves. Everybody +knows it; and Ashton Howard always asks out loud if a camphine-lamp has +gone out when they come into the room. You can get a nice bouquet for +five or six shillings. Old Mr. Rigby, in the Regent's Park, told me I +might cut any flowers from his conservatory. But I don't care for +that--I would sooner buy them; he bores me dreadfully.'" + +It cannot be denied that ugliness has reached its climax in men's dress +of the present day. It would be extremely difficult to find a garment +more hideous than a dress-coat; and it is impossible for any +head-covering to exceed the stove-pipe hat in ugliness, to say nothing +of inconvenience and detestable uncomfortableness. + +These sentiments were fully shared by one of the _Month's_ +correspondents, a gentleman named Simmons, who "emerged from his +residence at Islington" on the day of the opening of the Great +Exhibition with the intention of showing to the multitudes who were +expected to attend that ceremony the kind of hat that should depose, at +once and for ever, the detestable chimney-pot. + +"It was, in fact," says the bold reformer, "merely a wide-brimmed, +flat-crowned wideawake, to which I thought a feather--in these days of +foreign immigration--would not be an out-of-the-way addition. I had +contemplated my own features beneath it in as much variety of light and +shadow as I could obtain from my shaving-glass for half an hour +preceding my departure, and had arrived at such a satisfactory +conclusion as to its effect, that I regarded myself as a sort of modern +William Tell, about to release my country, by a bold example, from an +oppressive and degrading subjection to a detested hat." + +A love of change is said to be inherent in human nature; but attacks +upon custom--indeed, innovations of all kinds--are usually futile unless +very special conditions attend the attempts. If the famous hat invented +by a Royal Prince was received with overwhelming ridicule, as my older +readers will remember that it was; a less melancholy fate could scarcely +be expected for the wideawake and feather of the little gentleman from +Islington. + +"My appearance in the street certainly created a sensation," says Mr. +Simmons; "but it was one exceedingly mortifying to my feelings. Omnibus +drivers winked at each other, and pointed at me with their whips. +Occasionally a stray boy would indulge in personal observations, or a +grown-up ragamuffin would sputter out an oath, and burst into a horse +laugh, which to my mind appeared totally unwarranted by the +circumstances of the case." + +The managers of the _Month_ very wisely placed this etching in the front +of their first number. In all respects Leech is here seen at his best. +The figure of the poor little victim of reform, the street-boys and +their surroundings, are all unsurpassable; while to an artist the +composition of the figures and the arrangement of light and shadow are +excellent. + +After escaping from the attentions of Leech's inimitable Arabs, Mr. +Simmons reaches Hyde Park to find fresh troubles. The feathered +wideawake creates a sensation, but not of the kind that its wearer +expected; he was asked where "he bought it," and "if he would sell it"; +"if he made it himself"; and if he had "another at home like it to spare +for a friend," and so on. The "air of unconsciousness" that the reformer +assumed irritated his assailants, whose "offensive remarks and insolent +mirth" were soon exchanged for attentions more uncomfortable. + +[Illustration: _Mr. Simmons's attempt at Reform._] + +Says Mr. Simmons: "A bright flash of practical jocularity suddenly +illumined the mind of an original genius, who at once carried it into +effect by casting at my decided article of costume a large tuft of +grass, which struck me on the back of my neck, broke into dry dirt, and +raised a perfect roar of delight at my expense." Instead of patiently +enduring this assault, as a prudent man would have done when surrounded +by enemies, the valiant Simmons turned upon his assailant, "and struck +the wit a severe blow in the face." That was a death-blow to the +picturesque hat, which "afforded some slight sport as a football for a +few moments, and then vanished and was seen no more." + +It will be seen by the quotations that the literary portion of the +_Month_ is of the slight character--though sometimes clever and +amusing--to which so much of Leech's work has been allied. A sketch, +entitled "Home from the Party," gives occasion for the accompanying +drawing by Leech of a young gentleman who has "danced all night till the +broad daylight," "and gone home" by himself "in the morning." On his +journey a brougham overtakes him, containing "the handsome dark girl +with the clematis and fuchsia wreath, looking pale and pretty, with a +pocket-handkerchief over her head cornerwise, held together at the chin. +We think about that brougham-girl till she is out of sight, and wonder +if we appeared to the best advantage as she passed. We don't much think +we did. One of the springs of our hat was out of order, and we were +carrying our gloves in our hand, crumpled up to the size of a walnut, as +though we were going to conjure with them; and we were blinking as we +met the sun at the corner, and holding a seedy bouquet in our hand, +which evidently she had not given us." + +The remarks, conversations, comments, and so forth, that generally +accompany Leech's drawings were invariably his own composition, and in +their humorous aptness are almost as admirable as the drawings they +explain. In illustration I note a design under the heading of "Moral +Courage." + + "SCENE--_A Station of the Shoeblack Brigade_. + + "FIRST BOY: 'Here's another swell, Bill, a-coming to be blacked.' + + "SECOND BOY: 'Ooray!' + + "THIRD BOY: 'Ain't his boots thin neither?' + + "FOURTH BOY: 'Wouldn't they pinch my toes if I had 'em? Oh my!' + + "FIFTH BOY: 'They don't pinch his'n.' + + "SIXTH BOY: 'Yes, they do.' + + "FIRST BOY: 'Go easy, Blacky; mind his corns.' (_Swell winces_.) 'That + was a nasty one.' + + "(_The comments are extended from the swell's boots to his costume and + appearance generally. And all this for a penny_)." + +Mr. Thackeray's "Four Georges" are, no doubt, familiar to my readers, +some of whom may also remember his delivery of them in the form of +lectures to large audiences. In that great writer's early time he wrote +many essays, art-criticisms, etc., under the name of "Michael Angelo +Titmarsh," and it is under that title that he is represented in the +drawing by his friend Leech, as he appeared at Willis's Rooms "in his +celebrated character of Mr. Thackeray." + +In the _Month_, Mr. Albert Smith makes Leech's drawing a peg upon which +he hangs some justly complimentary remarks on the Thackeray lectures +which took the town by storm forty years ago. + +Whether the "Belle of Hyde Park" or the "Belle of the Ball" is to be +considered the belle of the _Month's_ July issue is left in doubt; but +there is no doubt whatever about the claim of the pretty creature (who, +accompanied by an extremely plain and dissolute-looking cavalier in the +costume of Charles II.'s time, enters an imaginary ball-room) to a +loveliness that it would be difficult to surpass, as the drawing amply +proves. + +This cut is accompanied by some verses which appear to me quite +unreadable; I therefore spare my readers from the infliction of any of +them. + +The frontispiece to the _Month_ for August is an etching by Leech of +singular beauty, called "Charade Acting." I have looked in vain through +the letter-press for any explanation of this charade, so I suppose the +meaning is purposely left for discovery to the intelligence of the +observer. It represents the clever performance of Mr. Smiley and Miss +Corgy. + +Mr. Smiley evidently represents a valorous knight--else why that +dish-cover shield, that saucepan helmet, that long surcoat of nightshirt +in the place of mail? The knight has armed himself further with sword +and lance (sword of any period, lance a roasting-spit). Those warlike +preparations must have been made in defence of that delicious girl +leaning over the back of the ancient chair. Is she supposed to be a +distressed damsel leaning from her prison-window and listening to Mr. +Smiley's vows of liberating her or dying in the attempt? If so, where is +the word that will express as much? Not in the brain of the stout old +gentleman who is fast asleep amongst the audience, nor in that of the +pretty little girl who sits in front of him apparently wondering why +people should be "so silly." The lady who tries to hide a yawn with her +fan has evidently "given it up," and the two lovely women near her are +much in the same condition. + +Now we come to the belle of the month of August, who is riding with her +papa in Kensington Gardens. An attempt was made--later, I think, than +the Exhibition year--to extend Rotten Row into Kensington Gardens, and +thus deprive pedestrians--notably children and nursemaids--of their +promenades amongst the trees. For some months the equestrian habitues of +Rotten Row careered in the Gardens, to the terror and danger of +children, and the disturbance of many groups of soldiers and nursemaids. +This usurpation created very strong opposition. + +I lived in the neighbourhood, and I accompanied a deputation to Sir +Cornewall Lewis--then in power--with a view of impressing upon that +Minister the desirability of rescinding the objectionable privilege +which had been granted to the riders. We had some eloquent talkers, but +their oratory seemed to me to make no impression upon Sir C. Lewis, who +may have listened, but during the harangues he was always writing +letters, and no sooner was one finished than he began another; and we +left him without an intimation of our success or failure. But what is +certain is, that within a week of our interview the equestrians +disappeared--I hope for ever--from Kensington Gardens. Leech being a +constant rider, both spoke and drew in favour of the new ride. Drawings +may be found in the _Punch_ series in which he laughs at the opponents +of the horses in the Gardens, and I remember his indignation when I told +him of our deputation and its successful issue. + +[Illustration: THE BELLE OF THE MONTH--AUGUST--TAKING A "CONSTITUTIONAL" +IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. TIME, 8 A.M.] + +Leech was never happier than in the infinite variety of his pictures +of life at the seaside; his invention was inexhaustible, as numberless +groups of seaside visitors engaged in the search of health or +pleasure--from the small digger on the sands to the valetudinarian at +the Spa--sufficiently prove. Never was he more delightful than in +dealing with the charming lady bathers, one of whom plays the part of +the _Month's_ "Belle of September." + +I think this picture might have inspired the poet of the _Month_, but +his lyre is silent. + +"The Balcony Nuisance!" Without some explanation the drawing that +follows this title would be perfectly incomprehensible. How, in the name +of common-sense, of propriety, or of justice, can the word "nuisance" be +applicable to the occupants of that balcony? Well, it is in this wise: A +correspondent of the _Month_, who signs himself "Narcissus," lives in a +suburban square, from which he indites a remarkable letter. According to +"Narcissus," suburban squares are famous for the production of vast +numbers of "single ladies." He calls his square a "realm of girldom," +the proportion of the belles being very great over the marriageable +young men, and therefore they watch with keen eyes for any new +flirtations. "And now," said he, "comes my complaint. I cannot call at +any house where there are daughters but, the instant I knock, every +balcony near me is filled with waves of rustling muslin, and a dozen +pairs of bright eyes are on the _qui vive_ for every movement or +expression. I need not say how annoying this is." + +[Illustration: THE BALCONY NUISANCE.] + +I see no trace of annoyance in the simpering buck who is the cynosure of +all eyes in the drawing. Leech evidently saw through the affectation of +annoyance, and depicted the Narcissus mind in its real condition of +gratified conceit. + +The _Month's_ October issue contains a good deal of Leech's work. The +number contains a "Belle of the Month," but she is so inferior in +attractiveness to her sisters that I am ungallant enough to pass her by. +I find, however, a pretty musical group entitled "Pestal." In 1851 Mr. +Albert Smith says that Pestal, who was a Russian officer, was imprisoned +for marrying without the consent of his Sovereign, and "cast for death." +Of course, though, according to Mr. Smith, this unfortunate man may have +been a "Pestal-ent person," we are not expected to believe the crime for +which he was executed was only that of neglecting to ask the Czar's +consent to his marriage. "On the eve of his execution, as he lay +_ironed_, awaiting the next morning's _mangling_," continues the +inveterate punster, "in a happy moment of enthusiasm, he composed the +waltz that bears his name." + +The pretty music seems to have sentimentalized the handsome youth, and +drawn him closer to the performer, who is one of those sweet creatures +with whom the artist has made us so familiar. I cannot refrain from +presenting my readers with an example of the _poetry_ that adorns the +_Month_, so that they may be convinced of the propriety of giving them +as little of it as possible. Forty-one verses, of which the two +following are fair examples, accompany the drawing called Pestal: + + "In London, as usual, last season I spent, + To Pocklington Square my notes were addressed all, + And wherever I rambled or wandered or went, + I was pestered with that horrid pest of a 'Pestal.' + + "I thought this mysterious, moreover, and queer, + 'Tis better at once that the truth be confest all-- + That all through the city one word should appear, + And that word the incomprehensible 'Pestal.'" + +"The Great Dinner-Bell Nuisance" not only gives occasion for a capital +drawing by Leech, but the title also heads a capital paper, in which the +absurdity of the function, when there is not the least necessity for it, +is well satirized. A retired lawyer named Watkins Brown lives in a +village which contains at most 347 people, "in a comfortable sort of +house in the Italian style, which he christened Somerford Villa." He has +no children, and his establishment consists of five persons, Mrs. W. B., +Betsy, the cook, etc., including Buttons, the page. This boy, armed with +a bell, is a nuisance to the neighbourhood; he performs upon it three +times a day. "Now," says the indignant writer, "why does Buttons do +this? Is it to echo back the sound that comes at the same hours from Sir +Marmaduke Hamilton's, of Somerford Hall, and to impress people that +Brown and Sir Marmaduke are the only gentlemen in the neighbourhood? It +can't be to let Brown and his wife know that luncheon or dinner is +ready, for in nine cases out of ten they are in the room when the cloth +is laid. Again I ask, why does Buttons do this? If he is of opinion that +his master is unaware it is time to dress for dinner, why doesn't he +tell him so at once when he is in the room, instead of using such an +absurd system of information? However, by six o'clock Brown and his wife +are in the drawing-room, and Buttons seeing them there, and perceiving +that they are just about to go to the dining-room, rushes out to the +little court-yard, and then to the door of the miniature conservatory, +and again commits the offence he had committed half an hour before. In +the baby courtyard there are two dogs chained, and two other sporting +dogs in a model of a kennel. Well, Buttons appears in the presence of +the dogs with his great bell, and the sensible brutes, conscious of the +pain they are about to endure, immediately set up a howl of quadruple +agony, to which the bell tolls its awful accompaniment." + +Exactly fifty years ago I went on a portrait-painting tour into the +country. Some sitters were promised to me, and I had hope, subsequently +justified, that they would be the precursors of others. Amongst my +patrons was a clergyman of aristocratic lineage; who, though he had +inherited little in the shape of money, was possessed of certain tastes +common to the upper ten, in which he could not afford to indulge; but +amongst them was the dinner-bell, in which he did indulge, to the great +annoyance of his neighbours. The Vicarage was an unpretending house with +a small garden about it, in a small village; the inhabitants were +chiefly Methodists, and the congregation at church was the smallest I +ever saw. + +The Vicar was not popular; the villagers disliked what they called "his +airs and graces," and they detested his dinner-bell. After sittings from +the Vicar, he and I took occasional walks together, and one day, as we +were passing a cobbler's shop, the proprietor of it, "a detestable +little Radical Methodist," as the Vicar called him, appeared at his door +with a huge bell in his hand; he stepped into the middle of the road, +and, affecting not to see us, he rang it furiously. + +"Man! man!" cried the Vicar, "stop that! What are you making that +dreadful noise for?" + +"Well, ye see," replied the cobbler, in the language of the county, +"it's ma dinner-time, and aase joust ringin' mysen in, to a bit of berry +pudden." + +I was so vividly reminded by the _Month's_ "Dinner-Bell Nuisance" of my +early experience, that I could not resist my inclination to introduce it +into what purports to be the life of John Leech, in which it has no +business whatever to appear. Once more I apologize, and hope I may not +be tempted to "do it again." + +Of all the Belles of the Month, the belle of the month November is +perhaps the most lovable. There she stands on Brighton Pier--stands, +that is to say, as well as she can on those pretty feet of hers, against +a wind that is so boisterously rude to her and to her mother, whose +figure, blown out of shape, makes a striking contrast to her daughter's. +The little dog declines to face the gale, which seems likely to carry +him away altogether, as well as the struggling child behind. The touches +of cloud and sea, together with the screaming gulls, are indicated with +the facile skill peculiar to Leech. + +[Illustration: THE BELLE OF THE MONTH NOVEMBER "IN DISTRESS OFF A +LEE-SHORE--BRIGHTON PIER."] + +In a paper headed "Hotels," Mr. Smith expatiates somewhat tediously on +the "old-established house" of the "old coaching days." He says "the +inmates of the coffee-room were mostly commercial travellers." Those +gentlemen may have been permitted to use the coffee-room; but my +recollection of such places tells me that the commercials always had a +room of their own, specially provided for them. + +The writer goes on to tell us that "the commercial gents," on the +occasion of his discovery of them in the coffee-room, "pulled off their +boots--not a very delicate performance--before everybody; and then, +after sitting over the fire, and drinking hot brown brandy and water +until they were nearly at red heat, ordered 'a pan of coals,' and went +to bed." + +Yes; and provided an excellent subject for Leech, worthy of being +reproduced here, or anywhere, if only for that inimitable old +chambermaid, who has lighted commercial gents to bed any time these +forty years. + +Judging from the twist of the commercial's necktie as he follows, or +rather staggers, after the ancient maid, the brown brandy has done its +work; and it is ten to one against his carrying that box of patterns +safely upstairs. + +One boot is successfully removed from commercial number two, and it +will evidently not be the fault of the man who is struggling with the +other if it does not follow suit. + +Let the observer note the marked difference in character in all these +figures, as well as the skill and truth with which the details in the +room are rendered. + +In 1851 Bloomerism was in full bloom, or rather the attempts of few +foolish people to make it prevail amongst us were so persistent as to +bring upon them attacks by pen and pencil. + +As I have already drawn attention to the craze, and to some examples of +the way Leech dealt with it, I should have made no further allusion to +the subject had I not found in the pages of the _Month_ drawings of such +charm that, in justice to the magazine and my readers, I felt I must +notice them. + +First, then, we have a Bloomer whip "tooling" her friends down to the +races. If Bloomerism prevailed, this is the sight that Epsom might have +seen in the year 1851, to say nothing of equestrian bloomers of whose +horsewomanship Leech shows us examples. + +I think in my last selection from the _Month_ I might claim for myself +a position resembling that of the pyrotechnic artist whose display of +fireworks culminates in a glorious blaze in the last scene of his +entertainment, if I were permitted to introduce it. + +My firework takes the form of a bouquet of young ladies at some +"ancestral home" in the country, who have just received a box of books +from London--perhaps from Mudie. What a bevy of beauties!--two of them +already absorbed in the last new novel, while another makes off with an +armful of treasures. + +When I say that this drawing--whether we regard it as a composition of +figures and of light and shade, or as an example of Leech's supreme +power over grace of action and beauty--is worthy of admiration for +itself, and of our gratitude to the _Month_ for the opportunity of +reproducing it, I fear no contradiction. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MR. ADAMS AND LEECH. + + +In the pursuit of material for this memoir, I have had the good fortune +to make the acquaintance of one of Leech's earliest and most constant +friends, Mr. Charles F. Adams, of Barkway, Hertfordshire. This gentleman +is the beau-ideal of a country squire--handsome, hale and hearty, though +far past middle age. + +The letters I am privileged to publish show the terms on which the +friends lived, and prove beyond a doubt that many of the hunting scenes +which sparkle so brilliantly and so frequently in the pages of "Life and +Character" owe their origin to the opportunities afforded to the artist +by his friend. + +This long-continued intimacy commenced when the men were both young; +and the very first development of Leech's taste for horses began with +his acquaintance with Mr. Adams. It is told of that gentleman that, +being the possessor of two horses, and being at that early time employed +in business in London during the day, the night served him and Leech for +a wild career, Adams driving his horses tandem-fashion far into the +country, rousing sleepy toll-keepers and terrifying belated wayfarers, +while Leech's watchful eye noted incidents for future illustration. + +That Leech could sing, and sing well, I know, for I have often heard him +troll forth in a deep voice his favourite song of "King Death"; but that +he had ever performed in public I was unaware till enlightened by Mr. +Adams, who told me that it was a favourite and not infrequent prank of +these two spirits to disguise themselves in imitation of +street-musicians, and, with the assistance of a young fellow named +Milburn, as wild as themselves, descend upon the London streets, and by +singing glees make "a lot of money." + +"Leech used to go round with the hat," said Adams; "but we never could +make the fellow look common enough. Still, he collected a good deal, +though he failed on one occasion; for, on presenting his hat to a +bystander, who had been an attentive listener, the man claimed exemption +as being in 'the profession,' in proof of which he produced a fiddle +from behind him." + +Barkway is in the heart of a hunting country, and the meets of the +"Puckeridge" frequently took place near Mr. Adams' house, or at an easy +distance from it. The house itself--a large mass of red brick, ivy, +gables, and twisted chimneys--is one of those old places which have been +enlarged to suit modern convenience without any sacrifice of the +original design and quaint character. + +"Ah," said my host, as he showed me into his dining-room, "what happy +times we have had in this room, when Leech, Millais, Lemon--editor of +_Punch_, you know, long ago--Tenniel, and others, found themselves round +that table!" + +The following letters, with their too few characteristic sketches, prove +the affectionate intimacy between Leech and his friend. + + "TO CHARLES F. ADAMS, ESQ. + + "August 9, 1847. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"You will be glad to hear that I have got a little daughter, and that +both mother and child are doing well. Mrs. Leech was taken ill, +unfortunately, at the end of our trip to Liverpool--where, as perhaps +you are aware, Dickens and some of us had been acting for Leigh Hunt's +benefit--and she was confined at the Victoria Hotel, Euston Square, +where she is now. I thought you would like to hear the news, so send off +these few lines. Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Adams, and believe me, +old boy, + + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +In a letter written to Mr. Adams a week later, Leech recommends a young +gentleman to the care of his friend, in the hope that if Mr. Adams has +"the opportunity, he will give the applicant something to do in his +profession." The letter closes by this announcement: + +"You will be glad to hear, I am sure, that Mrs. Leech, _and my +daughter_! are both 'going on' famously. + + "Ever, my dear Charley, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + +"Given up hunting? Not a bit of it." + + + "January --, 1847. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"Mark (Lemon) and I were talking only the other day about beating up +your quarters towards the end of this month; and, with your permission, +if the frost goes, we intend to do so. We thought of riding down--I on +the old mare; and he on a 'seven-and-sixpenny.'... + +"Is there anything in the shape of a good cob that could hunt if wanted +down in your parts? Possibly I could get rid of the mare in the way of a +chop. I have been riding a nearly thoroughbred mare for the last week on +trial. A very nice thing, but too much in this way. + +"I want something more of this kind--a good one to go, and pleasant to +ride. + + "Yours ever faithfully, + "J. L." + + + "April 17, 1848. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +".... Old Mark and I were special constables on Monday last. You would +have laughed to see us on duty, trying the area gates, etc., Mark +continually finding excuses for taking a small glass of ale or brandy +and water. Policeman's duty is no joke. I had to patrol about from ten +at night till one in the morning, and heartily sick of it I was. It was +only my loyalty and extreme love of peace and order that made me stand +it.... + + "Ever yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +My elderly readers will bear in mind April 10, 1848, and the monster +petition of the Chartists, which they were not allowed to present to +Parliament in the threatening form they had arranged, with other +alarming signs of that troubled time--the flight of Louis Philippe, +Continental thrones tottering, and the rest of it. + +In his correspondence with Mr. Adams, Leech constantly reminds his +friend of his objection to high-spirited horses. Under date February 18, +1849, he asks Mr. Adams if he can hire "an 'unter from Ware." + + +"I should prefer," he adds, "something like the old brown horse Mark +had last year. If he comes, of course he must have the same nag he had +when he was at Barkway; _but, mind_, I won't have a beast that pulls, or +bolts, or any nonsense of the kind. I come out for pleasure, and not to +be worried. Tell Mrs. Adams I shall not be half such an objectionable +visitor as I have been heretofore, seeing that I have left off +SMOKING!... + +"My very kind regards to Mrs. Adams, your little ones, and my good +friends in your neighbourhood. + + "Believe me, old fellow, + "Yours ever faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + + "February 7, 1850. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"I am longing to see you, and have a ride across country with you. Do +you think I could have the horse Mark Lemon had when he was down at +Barkway? Or if I couldn't have that one, do you know of any other that +would be equally TEMPERATE and WELL-BEHAVED? I have no horse at present. +The last I had came down; and I am rather particular in consequence. + +"Give me a line, old fellow, and let me know when the hounds meet near +you.... + + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + +One of Mr. Adams' daughters, Charlotte, surnamed Chatty--then a small +child, now a lady whose age is borne so well as to make it difficult to +believe that she lived so long ago as 1850--whose acquaintance I had the +pleasure of making the other day, told me of her frequent visits to the +Leeches, and of the never-ceasing care and tenderness of Leech. + +In a letter from Broadstairs, written in the autumn of 1850 to Mr. +Adams, Leech says: + +"You will be glad to hear that Chatty is as well as possible, and is now +going to have a long day's work (!) on the sands." + +Again, after a good deal of horsy talk: + +"Mrs. Leech and Chatty with her will return for good to Notting Hill on +Saturday, when we shall be glad to have her with us as long as you can +spare her. Apropos of dear Chatty, I am sure her mamma will be glad to +hear that she has been uninterruptedly cheerful and well, and has +certainly proved herself one of the best-tempered, best-hearted little +creatures possible. She desires me to send you all her best love and +kisses.... + + "Ever faithfully, + "J. L." + + + "31, Notting Hill Terrace, + "February 18, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"It will give me the greatest pleasure to come and see you. Mark (Lemon) +says he will accompany me at the end of this month. Will that suit Mrs. +Adams? I want much to SEE some hunting, as I want some materials for the +work I am illustrating--indeed, I was going to propose a run down to you +myself. Will you let us know when the hounds meet near you? Is the horse +I had before still alive, I wonder? or could you, if I came, get me a +horse 'in every way suitable for a timid, elderly gentleman'? + + * * * * * + +"I was very glad to hear from you, old boy. In great haste, but with our +united best regards to Mrs. Adams and yourself. + + "Believe me, + "Ever yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "_Punch_ Office, 85, Fleet Street, + "Saturday, February 28, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"'The change in the administration' so upset our arrangements that I +could not settle what day to come down to you. I propose now to come +down to-morrow (Sunday) evening, so if you can get me a rocking-horse, +or a clothes-horse, or any horse excessively quiet and accommodating, I +will go out with you on Monday. Mark, having an appointment early on +Monday with 'her Majesty,' or somebody, will come on Tuesday, to hunt on +Wednesday, and back again on Thursday morning. All this, of course, if +it suits your convenience. At any rate, I will come to-morrow, and then +if there is any difficulty, we can send up to town. With kindest regards +to Mrs. Adams, + + "Believe me always, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + + + "31, Notting Hill Terrace, + "Wednesday, March 17, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"I had almost made up my mind to come down on Friday evening to hunt on +Saturday; but it would suit me infinitely better to come at the end of +the week following, as I am just now in the agonies of my periodical +work; so let me know when the meets are, and in the meantime I will peg +away and get my business done so as to have a comfortable day with you. +If I came on Friday, I should have to work day and night before I went, +and come back directly to work day and night again, which is not a +pleasant state of things; I hope, therefore, that we shall be able to +see the hounds next week. I don't think Lemon would be able to come, as +he is busy moving; but I will ask him. I will make you the sketch of the +house, or of anything else you like, when I come. + + "Believe me, + "Ever yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ. + +"Look in this week's _Punch_ for a sketch on the Royston Hills." + + + "31, Notting Hill Terrace, + "Wednesday, July 7, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"I congratulate both of you most heartily and cordially. Mrs. Adams I +hope is well, and will keep so, I trust. I will take upon myself to say +that I don't know any man more thoroughly capable of understanding and +enjoying domestic happiness than yourself; and, moreover, I don't know +any man who more thoroughly deserves to have it. You wish it had been a +boy, do you? Well, never mind; the son and heir will make his appearance +in good time, I dare say. For my part, my unhappy experience makes me +love little girls. + + * * * * * + +"Pray give my kindest regards to Mrs. Adams, and my love to Chatty, who +is to kiss the baby for me, and + + "Believe me, my dear Charley, + "Always yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "Barlow, Derbyshire, + "July 31, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"You will see from the above address that I am still rusticating. I +expect to be in rooms soon after the 12th of August, and then, after I +have done my month's work, I am your man. You say where ... Don't make +yourself uncomfortable about the quantity of sport; I shall be quite +satisfied with what you offer me.... + + "Yours always faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH." + +Here follows an admirable sketch of Mr. Adams waking up Leech with, +"Now, Jack, my boy! There's no time to lose; we've ten miles to go to +cover." + + +[Illustration: "Now, Jack, my boy! There's no time to lose. We've ten +miles to go to cover!"] + + "Tuesday, December 14, 1852. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY BOY, + +"Hip! hip! hurrah! The almanack is finished, and now for a day with the +Puckeridge. + +"I shall come down if you will take me in on Friday evening, to hunt on +Saturday and Monday, I hope. Mark talked of coming. I wish he would. He +says he should not ride, but that's all nonsense. Do you think Pattison +has got a horse that would carry him? Oh, I have had a rare benefit of +work! I have been positively at it ever since I saw you. I want +freshening up, I assure you.... Lots of fresh work, old fellow, so I +think I may manage a _real_ horse soon. + + * * * * * + + "With kindest regards. + "Ever faithfully yours, + "JOHN LEECH." + + + "Notting Hill Terrace, + "January 26, 1853. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"If you could ride my horse to-morrow (Thursday), pray do; it would save +your own, and do her good. And the meet is close to you--Langley Green. +I should have written before, but I have been harassed with work beyond +measure. And as it is, the first number of 'Handley Cross' cannot come +out until March. Mind you have the mare well worked, there's a good +fellow, as I don't want, like our friend Briggs, to find her +disagreeably fresh. + + * * * * * + + "Believe me always yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "Saturday, February 26, 1853. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"I suppose the frost has departed in the country, and that you have now +what is called 'open weather.' It is very disagreeable here--wet, cold, +and boisterous. + +"However, if you can spare time (after riding your own, of course), I +wish you would give the mare a benefit. I expect she will otherwise be a +great deal too much for me. + + * * * * * + + "I am, my dear Charley, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "32, Brunswick Square, + "Saturday, January 21, 1854. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"Thank you for your note. I _can't_ come down to-morrow, but I hope +after next week to make up for lost time. I have got through some work +that has been fidgeting me. I shall have a little more leisure. The meet +on Monday is Dassett's, I see, so pray give it the mare; I have been so +queer myself that I shall want her particularly 'tranquil.' I have +sacrificed the moustaches for fear of frightening the horses in the +field. They were getting too tremendous. + +"_If_, _if_ I can get away next week at all, depend upon it I will, for +I want fresh air and a little horse exercise. + +"With kindest regards, old fellow, + + "Believe me always yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "Saturday, December 22, 1855. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"How is the country? I suppose no hunting as yet, for I have not +received any card. The weather here to-day is mild and wet. I am working +away in the hope of getting a day or two by-and-by comfortably. In the +meantime, if there is anything going on, give my horse a turn across +country, that's a good fellow. + +"With kindest regards, believe me, + + "Yours faithfully, + "J. L. + +"If you can't spare time to hunt the mare, would it not be a good thing +to send her to Patmore, and make him ride her? But do you attend to her +if you can manage it." + + + "8, St. Nicholas Cliff, Scarbro', + "August 30, 1858. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"Your note was forwarded here, and I only found it on my return from +Ireland, where I have been for the last three weeks. The consequence is +that I am, of course, in rather a muddle with my work, and I am afraid I +must forego the pleasure of shooting with you--at any rate, for the +early part of the season; so pray do not deprive other friends of sport +on my account. I shall hope to have a day or two with you before the +season is over. I am not a very greedy sportsman, you know, and as long +as I get a good walk am pretty well satisfied. I am sorry you have been +so unwell--you should really give yourself a holiday. The bow should be +unstrung sometimes. I know I find it must. I wish you could have seen me +catch a _salmon_ in Ireland--a regular salmon! When I say catch, I +should say hook, rather, for he was too much for me, and after ten +minutes' struggle he bolted with my tackle. It was really a tremendous +sensation.... + + "Believe me always, + "Yours faithfully, + "JOHN LEECH. + + "C. F. ADAMS, ESQ." + + + "White Horse, Baldock, + "Friday evening, ----, 1858. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + + * * * * * + +"For the present I have arranged with Little to make this place my +headquarters, it is so handy to the train, and I can come so much +quicker and later to Hitchin. The slow railway journeys take it out of +me, so that my pleasure is almost destroyed by the fatigue of travelling +and bother to get off. I hope, nevertheless, that we shall have many +evenings together to talk over the _tremendous runs_ that we hope to +have. I have bought a horse and brought it down here. I hope you will be +out to-morrow to see it. I like it very much; it is a most excellent +hackney, and sufficiently good-looking, although not perfect, I suppose; +and it is represented to me as being a temperate hunter in addition to +his other qualities. Well, we shall see. The black mare I shall send to +Tattersall's next week. She was as fresh as could be last Saturday, and +I was quite glad I had not sold her; but, alas! she was as lame in the +afternoon as possible, and next morning was a pretty spectacle! She +would not do at all. So much for horseflesh. + + "With kindest regards, + "Yours always, + "J. L." + + + "32, Brunswick Square, W.C., + "November 20, 1862. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"If you _ever_ have the time--which I never have--I should feel so glad +if you would go some day and see how the 'party' at Kensington has done +his work. I suppose 'that little form' of paying the bill must very soon +be gone through, and I should like to know from a competent authority +that the work has been well and properly done. + +"How about the hunting? I am continually tormented here by noble +sportsmen going by my window in full fig. + + "Yours always, + "J. L." + + + "6, The Terrace, Kensington, + "November 27, 1862. + + "MY DEAR CHARLEY, + +"I am obliged to go to St. Leonards to-night, but I should be very glad +if you would to-morrow, Friday (as you propose), look at my new house. +In the corner of one of the new rooms I see it looks a little damp, +although they considered it dry before they papered. I must say I am +pleased with the new residence, and I think by degrees I shall be able +to make it pretty comfortable. We shall hardly get in here, I expect, +much before Christmas. There is yet so much to do. I shall be very glad +of any hints about improvements that may occur to you. + + "Kind regards, and believe me, + "Always yours, + "J. L." + +There is amongst the pictures of "Life and Character" a drawing of a +sportsman who has been thrown from his horse. He has fallen upon his +head, and as he raises it, stunned and bewildered, and but half +conscious, the sensations that must have possessed him are realized for +us in a manner so marvellous, so wonderful in its originality and truth, +as to convince one that the accident must have happened to the man who +drew the picture; and this was the case, for the fallen man was Leech +himself, says Mr. Adams, who in charging a fence was thrown, his horse +falling at the same time. If I had been told that the sensations +inevitable under the circumstances were required to be reproduced by +pencil and paper, I should have said such a feat was beyond the reach of +art; but there they are! As the prostrate man looks up, he sees sparks +of fire, horse's head, legs, hoofs mingled together in a whirl of +confusion round his prostrate figure. + +[Illustration] + +No doubt the work he undertook for _Bell's Life in London_, a +long-established and long-discontinued paper, in which sport of all +kinds was the most prominent feature--and which occupied much of Leech's +time in his youthful days--contributed to the creation of a taste and +love for field sports that always distinguished him. Quite a band of +comic artists, including Cruikshank, Kenny Meadows, "Phiz," Seymour, and +Leech, contributed sketches illustrative of a variety of subjects by a +variety of authors; Leech's work being easily distinguishable from that +of his brethren of the pencil. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"COMIC GRAMMAR" AND "COMIC HISTORY." + + +The friendship, begun in their student-days at St. Bartholomew's, +between Leech and Percival Leigh flourished in renewed strength by the +discovery of similarity of taste--Leigh unable to draw, but possessing a +truly humorous pen; so the friends "laid their heads together," the +result being the production of the "Comic Latin Grammar," letter-press +by Leigh, illustrations by Leech. The first intention of the authors was +that this should be a mere skit, a trifling brochure, consisting of a +few pages; but, as so often happens, the work grew under their hands, +and when published in 1840 it had assumed somewhat formidable +proportions, and was followed by a work of similar character, with the +title of "The Comic English Grammar." + +The "Comic English Grammar" was a work full of pleasant humour, +charmingly illustrated by Leech "with upwards of fifty characteristic +woodcuts." It is curious to observe in these drawings the contrast that +they afford to the artist's later and more perfect work. There is a +timidity, and what we call a hardness, from which the sketches in +"Pictures of Life and Character" are entirely free; the general drawing, +too, is faulty, but the humour and character are all there. + +[Illustration] + +The first illustration, given above, is from a ballad called "Billy +Taylor," popular in my young days, in which Billy's true love--with the +reluctance to part from him common to persons suffering from that +passion--disguises herself as a man before the mast, and shares the +dangers of the sea with her sailor-lover: + + "Ven as the Captain comed for to hear on't, + Wery much applauded vot she'd done." + +[Illustration] + +The verb "applauded" has here no nominative case, whereas it ought to +have been governed by the pronoun "he." "He very much applauded," etc., +says the writer of the "Comic Grammar" for our instruction. The second +example, given above, seems to me capital fooling, and an excellent +proof of the necessity for care in punctuation and accent. + +"Imagine," says the writer, "an actor commencing Hamlet's famous +soliloquy thus: + + "'To be or not to be; that is. The question,' etc. + +Or saying, in the person of Duncan in 'Macbeth': + + "'This castle hath a pleasant seat, the air.' + +Or, as the usurper himself, exclaiming: + + "'The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! + Where got's thou that goose? Look!'" + +Here we have the fault of _hardness_ that I speak of, and something of +feeble drawing, but the humour is perfect. + +After the publication of the "Comic Grammar," written by Gilbert a +Beckett, one of the _Punch_ staff, a somewhat similar experiment upon +the public and on a larger scale was tried by the same author in the +issue of a "Comic History of England." This venture was warmly opposed +at its inception by Jerrold, whose wrath at the idea of burlesquing +historical personages was expressed with vehemence. Gilbert a Beckett +persisted, however, and the history appeared, with over three hundred +illustrations on wood and steel by John Leech. The book is, as might be +expected, very light reading, containing many puns and much play upon +words. Leech's work seems to me to be slight, hurried, and even +careless, compared with that of his later time; but the spirit of +rollicking fun with which grave historical incidents are treated, and +the humorous satire that the principal personages receive at the hands +of the illustrator, make the "Comic History of England" amusing enough. +The following extract, with the drawing that illustrates it, will show +the truth of my estimate of both. + +"A story is told of a certain Fair Rosamond, and, though there is no +doubt of its being a story from beginning to end, it is impossible to +pass it over in English history. Henry, it was alleged, was enamoured of +a certain Miss Clifford--if she can be called a certain Miss Clifford, +when she was really a very doubtful character. She was the daughter of a +baron on the banks of the Wye, when, without a why or a wherefore, the +King took her away, and transplanted the Flower of Hereford, as she well +deserved to be called, to the Bower of Woodstock. In this bower he +constructed a labyrinth something like the Maze at Rosherville, and as +there was no man stationed on an elevation in the centre to direct the +sovereign which way to go, nor exclaim, 'Right, if you please!' +'Straight on!' 'You're right now, sir!' 'Left!' 'Right again!' etc., +etc., his Majesty had adopted the plan of dragging one of Rosamond's +reels of silk along with him when he left the spot, so that it formed a +guide for him on his way back again. This tale of silk is indeed a most +precious piece of entanglement, but it was perhaps necessary for the +winding up of the story. While we cannot receive it as part of the +thread of history, we accept it as a means of accounting for Eleanor's +having got a clue to the retreat of Rosamond. + +"The Queen, hearing of the silk, resolved naturally enough to unravel +it. She accordingly started for Woodstock one afternoon, and, suspecting +something wrong, took a large bowl of poison in one hand and a stout +dagger in the other. Having found Fair Rosamond, she held the poniard to +the heart and the bowl to the lips of that unfortunate young person, +who, it is said, preferred the black draught to the steel medicine." + +Later on in the history we have another good example of Leech's humour. +King Edward, having subdued the Welsh, "endeavoured to propitiate his +newly acquired subjects by becoming a resident in the conquered country. +His wife Eleanor gave birth to a son in the castle of Caernarvon, and he +availed himself of the circumstance to introduce the infant as a native +production, giving him the title of Prince of Wales, which has ever +since been held by the eldest son of the British sovereign." + +[Illustration: QUEEN ELEANOR AND FAIR ROSAMOND.] + +[Illustration: KING EDWARD INTRODUCING HIS SON AS PRINCE OF WALES TO HIS +NEWLY-ACQUIRED SUBJECTS.] + +A well-known historical scene is parodied as follows: Henry IV. being +ill, "the Prince of Wales was sitting up with him in the temporary +capacity of nurse," says Mr. a Becket. "The son, however, seemed rather +to be waiting for his father's death than hoping for the prolongation of +his life; and the King having gone off in a fit, the Prince, instead of +calling for assistance or giving any aid himself, heartlessly took that +opportunity to see how he should look in the crown, which always hung on +a peg in the royal bedchamber. Young Henry was figuring away before a +cheval glass with the regal bauble on his head, and was exclaiming, +'Just the thing, upon my honour!' when the elder Henry, happening to +recover, sat up in bed and saw the conduct of his offspring. + +[Illustration: UNSEEMLY CONDUCT OF HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES.] + +[Illustration: THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER GOES INTO MOURNING FOR HIS LITTLE +NEPHEWS.] + +"'Hallo!' cried the King, 'who gave you leave to put that on? I think +you might have left it alone till I've done with it.'" + +The savage and hypocritical character of Richard III. afforded Leech an +opportunity for satire in his design of that monarch, when still Duke of +Gloucester, in the shape of a crocodile shedding tears for the death of +the two Princes in the Tower. + +"Richard," says the chronicler, "by whom the outward decencies of life +were very scrupulously observed, in order to make up for the inner +deficiencies of his mind, determined to go into mourning for the young +Princes, and repaired to the same _maison de deuil_ which he had +honoured with his presence on a former occasion when requiring the +'trappings of woe' for himself and his retainers on the death of his +dear brother." + +With the escape of Mary, Queen of Scots, I must close the extracts from +the "Comic History of England." + +"When the Queen was imprisoned at Lochleven, a certain George Douglas," +says the historian, "with the sentimentality peculiar to seventeen, fell +sheepishly in love with the handsome Mary. She gave some encouragement +to the gawky youth, but rather with a view of getting him to aid her in +her escape than out of any regard to the over-sensitive stripling. Going +to his brother's bedroom in the night, the boy took the keys from the +basket in which they were deposited, and, letting Mary out, he handed +her to a skiff and took her for a row, without thinking of the row his +conduct was leading to." + +[Illustration: MARY'S ELOPEMENT.] + +A considerable interval of time elapsed between the publication of a +Beckett's "Comic English Grammar" and the same writer's "Comic History +of England," the former being produced in 1840, and the latter seven +years afterwards; but as there is little or no appreciable difference +between the two works, either as regards the literary or artistic merit, +I have thought it well to introduce them in this place. + +These efforts show but one side of Leech's many-sided power. It was in +"The Children of the _Mo_bility," a satire on a production just then +published, in which the children of the _no_bility were put before the +world in all the splendour of their aristocratic surroundings, that +Leech's genius had full play, the little Duke affording an instructive +contrast to the street arab, and the shivering, half-naked beggar-girl +becoming infinitely pathetic in her rags. This work was executed in +lithography, consisting of seven prints; and though, as works of art, +they bear no comparison to the wood-drawings of a later time--they are +not even so good as the "Fly-Leaves" published at the _Punch_ Office +later on--still, comparatively imperfectly as they are rendered, they +show the artist's intense sympathy with suffering childhood, as well as +enjoyment in the games and "larks" by which the sufferings are for a +time at least forgotten. + +I now approach the period when the establishment of a comic newspaper +was destined to afford Leech opportunities for the display of his +powers, opportunities of which he availed himself with a prodigality +almost as marvellous as the powers. + + + END OF VOL. I. + + + BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + _J. D. & Co._ + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Leech, His Life and Work. 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