Part 28 (1/2)

[156] I estimate the number of his cartoons as nearly as possible as follows:--

1842 3 1850 37 1858 30 1843 11 1851 42 1859 21 1844 42 1852 35 1860 15 1845 43 1853 32 1861 10 1846 35 1854 34 1862 4 1847 35 1855 41 1863 3 1848 38 1856 33 1864 4 1849 37 1857 33

[157] s.h.i.+rley Brooks in _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ of 19th November, 1864.

[158] Charles Mackay's ”Forty Years' Recollections.”

[159] ”Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters,” p. 12.

[160] MS. Diary of the late s.h.i.+rley Brooks, 1st January, 1864.

[161] Died on the 18th of December, 1864, exactly within a year from the date of her son's death.

[162] s.h.i.+rley Brooks in _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ of 19th November, 1864.

[163] ”I suggested the cut, Moses being dressed for the Fair, Johnny Russell for the Conference.” MS. Diary of the late s.h.i.+rley Brooks.

[164] The first time I find mention of his name is on the 22nd of March, 1864, when the late s.h.i.+rley Brooks met him at a party at Mr.

Ernest Hart's, 69, Wimpole Street. Some years afterwards, he adds in a note, ”Met him next at Whitby.” I first meet with his name at a _Punch_ council, 7th November, 1864: ”Dumaurier first time.”

[165] Mr. Yates in _Morning Star_.

[166] MS. Diary of s.h.i.+rley Brooks: 29th October, 1864.

[167] _Ill.u.s.trated London News_, 19th November, 1864.

[168] MS. Diary of Mr. s.h.i.+rley Brooks.

[169] _Ibid._

[170] H. K. Browne (”Phiz”), T. Landseer, George Cruikshank, Marcus Stone, Sir John Gilbert, and Mr. Philips, R.A., were also present.

[171] The Rev. J. Reynolds Hole, author of ”A Little Tour in Ireland,” to which his friend, John Leech (who accompanied him), contributed some of the most charming of his ill.u.s.trations.

CHAPTER XVI.

_A BOOK ILl.u.s.tRATOR: HABLOT KNIGHT BROWNE._

In a work dealing with comic artists and caricaturists, one is somewhat puzzled to decide what place to a.s.sign to the distinguished draughtsman who died a year and a half ago. _Ultimus Romanorum_, the last of the great trio of designers, Cruikshank, Leech, and Browne, his career offers to us a singular paradox; for although not born a comic artist (as we shall endeavour presently to show), he executed a vast number of comic ill.u.s.trations; and while, so far as we know, never guilty of a caricature in his life, the larger portion of his drawings are caricatures pure and simple.

We might cite a hundred examples of this tendency to exaggeration, but one shall suffice. In the etching wherein Miss Nickleby is introduced to her uncle's objectionable friends, Miss Nickleby as well as the ”friends” are remarkable for the largeness of their heads and the flimsiness of their bodies; while the men, if not exactly like those described by Pliny, or quoted from him (without acknowledgment) by our Sir John Mandeville, are at any rate too grotesque for human beings. If humanity offers to our study in daily life a variety in form, face, and feature, comprising eccentricities as well as excellencies, such specimens, nevertheless, as poor Smike or Mr. Mantalini were never designed in its _atelier_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHIZ. ”_Master Humphrey's Clock_,” 1840-1.

THE DEPARTURE.

_Face p. 336._]