English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century Part 30

CHAPTER XVII.

_A BATCH OF BOOK ILl.u.s.tRATORS:_

_KENNY MEADOWS; ROBERT WILLIAM BUSS; ALFRED CROWQUILL; CHARLES H.

BENNETT; W. M. THACKERAY._

In old and second-hand bookshops, and in booksellers' catalogues, may often be found a book which is gradually becoming a literary rarity. It dates from 1840, and is a curiosity in its way, not only on account of the "portraits" which adorn its pages, but as a specimen of the literary padding on which men of letters (some of them distinguished) were content to employ their talents fifty years ago. It was published by Robert Tyas, of 50, Cheapside; professed to give "Portraits of the English" of the period, but served as a means of introducing certain characteristic pictorial sketches, more or less true to nature, by Kenny Meadows, an artist whose name and reputation, although he has been dead scarcely ten years, are already forgotten. Connected with these portraits are "original essays by distinguished writers," including, amid names of lesser note, literary stars such as Douglas Jerrold, Leman Rede, Percival Leigh, Laman Blanchard, Leigh Hunt, William Howitt, and Samuel Lover. These essays, or rather letterpress descriptions, were written to the pictures, which were not drawn (as is generally supposed) in ill.u.s.tration of the text. The portraits are taken from almost every grade in life: from the dressmaker to the draper's a.s.sistant, and from the housekeeper to the hangman; the last, by the way, being perhaps the most characteristic sketch of the series. The best of these forty-three "pictures" is the one which faces the t.i.tle-page, a gathering of the company which individually take part in this "gallery of ill.u.s.tration."

The designs are characteristic of the artist's style, but possess little power of attraction, being dest.i.tute of any claim to originality either of conception or treatment. The artist's share of the work is by far the best part of the somewhat lugubrious entertainment, which the performances of his literary a.s.sociates scarcely serve to enliven. The book, however, was a success in its day, for, if we mistake not, it was followed by a second series, is even now sought after by the "collector"

(not bibliomaniac), and possesses some historical value by reason of the fact that national types, such as _The Diner-out_, _The Stockbroker_, _The Lion of the Party_, _The Fashionable Physician_ (that is to say, of 1840), _The Linen Draper's a.s.sistant_, _The Barmaid_, _The Family Governess_, _The Postman_, _The Theatrical Manager_, _The Farmer's Daughter_, and _The Young Lord_, no longer live and move and act their part amongst us. A change comes over the people in the course of forty years, and some years hence our grandchildren may well smile at the extraordinary monstrosities (female) who figure in the graphic satires of 1883-4.

Kenny Meadows was the son of a retired naval officer, and was born at Cardigan on the first of November, 1790. You will look in vain for any notice of him, or of his services in the cause of ill.u.s.trative art, in any of the biographical dictionaries of his own or a subsequent period; and this appears to us an unaccountable omission, for he achieved in his time considerable celebrity as an artistic ill.u.s.trator of books. His work will be found bound up with that of most of his artistic _confreres_ in nearly all the ill.u.s.trated periodicals of his day; he was one of the first to introduce wood-engraving among English publishers as a means of cheap and popular ill.u.s.tration; he was employed by the late Mr. Ingram, in the designs for the early Christmas numbers of the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_; he will be found amongst the number of the artists who ill.u.s.trated the early volumes of _Punch_; he was in universal request as a designer of drawings to fairy and fanciful stories; among his intimate friends were men of mark; such as Leigh Hunt, Douglas Jerrold, Charles d.i.c.kens, W. M. Thackeray, Clarkson Stanfield, David Roberts, and the Landseers; he did as much for ill.u.s.trative art as, perhaps, any artist of his time; and yet, amongst men whose abilities scarcely exceeded his own in the same particular walk in art, no place is to be found in any biographical dictionary, so far at least as we know, for any mention of poor, kindly, genial, Kenny Meadows.

Besides the popular ill.u.s.trated periodicals of his day, in most of which his familiar initials may be recognised, Kenny Meadows was in almost universal request both amongst authors and publishers of the time. We find him in 1832 ill.u.s.trating, with Isaac Robert Cruikshank, a periodical bearing the somewhat unpromising t.i.tle of "The Devil in London." To an 1833 edition of "Gil Blas," ill.u.s.trated by George Cruikshank, he contributed a frontispiece; and we find his hand in the following: the late J. B. Buckstone's dramas of "The Wreck Ash.o.r.e,"

"Victorine," "May Queen," "Henriette," "Rural Felicity," "Pet of the Petticoats," "Married Life," "The Rake and his Pupil," "The Christening," "Isabella," "Second Thoughts," and "The Scholar" (1835, 1836); Whitehead's "Autobiography of Jack Ketch" (1835); "Heads of the People, or Portraits of the English" (1841); Mr. S. C. Hall's "Book of British Ballads" (1842-44); an 1842 edition of Moore's "Lalla Rookh"; Leigh Hunt's "Palfrey, a Love Story of Old Times" (1842); "The Illuminated Magazine" (1843); Shakespeare (1843); "Whist, its History and Practice"; "Backgammon, its History and Practice," by the same author; "The Ill.u.s.trated London Almanacks" (from 1845 upwards); Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer's "Leila," and "Calderon" (1847); W. N. Bailey's "Ill.u.s.trated Musical Annual," "The Family Joe Miller, a Drawing-room Jest Book" (1848); "Puck," (a comic serial, 1848); Laman Blanchard's "Sketches from Life" (1849); Samuel Lover's "Metrical Tales and Poems;"

"The Magic of Kindness," by the brothers Mayhew; Mrs. S. C. Hall's "Midsummer Eve;" "Punch," up to and including the seventh volume; and (some time afterwards) its able opponent "The Man in the Moon" (now exceedingly scarce).[177] In these and very many other works we find him a.s.sociated not only with George Cruikshank, John Leech, Hablot Knight Browne, and Richard Doyle, but with artists occupying the position of Sir John Gilbert, Frank Stone, Maclise, Clarkson Stanfield, Creswick, E.

M. Ward, Elmore, Frost, Sir J. Noel Paton, Frederick Goodall, Thomas Landseer, F. W. Popham, Fairholt, Harrison Weir, Redgrave, Corbould, and Stephanoff. He was a thoroughly useful man; and a thousand examples of quaint imaginings--oftentimes of graceful workmanship--might be culled from the various works and serials in which his hand may be readily recognised.

But the merits of Kenny Meadows as an ill.u.s.trator of books are very unequal. His friend, Mr. Hodder, who gives us in his pleasant "Memories"

an occasional note of some of the artists with whom he was thrown in contact, says of him: "The quiet, unostentatious way in which he worked at his art, too often under the most adverse and discouraging circ.u.mstances, and the pride which he displayed when he felt he had made a 'happy hit,' was somewhat like the enthusiasm of a youth who had first attained the honour of a prize. As a draughtsman he never cared to be guided by those practical laws which regulate the academic exercise of the pictorial art; for he contended that too strict an adherence to nature only trammelled him, and he preferred relying upon the thought conveyed in his ill.u.s.trations, rather than upon the mechanical correctness of his outline or perspective." George Cruikshank showed, as we know, a tolerable contempt for nature when he undertook the delineation of a horse, a woman, or a tree; but it was one of the conditions of his _genius_ that it should be left free and untrammelled to follow the dictates of its own inspiration, and the quaint effect which somehow or other he managed to impart to a design which, in its details might offend the educated taste of the art critic, made us forget the contempt too often displayed for those "practical laws" to which Mr. Hodder refers. To const.i.tute a good comic artist, not only is it necessary that he should be a good draughtsman, but certain special gifts are indispensable,--a keen sense of the ridiculous, an inherent appreciation of humour, a quick and ready invention, qualities which no amount of artificial training will bestow. They were possessed in an eminent degree by Gillray, by Cruikshank, by John Leech, but were wholly wanting to Kenny Meadows. He could draw on occasion a queer face--for that matter his faces, intentionally or otherwise, were generally queer--and an eccentric figure, and so can many persons who have a natural taste for drawing, and have learnt to handle the pencil; but the caricaturist, like the poet, _nasciiur non fit_, and a hundred or even a thousand queer faces or eccentric figures, without the gift of invention or originality, will not of themselves const.i.tute the designer a comic artist. The truth is that with Kenny Meadows mannerism takes the place of genius. You will recognise his hand anywhere without the familiar "K.M." appended to it, for all his faces are chubby (not to say puffy), and their arms and legs look for all the world as if the hand that designed them had been guided by a ruler. The delusion which led him to imagine that his "genius" would enable him to soar superior to nature is no doubt responsible in some degree for this latter eccentricity, for the artist who would be bold enough to despise the laws "which regulate the exercise of the pictorial art," would be prepared to view Hogarth's line of beauty with like indifference and contempt.

Kenny Meadows was one of the early ill.u.s.trators of _Punch_, and contributed moreover to the first volume some of the best of the cartoons. Good specimens of his work will be found in _Young Loves to Sell_, and _The Speculative Mama_ (_sic_), second vol.; in the third volume he ill.u.s.trated "Punch's Letters to His Son," and the first of the almanacks contains six of his designs. In the fourth volume we find six of his cartoons, among them _The Milk of Poor Law Kindness_, and _The First Tooth_ (the Queen and infant Prince of Wales); the doctor's legs and shoes are thoroughly characteristic of his style, and look for all the world as if they had been drawn by a ruler. The cartoon, _Punch Turned Out of France_ in this volume is, if we mistake not, the work of Kenny Meadows. _The Christian Bayadere Worshipping the Idol Siva_, has reference to the tolerance which "John Company" wisely conceded to Hindoo religious ceremony, so long as its traditions were found consistent with the ordinary dictates of humanity. "The Story of a Feather" in this volume has five ill.u.s.trations, two of which are very clever. Among the other cartoons we find _The Modern Macheath_ (the Captain being Sir Robert Peel). The fifth volume contains eight of his ill.u.s.trations, six being cartoons; among them, _The Irish Frankenstein_ (badly imagined and atrociously drawn), _The Water Drop_ and the _Gin Drop_ are characterized by much poverty of invention, but the former is the best of the two. _The Battle of the Alphabet_ (cartoon) is a better specimen of his work, although the legs and arms look as usual, as if drawn with a ruler. The sixth volume contains three of his cartoons, while the almanack of the year (1844) has several of his ill.u.s.trations.

To the seventh volume he contributed no less than thirty-one ill.u.s.trations, some very good, one of the best being that of the two legal dogs quarrelling over a bone of litigation. _Punch_ at the outset of his career had considerable difficulty in the selection of a graphic satirist, and one of his "right hand men" in those early days was a Mr.

Henning, by whose side Kenny Meadows figures as an absolute genius.

After his seventh volume, however, he met with artists better fitted to interpret his political and social views, and no trace of Meadows'

useful hand appears in succeeding volumes.

In stating that the merits of Kenny Meadows as an ill.u.s.trator of books are unequal, and in denying to him the possession of genius, we must not be held to imply that he was deficient of talent. An excellent example of the inequality of which we speak will be found in his Shakespeare (Robert Tyas, 1843), a work selected by us for the reason that it was considered by himself and his two favourable friends as his masterpiece.

Although we cannot stay to notice all the strange conceptions with which he has enriched this book, we may be permitted to wonder whence he derived his preposterous ideas of Caliban, of Malvolio, of Shylock, of Juliet's nurse, of Launce's unhappy dog, of the Egpytian[ Sphynx in "Antony and Cleopatra." The model of Shylock was evidently some "old clo'" dealer in Petticoat Lane. The figure of Armado ("Love's Labour's Lost") is so wonderfully put together that his anatomy must sooner or later fall to pieces; the ghost of Hamlet's father is the ghost of some colossal statue, certainly not the shade of one who had worn the guise of ordinary humanity. The head of the gentle Juliet might derive benefit from the application of a bottle of invigorating hair wash. The figure of the monk in "Romeo and Juliet" literally cut out of wood, carries as much expression in its face as a lay figure; while the walls of Northampton Castle (in "King John") are so much out of the perpendicular, that the courtiers seem less concerned at finding the dead body of Arthur, than in seeking a place of shelter from the impending downfall. Henry the Eighth, although acknowledged to be a corpulent, was not, so far as we know, a deformed man; the preposterous "beak" of Richard the Third occupies one half of his otherwise remarkably short face, and its owner (in the well-known tent scene) suffers from an attack of teta.n.u.s instead of an accession of mental terror. These eccentric realizations, in which he has succeeded in setting all the rules of drawing at defiance, are rendered the more remarkable by reason of the circ.u.mstance that the work now under consideration is interspersed with numerous charming drawings, the effect of which is wholly marred by these erratic performances. Meadows was an admirable water-colour artist, and a scarce edition of this work contains some engravings of Shakespearian heroines after his designs.

The Germans fancy they understand Shakespeare better than ourselves (an amiable and complimentary weakness), and the work was favourably received in Germany, the artist's conception of Falstaff, in particular, being so highly appreciated that a bronze statuette was modelled after it, which enjoyed a large sale.

His ideas of female beauty were almost as eccentric as those of Cruikshank. A couple of beauties of the Meadows type will be found at page 3 of Henry c.o.c.kton's "Sisters" (Nodes, 1844), where one lady is represented to us with a neck like that of a giraffe, whilst her sister beauty is sensibly inconvenienced by a lock of hair which has strayed into her eye,--a favourite device, by the way, of the artist. This book, now scarce (in the ill.u.s.tration of which he was a.s.sisted by Alfred Crowquill), is adorned with a portrait on steel, after a painting by Childe, in which the author is presented to us in a white waistcoat and dress coat, with a pen in his hand, leading us to the inference that his clumsily constructed novels (one of which--"Valentine Vox," thanks perhaps to the ill.u.s.trator, Onwhyn--still holds its ground) were written in evening costume.

But notwithstanding these failures, Kenny Meadows has happily left behind him work of a very much better kind. His Christmas pictures in particular are impressed with the kindly, genial humour which characterized the man; the "Illuminated Magazine," a scarce and valuable work, contains sixty-three very fine specimens of his pencillings, including the ill.u.s.trations to his friend Douglas Jerrold's "Chronicles of Clovernook," admirable in every respect, probably the finest designs he ever executed. The wood engravings in this charming serial have probably never been surpa.s.sed; we seldom see woodcuts in these days which equal the splendid workmanship of E. Landells.[178] After the third volume, the "Illuminated Magazine" pa.s.sed into other hands, and although Kenny Meadows continued its mainstay for a time, the rest of the excellent artists left, and the literary matter visibly declined.

To the famous "Gallery of Comicalities" Kenny Meadows contributed _Sketches from Lavater_ and _Phisogs of the Traders of London_. During the last decade of his life his services in the cause of ill.u.s.trative art were rewarded and recognised by a pension from the Civil List of 80 per annum. Like George Cruikshank he remained hale and vigorous to the last, proud of his age, and fond of a.s.serting there was "life in the old dog yet." That this was no idle boast may be inferred from the fact that within a few months of his death he was engaged in painting a subject from his favourite Shakespeare. At the time of his death (in August, 1874) he had almost completed his eighty-fifth year.

In hunting up materials for the present work, we have come at various times upon editions (specimens, perhaps, might be the better word) of the "Pickwick Papers," which will possess an interest in the eyes of the collector. The first issue, in the original green sporting covers designed by Seymour, is of course exceedingly scarce; we have never indeed seen a _perfect_ copy, which would probably be worth some ten pounds, while the same edition bound may be purchased at prices varying from twenty-four shillings to three guineas, according to the condition of the volume. An Australian edition was published at Launceston, Van Dieman's Land, in 1838, with plates after "Phiz" by "Tiz," facsimiles on stone of the earliest issue of the parts in England. At a West of England bookseller's we met with a first edition bound up with etchings by Onwhyn,[179] "Peter Palette," and others. Then there are the twenty-four etchings from remarkably clever original drawings by Mr. F.

W. Pailthorpe in ill.u.s.tration of scenes in "Pickwick," of which the proofs before letters were published at three guineas; and lastly, there is the rare first edition, containing all the plates by Seymour and "Phiz," supplemented by the two "suppressed" etchings, which are credited (wrongly) to the hand of Buss.

Among the etchers of book ill.u.s.tration after 1836, we may name ROBERT WILLIAM BUSS, whose etchings will be found in Mrs. Trollope's "Widow Married" (a sequel to her "Widow Barnaby"), which made its appearance in the "New Monthly Magazine" of 1839, and whose hand will also be found in Marryat's "Peter Simple," "Jacob Faithful," Harrison Ainsworth's "Court of King James II.," etc. Although his designs lack the genius, the artistic power, the finish and the comic invention of Leech or Cruikshank, they show nevertheless that as an etcher and designer he was possessed of exceptional talent and ability. The first experience, however, of this able artist as an etcher was peculiarly unfortunate and vexatious.

When poor Seymour shot himself in 1836, the draughtsman first called in to supply his place was Robert William Buss. He had been recommended to Messrs. Chapman and Hall by John Jackson, the wood-engraver, but does not seem at that time to have had any practical experience of etching, as he himself explained to the member of the firm who called upon him.

Mr. Buss, in fact, was decidedly indisposed to undertake the work, being then engaged on a picture he was preparing for exhibition, and he undertook it only after considerable pressure. He immediately began to practise the various operations of etching and biting in, and produced a plate with which the publishers expressed themselves satisfied. Two subjects were then selected for ill.u.s.tration, _The Cricket Match_, and _The Fat Boy Watching Mr. Tupman and Miss Wardle_. When, however, Mr.

Buss began to etch them on the plate, he found, having had little or no experience in laying his ground, that it holed up under the etching point; and as time was precious, he placed the plates in the hands of an experienced engraver to be etched and bitten in. Had opportunity been given him, his son (from whom we take this account) tells us he would have cancelled these plates and issued fresh ones of his own etching.

Designs were prepared by him for the following number, when he received an intimation that the work of ill.u.s.trating the "Pickwick Papers" had been placed in other hands. The ill.u.s.trations referred to were suppressed, and the collectors who are so anxious to secure an edition with the two "Buss plates," will be pleased to learn that, although the design was his, not one line of the etchings which bear his name are due to the artist's point.[180]

The father of Robert William was an engraver and enameller, and under his directions he acquired a knowledge of this technical branch of art; but evincing a taste and preference for drawing and painting, he became a pupil of George Clint, A.R.A., under whose direction he studied subject and portrait painting. He painted fifteen theatrical portraits for Mr. c.u.mberland in ill.u.s.tration of his "British Drama," and a collection of these works was afterwards exhibited at that melancholy monument to past exhibitions, the Colosseum in the Regent's Park. He was employed by Charles Knight in the ill.u.s.trations to his "Shakespeare,"

"London," "Old England," "Chaucer," and the now forgotten "Penny Magazine," for all of which publications he executed many designs on wood.

It must not be supposed because Robert William Buss was not considered the right man to ill.u.s.trate "Pickwick," that he was therefore an indifferent draughtsman. His finest book etchings are probably those which he executed for Harrison Ainsworth's novel of "The Court of James II."; but in a higher and far more ambitious walk in art he was not only more successful, but achieved in his time a considerable reputation.

Among his pictures may be mentioned one of _Christmas in the Olden Time_, which, apart from its merits as a painting, showed that he possessed considerable antiquarian knowledge. Other works of his are, _The Frosty Morning_, purchased by Lord Charles Townshend; _The Stingy Traveller_, bought by the d.u.c.h.ess of St. Albans; _The Wooden Walls of Old England_, the property of Lord Coventry; _Soliciting a Vote_, and _Chairing the Member_; _The Musical Bore_; _The Frosty Reception_; _Master's Out_; _Time and Tide Wait for no Man_; _Shirking the Plate_; _The First of September_; _The Introduction of Tobacco_; _The Biter Bit_; _The Romance_; and _Satisfaction_. For Mr. Hogarth, of the Haymarket, he painted four small subjects ill.u.s.trative of Christmas, ent.i.tled, _The Waits_; _Bringing in the Boar's Head_; _The Yule Log_, and _The Wa.s.sail Bowl_; all afterwards engraved. For Mr. James Haywood, M.P., he executed a series of drawings ill.u.s.trative of student life at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, London, and Paris; while two vast subjects, _The Origin of Music_ and _The Triumph of Music_ (each twenty feet wide by nine feet high), were painted for the Earl of Hardwick, and are, or lately were, in the music saloon at Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire. His pictures were seventy-one in number, twenty-five of which were engraved.

On the whole, therefore, Robert William Buss might afford to bear the refusal of Charles d.i.c.kens's patronage with equanimity.

The paintings and etchings of Robert William Buss evince a strong leaning in the direction of comic art, a taste which prompted him, in 1853, to deliver at various towns in the United Kingdom a course of very successful and interesting lectures on caricature and graphic satire, ill.u.s.trated by several hundred examples executed by himself. In 1874, the year before his death, he published for the amus.e.m.e.nt of his friends, and for private circulation only, the substance of these lectures, under the t.i.tle of "English Graphic Satire and its Relation to Different Styles of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving." The numerous ill.u.s.trations to this work were those drawn for his lectures by the artist, and reproduced for his book by the process of photo-lithography.

So far as comic art and caricaturists of the nineteenth century are concerned, the author has comparatively little to say; but the work is valuable as regards the subject generally, and might have been published with advantage to the public. The artist delivered also lectures on "The Beautiful and the Picturesque," as well as on "Fresco Painting."

Mr. Buss, if not very original as a comic designer, possessed nevertheless a keen sense of humour. One of his pictures (engraved by H.

Rolls), ent.i.tled _Time and Tide Wait for no Man_, represents an artist, sketching by the sea-sh.o.r.e, so absorbed in the contemplation of nature that he remains unconscious of the fast inflowing tide, and deaf to the warnings of the fisherman who is seen hailing him from the beach.

The comic publications which either preceded or ran side by side with _Punch_ had for the most part a somewhat short and unsatisfactory career. Perhaps the most successful of them was _Figaro in London_, 1831-36, which we have already noticed. _The Wag_, a long-forgotten publication, enjoyed a very transient existence. In 1832 appeared _Punchinello_, on the pages of which Isaac Robert Cruikshank was engaged. _Punchinello_, however, ceased running after its tenth number.

_Asmodeus in London_, notwithstanding the support it derived from Seymour's pencil, was by no means a commercial success. _The Devil in London_ was a little more fortunate. This periodical commenced running on the 29th of February, 1832, and the ill.u.s.trations of Isaac Robert Cruikshank and Kenny Meadows enabled it to reach its thirty-seventh number. Tom Dibdin's _Penny Trumpet_ ignominiously blew itself out after the fourth number. _The Schoolmaster at Home_, notwithstanding Seymour's graphic exertions, collapsed at its sixth number. _The Whig Dresser_, ill.u.s.trated by Heath, enjoyed an existence exactly of twelve numbers.

_The Squib_ (1842) lasted for thirty weeks before it exploded and went out. _Puck_ (1848), ill.u.s.trated by W. Hine, Kenny Meadows, and Gilbert, died the twenty-fifth week after its first publication. _Chat_ ran its course in 1850 and 1851. _The Man in the Moon_, under the literary guidance of Shirley Brooks, Albert Smith, G. A. Sala, and the Brothers Brough, enjoyed a comparatively glorious career of two years and a half.

_Diogenes_ (started in 1853, under the literary conduct of Watts Phillips, the Broughs, Halliday, and Angus Bethune Reach), notwithstanding the graphic help rendered by McConnell[181] and Charles H. Bennett, gave up the ghost in 1854. _Punchinello_ (second of the name) flickered and went out at the seventh number. _Judy_ (the predecessor of the present paper) appeared 1st February, 1843, but soon died a natural death. _Town Talk_, edited by Halliday and ill.u.s.trated by McConnell, lasted a very limited time. _London_, started by George Augustus Sala in rivalry of _Punch_, soon ceased running; while the _Puppet Show_, notwithstanding the ability of Mr. Procter, enjoyed but a very brief and transitory existence. The strong and healthy const.i.tution of _Punch_ enabled him not only to outlive all these, but even a publication superior in some important respects to himself. We allude to the _Tomahawk_, whose cartoons are certainly the most powerful and outspoken satires which have appeared since the days of Gillray.[182]

Among the draughtsmen whom _Punch_ called in to help him in his early days was a useful and ingenious artist, inferior in many respects to Kenny Meadows, his name was ALFRED HENRY FORRESTER, better known to most of us under his _nom de guerre_ of "Alfred Crowquill." The scribes of the "Catnach," or Seven Dials school, of literature are satirized by Forrester (in the second volume), wherein we see a "Literary Gentleman"

hard at work at his vocation of a scribe of cheap and deleterious literature, consulting his authorities--"The Annals of Crime," a "Last Dying Speech and Confession," and the "Newgate Calendar." In _The Footman_ we have a gorgeous figure, adorned with epaulets, lace, and a c.o.c.ked hat, reading (of all things in the world) the "Loves of the Angels," over a bottle of hock and soda-water! _The Pursuit of Matrimony under Difficulties_ is a more ambitious performance. "Punch's Guide to the Watering Places" (vol. iii.) is ill.u.s.trated with a number of coa.r.s.ely executed cuts, wholly dest.i.tute of merit; the fourth volume contains a cartoon ent.i.tled _Private Opinions_. But the graphic humour of Alfred Crowquill, although amusing and sometimes bright and sparkling, was unsuited to the requirements of a periodical such as _Punch_. As better men came forward, he gradually dropped out of its pages, and we see nothing more of him after the fourth volume.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALFRED CROWQUILL. _From "The Book of Days."_

FROZEN OUT GARDENERS.

_Face p. 368._]

Alfred Crowquill was a sort of "general utility" man, essaying the character of a _litterateur_ as well as that of an artist, and achieving as a natural consequence no permanent success in either. In his literary capacity, Alfred Henry Forrester made his first appearance (we believe) in "The Hive," and "The Mirror," under the editorship of Mr. Timbs; while as an artist he ill.u.s.trated his own writings, besides those of a host of other authors. An early effort of his pencil is ent.i.tled, _Der Freyschutz Travestied_; this was followed by "Alfred Crowquill's Sketch Books," which were dedicated to the (then) Princess Victoria, by command of the d.u.c.h.ess of Kent. We find him afterwards employed on the pages of the "New Monthly," but on the death of its editor, Mr. Theodore Hook, his useful talents procured him an engagement on the staff of "Bentley's Miscellany," to whose pages he was not only an indefatigable contributor, but rendered it substantial a.s.sistance in its difficulties with George Cruikshank. The best of his ill.u.s.trative works (mostly designs on wood) were executed for this periodical, and selections were afterwards collected and published under the t.i.tle of "The Phantasmagoria of Fun."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALFRED CROWQUILL. _From "The Book of Days."_

"SWEARING THE HORNS" AT HIGHGATE.

"When any person pa.s.sed through Highgate for the first time on his way to London, he, being brought before the horns, had a mock oath administered to him, to the effect that he would never drink small beer when he could get strong, unless he liked it better; that he would never eat brown bread when he could get white, or water-gruel, when he could command turtle-soup; that he would never make love to the maid when he might to the mistress; and so on . according to the wit of the imposer of the oath, and simplicity of the oath-taker."

_Face p. 369._]

In these days a man like Forrester would be almost at a discount, but at the time when he started there was less compet.i.tion, and a useful, clever man, like he undoubtedly was, was fortunately not lost. His hands, in fact, were always full, and a list of some of the books to which his pen and his pencil contributed will be found in the Appendix.

One of the best of his designs was a t.i.tle-page he executed for a work published by Kent & Co., under the t.i.tle of "Merry Pictures by the Comic Hands of Alfred Crowquill, Doyle, Meadows, Hine, and Others" (1857), a _rechauff.a.ge_ of cuts and ill.u.s.trations which had previously done duty for books of an ephemeral character, such as "The Gent," "The Ballet Girl," and even of the superior order of "Gavarni in London."[183] Some excellent designs executed by him on wood will be found in Messrs.

Chambers' "Book of Days." In his dual character of a writer and comic artist, Crowquill was an inveterate punster. Leaves from his "Memorandum Book" (1834) will give us a good idea of his style. In "Tea Leaves for Breakfast," _Strong Black_ is represented by a st.u.r.dy negro carrying a heavy basket; a tall youth with a small father personating _Hyson_; a housemaid shaking a hall mat, to the discomfort of herself and the pa.s.sers-by, is labelled _Fine dust_; a c.o.c.kney accidentally discharging his fowling-piece does duty for _Gunpowder_; while _Mixed_ is aptly personified by a curious group of masqueraders. The vowels put in a comical appearance: _A_ with his hands behind him listens to _E_, who points to _I_ as the subject of his remarks, which must be of a scandalous character, as the injured vowel looks the picture of anger and astonishment. _E_ finds a ready listener in _O_, who opens his mouth and extends his hands in real or simulated amazement and horror.

Crowquill was a clever caricaturist, and began work when he was only eighteen. We have seen some able satires of his executed between the years 1823 and 1826 inclusive. One of the best, published by S. Knight in 1825, is ent.i.tled, _Paternal Pride_: "Dear Doctor, don't you think my little Billy is like me?" "The very picture of you in every feature!"

_Ups and Downs_ (Knights, 1823), comprise "Take Up" (a Bow Street runner); "Speak Up" (a barrister); "Hang Up" (a hangman); "Let-em-Down"

(a coachman); "Knock-em-Down" (an auctioneer); "Screw-em-Down" (an undertaker). The following are given as _Four Specimens of the Reading Public_ (Fairburn, 1826): "Romancing Molly," "Sir Lacey Luscious," a "Political Dustman," and "French a la Mode." Two, in which he was a.s.sisted by George Cruikshank, ent.i.tled, _Indigestion_, and _Jealousy_, will be found in the volume published (and republished) under the name of "Cruikshankiana." The latter shows on the face of it that, while Crowquill was responsible for the design, the etching and a large share of the invention are due to Cruikshank.

If not a genius, the man was talented and clever,--a universal favourite. He could draw, he could write; he was an admirable vocalist, setting the table in a roar with his medley of songs. Even as a painter he was favourably known. _Temperance and Intemperance_ were engraved from his painting in oils, and called forth a letter of thanks from the great apostle of temperance, Father Mathew himself. Other works were _The Ups and Downs of Life_, the well-known _President_ and _Vice President_ (both engraved), and many others. A clever artist in "black and white," two of his pen-and-ink sketches--_The Huntsman's Rest_ and _The Solitary_--were honoured with a place among the drawings at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1846. His talents did not end here; most of the Christmas pantomimes of his time were indebted to him for clever designs, devices, and effects. The kindly, genial, gifted man died in 1872, in his sixty-eighth year.