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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 (Trs -
 
 GEORGE 
 
 CRUIKSHANK: 
 
 THE ARTIST, THE HUMORIST, AND THE MAN, 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS BEOTHEE EOBEET. 
 
 Jl Critico-^ibliogniphical (BBsan. 
 By WILLIAM BATES, B.A., M.R.C.S.E,, ETC., 
 
 Professor of Classics in Queen's College, Birminglmm ; 
 Surgeon to the Borough Hosjntal, etc. 
 
 WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. CRUIKSHANK 
 
 INCLUDING SEVERAL FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 
 
 IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 Revised; and Augmented by a co2)iously Annotated Bibliographical Appendix, and 
 Additional Plates on India Paper. 
 
 l!onJ)on : 
 HOULSTON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 
 
 Birmingham : 
 HOUGHTON AND HAMMOND, SCOTLAND PASSAGE. 
 
 1879.
 
 quo fit ut omnis 
 
 Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella 
 
 Vita SEXis." 
 
 Horat ; Sat. lib. ii. 1. 
 
 " Men represent and describe according as they conceive, and they conceive 
 according to the frame of their imagination, and the turn of their opinions ; 
 so that among several persons, who have been spectators of the same tiling, 
 we seldom meet with any two that report it in ihe same manner ; every cue 
 describing what he has seen according to the ideas that he has formed 
 of it, according to the model of his own notions, and the texture of liis own 
 
 intellect. " 
 
 Rapin ; lieflccHoTis on History. 
 
 "■'Tisathing of meere industry, a collection without wit or invention, a 
 very toy." 
 
 Burton ; Anatmnie of ilelancholy .
 
 Art 
 Library 
 
 1H79 
 ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB. 
 
 Sbotion I.— The four great Masters of Pictorial Satire in'England— Hogarth, 
 RowLAN-Dso>j, GiLLRAY, and George GuirrKSHANK— Com- 
 parisou between Hogahtu anil George Ckuiksuank, &c. . 1, 
 
 Section II.— Comic Art and Artists— Charles Lamb's vindication of Hogarth 
 — Public estimation of Rowlandson, Gilleiay, and George 
 Cruikshank- Early Notices of George Cniikslianlc, &c. . . 3. 
 
 Section III.— George Cruikshank, Iiis origin, early life, and art-work— His 
 fcither, Isaac Cruikshank— Early predilection of George Cruik- 
 .shank for the stage— Classification of his productions, &o. . 8. 
 
 Section IV.— George Cruikshank as a Political Cahicaturlst- His early 
 political pieces— His connection with William Hone— Takes 
 the part of the Princess against the Kegent — Hone's career and 
 death— Scene at his Funeral— Capital Punishment for Forgery, 
 and Cruikshank's "Bank Note not to be Imitated," &c. . 11. 
 Section V.— George Cruik.shank as a delineator of Social Life and 
 Manners— Early pieces— Pierce Egan and his Life in London 
 and i^'tJHs/i— Carey's Life in Paris— Tales of Irish Life— 
 Mornings in Bow Street— Fictnres of Nautical Life—" Crui/c- 
 shankiana,"— Illustrations of Time and Phrenology — The Comic 
 Almanacks— YrienAshx]) with Charles Dickens— " Fagin in the 
 Condemned Cell "—Bartholomew Fair and the "Fiend's Frying 
 Pan" — "The Knacker's Yard" — Beatleij's Miscellany — Associa- 
 tion and Quarrel with W. Harrison Ainsvvorth— TAe 
 Omnibus— Tlic Table i'oo/j- Maxwell's History of the Irish 
 Rebellion— The Bottle and The Drunkard's C/ij7f^?-cn— Embraces 
 the cause of Temperance— Mil. and Mrs. S. C. Hall — 
 "Opening of the Great Exhibition "—Cruikshank's Controversy 
 with Dickens and Ainsworth, &c 22. 
 
 Section VI.— George Cruikshank as a Book-Illustrator— Powite of Humour 
 — Italian Talcs — "Alfred Crowquill" — "Punch and Judy" — 
 Three Courses and a Dessert— The Every Night Book— liosaot' s 
 "Novelist's Library" — Eminent Xylographers— ■/"«(;* Sheppard 
 —Fielding, SmoUett, and Goldsmith— JFai-ccZcf/iVoDcZs-Sundry 
 Books illustrated by him — Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, and 
 Byron's Poems — Life of Sir John Falstaff, &c. . . . 42. 
 Section VII.— George Cruikshank as a delineator of the Supernatural— The 
 Supernatural in Art— Peter Schlemihl and Shadowless Men- 
 Scott's Dcmonology and Witchcraft— GAmm a German Popular 
 Stories— B.&rae.i-ton and Euskin ' on Cruikshank's Etchings— 
 "Dances of Death" — Cruikshank's Fairy Library— b^kens' a 
 Attack in Household Words — Cruikshank's Defence, &c. . . 49. 
 Ssotion VIII.— George Cruikshank as an Oil-Painter— Paints a Public-house 
 Sign— Other great Artists who have painted Signs— Works 
 exhibited at the Academy — Becomes a Student late in life — 
 " Worship of Bacchus, " &c 54. 
 
 Section IX.— George Cruikshank as a Temperance Advocate— 111 effects of 
 
 his Advocacy upon his Fortune and Reputation, &c. . . 58. 
 Section X.— George Cruikshank's partial Retirement from the Practice of 
 his Art in the latter part of his Life— Further Causes for 
 this, &c 66. 
 
 Section XI.— Robert Cruikshank— His early Life at Sea— Associates himself 
 with his brother George — Life in London and Finish — Works 
 for William Hone and others — Velocipedes, Hobby-Horses, and 
 Bicycles — The English Spy — Doings in Lotidon — Dance of Death 
 — FaeeticB — Satan in search of a Wife, by Cliarles Lamb — Fables 
 — Cruikshank at Home — Curious blunder in Nagler's Kunstler's 
 Lexicon — Rivalry between the Brothei-s — Percy Cruikshank — 
 George Cruikshank, junior — George Daniel, of Islington, the 
 Book-collector — Death of Robert Cruikshank — His Character — 
 His Merits unjustly Ignored, &c. . _ 57. 
 
 11806G3
 
 Section XII. — George Crttikshakk— His great Industry and Executive facility 
 — Immense number of his Productions — Collections of his 
 \Vorks — John Leech — Euskin's views as to the misdirection of 
 the Talents of Beivick — and George Cruikshank, &c. . . 69. 
 
 Section XIII. — George Cruikshank underpaid for lus Labour — Comparative 
 Poverty of his latter days — "Subscription Testimonial" and its 
 failure — Civil Service Pension — Last Work executed by him — 
 His kindly old age — Lieutenant-Colonel of Rifle-Corps at 
 Seventy-six — His last Illness, Death, and Burial, &c. . .71. 
 
 Section XIV. — George Cruikshank estimated by a French Critic in relation to 
 Hogarth, Leech, and others — Caricature in Archeology and Art 
 — Hamerton on Cruikshank as an Etcher — Ruskin on Caricature 
 and the Works of Leech and Cruikshank — George Cruikshank 
 briefly estimated as Artist, Humorist, and Man, &c. . . 74. 
 
 Section X\'. — Bibliographiana — Annotated List of the various Publications, — 
 Books, Reviews, Magazine and Newspaper Articles, &c., — relat- 
 ing to the genius, works, and character of George Cruikshank, 
 which appeared during his Life ; the Pamphlets, Letters to 
 the Times, &c., \vritten by himself; — and the Leading Articles, 
 Lectures, Notices Critical and Obituary, and miscellaneous 
 Essays, occasioned by his Death 77. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1. — Portrait of George Cruikshank. To face title-page. 
 
 2. — Vignette Portrait of George Cruikshank . . • i, Page l- 
 
 3. — Full-length Portrait from Maclise Gallery . . . ,, 7. 
 
 4.— "The Mulberry-Tree" .... To face „ 9. 
 
 5. — " The Fat in the Fire, " M'ood-CTrf ore to-i . . . . ,, 13. 
 
 6.— "Visit of Sir William Curtis to Sam. Wallsend, Esq." . To face ,, 14. 
 
 7. — The " Bank-Note not to be Imitated " . . ,, ,, 21. 
 
 8. — The " Bank Restriction Barometer" . . . . )i 21. 
 
 9. — Engraved title to " Illustrations of Time " . . To face ,, 27. 
 
 10.^" The Knacker's Yard, or Horse's Last Home" . • n >i 31. 
 
 11.— "Pit, Boxes, and Gallery" . . . . ,, >. 32. 
 12. — Fac-simile of Autograph letter from George Cruikshank to Laman 
 
 Blanchard .... To face „ 33. 
 
 13.— The Boy-Thief in the Beer-Shop, (from "The Drunkard's Children ") „ „ 36. 
 
 14.— "Tobacco-Leaves" . . . . . ,, „ 38. 
 
 15. — Fac-simile of pencU sketch, wood-cut on text . . . n 41. 
 16-18. — Illustrations to the " Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft" of Sir 
 
 Walter Scott :— .... To face ,, 51. 
 
 (1) The Witches' Voyage (3) Puck in Mischief 
 
 (2) The Corps de Ballet (4) Tak afl" the Ghaist 
 
 19.— "Gin Juggernaut" ..... To face ,, 56. 
 
 20. — " Every Man on his Perch, or going to Hobby-Fair " . ,, ,, 59. 
 
 21. — " Chapter on Noses " . . . . . ,, ,, 66. 
 
 22. — Coachman of the old school, woodcut on text . . • >> >> 68. 
 
 23.— The "Rose and Lily"* . . . . „ „ 73. 
 
 24.— TaU-piece, "Finis" . . . . . ,, ,, 94. 
 
 ■ Wc art: indebUid for the use of this plat* to the kiudncsH of Messrs. Chatto and Wiiidus, the 
 pnblishera of " The Eoso and Lily."
 
 ACEOSTIC. 
 
 George Cruikshank — every heart, both youDg and old — 
 Even the middle, most uncertain, aged, 
 Owns satisfaction as thj' name is told ; 
 Renown'd for long successful battle waged 
 'Gainst devils blue, that so in thraldom hold 
 English hearts, ever by themselves encaged. 
 
 CRtriKSHANK ! I do rejoice to see thy name 
 Reckon'd with Ainsworth's in the roll of fame I 
 TJuion most pregnant ! that with grace doth bind 
 In faithful bonds such pencil and such pen — 
 Kith bound to kin, and neitlier less than kind ; 
 So shall young graces bless ns now and then. 
 Heaven marries truly such a mind and mind, 
 A»d shall command for both the hopes of men. 
 Now, trustful, let us forth witli thee aud Ainsworth, 
 Knowing full well it will be worth the pain's worth. 
 
 V. v., D.D. 
 — Ainsworth's[Magazi7ie, 
 June, 1843. 
 
 "Mrs. Gamp loquitur. "A gentleman with a large shirt collar, and a hook 
 nose, and a eye like one of Mr. Sweedlepipes's hawks, and long locks of hair, and 
 ■whiskers that I wouldn't have no lady as I was eng.iged to meet suddenly a 
 
 turning rcuud a corner for any sum of money you could olfer me ." 
 
 — Charles Dickens. 
 
 " George is popular among his associates. His face is an index of his mind. 
 There is notiiing anomalous about him .and his doings. His appearance, his illus- 
 trations, his speeches, are all ,ilike, — all picturesque, artistic, full of fun, feeling, 
 geniality, and quaintness. His seriousness is grotesq\io, and his drollery is profound. 
 He is the prince of living Caricaturists, and one of the best of men." 
 
 — Samuel Phillips. 
 
 " Few more interesting subjects could occupy a writer on art than the various 
 and truly original genius of Cbwiksuank. " — P. O. Hamcrton.
 
 GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 
 
 iHIS country in her comparatively brief art^life has already 
 produced four great typical masters of Pictorial Satire. 
 Purely national in genius ; uninfluenced by school tradi- 
 tion or foreign example ; devoting themselves to the honest 
 exposition of the manners and doings of their time, the ridicule of 
 its follies, and the castigation of its vices ; each, in his special 
 walk, seems to have reached the culminating point of graphic per- 
 fection ; nor is it likely, so far as I can see, that even as time speeds 
 on and judgment expands, other men will appear to surpass, or 
 even equal these, as long as their own branch of art continues to 
 be practised. 
 
 The earliest in point of time, WiLLiAM HOGAETH, (1697-1764), 
 took the entire drama of human life for the exercise of his pencil. 
 Equally great in Tragedy and Comedy, he now lashes the sins of 
 Ids age with the thong of Juvenal, and now ridicules its follies 
 with the wit of Moliere. The great "painter of mankind," we 
 read his pictures as a book ; he belongs, indeed, to literature as 
 much as to art, and we often forget the painter in the author. His 
 "pictured morals" raise him to the highest rank as an artist and as 
 a teacher ; and I am not aware that it has ever been doubted that 
 he is the greatest didactic painter which this, or any other country, 
 has, at any period, produced.* 
 
 * " Du ouziferae jusquM la fiu du dix-huiti6me siecle, je constate de pr^cieux monuments 
 laiss^s par la caricature ; je ue vols pas le caricaturiste. 
 
 "Le peuple n'a pas encore choisi un dc^fenseur hardi, en lui disant : 'Tu seras roi.' 
 
 " Le premier roi fut un Anglais, un liomnie puissarament organist, un peintre et un 
 moraliste, Hogarth, le veritable p^re de la caricature qui, ce jour-h\, 61ev6e par im grand 
 artiste, put inscrire le uora de son initiatenr :Y cote de Fielding et de Swift. 
 
 "Get homme de genie, dont les compositions compliquees appartiennent autant :l la 
 litt^rature qu' d la peinture ne tronva de successeur ni en Angleterre ni en France. Gilli-ay, 
 Rowlandson, les Cruikshank ne le firent pas oublier ; et en France Debucnurt, Carl Vernet, 
 Henry Monnier n'eflleur^rent que des ridicules superticiels.— i/ii;(oire de la Cariatture 
 ModerM par Champfleury, p. xi.
 
 2 George Cruikshank. 
 
 The next in order of birth is Thomas Rowlandsox, (1756-1827). 
 Of a reckless, jovial, happy disposition, he chose the broad Farce of 
 social life for his field. With talents that might have raised him 
 to the highest rank as an historical painter, or immortalised his 
 name as a moral satirist, he was contented to remain a mere comic 
 draughtsman. Degenerating into mannerism and extravagance, 
 his unrestrained pencil sported with every imaginable scene of vice 
 and foUy, luxiu-y and misery, sensuality and degradation. Yet he 
 could draw the human figure with the strength of Mortimer and 
 the grace of Stothard ; could express more with little effort than 
 ahnost any predecessor or contemporary; was a consummate master 
 of composition ; had the nicest eye for harmony of colour ; and 
 has produced designs, which, according to the judgment of 
 Reynolds and West, would have done honour to Rubens, or any of 
 the great masters of the old schools. 
 
 The third, James Gilleay, (1757-1815), was a genius of 
 another order. Of an earnest and sombre turn of mind, his pro- 
 vince may be termed the Tragedy of satire. The great master of 
 graphic invective, he took the political Ufc of his time for the sub- 
 ject of his art, and has drawn its history with all the virulent hate 
 of Junius. He, like Rowlandson, might have taken a high place 
 in historic art; was an admirable and most facUe draughtsman; 
 fertUe in invention, powerful in design, and skilful in grouping ; 
 but, devoting himself exclusively to political satire, has simply left the 
 name of the greatest of English — if not of modern — caricaturists. 
 
 We now come to Geoegb Cruikshank, (1792-1878), the last of 
 our quaternion, — if not of the line of purely comic artists, — the 
 omega, as Hogarth was the alplia, of satirical designers. Handing 
 down the fire of national humour in direct descent from that great 
 master,' he, too, essayed the whole dramatic field ; and thus a com- 
 parison is suggested, which, if pushed too far, is unfau' to both. 
 For the genius of tho one diflers from that of the other in kind as 
 well as degree ; and there is Uttle resemblance in the circumstances 
 of their lives. Hogarth had the advantage of a thorough early 
 trainin'' ; Cruikshank picked up his art when and how lie could. 
 The one has left us elaborate works, the results of deliberate thought 
 and careful execution ; the other, a vast number of trivial designs,
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 3 
 
 — " smiling ofi'spriiigs of painful labour, " as Thackeray finely calls 
 them, — horn of occasion and spontaneous impulse, redeemed and 
 exalted aloi.e by the informing art. Hogarth rises higher in 
 tragic power; Cruikshank is more intensely comic. IIoGARTn 
 could draw a graceful figure, and has left us female faces of exceed- 
 ing suavity and tenderness ; Cruikshank has no eye for aesthetic 
 beauty, and is utterly mannered when he attempts to delineate the 
 refinement of a gentleman, the elegance of a lady, or the simplicity 
 of a child. In oils, Hogarth had thoroughly mastered the techni- 
 calities of his art, was a fine colourist, and painted with the solidity 
 of the old Dutch masters ; while Cruikshank is flimsy in texture, 
 glaring in effect, and has no eye for chromatic harmony. But, if 
 the later artist is inferior to the earlier Avhen he comes in direct 
 competition with him, he has reached the highest excellence in 
 certain peciUiar walks of his own. In the depiction of low, vicious, 
 and vulgar life, — in the ludicrous, the quaint, the weird, the 
 pathetic, and the terrible, — he is unsurpassed. No one has touched 
 with a nicer humour the manners of his day, and the frivolities and 
 affectations of fashionable life ; no one so felicitously illustrated 
 the mysteries of folk-lore and popular superstition. Like Hogarth, 
 he possessed a supreme faculty of graphic narration, and an 
 unerring tact in the seizui'e of di-amatic incident. If occasionally 
 incorrect in drawing, as much from the habitual license of the carica- 
 turist as the want of early training, he shows the rare talent of preserv- 
 ing to every figure an individuality of its own, of fixing evanescent 
 motion, and crowding his designs with life and action without 
 confusion. As an etcher, if he cannot with justice be said to possess 
 supreme mastery over the technical resources of the needle, he is 
 simple and effective ; uses no superfluous means ; pervades his 
 work with colour ; and exhibits a command of light and shade 
 only inferior to that of Ecmbrandt. Lastly, as a great moral 
 teacher and satirist ; as a castigator of oiu' great national sin, and 
 an illustrator by pen and pencil of its direful effects ; he is entitled 
 to the admiration and gratitude of our own and future times. 
 
 n. 
 
 Those who have a keen perception of Humour, and the faculty 
 by pen, pencil, or mimi? action, of exciting the humourous sensa-
 
 Georo-e Crnikshank. 
 
 A 
 
 tions of others, have generally a pathetic side of character, and 
 some power of ^expressing or evoking tragic emotions. On the 
 other hand, the grave, the dignified, the sententious, and the solemn 
 among men do not necessarily \. ossess the comic element, or any power 
 of amusing at one time those whom they have instructed at another. 
 Hence, I should be inclined to give an a priori pre-eminence to the 
 comic artist, actor, or author ; and believe him to be endowed with 
 a wider range of intellect and sympathy. But to him who once 
 dons it the garb of motley cHngs like the fatal tunic of Nessus. 
 He must wear it through life and be content to excite laughter 
 when he would fain evoke tears. The generahty of men, however, 
 find it difficidt to respect where they laugh ; or see in the comic 
 artist any other qualities than those of the buffoon. The genius of 
 HoGAETH met with but partial recognition, till the appearance of 
 Charles Lamb's admirable essay. He it was who showed that te be 
 a great artist, it was not necessary to paint great men, or " transac- 
 tions over which time had thrown a grandeur;" that the amount of 
 thought expressed, and the depth of interest excited, was, rather 
 than the mere choice of subject, the measure of art ; and that, con- 
 sequently, an artist was not necessarily inferior or vulgar, because 
 he took his subjects from common or vulgar life. The due appre- 
 ciation of EowLAXDSON is yet to come. From their mere t)is comica, 
 his etchings and drawings have always found collectors ; but as an 
 artist, the world has been slow to recognise his higher merits. A 
 comprehensive essay upon his life, times, and genius, long wanted, 
 has been recently announced; and due justice may at length be 
 done to his marvellous powers. Gillkay, perhaps from his greater 
 unity of purpose, and the more historical character of his work, is 
 better known. Collections of his caricatures have been repeatedly 
 published ; and latterly, under such chronological arrangement, and 
 so accompanied with illustrative commentary, as to f ui'nish a perfect 
 history of their political epoch. 
 
 With George Ceuiksiiank the case is altogether different. 
 Covering by his art-life three-quarters of a century, our remote 
 ancestors laughed at his comic humour ; while our more immediate 
 progenitors and ourselves, with that wider intelligence and appre- 
 ciation, which Thackeray's generous article in the Wedminster
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 5 
 
 Review (1840) did so much to quicken, had arrived at some truer per- 
 ception of his higher qualities. Surviving himself in a certain sense, 
 he had come to be regarded as an " old master," and saw collectors 
 lighting over early scraps from his hand, the very existence of which 
 ho had himself forgotten. If the child, as Wordsworth has it, is the 
 father of the man, he may well be held the grandfather of the sep- 
 tuagenarian ; and so far back as 1863, the artist found it necessary 
 to exhibit at Exeter Hall the continuous work of some sixtj' years, 
 with the professed object of convincing a doubting generation that 
 lie did not stand in this relation to himself ! The Catalogue set 
 forth that this was "A Selection from the works of George 
 Cruikshank, extending over a period of upwards of sixty years, 
 from 1799 to 1863;" and that it comprised "upwards of one 
 hundred oU-paintings, water-colour drawings, and original sketches, 
 together with over a thousand proof etchings from popular works, 
 taricatures, scrap-books, song-headings, &c., and the ' Worship of 
 Bacchus.' " Lockhart in Blackioood, so early in the day as July, 
 1823, had told its readers that George Cruikshank was something 
 more than a comic artist; and that it was time that they should 
 think more of him, and that he should tliink more of himself.* 
 Maginn, despite the "odium of his politics," in 1833 gave him a 
 niche in Eraser's " Gallery of Illustrious Literary Characters."! 
 
 * See also "Noctes Ambrosianse.-'No. xliv. Tickler (Sym.) togidfiir :— " What a clever 
 fellow George Cruikshank is. They said he was a mere caricaturist. Sir, he is a painter — 
 a gi-eat painter." Lockbart's remarks, T-refatory to his criticism upon the Points of Humour, 
 are curious, and merit preservation. Refi^rring to tlie artist, he says : — " He appears to bo 
 'Jie most careless cre.ature alive, as toueliing his reputation. He seems to have no plan- 
 almost no ambition, -anti, I apprehend, not much industry. He does just what is suggested 
 or thrown in his way— pockets the cash — orders his beef-steak and bowl— and chaunts, like 
 one of his own heroes, 
 
 ' Life is all a variorum, 
 
 We regard not how it goes.' 
 ♦ • •»♦»••»» 
 
 In the first place, he is — what no living caricaturist but himself has the least pretensions 
 to be, — and what, indeed, scarcely one of their predecessors was — he is a thorough-bred 
 artist. He draws with the ease, and freedom, and fearlessness of a master; he understands 
 the figure completely ; and appears, so far as one can guess from the trifling sort of things 
 he has done, to have a capital notion of the principles of grouping. Now these tilings are 
 valuable in themselves ; but they are doubly, trebly valuable, as possessed by a person of 
 real comic humour, and a total despiser of That Venerable Humbug, which almost all 
 the artists of our day seem, in one shape or other, to revere as the prime God of their 
 idolatry." — I'dackwood's Magazine, July, 1823. 
 
 t The illustration here, drawn by the late Daniel Maclisc, R.A., represents the artist 
 seated on a lieer-barrel, and making a sketch on the crown of his hat. "Here we have," 
 writes Maginn, "the sketcher sketched ; and, as is fit, he is sketched sketching. Here is 
 Georgo Cruikshank,— (lie George Cruikshank- seated upon the head of a barrel, catching
 
 6 George Crinkshank. 
 
 Walter Thornbury, in his British Artists from Hogarth to Turner, 
 (2 vols., 1861, 8vo.,) gave him a special chapter, and hailed him 
 "King of the Caricaturists." Dr. E. Shelton Mackenzie indited an 
 appreciative " Essay " on his genius. Thomas Wright rounded off 
 his admirable Histoi-y of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature 
 and Art, (18G5), by a graceful tribute to the ability and character of 
 his friend. Euskin directed the attention of students to his etch- 
 ings as an education in themselves, and the finest things in their 
 way after Eembrandt.* W. M. Eossetti asserted, on behaK of the 
 artist-world, that it was well recognized that his powers were not of 
 the average, but the exceptional class ; and that he was far from 
 being one of those of whom each half-century repeats the typo. 
 Lastly, r. T. Palgrave, in his comments on the " Cruikshank 
 Gallery," vindicated his claim to the title of a "great artist," 
 and prophecied that Time, ^vho had done justice to the author of 
 the " Eake's Progress," had doubtless a like reparation in store for 
 George Cruikshank. 
 
 Here, too, should be mentioned the splendid Descriptive Catalogue 
 compOed by G. W. Eeid, Keeper of the Prints in the British 
 Museum, in which are recorded upwards of 5,000 separate produc- 
 tions, though the list does not go farther than 1870. Since the 
 death of the artist, scores of critical notices have apjjeared in the 
 public papers, all which — with Mr. Hamilton's published lecture, 
 Mr. F. AYedmore's able article in tlie Temple Bar, Mr. G. A. Sala's 
 genial " Life Memory " of liis old friend in the Gentleman's, and 
 
 inspiration from the scenes presented to liim in a pot-house, and consigning the ideas of the 
 moment to immortality on the crown of his hat." George was not insensible to the honour 
 conferred upon him, but nevertheless, in a letter to a friend, exjtressed "horror" at being 
 so depicted. It doubtless seemed hard to one wlio was even then a Rechabite, that lie 
 should go down to posterity indebted for suppoil to a beer-barrel, and able to pursue liis 
 graphic labotirs in the obnoxious propinquity of a tankard and a tobacco-pipe I But the 
 artist had other grounds for objecting to the portrait, and these, as stated in a letter to my, 
 self, under date of April 30, 1873, are worthy of being placed on record. " I think it right 
 to tetl you," writes he, " that Maclise and I were friends, and that I held him in esteem as a 
 worthy m.'in and a grt;-at artist; but you will please to observe that the sketch which you 
 allude to was made by him before wo became acquainted, and is therefore not only not like 
 xne, but represents ire doing what I nt7?c did in the whole course of my life, — that is 
 making a sketch of anyone. All the characters which I liave placed before the public are 
 from the h.aln — after studying and observing Nature — and not from any sketches made on 
 the spot." 
 
 "Referring to them, this distinguished critic remarks, "Nothing in modern line-work 
 approaches these in I'ure, .straightforward, unall'ected rightncss of method, utterly 
 disdaining all accident scrawl, or tricks of biting."— JVofM on Turner's Drawings, 1S7S, 
 p. ill.
 
 8 George CrtiiksJiavk. 
 
 the illustrated article in Scribner's Monthly — are prefatory to the 
 more extended study anticipated from the pen of Mr. Blanchard 
 Jerrold, and the promised autobiography of the artist, edited by his 
 respected widow and B. Ward Kichardson, M.D., and now is. the 
 hands of Mr. Bell. 
 
 Awaiting these more substantive and exhaustive chronicles, I add 
 another to the slighter essays of which I have spoken ; basing 
 what I have to say on my personal knowledge of the man, — what 
 I have heard, read, or seen of his works — and the not inconsiderable 
 collection of his productions in my own possession. Any thing of 
 this kind, — of any kind, I am afraid, which is likely to appear, — 
 must needs be imperfect; and will derive any value it may be found 
 to possess from method of arrangement, individuality of opinion, 
 and the record of facts and notice of works, omitted by former 
 writers, either from choice, exiguity of space, or not having them 
 under view when engaged upon their task 
 
 m. 
 
 We all know that George Cruikshank, though of Scotch descent, 
 was born in London, on September 27, 1792. Of his mother I 
 know nothing, except that her name was Macnaughten, and her 
 father had some employment of a maritime nature. Her husband, 
 Isaac Cruikshank, was the son, as I have heard, of an impoverished 
 Scotch gentleman, an adherent of the Pretender ;* and who, thrown 
 penniless upon his own resources after the disasters of '45, had per- 
 force taken to art as a means of subsistence. Isaac was bom, I 
 believe, in Edinbiu'gh, and being left early an orphan and destitute, 
 also adopted art as a profession. Later on, he migrated southwards, 
 and, establishing himself in London, doubtless had a " sair feclit " 
 to support himself, his wife, a daughter, and two sons, Isaac Robert 
 (born 1789), and George, the subject of this essay. With filial 
 reverence, the latter describes him as " a clever designer, etcher, 
 and engraver, and a first-rate water-colour draughtsman." We know 
 that he was, at least, an artist of considerable talent in an humble 
 walk of art, ready to turn his hand to anything that offered; now 
 
 * " AU my ancestors," says George, " were mixed up in tJie Rebellion of '45." Letter to 
 the Tima, AprU 8, 1872.
 
 'uoajh'aiiarj.igoS./n LWRrEiWHITTCI.. M.Fltet Stmt f.imdoTL 
 
 THE MUJLBEEEY-TREE. 
 
 J. HE sweet brier grows in the merry green wood, 
 VTiero the mubk-rose dtfTuses his perfume so free. 
 
 But the blight often seizes both blossom and bud, 
 While the mildew flies over the mulberry-tree. 
 
 In the nursery reared, like the young tender Tine, 
 
 Mankind of all orders and ev*ry degree, 
 First crawl on the ground, then spring up like the pine, 
 
 And some branch and bear fruit like the mulberry-tree. 
 
 To the fair tree of knowledge some twine like a twig. 
 While some sappy sprouts with its fruit disagree ; 
 
 For which we from birch now and then pluck a sprig. 
 Which is not quite so sweet as the mulberry-tree. 
 
 The fast tree of life we all eagerly climb, 
 And impatiently pant at *ts high top to be ; 
 
 Though nine out of ten are lopp'd off in their primP, 
 And they drop like dead leaycs from th' mulberry.trce, 
 
 ! Somo live by the leaf, and some live by the bough, 
 ; As ihe song or the daii(5e their location may be ; 
 
 J And some live and tlirive, though we know no more how 
 I Than the dew that (Hes oier the mulberry-tree. 
 
 1 But like weeping-willows we hang down the head, 
 
 J A\'l:ien poor wifher'd ciders we*re destFu'd \o Iw : 
 
 X And wfL'Tv minded no more than mere logs when «6're dead, 
 
 ! Oir the dew that flics oyer the mulberry.tree. 
 
 ; Yet lik<' lignum yitE We hearts of oak weir, 
 ! Or the cedar that keeps from the cankerworm free ; 
 
 ; While the vine.juice we drain to dissolve CT'ry care, 
 J Like the dew that flies orer the mulberry-tree. 
 
 PuWiihed lit March, 1808, 
 Br LAURIE and WHITTLE, 
 
 KO. 53, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 9 
 
 etching the cvinic designs of Woodward, now painting miniatures, 
 witli no small delicacy and character, and now draAving book-illus- 
 trations with much of the grace of his contemporary, the elder 
 Corhould. He was an exhibitor at the Eoyal Academy in 1789, 
 90-92 ; and as a caricaturist, entered the lists against Gillray 
 himself in defence of Pitt. George's first jjlaythings were the 
 needle and the Jabber; but play insensibly merged into work as he 
 began to assist his hard worked father. The earliest job in the way 
 of etching for which he was employed and received payment was a 
 child's lottery picture ; this was in 1804, when he was about twelve 
 years of age. In 180.5 he made a sketch of Nelson's funeral Car, 
 and a caricature etching of the " fashions " of the day. His 
 earliest signed work is dated, I believe, two years later, and 
 represents the demagogue Cobbett on his way to St. James's. His 
 father's early death thi-ew the lad jn his own resources, and he 
 quickly found that he must fight for a place in the world, as Fuseli 
 told him he woiild have to do for a seat in the Academy. Any 
 thing that offered was acceptable, — headings for songs,* and half- 
 penny ballads, illustrations for chap-books, designs for nursery- 
 tales, sheets of prints for children — a dozen on a sheet and a penny 
 the lot, — vignettes for lottery-tickets, rude cuts for broadsides, 
 political squibs, — " trivial fond records," now of the utmost rarity 
 and value. Then came the " O.P." Eiots for which he made some 
 illustrations ; but if these are of no better quaUty than the prose 
 and verse satire recorded by Stockdale in his chronicle of this 
 contemptible affair, (1810,) they can have nothing but their 
 earliness and scarcity to give them value. But though George was 
 thus born, as it were, with an etching point in his hand, the stage, 
 rather than art, was the object of his youthful predilection. Ho 
 often performed at juvenile theatres, and was received \vith such 
 
 *One of these now lying before me is a large etching, terribly out of drawing, Init 
 not altogether devoid of character and indication of future power, to illustrate a broadside 
 song. It is entitled the "Mulberry Tree," and represents three gentlemen carousing 
 beneath the branches of the tree which gives its name to the song, with a family seat in 
 the hilly distance. On the left hand corner we read *' Cruikshank, a.d., 180S;" and it is 
 published by Laurie and Whittl-.', in the same year. The song closes with the verse ; — 
 *' Yet like lignum vitae, we hearts of oak wear. 
 
 Or the cedar that keeps from the cauker-wo-rm free ; 
 While the vine-juice we drain to dissolve ev'ry care, 
 Like tlie dew that flies over the Mulberry-tree."
 
 10 George Cruikshav.k. 
 
 applause liotli in comic and serious parts, as to cause him to Uiink 
 seriously of Ijecoming an actor by profession. Umvilling, however, 
 to face the hardships of an itinerant career, he obtained an 
 introduction to Mr. Eaymond, the then manager of Driiry Lane 
 theatre, from whom he sought to ohtain employment as a scene- 
 painter, in the hope that this might eventually lead to the stage. 
 In this capacity he is said to have painted a drop-scene, representing 
 Sh William Curtis, the gastronomic alderman, (a favourite subject 
 of his) looking over a bridge, so irresistibly ludicrous that it 
 brought down the audience with roars of laughter. Eut this 
 employment, and that which began to flow in upon him at home, 
 led to the abandonment of the idea which caused him to undertake 
 it. Otherwise he would doubtless have made an excellent actor ; 
 he had much dramatic and mimetic talent ; and, — as in gi-aphic 
 art, — such versatOity as to attempt with equal success the opposite 
 parts of Glenalvon in Douglas, and the tailor in Kathenne and 
 PcfrucJdo, — which latter character he once played at the Haymarkct 
 TJieatre, for the benefit of a friend. Some tliii'ty years ago, I 
 myself saw him admirably sustain the part of " Formal," in Ben 
 Jonson's Every Man in Ids Humour, at an Amateur performance at 
 the Theatre lioyal, Liverpool, for the benefit of Leigh Hunt, and 
 John Poole of " Paul Pry " celebrity. 
 
 But it is with the art-life of this extraordinary man that I have 
 to do. In attempting a review of this, which, if necessarily im- 
 perfect, shall yet have some preten.sions to comprehensiveness and 
 method, I shall prefer an analytical to a chronological arrangement, 
 — or rather a combination of both. By the term " caricature " I 
 understand an exaggeration of distinguishing characteristics ; by 
 " humour " one's own sense of the ridiculous and the power of 
 awakening this in others. Perhaps in the entire cycle of George 
 Cruikshank's productions, — at all events far more generally than in 
 those of Hogarth, — there is no single one in which some trace of 
 these qualities is not to be found. These terms therefore, as 
 universally applicable, may be omitted ; and for all necessary 
 purposes the entire work of tlie artist grouped under five distinctive 
 headings ; viz. (I.) Political Designs ; (II.) Sketches from 
 Social Life ; (HI.) Illustrations op Fiction ; (IV.) The 
 Supernatural ; (V.) Paintings in Oil.
 
 The Artist, the Htunorist, and the Man. \\ 
 
 rv. 
 
 Political Designs. — As a political caricaturist, Criiilvsljank was 
 next in succession to Gillray himsolf, and one of liis earliest tasks 
 was to complete somo of tlie plates left uiifmislicd by that lurid 
 genius, when, in 1811, he finally sank into mental imbecUity.* 
 Here Cruikshank was the inforicjr, and knew it. " I was not fit to 
 hold a candle to Gillray," he has said. The men, indeed, differed 
 as darkjiess from light. The one sombre, reserved, solitary, in- 
 scrutable, self-contained; the other genial, frank, simple, without 
 one drop in his kindly nature of that so&va indignatio which the 
 epitaph tells us ate into the heart of the Dean of St. Patrick's. 
 Circumstances thrust the part of political caricaturist upon him, and 
 he accepted it frankly, as he did all others. It was Napoleon 
 Buonaparte in his fall and exile, and Frenchmen from the Londoner's 
 traditional point of view, — coeked-hatted, spindle-shanked, with 
 high cheek hones and shrugging shoulders, — that afi'orded the 
 earliest subjects for his satiric pencil. As early as 1813, we have a 
 large, coarsely executed, coloured etching, " Quadrupeds, or Little 
 Boney's last Iviok,"t and another, "Otium cum Dignitate, or a View 
 of Elba"; and in 1815 a large and very spirited etching, full of 
 bustle and movement, "Eeturu of the Paris Diligence, or Boney 
 rode over." In 1816, we find a marked improvement in refinement 
 and style in "A swarm vi English Bees hiving in the Imperial 
 Carriage, &c."; and the next year gives us a coarser plate, "HuNT-ing 
 the Bull," where we first get a glimpse of the Regent. Passing 
 from these, and similar cartoons, all more or less in the manner of 
 Gillray, we come to an important illustrated volume. This is T7ie 
 Life of Napoleon, a Hudibrastic Poem in Fifteen Cantos, hij Dr. 
 Syntax, 1817. The thirty coloured plates are equally coarse in 
 sentiment and execution, and the verse mere doggrel ; but the book 
 is nevertheless a rare and covetable curiosity. This must not be 
 confounded with W. H. Ireland's Life of Napoleon, published a few 
 
 * It is worthy of note that Cruikshank worked upon the very talilo wliich had previously 
 belonged to Gillray. This interesting relic sold for £10 the other day, at the sale by 
 Christie, of the artist's effects. 
 
 t There is another engraving bearing a similar title—" Quadrupeds, or the Manager's last 
 Kick "—of which a copy may be seen iu the Westminster Aquarium, (No. 31.) This is a skit 
 upon the revival at the Adelphi in ISll of Foote's play, " The Tailors, or a Tragedy for 
 W.arm Weather."
 
 12 George Cruikshank. 
 
 years later (1S23-5) illustrated with twenty-three folded coloured 
 
 etchings either from his own designs, or those of Isabey, Denon, 
 
 Vemet, Girard, Swebach, &c., of which the editor states that " their 
 
 execution could not have been placed ia a more masterly hand than 
 
 that of Mr. George Cruilcshank." 
 
 Passing over with mere mention Tlxe Scourge, or Monthly Expositor 
 
 of Imposture and Folly, for the ten volumes of which he produced 
 
 thirty eight plates, — The Meteor, a rare serial, — and Tlie Lorjalist's 
 
 Magazme, illustrating the "Eise, Eeign, and Fall of the Caroline 
 
 contest " — I come to one of the most important and admirable of 
 
 his political caricatures. The subject of this was " Coriolanus 
 
 adcbessiug the Plebeians," and it was published in 1820. Here we 
 
 have portraits of Dr. Watson the radical, Thistlewood the traitor, 
 
 CarlUe the Deist, Cobbett the demagogue, Hunt the " Orator," 
 
 Wooler the " Yellow Dwarf," Cartwiight the patriot, Thelwall the 
 
 elocutionist, Hobhouse the liberal. Hone the publisher, and — 
 
 himself. Passing from these, I must dwell at greater length upon 
 
 the artist's connection with William Hone, celebrated as a Parodist, 
 
 Pamphleteer, and Antiquarian writer. This would commence early 
 
 in the teens. Thus we have a very curious and rare portrait of 
 
 "WUliam Norris, an insane American, rivettcd alive in Iron, and 
 
 many Years confined in tliat state in Bethlem. Sketched from the 
 
 Life in Bethlem (as he was seen there in 1815 by W. Hone) and etched 
 
 by G^. Gndkshanl-." In 1S16 he etched a portrait of Stephen Macdaniel 
 
 for Hone's curious History of the Blood Conspiracy ; and we find 
 
 his name attached to many a coloured print, t etching for broad-side 
 
 ballad, or wood-cut vignette for political pamphlet, \ issued by the 
 
 same restless spirit. § In 1819 appeared that remarkable series of 
 » — 
 
 t The following important etchings may be mentioned, " The King's Statue at Guildh,ill, 
 or French Colours and French Principles put down, a serio-eoinic Dialogue," published 
 at two shillings ; "The Royal Shambles, or the Progress of Legitimacy, and Ee-establish- 
 meiit of Religion and Social Order," Ss. ; '* Louis XVIU, climbing the Mat de Cocagne, or 
 Soaped Pole, to bear off the Imperial Crown," 2s. ; and " Fast Colours — Patience on a 
 Monument Smiling at Grief, or the Royal Laundress Washing Boney's Court Dresses," Is. 
 
 t Such a.s Hctne's reprint of the fervid and eloquent Spirit oj Despotism of Dr. Vicesinius 
 Knos, 1821 ; the Official Account of (he Noble Lord's Bite ; the Trial oJ the Dog for Biting the 
 Noble Lord, &c. 
 
 § One of this kind which might be read with interest at the present day is entitled : " Bags 
 Nodle's Feast; or the Partition and Re-union of Turkey I a new Ballad founded on Fact." 
 — ■'.V Hone, 1817, a folio aheet with two large etchings, published at 2s., now worth as many 
 ^ineas.
 
 The Artist, the Htimorist, a::d the Matt. 13 
 
 political squibs hy the illustrations to which — rude as some of them 
 
 were — his reputation as the first comic draughtsBian of the day was 
 
 firmly established with the public Among these may be mentioned 
 
 The Political House that Jack Built, The Frown from the Oroivn, 
 
 The Man in the Moon, The Green Bag, Boll Tearsheet, The 
 
 Christinas Carol, The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, Nonmi Ricordo, 
 
 Nero Vindicated, lite Polilicnl Showman at Home, The Right 
 
 Divine of Kings to Govern Wrong, Tlie Slap at Slop, and a number 
 
 of others. In these celebrated pamphlets a profligate Prince and 
 
 an obnoxious Ministry were bespattered with a pitiless shower of 
 
 abuse and ridicule. As Gillray with remorseless thong had scourged 
 
 the King, Sheridan, Burke, Canning and Pitt, so now Cruikshank, 
 
 with more playfid but yet cutting lash, castigated the Eegent, 
 
 Castlereagh, Sidmouth, Wellington and Copley. But it is the 
 
 Eegent, the poor plethoric Prince, — 
 
 "The Daudy of SLxty, Who bows with a grace, 
 And has taste in wigs, Collars, cuirasses and lace,"— 
 
 who is pilloried on every page for public execration and contempt, 
 
 -now astride on Sidmouth's back, taking aim at liberty with a
 
 14 George Cruikshank. 
 
 blunderbuss, — now maudlin in his cups, — biding his face with 
 
 shame, as prodigal son before the old king, — saAving off a beam on 
 
 which he is seated, between himself and the wall, — doing penance 
 
 in a sheet, — frizzling on a grid-iron, as " the fat in the fire ! — or 
 
 prostrate at the foot of the matrimonial ladder, — 
 
 " Be warn'd by his fate, married, single and all ; 
 Ye elderly gentlemen, pity his fall ! " * 
 
 With The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, should be secured, if 
 possible, the too often eliminated " Toy," — the representation of a 
 Ladder, printed on card-board, in two columns, the rungs bearing 
 significant legends, and in the interspaces, in white on a black 
 ground, a series of fourteen exquisitely drawn episodes in tlie short 
 married life of George and Caroline. 
 
 In 1820, from the 11th to the 15th JSTovember, there was a 
 jiublic illumination, " to celebrate the victory obtained by the Press 
 f >r the Liberties of the People, which had been assailed in the 
 p rson of the Queen." On this occasion, George painted for Hone's 
 shop-front an appropriate symbolical "Transparency," with the words 
 " Teiumph of the Peess " displayed in variegated lamps, as a 
 motto above it. This Transparency was once more exhibited on 
 K^ovember 29th, when the Queen went to St. Paul's. An engra\'ing 
 of it is given in the Political Showman. 
 
 Again, in 1822, we have the very curious etched and coloured 
 frontispiece to Fairburn's Kilts and PMlihegs ; The Northern 
 Excursion of Geordie, Einperor of Gotham, and Sir Willie Curt-His, 
 the Court Buffoon, ^c, a Serio-Tragico-Gomico-Ludicro-Aquatico 
 Burlesque Gallimaiifnj, interspersed with Huinourom Glees, Sport- 
 ing Catches and Rum Chaunts hy the Male and Female Characters 
 if the Piece; and, again ridiculing tlie Prince and the Alderman, 
 a coloured etching, inscribed, " Turtle Doves and Turtle Soup ! or, 
 
 * I am aw.ire that it is considered the richt thing at the present day to lavish every 
 epithet of abuse npon the unfortunate Regent. Thackeray set the fashion and the 
 imitatorum servum :jeais follow the bell-wether. Thus Mr. Ilaniilton tells us tlrit " his life 
 was as false, cruel, and useless, as his death was shameful, lingering and agonising." Now 
 I am not the defender of the character of tlie Prince, so will not question the tmth of the 
 statement as far as it regards his li/c ; but 1 am curious to know the authority for that 
 waich concerns his death. The primary cause of this, as certified by the surgeons who 
 conducted the post-mortem examination — Me ;3rs, Il.ilford, Tierucy, Astley Cooper and 
 Bru die -was an ossification of the valves of the aarla, of many years standing. This led, as 
 usual, to dropsy, and the other symptoms manifested ; but the more immediate catisc was 
 the rupture of a blood vessel in the stomach The death was "lingering" and 
 •' agonizing,'' I know ; but I c^uitc fail to see that it was '* shameful."
 
 '2^%J^UM^'{
 
 The Arlist, the Ihiniorist, and tlic Man. 15 
 
 a Tiy-0 betwcon Geordie, a Northern Lai?s;e, and Sir Willey ! !" 
 "'We Torj' folk," says Magiini, " wero terribly angry at the time, 
 but we soon confessed that the caricaturist was a clever fellow." 
 This comes well from the " Doctor," who was writing at the same 
 time leaders for the AcjC, the ultra Tory paper, and for the True Sun, 
 a print as outrageously radical ! But the fact is George was no 
 politician, and would make a design with rigid impartiality for any 
 one that paid him. Thus, in 1819 — at the very time that he was 
 employed by Hone, an ultra iiadical, or just before it — he produced 
 a remarkable etched design (14-in. by 10-in.) "Death or Liberty ! 
 or Britannia and the Virtues of the Constitution in danger of 
 Violation from the great Political Libertine, Eadical Eeform ! " 
 where we see Britannia seized by a Eepublican demon, followed by 
 a train of attendant imps wearing the Phrygian caps of Liberty. He 
 etched the capital coloured front for The Radical Ladder, or Hone's 
 Political Ladder and his Non Mi Ricordo explained and applied; 
 and that for the Loyal Investigation and Radical Non AH 
 Ricordo — both published in 1820 at the expense of the Loyal 
 Association. He also produced the spirited full-page etchiug, 
 " The Mother Eed-Cap Public House in opposition to the King's 
 Head," to serve as front to a loyal pamphlet: Tlie Royal Wanderer 
 Beguiled abroad and Reclaimed at Home ; or a Sketch of St. 
 Caroline's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, tj-f. (W. Wright, 1820, 
 8vo) ; and in the following year he was illustrating The Loyalist ; 
 or Anti-Radical, published in weekly parts, also at the expense of 
 the Loyal Association. 
 
 But though thus freely airing his loyalty, his instincts certainly 
 rather led him to the other side. He was essentially a man of the 
 people, and so naturally took the poimlar view. He saw that the 
 poor were oppressed and eaten up by taxes ; and he had a strong 
 idea that an innocent woman was insulted and outraged. Hence the 
 manliness and chivalry of his nature were called forth. Besides 
 this ho was actuated hj a warm friendship for Hone, who was 
 anything but the despicable character it is the fashion to represent 
 him. Every form of abuse has been lavished upon this poor 
 wight. The Quarterly Review stigmatized him as " a wretch as 
 contemptible as he is wicked," and informed its readers that he was 
 ■a poor illiterate creature." Then we are told that the text of the
 
 16 George Cruikshank. 
 
 pamplilets is utter trash, that the caricatmist made his fortune, 
 (poor Hone, Ms " fortune ! "), that he paid him little for his help 
 or that he paid him nothing at all. All this is false. The friend 
 of Charles Lamb and iJarry Cornwall can hardly have been a 
 ■worthless or ignorant man ; the squibs are smart and telling, — and 
 one, Thu Political Showman at Home, is, though a mere cento, put 
 together with rare skill, and is one of the most curious pamphlets 
 I happen to know. Then, as to payment, it is possible that Hone's 
 profits and Cruikshank's remuneration have been alike mistated. 
 Any way. Hone was and remained a poor man, and died in utter 
 poverty ; and the artist, as I can testify from my own conversations 
 with him, though certainly speaking of the exiguity of his receipts, 
 made no complaint. It was manifestly the interest of Hone to keep 
 him content, and he doubtless paid the artist more than others had 
 done. As a bitter contemporary satirist says : — 
 
 " I grant exceptions sometimes may occur ; 
 
 For instance, such dull boggling slang as you sell, 
 However coarse, attention would not stir, 
 
 Nor barrow-women of their pence bamboozle, 
 Without a wood-cut to explain the sense, 
 And help along its lame incompetence. 
 
 Therefore the wisest job that ever yon did, 
 
 (Next to your well-known trial and subscription) 
 
 Was your flash bargain with a wag concluded, 
 To aid your thread-liare talent for description. 
 
 For who, in fits at Cniiky's droll designs, 
 
 Can stay to criticize lop-sided rhymes ; 
 
 Make much of that droll dog and feed him fat ; 
 
 Your gains would fall off sadly in amount, 
 Should he once think your letter-press too flat. 
 
 And take to writing on his own account. 
 Your libels then would sell about as quick. Sir, 
 As bare quack labels woidd without th' elixir. 
 
 Were Cniikshank wise, he might with trouble small, 
 Write his own labels, and eclipse you ail.
 
 Tlie Artist, the Ihimorist, and the Man. 17 
 
 And thus sliort-sigliti'il to liis own full merit, 
 lie much reminds nic of tlie fabled blind ; 
 
 So pay his pencil, Master H — e, with spirit. 
 Humour and keep him still in the same mind. 
 
 And drive not the hard bargain, whicli, as I know, 
 
 You schemers ilo with wags wlio get your rliino " 
 
 Slop's Shave at a hrolccn Uoiii, IS'IO, j'dQi: 11. 
 However the pecuniary account stood between author and artist, 
 their mutual esteem continued to subsist after a lull in political 
 excitement had brought the "pamphlets" to a close.-' In 1S22, the 
 latter made a capital design, — a double execution by axe and by 
 halter, full of gloomy horror, — for Cecil's Sixty Curious and 
 Authentic Narratives, published by Hone. In the same year we 
 have a very curious pamphlet. The Miraculous Host tortured by the 
 Jell), under the Reign of Philip the Fair, 1290, being one of the 
 Legends which converted, the Daiighters and Niece of Douglas 
 Loveday, Esq., under the reign of Louis XVIIL, in 1812. From 
 tlie original French worl; aidhorlsed by the College of Theology at 
 Paris, in the Pahlislier's 2iossessiun,^ (William Hone, 1822, 8vo., 
 pp. 32). Here we have nine cuts drawn Ijy G. C, from the same 
 number of designs in the original volume, to illustrate one of those 
 absurd and lying fables, which told for centuries in a hundred 
 different ways, are a disgrace alike to human nature and religion 
 In 1823 he produced some excellent antic[uarian designs for Hone's 
 curious work. Ancient Mysteries described, especially the English 
 Miracle Plays founded on Apocryphal Neia Testament Story. Here 
 we have a capital coloured plate, — " drawn and etched from the 
 Statues" — of Coriuoeus and Gog-Magog, the Giants in Guildhall, 
 respecting which the autlior says : — 
 
 "In order to perpetuate their appearance, they are drawn and etched by 
 Mr. George Cruikshank, whose extraordinary talents have been happily 
 exercised on my more original fancies. As this may be the last time I shall 
 ever write Mr. Cruikshauk's name for the press, I cannot but express my 
 astonishment that a pencil which commands the adraii-ation of every person 
 
 * It is mufh to be regretted that the Complete Ifiatory of Parodv announced by Hone in 
 1S20, as in prepiiration, w;is aeyor given to tlie wodd. It was to have "extensive graphic 
 illustrations ; " and these, it may weU be ijnagiiied, would have alTorded as hapjty an 
 exercise for the artist's pencil, as the " History " itself for the farther display of the leam- 
 in.'^, courage and sagacity which the Parodist had manifested on the memorable occasion of 
 his ' ' Three Trials " before Mr. Justice Abbott and Lord Ellenborougb in 1817. 
 
 t The tit e of the original work is U llistoiix de VUostic Miracicleiu-e arriv.:*: au Coxivent dis 
 U:liQUUX Carmes du Saint Sacremeiit dss BUlctcs, par Fi'. Leon, Paris, UU;i, IJiuo., pp. 274.
 
 18 George Cruikshank. 
 
 qualified to appreciate art, sliould be disregardcr] by tbat class, wtose omission 
 to secure it in tlieir service is a remarkable instance of disregard to tbeir owu 
 interests as tlie midmves of literature." — Page 276. 
 
 Later on, in 1826, when Hone sought, by the publication of his 
 ■well-known Everii Day Boole, to popularise his vast stores of 
 curious and antiquarian information, Cruikshank furnished him 
 with eleven designs. They are, however, somewhat careless in 
 drawing and coarse in execution, contrasting HI with the sjinholical 
 representations of the months in the following TaUe Booli, drawn 
 and engraved by that admirable artist, the late San.uel Williams. 
 A year later, in. 1827, Hone collected together a few complete sets 
 of his pamphlets, and issued them under the general title of 
 FaceticB and Miscellanies. By William Hone. With one hundred 
 and twenty Engravings drawn by George Cruiltshank, — a vohune 
 now of considerable rarity, and which I regard as perhaps 
 the most interesting and permanently valuable in the whole cycle 
 of Cruikshanlciana. A vignette on the title-page gives us capital 
 portraits of author and artist* confabulating over a table, with the 
 epigraph from Biu-ns, " We twa hae paidl't": — ^just as, long years 
 after, a plate in Ainsworth's Magazine, styled "Our Library Table," 
 shows Cruikshank and the editor in literary consultation, and another 
 in the Sketches by Boz, exhibits the artist and Dickens as managers 
 of a Charity dinner ; all this manifesting a fondness for giving the 
 world his own portrait, — he said it was done at the request of pub- 
 lishers — which characterised him throughout. 
 
 Besides this, we have another pleasing record of the friendship 
 which existed between Hone and Crviikshauk, in a note to one of 
 the controversial tracts appended to the volume. Here the author 
 takes occasion to speak with honest jsride of what he has done for 
 popular art, and pays a grateful tribute to the merits of his 
 friend :— 
 
 "The pieces I brought out with which the public are best acquainted, were 
 the products of my owu pea. Be their merits or demerits whr.t they may, 
 one real serrice has resulted from them. By showing what engraving on 
 wood could elfect in a popular way, and exciting a taste for art in the more 
 liumble ranks of life, they created a new era in the history of publication. 
 They are the parents of the present cheap literature, which extends to a sale 
 
 'I have before mo a portrait of William Houe, enjravod in tlie stipple maimer by llogers, 
 from a drawing by George Cruikuliauk,
 
 The Ariist, the Hunioi'ist, and the Man. 19 
 
 of at least four htindrerl tliousaud copies every weelc, and gives large and 
 constant employment to talent in that particular liranch of engraving, which 
 I selected as the best adapted to enforce and give circulation to my own 
 thoughts. 
 
 "Besides this, I have the high satisfaction of knowing that my little pieces 
 acquainted every rank of society, in the most remote corner of the British 
 dominions, with the powers of Mit. George Cruikshank, whose genius had 
 been wasted on mere caricature, till it embodied my ideas and feelings. When 
 his brother artists, and everyone who had the least judgment, praised the 
 multiform fertility of the freest pencil that ever drew a line on a block, it 
 began to be appreciated by publishers. His recent designs in that way, 
 though some have been cruelly cut up by unskilful or careless wood engravers 
 and his own excellent etchings, with the currency they give to the worlcs they 
 appear in, incontestibly prove that his abilities have forced themselves into 
 demand. His conception of original fancy seems intuitive, and yet his 
 elaboration of a fac-simile would glisten the peering eye of a bibliomaniac. 
 I barely do justice to his talents by this remark ; and I have more satisfactory 
 evidence of its truth than a certificate ' with five justices' hands to it, and 
 witnesses more than a page could hold.' Robert Burns had not more kindly 
 feelings when he wi-ote Axdd Lang Syne^ than I have towards my friend 
 George Cruikshank. 'We twa ha' paddled'; and though as regards me, his 
 occupation's gone, our mutual esteem is undiminished. Those who require his 
 assistance may consider this a note of introduction to him, at his house, No. 
 25, Middleton Terrace, Pentonville. " — Aspersions Ansuercd, page 49. 
 
 Some dozen years ago, I read tliis paissage, whicli I do not think 
 has been cited before, and is certainly too curious to be forgotten, 
 to the artist ; but it seemed quite strange to him, and it was 
 evident that no one had ever used it as "a note of introduction." 
 That the regard, so gracefully expressed, was reciprocal, no further 
 evidence is requii-ed to show than George's courageous vindication 
 of his early associate, when accused, a score of years later, of having 
 been on " terms of warm friendship with the most noted infidel of 
 the day " :— 
 
 " What Mr. Hone's religious creed may have been at that time, I am far 
 from being able to decide ; I was too young to know more than that he seemed 
 deeply read in theological questions, and although unsettled in his opinions, 
 always professed to be a Christian. I knew also that his conduct was 
 regulated by the strictest morality. He had been brought up to detest the 
 Church of Rome, and to look upon the Church of England service as little 
 better than Popish ceremonies ; and with this feeling he parn died some 
 portions of the Church service for purposes of political satire. But with their 
 publication I had nothing whatever to do ; and the instant I heard of their 
 appearance, I entreated him to withdraw them. That I was his friend, it is 
 true ; and it is true also that among his friends were many persons, not more 
 admired for their literary genius, than esteemed for their zeal in behalf of 
 religion and morals." The Omnihus, page 3.
 
 20 GeoTge Cruikshank. 
 
 1 have seen the liieroglypliic cuts tliat adorn Poor Hv.wy.'.ireifs 
 Calendar, — an Almanack for the year 1829, written hy Hone and 
 published by his daughter, Matilda, -who had commenced business 
 as a print-seller in Eussell Court — attributed to Cruikshank, but I 
 am quite sure they are not from his hand. 
 
 Poor Hone, who had failed successively as bookseller, jDublisher, 
 and author, made a last adventure as eating-house keeper in Grace- 
 church Street. This failed too, and his troubled career closed in 
 utter poverty, on Nov. 6, 1843. Cruikshank attended the funeral 
 iu company \^-ith Charles Dickens ; and here the warm-hearted 
 artist was once more fain to take up the cudgels in defence of his 
 friend. The service was conducted by an Independent minister, 
 who thought fit to give utterance to some disparaging remarks 
 upon the religious character of the defunct. At this Cruikshank 
 was so greatly incensed that he whispered to his companion, in a 
 voice broken by sobs, — teste Forster, — that, " if it wasn't a clergy- 
 man, — and if it wasn't a funeral, — he'd punch his head !" 
 
 One plate included among Hone's FaceticB must have something 
 more than a passing notice, inasmuch as its production was con- 
 sidered by the artist " the great event of his artistic life," and upon 
 it, as a successful effort in the cause of humanity, he ever 
 looked back witli the liveliest satisfaction. The story has often 
 been told, and by himself too. How, passing Newgate on his way 
 to the Eoyal Exchange, in 1818, he saw dangling from the gallows 
 a row of unfortunates, among whom were two women, con^dcted of 
 passing one-pound forged notes ; how, with the terrible sight in his 
 memory, on liis return home, he drew and etched his " Bank 
 Eestriction Note — Xot to be Imitated," signed by Jack Ketch, and 
 symbolically adorned with fetter, halter, and gibbet ; how Hone 
 dropping in, saw the design, — " What's tliis," says he, — " George, 
 you must let me have this ; " how the next tiling the careless artist 
 licard of his work was that the Lord Mayor had had to send the 
 constabulary to clear away the crowd from Hone's window in 
 Ludgatc Hill ; how the " Notes " could not be printed fast enough 
 to satisfy the demand at a shilling each, and how George had to sit 
 up all night to etch another plate ; and finally how Hone cleared 
 £.1QQ by the sale, and the artist, — " the satisfaction of knowing

 
 BANK RESTRICTION BAROMETER; 
 
 on, SCALE OF EFFECTS ON SOCIETY OF THE 
 
 |3<tn!t ^otc §i!stcm, iUxb JJnjjmcnto in (Soli). 
 BY ABRAHAM FRANKLIN. 
 
 a 
 
 si. 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 f'"^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 To he rcculfrom the ivords "BANK RESTRICTION,' 
 ill the middle, ujncards or downwards. 
 
 NATIONAL PROSPERITY PROMOTED. 
 
 10. The Number of useless Pablic Executions dimi- 
 nished. 
 
 9. The Amelioration of the Criminal Code facilitated. 
 
 5. The Forgery of Bank Notes at an end. 
 
 7. Manufacturers and Journeymen obtain Necessaries 
 and Comforts for their Wages. 
 
 6. The Means of Persons with small Incomes enlarged. 
 
 5. A Fall of Rents and Prices. 
 
 4. The Circulating Medium diminished. 
 
 3. Fictitious Capital and False Credit destroyed. 
 
 2. Exchanges equalized, and the Gold Coin preserved, 
 if allowed to be freely exported. 
 
 1 . The Gold Cvirrency restored. 
 
 Co7iscquences, if taken off, will be as above : — viz. 
 THE BANK RESTRICTION. 
 
 "=>• Consequences of its Operation are asfolloios : — viz. 
 
 1 . Disappearance of the legal Gold Coin. 
 
 2. The Issues of Bank of England Notes and Country 
 Bank Notes extended. 
 
 3. Paper Accommodation, creating False Credit, Ficti- 
 tious Capital, Mischievous Speculation. 
 
 4. The Circulating Medium enormously enlarged. 
 
 5. Rents and Prices of Articles of the first Necessity, 
 doubled and trebled. 
 
 6. The Income and Wages of small Annuitants, and 
 Artisans and Labourers, insufiieieut to purchase 
 Necessaries for their Support. 
 
 7. Industry reduced to Indigence, broken-spirited, 
 and in the Workhouse : or, endeavouring to pre- 
 serve iu'lependence, lingering in despair, com- 
 mitting suicide, or dying broken-hearted. 
 
 8. The Temptation to forge Bank of England Notes 
 increased and facilitated. 
 
 9. New and sanguinary Laws against Forgery in- 
 effectually enacted. 
 
 10. Frequent and useless inflictions of the barbarous 
 Punishment of Death. 
 
 GENERAL DISTRESS INCREASED.
 
 22 George Cr-i'.ikshank. 
 
 that no man or woman was ever hanged after tliis for passing one 
 pound forged Bank of England notes." The Directors of the Bank 
 of England, George tells us, were "exceedingly wroth." 
 
 Among the political pamphlets of the day, is one entitled, "Who 
 Killed Cock Robin? a Satirical Tragedy, or Hierorihjpidc Projjhecy 
 on tlie Manchester Blot! I ! (London, 1819). This is illustrated by 
 the veteran caricaturist, Thomas Eowlandson, by etchings on copper, 
 of which that on page 4, representing the yeomanry heroes of 
 Peterloo cutting down the "Manchester Eobins," is a spirited and 
 admirable, if mannered, production of his needle. Now Eowland- 
 son was a strapping lad of eight at the death of Hogarth ; he was 
 an associate of Gdlray ; and here we have him working side by 
 side, as it were, with an artist who but the other day was living 
 and sketching in our midst! Vidi tantum; there may not be much 
 in the boast, but it certainly awakens curious feelings in the mind, 
 to reflect that one has conversed with an artist who was once on 
 friendly terms with a "brother of the brush," who might possibly 
 have seen in the flesh the great father of pictorial satire ! 
 
 Here may be said to close the artist's brief career as a political 
 caricaturist. He had too little gall in his cotaposition to devote 
 himself permanently to a branch of art which has the fatal defect 
 of never seeking beauty, and always exaggerating defect. He had 
 now gained fame ; and was known alike to public and publishers. 
 More congenial employment came in to divert his talents into a 
 different channel ; nor am I aware that even the poUtical excite- 
 ment of the year preceding and following the passing of the 
 Eeform Bill of 1832, produced anything of note from his hand. 
 
 V. 
 
 Sketches from Social Life. — The earliest plate of any impor- 
 tance to which this description applies, which occurs to me, is the 
 capital folding frontispiece to Metropolitan Grievances, (1812), a 
 humorous exposition of London street nuisances. This etching is 
 full of broad humour, much in the manner of Eowlandson ; and so 
 is another, published in the f;ame year by G. lluuijjhrey, entitled, 
 The Cholic. In 1817, ]\Ir. Eoberts published Tlie State Lottery, a 
 Dream, accompanied by the Thoughts on JPlicds of James Mont-
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Ulan. 23 
 
 gomevy. "Its frontispiece," says the latter, in allusion to Guorgc's very 
 curious contribution to the work, "represontmg A Pcllii ShiJi; Lnltpru 
 within the walls of Christ's Hospital, in which not the drawers 
 only, 'but all the adventurers, were children of that venerable 
 establishment, was not without its effect in abating one of the most 
 plausible but pernicious exhibitions at Guildhall and elsewhere, in 
 the annual pantomime of Tlie Grand Slate Lottery." 
 
 A plate which had appeared in 1813, "A Sparrmg Match at 
 the Fives Coiu-t," etched by George from a design by his brother, 
 Isaac Robert, and illustrating No. 13 of the original issue of 
 Boxiana, published by Smeeton, is worthy of note as the conjoint 
 work of the brothers, and indicating the early connection between 
 them and " Fancy's child," the once celebrated Pierce Egan. It 
 was not, however, tiU 1821, that this gentleman, alluded to, Iknow 
 not with what justice, by Grantley Berkeley in his Reminiscmces, 
 as "rather a low-caste Irishman," and who ended his long career 
 some thu'ty years ago, almost an octogenarian*, gave to an admiring 
 world his famous Life in London ; or, the Day and Night Scenes 
 of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, 
 accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and 
 Sprees through the Metropolis. This work was embelHshed with 
 thirty-six "scenes from life," designed and etched by I. E. and G. 
 Cruikshank, and many very clever designs on wood by the same 
 artists. The story is, as he has often related it to myself and others, 
 that George, who was even then a moralist, either had miscon- 
 ceived the object of the author, or saw that his designs were used 
 for a purpose he had not contemplated ; and finding that the book, 
 which created a perfect furore, was a guide to, rather than a dis- 
 suasive from, the vicious haunts and amusements of the metropolis, 
 retired from the firm, in which, from relative age, he figm-ed as 
 junior partner. Certain it is that the greater part of the work was 
 done by the elder brother,— the plates thi-oughout, some of wliich 
 were of great excellence, showing uumistakeable traces of his 
 
 •Pierce Egan died August 3, 1849, aged 77 years. The only account of this once famous 
 personage known to me wUl be found in the matter prefatory to the late J. C. Hotten's 
 reiinut Hi' The titihh. Odohi-rty, iu the. "If ocXus" (Blackwood's Matjnzim, Marcu, lb:;!')* 
 says, " Egan is a prime swell." His sou, " Pierce Egan, junior," well laiown as an artistj 
 and author, is still Uving at Eavenshourne, Kent. Among his works may he mentioned) 
 The Pilgrims of the TImmes in search of the National, hoth written and illustrated hy himself.
 
 24 George Crtiikskank. 
 
 st3'le. TVhat, for instance, can be butter in tlieir way than the 
 bustle and animation of the "Pinks in Eotten Eow," — the 
 Hogarthian humour of the monkey and dog iight in the "West- 
 minster Pit, — or the suave contours of the couple Tvho sport the 
 light fantastic toe at Corinthian Kate's ? The text I will not pre- 
 tend to criticise ; merit of some kind must be conceded to it, if 
 only that of exactly hitting the taste of the day ; and tlie book 
 attained a poiDularity only equalled, on grounds to us more obvious, 
 by the works of Dickens at a later date. It was dramatized by 
 Jerrold, BarrjTnore, and the Dibdins ; by the author himself 
 for Covent Garden ; and by Moncrieff for the Adelphi, under the 
 management of Yates, where it had a run of 300 nights It was 
 pirated and imitated in various forms ; balladized ; translated into 
 French ; turned into " a "Whimsical and Equestrian Drama " for 
 Davies's Eoyal Amphitheatre, and a " iliV?Z-Dramatic Eurletta " 
 for the Surrey. The " Eambles and Sprees " of Tom and Jerry 
 were depicted on tea-boards, — " the laughable phiz of the Eccentric 
 Bob Logic " grinned on snuff-box lids, — while the actors of the 
 parts,^Mr. EusseU and Pierce Egan as " Bob Logic," Oxberry and 
 Eeeves as " Jerry," and "Wrench as " Corinthian Tom," (the 
 prototype of whom was said to be the Marquis of "Worcester, 
 afterwards Duke of Beaufort) — were handed down to posterity by 
 engravings. 
 
 Ten years later, Pierce Egan published the " Finish " to liis 
 immortal work, a volume of the same size as its predecessor, and 
 illustrated by an equal number of coloured plates, this time all by 
 the elder brother, Isaac Eobert. In this latter volume the story is 
 rounded off with fit poetic justice, according to the author's view. 
 Corinthian Kate makes a melancholy end ; the surnameless Tom 
 breaks his neck, f ox-hxmting ; Bob Logic gets his quietus from Dr. 
 Finish'em ; and the book ends with " all happiness at Hawthorn 
 Hall, and the Iv"nptials of Jerry and Mary Eosebud." It is a little 
 curious perhaps tliat, as pointed out by Mr. Hotten in his reprint, 
 there is some similarity between the scenes and characters in this 
 book and those of the immortal Pickia'cic Papers. In the former 
 ■we have the Bench, in the latter the Fleet; in the one the Archenj 
 Meeting, in the other the Shouting Party ; the " fat Knight " may
 
 The Artist^ the Humorist, and the Man. 25 
 
 be held to adumbrate the hero of Dickens ; and it is certaialy a 
 singular coincidence that it was at a jjlace bearing the suggestive 
 title of "Pickwick" that Corinthian Tom first met Sir John 
 Blubber. Eoth the Life and the Finish are, in the original issues, 
 sufficiently rare ; and though a more squeamish generation relegates 
 them to an upper shelf, they are well worthy of preservation and 
 remembrance as a picture of manners, and a record of the taste and 
 manners of their day. 
 
 One of the numerous imitations must have a special record. This 
 is David Carey's Life in Paris, comprisinij the Ramhles, Sjprees mid 
 Amours of Dick Wildfire of Corinthian celebrity, and his Bang-up 
 companions, Squire Jenlcins and Captain O'Shuffleton, with the 
 whimsical Adventures of the Halibut Family, Sfc. (London, 
 Fairburn, 1822.) This volume contains twenty-one coloured plates, 
 all by George Cruikshank, "representing scenes from real life." 
 Hogarth had visited Paris which he admirably characterised, 
 though in words that wUl not now bear reproduction ; but I am 
 not aware that Cruikshank ever saw the French capital, so that he 
 must have evolved the " real life," in part at least, from his inner 
 consciousness. However this may be, the plates are characteristic, 
 cleverly drawn, and well coloured. A yer.r or two before, he had 
 drawn the folding front for his friend Hone's curious Picture of the 
 Palais Royal, a sort of guide to " that liigh 'Change of the fashion- 
 able dissipation and vice of Paris," and perhaps characterized too 
 severely by a contemporary critic as " a book with the particulars 
 of which he would not sully his pen." Also in 1819, we have the 
 Humourist, a Collection of Entertaining Tales, ^c, in four volumes, 
 now almost unfindable, and prized alike for the mellow humour 
 of the coloured plates, and the racy wit of the well-selected stories. 
 
 In 1824, George illustrated for Pobins the Tales of L-ish Life. 
 From this, Thackeray reproduced two of the plates, — an " Irish 
 Wake," and an " Irish Jig," — and expressing some doubt as to 
 whether " Mr. Cruikshank had had any such good luck as to see 
 the Irish in Ireland itself," asserts that " he certainly had obtained 
 a knowledge of their looks, as if the country had all his life been 
 familiar to him ; " and referring to the former of the two plates, that 
 " there is not a broken nose in the room that is not thoroughly Irish."
 
 26 Geoi'S'e Cruikshank, 
 
 i 
 
 In the nest year, he partly illustrated for Fairburn Tlie Universal 
 Songster or Museum of Mirth, probably the most extensive collection 
 of songs in the language ; and in 1825-7, the two series of Mornings 
 in Boiv Street. These volumes consist of a selection of the more 
 humourous of the Bow Street Police Eeports, which had been during 
 the past three years contributed to the Morning Herald by Mr. J. 
 "Wight, reporter to that journal ; just as a subsequent reporter to the 
 same paper, the late George Hodder, in 1845, made up an amusing 
 volume (Sketches of Life and Character taken at Bow Street Policp- 
 Court,) in a similar manner, with the illustrations of Leech, Kenny 
 Meadows, Hamerton, Henning, and others. To these volumes 
 Cruikshank contributed forty-six designs, all cut on wood by 
 Thompson, Branston, Hughes and White, excepting the frontispiece 
 to each volume, which was etched on copjaer by the artist. For the 
 larger designs, the artist received five guineas each ; for the smaller, 
 two guineas ; and, inore sua, he has given his own portrait on the 
 title-page vignette of Vol. I. The cuts are in George's best style, 
 the stories well selected and well-told. I hardly, indeed, know a 
 better " cordial for low spiiits " than these humourous volumes ; or 
 believe, that with them before him, Heraclitus himself could long 
 remain 'oyeXaaTO'i. There is a re-issue in 1875, with a preliminary 
 essay by INIr. G. A. Sala. 
 
 In 1826, appeared Greemvich Hospital: a Series of Naval Sketches 
 illustrative of the lAfe of a Man of War's Man. By an Old Sailor. 
 (Captain Barker.) with a dozen capital etchings. Cruikshank, who 
 dearly loved to poke fun at the soldiery, had a sort of famUy love 
 for sailors and nautical life. His mother, as I have said before, 
 was a .sailor's daughter, and his brother Eobort had passed a year 
 or two at sea. George's earliest attempts at art were drawings of 
 ships ; and in the book I have mentioned, in Tough Yarns by the 
 same author, in the Sailor's Progress, in the Sea-hallads of the 
 Dibdins, in Captain Glascock's Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, in 
 Captain Chamier's Ben Brace, in Mary Cowden Clarke's Kit 
 Barn's Adventures, or the Yarns of an Old Mariner, and The Old 
 Sailor's Jolly-Boat, ho has depicted life at sea with amazing force 
 and loving accuracy ; here, as in his transcripts from land-Ufe, 
 storeing up records of men, things, costume and manners, which
 
 The Artnt, the HumoTist, a:-d the A/an. 27 
 
 ■will remain and increase in historic value, as their prototypes 
 disappear from the scene, and become things of the past. Thackeray- 
 points to " the noble head of Nelson " in the Family Lihnmj, 
 as a proof that the designer must have felt and loved what he 
 drew ; and here I am reminded of the statement that a head of the 
 hero, at the head of a broadside with his life, "acknowlod'-ed to 
 be the most faithful of all the resemblances that have issued from 
 the press," was "a compilation from busts, pictures and casual 
 observation, (for he never sat to its author) by Cruikshank, the 
 father of George of that name, the first of living caricaturists."* 
 
 A handsome folio volume has been much hawked about at 
 various epochs, entitled Cruikshmldana, being a Collection of the 
 most cdebrated Works of George Cruikshank. This consists of 
 upwards of eighty large etchings, of which the greater part are by 
 George, and the remainder by his brother Eobert, and by Eichard 
 Dighton. Here we have a series of social and political caricatures, 
 much in the manner of Gillray, but inferior to him, including a set 
 of eight curious plates entitled " Monstrosities," which exhiliit the 
 fashions between 1816 and 1827. These shew us the human form 
 more hideously distorted than the wildest imaginings of old Eulwer, 
 — (the physician, not the peer) — in his Antkropometcmorphosis ; 
 presenting the male and female dandies of the day in all the glory 
 of swallow-tails and coal-scuttles, Brummellian cravats, Cossack 
 trousers, Hessian boots, sandalled shoes, flower-pot hats, gigot 
 sleeves, and Oldenburg bonnets. All this gives the book, even in 
 its degradation, a permanent interest ; but to the collector it is 
 well-nigh valueless, the plates having been worn-out and re-cut, and 
 the original dates altered to 1835, the period of their reissue, by 
 the then proprietor, Thomas McLean, of the Haymarket. 
 
 The year 1826 is memorable as marking the artist's "first appear- 
 ance in the character of an author." This, according to Hone, who, 
 in the Every Day Book, (vol II., page 1121), gives a genial review 
 of his friend's admirable series of etchings, The Illustraticms of 
 Phrenology. In the following year he gave us the companion 
 series, Illustrations of Time. In each of these we get between 
 thirty and forty designs upon six plates, besides the engraved titles, 
 
 • imnerset House Uazelte, by W. H. PyMe, vol. ii. p. iOi. "~
 
 28 George Cruikskank, 
 
 and one and the other are now of such rarity and value, that a set 
 of the former, published originally at some three half-crowns, 
 fetched fire guineas the other day at a sale at Sotheby's. In thes3 
 plates the humour of the artist seems to have reached its culmina- 
 ting point ; the etching is broad, simple, and effective ; and the 
 drawing admirable. Several of tlie designs were piratically appro- 
 priated by the editor of Bell's Life in London, (for which paper, by 
 the way, Cruikshank never made a single drawing), and rudely 
 copied in wood, helped to give currency h', the once famous Gallei-y 
 of Comicalities. The artist remonstrated, but got no redress.'* 
 
 In 1828, JNIr. Charles "^\^iison, who has givei; us the best dis- 
 criminative Catalogue of Rembrandt's etchings, printed, for private 
 circulation among his friends, a list of the engravings in his collec- 
 tion. For this, Cruikshank produced five admirable etchings. 
 They are in his hai^piest manner, and represent, with the nicest 
 apprehension and sympathy, various phases of the life of a 
 collector. Fu'st we have the "Eattle of Engravers ;" then "Con- 
 noisseurs at a Print Shop," "Connoisseurs at a Print Stall," 
 •■'Connoisseurs at a Print Sale;" and lastly, a representation of the 
 " Old Print Eoom at the British Museum." 
 
 We have seen that this period may be held to indicate the com- 
 mencement of the artist's career as an independent worker; and 
 tracing his progress a few years fartlier on, — say to 1835, when the 
 Comic Almanack made its first appearance, we find him in tlie full 
 swing and maturity of his powers, producing in the following 
 decade some of his most important art-work, whether we have 
 regart to its quantity or quality. To the Almanack of 1839, 
 Thackeray contributed his capital story, Stuhbs's Calendar; or, the 
 Fatal Boots, admirably illustrated by the etchings of Cruikshank, 
 month by month through the year. The Almanack continued to 
 make its annual appearance in its original and best form, a reper- 
 tory of fun and humour, and containing some of the artist's hcsl 
 
 •The Phrenological Illustrations were "republished for tbc artist" by F. Arnold, in 1S43 
 the lUustralions of Tiitw in the following year. The artist in his humorous little preface, 
 states that he found the plates of these etchings—" first published nearly tlfty years back 
 —as well as those of ity Sketch Book, Mr. jMmbkin, Scraps and Sketches, &c. which ho also 
 reissued at the same perioil, "in excellent condition." He adds with regard to the Phren- 
 ological Ilhistratiotis, that, notwithstanding the attacks which had been made upon the 
 science, "the organs represented would still hold their place," and that his own " organ of 
 covetivjness' had had some inflncnce in the republication.
 
 The Arttsl, the Htimorist, and the Man. 29 
 
 work, till 1818, when it was issued in diminished size and at 
 cheaper rate, under the editorshij) of Horace Mayhew. In 1850 
 another change took place; the price was raised to the origiua' 
 half-crown, the paper cover was replaced by ugly cloth, a coloured 
 folding frontispiece was added, the number of etchings reduced, 
 and the name of Henry Mayhew appeared upon the title-page. The 
 issue of 1853 was edited by Eobert B. Brough ; and this closed 
 the series. Every change of form, as I have noticed to be invari- 
 ably the case in serials, was for the worse ; and the public had 
 evidently grown tired of the once popular favourite. 
 
 The year 183G is memorable as marking an era in light literature 
 by the appearance of the Sketches ly Box; and here begins the 
 association between the greatest humouristic writer and artist the 
 century has produced, which subsisting in the Life of Grimaldi, 
 the Pic-Nlc Papers, and Oliver Twist, we may regret was not more 
 ^jermanent and continuous. The first number of Bentlerj's Mis- 
 cellamj appeared in Jan., 1837, with Cruikshank's well-known 
 design upon the wrapper. Magiiin indited the " Song of the 
 Cover," which heralded the achievements of pen and jjencil, not 
 those of the gun : — 
 
 "Bentk-y, Boz, and Cruikshank staii<I, 
 Like expectant reelers ; 
 ' Music ! ' ' Play up ! ' pipe in liaml, 
 
 Beside the flitted pillars ! 
 Boz and C'riiikshauk want to dnuce, — 
 
 None for liolic riper ; 
 But Bentley makes the first adyance, 
 Because he pays the piper." 
 
 Tlic Bentley Ballads, p. DG. 
 
 George illustrated in all fourteen volumes of this serial, 
 
 contributing no less than one hundred and twenty -nine 
 
 plates. These were to illustrate successively Oliver Twist, Jack 
 
 Sheppard, Guy Fmol-es, The Ingoldsby Legends, Nights at Sea, 
 
 Stanley Thom, and various miscellaneous articles. Oliver Twiat 
 
 made his fii-st appearance in the second number of the 
 
 Miscellany, February, 1837. In these celebrated designs, which 
 
 are too well known to need individuahzation, the artist may 
 
 be said to have shown an inventive capacity equal to that of 
 
 the writer. He has here manifested his supreme competence to
 
 30 George Cruikshank. 
 
 depict the low, squalid, criminal, and tragic aspects of that life 
 
 he knew so well, — his instinctive seizure upon the most dramatic 
 
 incidents, — and his povrer of suggesting a complete story by a few 
 
 L'olated and striking scents. Here, it may be observed, it is 
 
 Dickens who is the caricaturist, not Cruikshank. It is only in 
 
 accordance with the Horatian precept* that whatever obtains access 
 
 to the mind through the eyes produces a more vivid impression 
 
 than that which reaches it through the ears ; and thus we are apt 
 
 to be struck by exaggeration in design when we ignore a far larger 
 
 amount of the same characteristic in literature. Cruikshank's 
 
 iUxistratious, I contend, are literal transcripts of actual hfe; while 
 
 the writings of Dickens, with all their pleasure-giving, improving, 
 
 humanizing qualities, are full of the grossest exaggeration and 
 
 caricature. 
 
 Of the admirable designs to illustrate Oliver Twist none is better 
 
 known or more admired than that which represents " Fagin in the 
 
 Condemned CeU." The wish may possibly be felt that the author 
 
 had transferred to his narrative some of the " terrible distinctness " 
 
 ■ivith which the " points " against the unhappy old man were 
 
 urged in court, so that the crime for which he was to suffer might 
 
 be more clearly seen ; but with regard to the artist, it is generally 
 
 admitted that he has managed to inform this little work, of a few 
 
 square inches of size only, with such an amount of character, sugges- 
 
 tivenp^s, and expression as to constitute it one of his master-pieces, 
 
 " The dreadful Jew 
 
 That Cruikshank drew, — 
 
 gnawing his finger-ends like a caged rat, m the impotence of 
 despair, haunted by the memories of an evil life, and sore beset by 
 the agony of baffled revenge. The idea has somehow got abroad 
 that here again the artist has perpetuated his own lineaments, 
 when transferring to copper his idea of this most vicious and 
 miserable character. The improbable story, in which there is but a 
 shadow of truth, doubtless arose in the following wise. The proto- 
 type of Fagiu was a blear-eyed, rusty-looking old Jew, — one of the 
 red-hau-ed type — whom the " great George " had often noted in tho 
 
 • " Segnius irritant aniraos demissa per aurera, 
 
 Cjuam qua; sunt oculis subject* fidelibus 
 
 lIoBAT. De Ante Pocticd.
 
 The Artist, the Hnviorist, and the Man. 31 
 
 neigliljourhooJ of Safrrou-Hill. To make this sordid character 
 express by the natural language of attitude and occupation the 
 emotions appropriate to that supreme hour of suffering, proved a 
 task of unusual difficulty to the artist. He laboured at the subject 
 for several days without success, and almost thouglit of giving it 
 up in despair. It happened, however, tliat one morning, as he sat 
 up in bed, stroking his chin with his hand, and nibblmg his finger 
 nails, the very image of puzzled dubitation, all at once he caught 
 sight of the reflection of his face in a glass, and saw that chance 
 offered him the very thing he had looked for in vain. Leaping 
 from his bed with all the exultation of Archimedes from the hath, 
 he proceeded to fix the idea upon paper ; and to this fortuitous 
 accident, as he himself related to Horace Mayhew, we are indebted 
 for one of his most felicitous and remarkable designs.* 
 
 Here I may take occasion to notice that terrible piece of graphic 
 realism,— sketched, we are told, upon the spot — " The Knacker's 
 Yard, or the Horse's last Home," which is pronounced by a com- 
 petent authority " scarcely below Eembrandt in force and largeness 
 of style, while it is informed by an earnestness of pm-pose which 
 the art of Eembrandt never aims at,"— the critic adding that " in 
 this respect, Cruikshank has a close affinity to Bewick."t This 
 admirable plate, marred somewhat in effect by the weak drawing of 
 the most prominent horse, appeared originally in Vol. III. of tlie 
 Voice of Humanity (1831), and was thence transferred to the well- 
 intentioned Elysium of Animals (1836) of the late Eyerton Smith, 
 of Liverpool. Of this etching I have the pleasure of presenting to 
 my readers a most excellent facsimile, which, though executed 
 upon wood, exhibits in a marked degree, the force, the expression, 
 and the character of the origLual. 
 
 I must dismiss with a bare mention the Life of GrimahU, 
 the Minor Morals of Dr. Bowrmg, and that delicious little tome', 
 the Sunday in London, (1833) written by George's "dear friend," 
 Mr. Wight, of the Morning Herald. This book is very rare, 
 the wood blocks and remaining stock having been destroyed 
 by^a fii-e at the publisher's, Effingham WUson, of the Strand. 
 
 ■*iUninrln of Mij Time. By George Hodiler, 18V0, pass lOS. 
 t Essays in Art, by P. T. Palgrave, p. 181.
 
 32 George Ci'itiks/iank, 
 
 "With like brevity must be dismissed the most admirable Scrapn 
 and Sketches, and My Sketch Book, witli tie remarkable etcbing of 
 the "Gin Juggernant," significant, with "The Fiend's Frying Pan,"* 
 " The Gin Trap," and many others, of the artist's growing ab- 
 horrence of that vice, antagonism to which was to claim and absorb 
 the vigour of his later years. 
 
 In 1838, he supplied eight illustrations to an enlarged edition of 
 " Delta " Moir's exquisite piece of Scotch humour, the Life of 
 Mcmsie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith. Here I may adopt a sentence 
 from the preface — " Of the illustrations what shall we say "? 
 Nothing. They speak for themselves." 
 
 Meantime a quarrel, I know not from what cause, had taken 
 place between Cruikshank, and Eichard Bentley, the publisher ; 
 and by and by the artist thought that he had good cause of 
 complaiat also against "W. Harrison Ainsworth, the well-known 
 noveUst. The latter had written his romance. Old St. Paul's, for 
 the Sunday Times ; the proj^rietors of which had engaged to pay 
 him a sum of £1000 for his work. JJ"o\v this very subject, George 
 asserts, had been suggested by him to his literary associate, and 
 the book was to have been pubhshed conjointly by them as 
 partners. By and by, the copraght reverting to the author, the 
 novel was issued in separate form, in the orthodox thi'ee octavo 
 volumes. Of course George was out of the question as illustrator ; 
 so the able pencil of Mr. J. Franklin was secured. Thus George had 
 the mortification,- — to use his own words — of seeing " another artist 
 working out his jjet subjects, which he had nursed in his brain for 
 many years, and which he had long intended to have placed before 
 the public with his own hands." Hlnc ilke laurymce; George deter- 
 mined to close with Ainsworth for good, and see what he could 
 do on his own account. This was the origin of his monthly shil- 
 ling serial The Omnibus, v/liichhe began to run in 1811, with piior 
 
 * This clever etcbing; was one of the successful .aUemxits wliicli the ai-tist took to himself 
 credit for making with the object of " improving the custouis of society." Taking •' a peep 
 on oae or two occasions" at liartbolomew Fair, foruurly held in Smitblleld market 
 annually, ho was so disgusted at the " wild drunken blackguard rulllanism — too gross and 
 too bad to be described," whicli i)revailed there, th.at he produced this design, aud dedi- 
 cated it to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, by long usage its patrons. By and 
 by the Fair was abolished ; and that of similar character, held at Greenwich, shortly after 
 war.ls flnfTered the same fut?.


 
 The Ai'tist, the Hiiinonst, and the J] fan. 33 
 
 Laman Blanchard — another fine genius ruined ! — as conductor, at a 
 salary of twenty guineas a montb. The iirst number gave a highly 
 idealized portrait of the artist, with an amusing paper, which, if 
 inspired, was certainly not written by him, commenting with much 
 humour upon certain siEy gossip about his appearance and habits 
 in which a contemporary had indulged. The Omnihu.-t only reached 
 one volume, the last number of which contained the admirable 
 Eembrandtesque plate, the " Jack O'Lantern," — a " gem of jet," as 
 poor Walter Thornbury calls it,—" in which -iN'as focussed more 
 genius than many a May Exhibition coidd claim in all its pictures." 
 At this point a reconciliation was eifeoted between the artist and 
 his qzwndam associate, by the good offices of the late Thomas 
 James Pettigrew, surgeon, and librarian to the Duke of Sussex. 
 Ainsworth was anxious to start a " monthly " of his own ; and 
 persuaded George to join him, and " drive his Omnihuii, into the 
 new magazine." This appeared in 1842 ; and if by his former 
 conduct the editor had afforded the artist just cause of complaint, 
 he certaiuly made honourable amends iu his " preliminary address." 
 In allusion to the latter he says : — 
 
 " In securing the co-operatiou of this admirable artist, the strongest 
 assurance is given, not only of unequaUed excellence in tragic and humonrous 
 illustrations, tut of an anxious and thoughtful respoiisibilty iu the exercise of 
 that power. No work can need a surer guarantee than that which is con- 
 veyed in the association of an artist, who has passed an important peiiod of 
 his life in satirizing and riiliculing human follies, without giving one 
 moment's pain to a fellow-creatui-e ; who has faithfully delineated almost 
 every diversity of character, without creating a single enemy. George 
 Ceuikshank wQl be the illustrator of Ainsworth's Magazine." 
 
 Notwithstanding this new alliance, and the disagreement existing 
 between the artist and Mr. Bentiey, the contract as to the produc- 
 tion of a certain number of designs for the old "Miscellany " 
 still remained in force. But these became very poor, the artist 
 adhering to the letter, rather than the spirit of his undertaking ; 
 and they are, perhaps, not unfairly characterised by the witty and 
 learned " Father Front " (Eev. Francis Mahony) as 
 
 " The designs so poor and scratchy 
 Of the Cruikshanks, his Caracci." 
 
 in some verses, which Mr. Sala enables me to quote, satirising, on
 
 34 George Cnnkshank. 
 
 ■behalf of the new Burlington Street serial, Ainsworth, Cruikshauk, 
 and the rival magazine. 
 
 The first novel that appeared in " Ainsworth " was the Miser's 
 Dau'jhier, exclusively illustrated by George, who contributed to 
 it twenty etchings. The next, Windsor Castle, also contains 
 designs by him ; but this had been commenced during the author's 
 estrangement from the artist. Hence etchings for the earlier 
 numbers had been commissioned in Paris from Tony Johaunot, a 
 very admirable French designer, well known for his excellent 
 illustrations to Cervantes, Moliere, and a host of foreign classical 
 works ; vignettes on wood were also contributed by a graceful 
 draughtsman, the late William Alfred Delamotte, drawing-master 
 at the Military College, Sandhurst. Then came St. James's, or the 
 Court of Queen Anne, which was the last romance which George 
 illustrated for Ainsworth, as the latter thereupon sold the magazine 
 to his publishers, to the infinite chagrin of the artist, and in 
 violation, as he would imply, of a tacit understanding between 
 them. Be this as it may, George illustrated altogether seven 
 novels for Ainsworth, — including a re-issue of Roohicood, the 
 original edition of which was published before the commencement 
 of his acquaintance with the novelist. These, in clu'onological 
 order, are : — (1) Roohwood. (2.) JacJc Slieppard. (3) Gwj 
 FawJces. 4.) nie Tourer of London. (5) The Miser's Daughter. 
 (6) Windsor Castle. (7) St. James's, or the Court of Queen Anne; 
 and for them he had made — to use his oAvn words — "one hundred 
 AND FOETT-rouR of the very best designs and etchings which he 
 had ever produced." \Vlien he suspended the monthly issue of 
 the Omnibus, he promised that it should ajjpear as an annual 
 volume ; but it was now suggested by his publishers (Messrs. 
 Bradbury and Evans) that " as it was such a long time since the 
 Omnilms had been on the road, it would, perhaps, be better to start 
 another vehicle of the same huild, but under another name." " To 
 this I agreed," says he, " and thus originated The Table Boole, 
 which was edited by my friends, the late Gilbert A'Beckett and 
 Mark Lemon." 
 
 The etched illustrations in this handsome volume, which 
 bears date 1845, are very admiiaulo, barring a growing puerility
 
 The Artist , the Hnmorist, and the Man. 35 
 
 of sentiment. The one entitled " Sic Transit " is, however, in tlio 
 artist's best style, free, vigorous, and natural ; and the first in the 
 book, " The Triumph of Cupid," gives an exoellont portrait of the 
 artist seated in '' a reverie " before his fire-place, and smoking a 
 huge pipe, in the fumes from which are developed hundreds of 
 tiny figures, in various conditions of subjection to the mighty sou 
 of Venus. This was in George's unregenerate days, while yet a 
 lover of the weed, for he says in his opening paper that " if his 
 brain is ever illuminated by an electric spark, the bowl of his 
 meerschaum is the place in which it is deposited ; the pipe acting 
 as a conductor, along which flashes of inspiration are conveyed 
 with every whiff, while the smoke curls itself into a variety of 
 objects." This etching is also remarkable for the executive elabora- 
 tion of its detail — though in this respect, like that other curiosity 
 of etching, "Passing Events, or the Tail of the Comet of 1853," 
 and certain plates of this period and later, finish and minuteness 
 are perhaps carried further than tbe style of the artist could bear 
 without deterioration. Another most admirable plate demands 
 eomething more than a passing notice, before I put the TaUe Book 
 out of my hands, This is inscribed the " Folly of Crime," and 
 represents, as the centre-piece, a murderer, knife in hand, falling 
 into an abyss in pursuit of a bowl of treasure, held aloft by a 
 mocking demon, eluding, by his own descent, the frenzied grasp of 
 the madman. Winged fiends exultingly hover above ; and in 
 compartments around, the rewards of crime are strikingly depicted. 
 Of this piece an able critic remarks : — " There seems to me quite 
 as much thought, and heart, and moral power about this work, as 
 about any of Hogarth's or Diirer's ; and I am firmly convinced 
 that Cruikshank, when he dies (which may God long avert), and 
 death has given a sacred character to his works, in our national 
 collection of English art (if we ever have one) will be one of our 
 most venerated old masters." * 
 
 A new edition of both The Omnibus and The Table Book was 
 issued in 1869, by Messrs. Bell and Daldy. 
 
 The same year marks the appearance of Maxwell's graphic 
 History of the Irish. Rebellion, in 1798, with twenty most admirable 
 
 * British AriUtsfro.n Hn^nrlh to Ttinur. By W.alter Thombury. Vol. II, p. 04.
 
 36 George Cruihshank, 
 
 illustrative etchings. The original drawings for these, finished works 
 of art of marvellous delicacy and feeling, are now preserved in the 
 Westminster Aquarium. As for the etchings, I do not know that 
 the artist has ever produced anything more remarkable, whether 
 we regard the technical excellence of the work, the marvellous 
 comprehension of Irish character, or the dramatic intensity of tJie 
 awful scenes depicted. I have seen it recorded as a saying of Sir 
 Edwin Landseer, that John Leech never produced a drawing 
 unworthy of the honour of a frame ; surely with yet greater truth 
 the same may be asserted of the designs of George Cruikshank. 
 
 In 1848, Cruikshank, who had already embraced the Temperance 
 cause, though I hardly think that he had finally cast in his lot with 
 the total abstainers, produced his celebrated Bottle, with, shortly 
 after, its sequel The Dnmlcard's Children. Here, in sixteen plates, 
 with a poetical commentary by Dr. Charles Jlackay, is traced the 
 progress of a Drunkard and his famOy, from comfort and respecta- 
 bility to the Beerhouse, the Pawn-shop, the Asylum, the Court, 
 the Hulks and the Elver. "With much of Hogarth's narrative 
 talent, no small dramatic power, and the artist's own skill in com- 
 position and the exhibition of character, the series is yet somewhat 
 unsatisfactory, whether as a work of art, or as a moral lesson. The 
 expected largeness of demand precluded the use of the copper-plate ; 
 and wood, which should have been the material used, was held, 
 I suppose, too costly. Thus recourse was had to "glyphography," a 
 process by which engraved lines lose their definition, distance its 
 gradation, and the whole effect is rendered flat and lifeless. 
 Hence the procedure, with which, moreover, the artist at the time 
 was unacquainted, has now been practically abandoned. More- 
 over as works of art the designs have a certain coarseness and 
 vulgarity, much of which is inevitable ; there is too much 
 sensationalism throughout ; and the eventuation, as Mr. Sala has 
 ably shewn, is melodramatic rather than tragic. Dickens himself, 
 has recorded his opinion that " the philosophy of the thing as a 
 gi-eat lesson is all wrong." 
 
 The Bottle, liowever, was a huge success ; sold in immense 
 numbers (100,000 are said to have been disposed of in a day or two, 
 at a shilling each) ; was dramatized and represented at eight London
 
 PS 
 O 
 
 Pi 
 < 
 
 z 
 
 p: 
 
 O 
 
 K 
 H
 
 The A rtist, the Humorist, and the Man. 37 
 
 theatres simultnneonsly. The artist no doubt made hay during the 
 brief sunsluue ; though on exporting a large edition to America, he 
 found that a pirated issue had already taken possession of the 
 market. 
 
 In witnessing the representation of this piece upon the stage, one 
 was once more struck with the artist's special talent for seizing upon 
 the most dramatic situations of the story for the exercise of the penciL 
 Moncrieff, — so the tale goes* — when he dramatized " Tom and 
 Jerry " for the Adelphi, wrote his piece from Cruikshank's plates, 
 and " boiled his kettle with Egan's letter-press ; " and half a 
 century later, Andrew HaUiday, adapting The Miser's Daughter of 
 Ainsworth for the same theatre, made up his most effective scenes 
 from the designs of the artist, ii was on witnessing the performance 
 of this latter, and finding that his part in its production was totally 
 ignored, that George was incited to make that public vindication of 
 his claim to a share in the authorship of this and other works — 
 notably Oliver Twist — illustrated by him, which, involving the 
 candour and justness of Dickens, Ainsworth and himself, forms 
 a noteworthy and characteristic episode in the latter part of his 
 artistic career. Of this I shall have something to say further on. 
 
 Eight or wrong in the teaching, a vast influence for ultimate good 
 must have been exercised by this celebrated series, The Bottle and 
 its sequel. Society, in its daUy indulgence, was pervaded by a 
 shock like that from the stroke of a gymnotus. The plates, in 
 spite of their poverty of execution, were in the hands of every one, 
 — the Theatre was crowded nightly by the profanum vulgus, — 
 while the more critical scholar in his library was equally moved by 
 the homely pathos of the story : — witness Matthew Arnold's fine 
 sonnet, " On seeing Cruikshank's picture of the Bottle." 
 
 A temperate man is apt to become intemperate when he attacks 
 intemperance. George Cruikshank gave himself up, heart and soul, 
 to the cause ; and was ready with gratuitous help, — or what 
 amoimted to this — to any one that sought it. A volume would be 
 needed to chronicle his labours in the cause of Temperance. Thus 
 he volunteered to illustrate a series of letters on the Domestic 
 Habits of the Peojile (C. Gilpin, 1852.) published at a shilling, 
 
 * Evei-y night Book; or Li/e afitr Dark, 1827. ("Crilib'a Crib," p. m.)
 
 38 George Cniiks/iank. 
 
 aud iDroduoecl lor the i^urpose six full page designs, fairly cut on 
 wood. He illustrated in like manner the well-known sixpenny 
 pamphlet of Mr. J. W. Kirton, of Birmingham, How Sam Adams's 
 Pipe became a Pig, which concludes with the advice that " smoked 
 bacon is much more profitable than smoked pipes, whether they be 
 mere shams or veal sJiams," — that "chemug pig-tail shoiddbe given 
 up, and real returns sought for," — and so the profit realized of 
 changing a "Pipe into a Pig/" 
 
 As another of the artist's " counterblasts " may be mentioned a 
 clever etched sheet, measuring about llin. by Sin., and published 
 without date, by Bogue, of Fleet Street. This is inscribed 
 " Tobacco Leaves, No. 1," and is surmounted by a row of heads, 
 over which is the legend, " Men and Gents (who are really respect- 
 able) may now be seen smoking in the streets, even with blackguard 
 short clay pipes, — a practice vv-hich was formerly only indulged in 
 by Sweeps and Dustmen ! Put that in your pipe and smoke it." 
 At the foot is a group of schooldads, bowl in hand, and satchel 
 on back, all smoking; these are entitled "Early Pipers." The rest 
 of the sheet is filled up with groupts exhibiting in various ways the 
 ridiculous and offensive aspects of the growing habit. 
 
 An "lUustrated Penny Beading," The Gin Shop (Partridge & Co.) 
 is worthy of special note. Half a century ago George had illustrated 
 Hie House that Jack Ba'dt, a satire on political mis-doing ; and now 
 we have a like formula utilized in castigation of a social vice : — 
 
 " This is the Gin-Shop all glittering and gay," 
 is the subject of a capital full page wood-cut ; then another shows us 
 
 next 
 then 
 
 and 
 
 11 « * » The Drinks that are soUl night and day, 
 At the bar of the Gin-shop, so glittering aud gay." 
 
 "* " * the C«sJo))!C)'S, j"outhful and old, &c." 
 
 11 tt * « 
 
 the Landlord that wins his blight gold 
 Out of the ruin ol' youthful and old, &o." 
 
 "* * • the ire*/, all jewels and lace, 
 Tlie wife of the Landlord who coins his luight gold, &c." 
 now comes 
 
 "* * * the Z)<';«ii-i;)'c?, in r.igs and disgra:;o," &o.
 
 I
 
 77ic Arlist, the Humorist, and the Man. 39 
 
 anil 
 
 " * * * the Woman with wobcgone face, &c. 
 next 
 
 " * * « tiiQ Pastor, so noble and kiud, &c." 
 
 who brings with him 
 
 " * * * the Papar the poor drunkard signed," &c. 
 while the twelfth plate shows us, as the result of signing the 
 
 pledge : — 
 
 "* * * the CoZta(/p, the homo of delight 
 Whcuco prayer, like au incense ascends day and night, &c." 
 — altogether not a bad penny-worth, as "Cruikshanks " go 1 
 
 Among the more distinguished supporters of the Temperance 
 cause are two well-known ■^Titers who have shed over their 
 advocacy the charm of culture and refinement, and whose literary 
 efforts, during an united career of over half a century, have ever 
 been in the interests of civilization and humanity. I allude to 
 Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall. When Mr. Hall, a few years ago, 
 published his Trial of Sir Jasper, a Temperance Talc in Verse, 
 some three and twenty of the first artists of the day made special 
 designs in illustration and aid. Among these are the names of 
 E. M. Ward and his wife, Elmore, Faed, Dobson, Noel Paton, 
 Gilbert, Tenniel, Birket Foster, Gustave Dore, Cave Thomas and 
 others. Among these, George Cruikshank, whoso friendship with 
 the author extended over a period of nearly si.xty years, contributed 
 a most characteristic design, admirably cut in wood by the brothers 
 Dalziel, to illustrate the lines, descriptive of the condition of the 
 di'unkard-scholar : — 
 
 "Ten thousand devils haunt hira, day and night. 
 Haunt hira alike in darkness and in light." 
 In like manner, when Mrs. Hall, in 1875, collected some of the 
 most effective of her long published Temperance stories, the name of 
 George Cruikshank is again found among the fifteen distinguished 
 artists who collaborated to illustrate a like number of tales. 
 
 At the epoch of the publication of Tlie Bottle — to retrace my steps 
 from the anticipatory advance I have been tempted to make — the 
 artist was approaching the conclusion of his sixth decade ; the season 
 of creative productiveness was drawing to a close ; and thenceforth, 
 with no diminished capacity for work, he seemed rather to seek a 
 motive impulse from the ideas of others, or devoted himself to the
 
 40 George Cridkshank^ 
 
 advocacy of tliat noLle cause to the furtherance of which his energies 
 were gradually narrowing. 
 
 Before, however, proceeding to the next division of my subject, I 
 must not omit to mention his magnificent etching of the " Opening 
 of the Great Exhibition," on May 1, 1851. The view is taken from 
 the South West Gallery, and the time chosen is that in which the 
 Ai'chbishop oifcrs up a prayer for the Divine Blessing on the objects 
 of the unilertaking. The plate measures 16-in. by 10-in., and is 
 remarkable for its vast multiplicity of detail, and the immense 
 number and variety of figiu-es which the artist has crowded together 
 without confusion. The same event also suggested Harry Mayhew's 
 volume, Tim Woi-ld's Sliow, 1851, or the Adventures of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Sandboys and Familij. This was published monthly, and 
 extended to ten parts, each containing a large folding etching, the 
 first of which, "AH the "World going to see the Exhibition," is a 
 marvel of microscopic elaboration and minuteness. 
 
 I cannot pretend to enter at length into the much-vexed, but 
 really unimportant question of George Cruikshank's claim to have 
 been the "originator" of the Oliver Twist of Charles Dickens, and 
 the Miser's Daughter and other of the romances of "W. Harrison 
 Ainsworth. The assertion of this claim, with its contemptuous 
 treatment by Mr. Forster, and the " positive and flat contradiction " 
 of Mr. Ainsworth, placed the artist, as he tells us, " in a very serious 
 position as regards his character for truthfulness and the condition 
 of his intellect ;" and he felt compelled, in seM defence, to issue in 
 1872 his pamphlet, Tlie Artist and the Author, a Statement of Facts 
 (Bell and Daldy). Here he positively asserts that, in the novels I 
 have mentioned and others, he was the actual "originator of the 
 ideas and characters," and that the authors " wrote up to his sugges- 
 tions and designs " — just, in fact, as Combe, in Dr. Syntax, is known 
 to have done with regard to the previously executed illustrations of 
 Kowlandson. 
 
 To wliat extent this may have been the case, it is now impossible 
 to determine. That George Cruikshank was an cntii-cly truthful 
 and lionourable man, no one that knew liira will deny ; and that, 
 tenacious as ho undoubtedly was with regard to liis own rights and 
 tlie recognition due to his talents, it was utterly impossible that,
 
 The Ariist^ the Humorist, and the Man. 41 
 
 jtnowingly, he could put forwai'il a claim to tint wlii^li was 
 not his own. Any way, there can T)0 no reasonable doubt that, in 
 the frequent intercommunication between the men, the ideas and 
 designs of each would undergo influence and modification ; and that 
 those of the artist, as the older and more experienced, would often 
 prevail. But the extent to which this took place is surolj' a matter of 
 little moment ; and the latter might well take consolation, as I once 
 endeavoured to convince him, by turning to the columns of any 
 bookseller's catalogue, where, under his name, as that which gave 
 the books their currency and value, the various authors he has illus- 
 trated are all ranked. This is true also in the case of the marina 
 nomina of Dickens and Ainsworth ; with whom most assuredly will 
 George Cruikshank 
 
 " Pursue the ti'iumph and partake the gale," 
 
 as " artist and author," in indissoluble connection, sail together down 
 the " stream of fame." 
 
 (From an Original Pencil Drawing.)
 
 42 George Crtnkshank. 
 
 VL 
 
 Book Illustrations. — Under this head I include all designs 
 which are not, like those of the Sketches and Oliver Twist, pictures 
 of contemporary social life and character, but depend rather upon 
 imagination and study than the artist's own faculty of observation. 
 The earliest of these that I shall notice is also one of the best and most 
 important. This is a volume, dear in each sense of the word to the 
 collector, the Points of Humour, published in 1823 by C. Bald^vyn, 
 of Newgate Street — whose daughter, Eliza, became the artist's 
 second wife and survives him. The " Points " were ten in number, 
 each illustrated by a full-page etching, besides wood-cut vignettes 
 or tail-pieces. In the following year appeared a second part, equal in 
 extent to the former. If the " humour " is capital — we have th« 
 " Jolly Beggars " of Burns (rejected by the too fastidious Currie, and 
 shpping through the meshes of Cromek's draw-net), with selections 
 from Shakspeare, Fielding, and others — the illustrations are not less 
 admirable Some defective "biting" in the etchings may be 
 here and there discernible; but they are broad and vigorous in touch, 
 full of colour, aud excellent in light and shade ; while the smaller 
 vignette capricci are worthy, in fantastic character and sprightliness 
 of action, of the needle of Callot, or Delia Bella. Looking at these 
 excellent etchings, and others of the same kind, I am disposed to 
 regard George Cruikshank as then at his best, and question whether 
 he made any absolute advance after this early epoch. Mentally, as 
 well as physically, man, as a rule, attains his maximum stature at 
 the end of the second decade of his existence. Growth then ceases ; 
 and development, a slower and less obvious process, sets in. In 
 literature, in fine art, in the handicrafts, if we assume any numeric 
 symbol to indicate the extent of attainment possible to an individual, 
 we shall find that he has well nigh reached it at five and twenty; and 
 that liis farther approaches thereto in after-life are slow and 
 uncertain — if indeed he do not retrogress. Not but that there are 
 late minds, which may appear exceptions to the rule ; but even here 
 we may in great measure predicate the future from the present, and 
 feel sure that what is not great or good now never will be. Moreover 
 in art— and it is to this that these remarks especially refer — what is
 
 The Artist, the Httmorist, a-d the Man. 43 
 
 gained is chiefly in the way of elaboration and exeentive skiU, and 
 this is balanced by a loss of spontaneity and creative energy. Thus 
 I feel justified in expressing a preference for the artist's earlier style 
 of work, with its vigour, freehandedness and simplicity, to the more 
 laboured productions of a later day, where a greater technical skill 
 is often shown at the expense of breadth, and finish not infrequently 
 degenerates into mannerism and " spottiness." 
 
 Tn 1824 our artist produced the sixteen admirable wood-cut 
 designs for the Italian Tales of Huviour, Gallantry, and Romance, 
 "illustrated," said the Westminster Review (No. I.), "with a grace 
 which, without imitation, approaches the beauty of Stothard's 
 compositions."* The same year gives us Der FreiscMltz Travestie. 
 By Septimus Globus, (pseudonym for T. A. Apel,) with twelve 
 etchings by George Cruikshank, from drawings by A. C, an 
 Amateur ("Alfred Crowquill"). Both this, and the preceding 
 work, were also published by C. Baldwyn, of Newgate Street. 
 
 In 1828 he executed twenty-four vigorously etched plates to 
 illustrate the ancient drama of Punch and Judy, prefaced by a 
 readably learned dissertation upon its origin, and that of puppet- 
 plays in England, by the veteran literator, John Payne Collier. For 
 the special benefit of author, artist, and publisher (Septimus Prowett, 
 of Pall Mall,) a matutinal performance of the time-hnnoured comedy 
 of Punchinello was got up by " an old Italian wayfaring puppet 
 showman of the name of Picciui, who had perambulated town and 
 country for the last forty or fifty years"; and whose manipulation 
 of the familiar dramafs iiersome — so George, who had known him 
 from childhood, states — was far superior to anything of the kind to 
 be seen at the present ray. Like the pieces of our own early drama, 
 the representation was not divided into acts and scenes. The proper 
 divisions were made however by Mr. Collier, who took down the 
 dialogue as the show proceeded ; while the artist effected stoppage 
 at the most telling parts to sketch the figures. The only account 
 extant of Piccini is to be found in an old periodical called The 
 Literary Speculum; Mr. Collier alludes briefly to him in his 
 
 * F.icing page 58 should be found a wood-cut design inscribed " The Dead Rider. " Here, 
 within a tumble.do^vn shed, may be dimly descried a dead monk enthroned on a sedes 
 itercoraria, while another without, incensed at his delay, hurls a stone at him. It needs 
 the context to teU us this much ; but the plate was withdrawn in the later issues.
 
 44 George Cruikshank, 
 
 " Preface " ; and the artist has lianded down his outward man to 
 posterity in the vignette on the title-page— replaced, it may be 
 noticed, in the 4:th edition of Punch and Judy (Lacy, Strand) in 
 consequence of the absence or loss of the original block, by a design 
 from the pencil of his brother Eobert. There is yet a 5th edition, 
 with coloured plates, published in 1870 l)y Bell and Daldy ; and a 
 German translation, from the Stuttgart press, in 1865. 
 
 In 1828, also appeared Eccentric Tales from the German of W. 
 F. Von Koseioitz, with twenty coloured etchings, worthy of special 
 mention as being also the joint work of George Cruikshank, and 
 the clever artist known by the pseudonym of "Alfred Crowquill"* 
 
 In 1830, we have TaJcs of Other Days; and the same year gave 
 us a charming volume, of which Thackeray says that it contains 
 "some of the best designs of our artist, and some of the most 
 amusing tales in our language." This is the Tliree Courses and a 
 Dessert of the late William Clarke, a writer who died very early, 
 and to whose original and happy vein of humour due attention has 
 not been given. The numerous illustrations to this volume, besides 
 theu' excellence in design, are very triumjihs of xylography. Here 
 too, as elsewhere, may be noticed the artist's special faculty of 
 imparting characteristic vitality to all sorts of odds and ends — a 
 mug of ale, a wig-block, a pair of spectacles, a cut lemon, a bottle- 
 cork, an oyster, and a mushroom — though I am not unaware that 
 for the original ideas of some of these the author himself takes credit. 
 
 Mr. Clarke was also author of the Cigar, a genial little book, in 
 which under the heading, " The Young Hogarth," a short article is 
 devoted to the merits of the artist. " Some years ago," says he, 
 " I was laughed at for predicting that George Cruikshank would, 
 ere long, come into especial notice. George is a singular fellow ; 
 he is never conscious of his fine touches." In th6 Boy's Own Boole 
 by the same author, — the best book ever written for lads, — I fancy 
 I recognize the hand of Cruikshank among the excellent designs ; 
 and to his Every Night Book, (1827) — one of the most genial, 
 •witty, and thoroughly typical opuscles of the day, conveying, as it 
 seems to me, the very form and pressure of the time, — George 
 
 • The actual name of this gentleman was Alfred Henry Forrester. He died in May, 1872. 
 in the C"th year of his .age.
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 45 
 
 contributed the fantastic vignette on the title-page. In tliis racy 
 volume we find another generous tribute by the author to his 
 artist-friend. In his capacity of mystagogue to the nocturnal haunts 
 of London, he conducts us to " Belcher's " — the Castle Tavern, 
 Holborn — ^where most did congregate the fistic heroes of the day. 
 Hero we are introduced to Hickman the Gas man, Dutch Sara, 
 Richmond the black, Peter Crawley, Jack Scroggins, Frosty-faced 
 Fogo, white-headed Bob, Bill Eagles, and Jackson himself, — 
 commander-in-chief ! A well-known phiz appears amid the motley 
 throng : — " 'Ah, George, how are you'? ' — That person to whom we 
 have just spoken, with nothing particular about him but his 
 paleness, is our young Hogarth — George Cruikshanks, the matcHess, 
 delightful Cruikshanks.* Well ! go thy ways, young blade, with 
 our hearty benison upon thee. We have laughed, until laughter 
 hath become a pain to us, at thy productions ; and in gratitude for 
 the jocund moments thy pencil hath afforded us, we would, an' we 
 could even take a wrinkle from thy brow and place it on our 
 own." (Page 40.) 
 
 With the sympathetic intelligence which enabled him to grasp so 
 perfectly the ideas of other minds, Gruikshank illustrated Fielding, 
 SmoUett, and Goldsmith, for the " Novelist's Library " of Thomas 
 Eoscoe, (1831-2, in 17 vols., 8vo.) These excellent etchings, forty- 
 one in number, were issued by Tilt, the pubhsher, in 1832, in 
 separate form, " for the benefit of collectors." 
 
 In 1836, appeared that capital tale, Tlie Adventures of Sir Frizde 
 Pumpkin, by the itev. Jas. \V iiite, with seven admirable etchings, — 
 the one facing the title page presenting one of the best likenesses 
 of the artist ; and in 1838, the Gentleman in Blacl; by the 
 Eev. C. Clarke, of Esher, with its fine wood-cuts. Cruikshank, 
 I may here take occasion to say, has been especially fortunate in 
 the artists who have engraved his designs on wood. Among them 
 are found the names of Williams, Landells, Branston, Thompson, 
 By field, Wright, and Bonner ; and it is probably not too much to 
 
 *Th6 father's name was often spelt " Cruickshanks," and the son had no little diHiculty 
 in getting rid of what he considered the superfluous letters. Cliristopher North in the 
 "Noctes" (March, 1S22) speaks eulogistically of " Little Cruikshanks " ; here we have the 
 author of the Every NigM Book, — his own familiar friend, — tallcing of him in like manner ; 
 and the reduplicated " c," on the title-page of the earlier copies of Peter SchlcmiJil will 
 not fail to " fetch " your " coney.catching " collector !
 
 46 George Cruikshank. 
 
 eay that it is beyond tlie power of art to effect more than these 
 eminent xylographers have, in their day, achieved. 
 
 D iffering altogether from his general style of work, and so worthy of 
 especial notice, are the illustrations to Burford Cottage, (18.35,) Kniclth 
 erbocke/s Hiistorij of Neio York, and Defoe's Journal of the Plague 
 Tear, all now, if not originally, published by Tegg. The frontispiece 
 to the first of these books, engraved on steel with much delicacy by 
 Davenport, is so carefully drawn, and displays such refinement of 
 humour, that it might be ascribed to Wilkie or Smirke ; and in 
 Kniclceriocker, George could hardly then have become a misocapnist 
 when he limned with such intense gusto the " Pipe-Plot," with its 
 group of smoke-compeUing bm-ghers, or the " Death of Walter the 
 Doubter," where his lymphatic Excellency, lungs and pipe exhausted 
 together, exhales his peaceful soul in the last whiff of canaster ! 
 
 In 1840, appeared the once celebrated Jack Shej^pard of W. H. 
 Ainsworth. A century ago and more, the father-in-law of Hogarth 
 went to Newgate to sketch, ad mvum., the youthful burglar. To 
 borrow a quatrain from some doggrel of the day : — 
 
 ' ' Apelles, Alexander drew ; 
 Caesar, is to Arellius due ; 
 Cromwell in Lely's work doth shine : 
 And Sheppard, Thornhill, lives in thine ! "+ 
 
 Of the series of etchings by which in our own day Cruikshank 
 has given a new lease of immortality to the knight of the crowbar 
 and centre-bit, so minute an analysis has been given by Thackeray 
 in his Wedminster paper, — the best essay on the artist yet written, 
 and one on which we are told the writer looked back with peculiar 
 satisfaction, — that any further notice is rendered nugatory. In 
 this and the succeeding romances from the same hand some of tlie 
 grealrst triumphs of the artist's technical skill are supposed to be 
 found. But I must confess that in many of the plates it seems to 
 me that the machine-ruler has too completely elbowed out the 
 etcher, and that finish has detracted from spontaneity and vigour 
 while it has not added to fact. The same remarks may apply to 
 the illustrations to John Manesty, a posthumous novel of the late 
 WUliam Maginn, originally published in Ain»worth's Magazine. 
 
 t Th* MahfacUir's Register, or New NtwgaU and Tyburn Chronicle, 8vo., page 108.
 
 The Art is*, the Hjimorist, and the Man. 47 
 
 In 183545, lie illustrated the AYaverli'y Novels (in 36 vols.,) for 
 which he produced thirty-five spirited etchings. These have been 
 reproduced in several subsequent editions ; and may be obtained 
 by the collector, — at least the greater part of them, — in the 
 Centenary Garland : Pictorial Illustrations of the Novels of Sir 
 Walter Scott. (Edinburgh, Seton & Mackenzie, 1871.)— one of 
 the numerous compilations suggested by the hundredth anniversary 
 of the birth of the great novelist. 
 
 It is impossible to give more than the titles of a few among the 
 innumerable books wliich Cruikshank has illustrated, — such as 
 Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Anstey's Bath Guide, Cowper's John 
 Gilpin, The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman, The Bee and the 
 Wasp, Hood's Bpjnnfj Hunt,* Pettigrew's Egyptian Mummies, 
 Keach's Clement Lorimer, Mayhew's Wliom to Marry, Tooth-Ache, 
 The Magic of Kindness, and The Greatest Plague of Life, Southey's 
 Life of Nelson, Smith's Rejected Addresses, The Bachelor's Own BooTc, 
 or the Adventures of Mr. Lambkin, Merle's Odds and Ends, Tom 
 Thumb, Bomhastcs Furioso, Hints on Etiquette, The Comic Alphabet, 
 Works of Tim Bobbin, a'Beckett's Comic Blackstone, Mrs. Gore's 
 Christmas Stories, Smedley's Frank Fairlegh, Mrs. Stow's Unde 
 Tom's Cabin, Lowell's Biglow Papers, Eaymond's Life of Elliston, 
 Carlton Bruce'st Mirth and Morality, Aiddjo's Constantinople, 
 Douglas Jerrold's Cakes and Ale, Chohnondely Pennell's Puck on 
 
 ' In Pierce Egan's Booh of Sports (1832, Svo) are some doggrel verses about Tom Rounding, 
 ■■ The Ever Green Sportsman of Woodford Wells," and Epping Hunt : — 
 " All sorts of coves— fat, thin, and lank. 
 All in a meiTy mood : — 
 Amongst them famed George Cruikshank 
 
 And punning Tommy Hood. 
 George with a pencil heaVd a sigh. 
 
 On sketching Tommy's frame — 
 Said ' such a man should never die. 
 
 So great in hunting fame.' " page 194. 
 * This is one of the "dull books about children," which Thackeray says "G'»orge 
 Cruiksiiank makes bright with illustrations." He cites the quatrain : — 
 " Who has not chased the butterfly. 
 
 And crushed its slender legs and wings, 
 And heaved a moralizing sigh ; 
 
 Alas 1 how frail are human things ? " 
 and adds, " a very nnexceptional morality truly ; but it would have puzzled another than 
 George Cruikshank to make mirth out of it as he has done." The book was planned at the 
 table of Mr. Tegg, the publisher, wliere author and artist met. "Carlton Bruce," " Peter 
 Parley," and " Old Humphrey," were all alike pseudonjTns of George Mogridge, a well 
 known and most proUIic writer for children. He was born at Aslitcd, Birmingham, Feb. 17, 
 1787, and died Nov. 2, 1S54. JIany of his books are published by the Religious Tract Society.
 
 48 Geors^e Critikshank, 
 
 Pega-sus, Daniel's Modprn Dunciad, Ferdinand Franc!,; S^^irii of the 
 Public Journals, Lover's Arthur O'Leanj, The Cafs Tail, Beauties 
 of Washington Irving, Andrew Halliday's Savage Club Papers, 
 Inglis's Rambles in the Footsteps of Don Quixote, O'Neill's Drunlcard, 
 a Poem, Friswell's Out and About, J. T. Akerman's Tales of other 
 Days, Tlie Bentleij Ballads, Remarks on Education by Himself, 
 Fashion, Modern Belles, Hoskyns's Talpa, or Chronicles of a Clay 
 Farm, " cum miiltis aliis quas nunc perscribere lougum est." 
 
 In all these it may probably be said with truth that a comic 
 element more or less exists ; but it is likely enough, as Maginn 
 hints in Fraser, that Cruikshank, — like Listen and Charles 
 Mathews (the elder), who thought their forte was Tragedy, 
 — considered the Epic or Historic his proper domain. However 
 this may be, I do not forget that Ruskin himself asserts that " his 
 tragic power, though rarely developed and warped by habits of 
 caricature, is, in reality, as great as his grotesque power." Thus, 
 in a more serious branch of art, he has made designs for Pojradise 
 Lost and Pilgrim's Progress* ; and I have before me a series of 
 forty wood-cut designs, published by Eobins in 1824, to illustrate 
 George Clinton's Life and Writings of Lord Byron. 
 
 Here I am reminded of the fine series of plates, executed so 
 recently as 1858, to illustrate Brough's Life of Sir John Falstaff. 
 These are highly-laboured etchings, admu'able alike in conception 
 and execution. The first plate is one of the best of the set, and 
 gives us the counterfeit presentment of the " whoreson fat man " 
 himself; " Drawn by William Shakspeare and Etched by George 
 Cruikshank ; " farther on we have the death-scene, where the " old 
 white-bearded Satan " picks at the bed-clothes and babbles o' green 
 fields as he nears his iinhonourod end, — a masterpiece of sugges- 
 
 • Referring to one of tho Milton illustrations— " Satan colling on the Fallen Angels"— 
 Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, writiiig to Notes ana Qmries (otii S. IX. 434) transcribes a letter from 
 the artist himself, in which the former speaks of this as " the best drawing he ever did in his 
 life." The wood-block is missing; but an impression from it is preserved (No. 16) in tho 
 Westminster Aiiuarium. I give tho linos illustrated, whioli are ludicrously misiuolcd by 
 Cruikshank himself in tho Aqnnrium Catalogue : — 
 
 "He eall'd so loud that all the hoUow deep 
 Of Hell resounded »*•»'»••*'• 
 ' Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n I ' 
 They heard and were abash'd, and up they sprung 
 Upon tho wing, etc. 
 
 Paradise LoX, Book I. 814.
 
 The Arlisl, lite Humorist, and iJic ]\[an. 49 
 
 tiveness aud pathos ; and lastly, the concluding plate, " Sir John 
 Falstaff and the Faii-ies at Heme's Oak," one of the artist's most 
 successful efforts in a walk of art in which he was truly faciU; 
 jprince^s, — aud of which, in duo course, I come now to speak. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Supernatural. — Every man, — I mean a master and not a 
 mere journeyman of nature — has his speciality. That is, there is 
 some one thing, — only unfortunately he does not always know what 
 it is, or knowing, has not an opportunity of doing it — which he can 
 do better than any other man. In like manner, among the many 
 things which a man has to do in his brief working day, there is 
 some one thing which ho can do Letter than anything else, and for 
 which, of course, lie seems especially fitted. This, as it appears to 
 me, may be said of George Cruiljshaiik as a delineator of the SujJer- 
 ' natural. Not dealing with the cognita et visa which may be tested 
 by the common perceptions of other observers, and a recognised 
 standard of comparison, this is a branch of pictorial design which 
 seems to escape many of the laws which govern generally the 
 imitative arts. Here the draughtsman may give his inventive 
 faculty play, indulge the wildest caprices of his imagination, and 
 set the rules of anatomy, zoology and botany at defiance. Sub- 
 stance may exist without shadow, time and space be set at nought, 
 and matter assume positions at utter variance with the Newtoniaii 
 hypothesis. Surpassing the fantastic Callot, the dyspeptic Puseli, 
 the once fashionable Eetzsch, and the unfortunate Dadd, George 
 Crnikshank seems to me the best of all the artists who have made 
 picturesque incursions into the regions of the Supernatural. Here 
 again, in studying the genius of the man, we are struck above aU 
 with the wide range of its sympathies and capabilities. Whatever he 
 undertook he appears to have entered into heart and soul ; so iden- 
 tifying himself with the characters, human or superhuman, which 
 were the subject of his fantastic pencil, that landscape, buildings, 
 accessories, appear to him as we may suppose they would to them, 
 in their particular circumstances and conditions of being. Some 
 such process of identification has to be gone thi-ough, consciously 10
 
 50 George Cniiksha:ik. 
 
 unconsciously, by ourselves, before we can recognise the entire 
 harmony, the perfect sense of fitness, which reigns throughout ; 
 and this apparently without the least effort or study. He seems to 
 possess an intuitive knowledge — if I may so speak — of all that con- 
 cerns Demonry, Fairydom and "Wonderland ; is as much at home 
 in the realms of Oberon and Titania, as in Seven Dials or St. 
 Giles's ; and is just as conversant with the habits and doings of 
 Witches, Fairies, Gnomes and Demons as those of the London 
 Cockney or the Jew Fence. Ey royal sign-manual he was, — or 
 deserved to be — sergeant-painter to Queen Mab herself, Puck, 
 " Mmphidia and the Court of Fayrie." Landseer has been styled 
 the Eaphael of the canine race ; and with equal justice may George 
 Cruikshank be termed the Apelles of Hobgoblins, Pigwidgeons, 
 Bull-beggars, Moon-calves, Sprites and Brownies, — the Zeusis of 
 Sylphs, Pixies, Kobolds, and the whole tribe of 
 
 "Fairy Elves, 
 
 AVhose moonlight revel-s, bj' a forest side 
 
 Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 
 
 Or dreams he sees, while over-head the Moon 
 
 Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 
 
 Wheels her pale coiu-se " — Millon. 
 
 So far back as 1824,* appeared Dr. Bowring's version of Peter 
 ScJilcmihl, the story of a man who sold his shadow to the Devil. 
 The reader of Pausaniast Avill recollect the olden belief that thosi' 
 daring wights who transgressed that part of Mount Lycieus which 
 was sacred to Jupiter, lost the same ornamental appendage ; so tluil 
 a shadowless man was not a new idea. But the little book had the 
 luck to appear just at a time when interest was awakened to German 
 literature ; it became very popular, and went througli two or three edi- 
 tions. It appears to me somewhat overrated ; and I should give pre- 
 ference to the quite recent Case of Mr. Lucraftoi Walter Besant,wheri' 
 the appetite, instead of the shadow, is the object of sale. The 
 appearance of the English edition. Dr. Bowring tells u?, " thanks to 
 the merit of Cruikshank's original and felicitous sketches," excited 
 the greatest delight in the mind of Chamisso, the author ; and in 
 
 * Collectors arc anxious to secure ca.rhj copies of the first edition, known by tbo printers 
 error in the name of tlie artist, where we find an advi'ntitious '*c" — " Cruicksliank." Tlic 
 error was corrected after a few copies had been worked off. 
 
 t ruuti>iniaa, Arcadlca. lib. III. c. 38.
 
 n f 
 
 eio- 
 
 THt Corfoi ete J^^ Lltt 
 
 ri-io 
 
 Pii-i 
 

 
 M ir 
 
 fjsr 
 
 
 TJ.& 
 
 as2 
 
 Piiftr LIT. 'nLiySi-'Uj r{_
 
 The Artist, tlic Humorist, and tir: Mav. 51 
 
 1827 Hitzig writes to inform liis friend Fouque that "eine nene 
 Ausgabe, mit den Zeiolmungen der Englisclien, die dor beriibmte 
 Cruikshank naoh. deni Leben entworfen, veranstaltet wird." This 
 edition (Niirnberg, 1827, 8vo.,) is before me, with its six "kup- 
 fern," which are certainly marvels of reproductive assimilation. 
 
 In 1830 the appearance of Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demon- 
 ology and Witchcraft afforded the artist an opportimity of employ- 
 ing his imagination in a direction altogether congenial. Here he has 
 given us a dozen etchings to accompany the volume, of the weirdest 
 fancy and the most precious touch. It was a supper of raw pork, 
 we are told, that begot upon the brain of Fuseli those gaunt and 
 pallid forms that menacingly point or stride upon his neglected 
 canvas in every attitude of agonistic horror ; and our artist, one 
 would think, had had recourse to a like expedient, for he seems 
 himself a victim to ephialtes and to have embodied on copper the 
 visions of his own disordered fantasy. Each plate tells its story 
 so well that wo little need Sir Walter's text for an explanation. 
 Mr. Palgrave cites the " Witches' Voyage " (I suppose he means the 
 " Frolic ") as " a perfect masterpiece of humour, satire, and super- 
 naturalism ; " but my own favourites are the " Corps do Ballet," 
 " Puck in Mischief," and " Tak aff the Ghaist !" Note, in the fii'st, 
 what frolicsome vitality is given to chairs and tables, and how the 
 very walls seem reeling with adventitious life. Then, in the last, how 
 absolutely complete is the artist's narration ! The farmer, after his 
 moonlight ride, has managed to reach tlie old Teviotdale homestead, 
 the demented woman clinging like grim death to his gii'dlo ; the 
 horse — who says G. C. cannot draw a horse 1 — is sore spent with 
 his gallop and double burden; the gawky farm lads, sons maybe — the 
 younger of course foremost — advance with the lantern ; and the 
 housewife at the door uplifts her hands in speechless horror. " Tak 
 aif the Ghaist !" are the last words the poor man can utter ere he is 
 carried off to liis bed half dead with nervous shock. Mark the in- 
 curved tail of the jaded horse, and the twist in the foremost lad's 
 leg to prevent propulsion by the elder looby It is unconscious 
 touclies like these that denote true genius. 
 
 In 1823 appeared Edgar Taylor's selection from the Kinder und 
 Hans Mdhrchen of the brothers Grimm, with twelve etchings ; and
 
 52 George Cruiks/iaitk, 
 
 three years later, a second series witli ten more illustrations. Two 
 or three editions were called for ; t!ie etchings were i-eproduced in 
 Germany ; and the first twelve copied in Paris by an ingenious 
 Frenchman — a ]\I. Ambrose Tardieu — who, in his admiration, forgot 
 to mention that they were not the products of his own invention.* 
 The two scries were published at a dozen shillings, but are now so 
 scarce and valued that clean copies are worth almost as many guineas. 
 Perhaps of aU the works of the master there is none so highly 
 esteemed at home and abroad, or which extorts from the collector so 
 fanciful a price. In 1868, the complete work was reissued, at the 
 request of Mr. Euskin, by the late J. C. Hotten, in tasteful form, and 
 with the etchings so faithfully reproduced that, on actual inspection, 
 they imposed on that renowned connoisseur ; and, as he himself told 
 me, on the artist himself. Mr. Hamerton, in his Etehing and Etchers, 
 asserts that he " has not found their equal in comic etching an}'- 
 where"; and Mr Euskin, in the long introduction with which he 
 has enriched Mr. Hotten's reprint, says they are " of quite excellent 
 and sterling art — in a class precisely parallel in elevation to the 
 character of the tales which they illustrate — unrivalled in masterful- 
 ness of touch since Eembrandt — and in some qualities of delineation 
 unrivalled even by him." 
 
 There is an admirable frontispiece, " Designed and Etched on 
 Copper by George Cruikshank, and faced with steel by J. Goubert's 
 acierage process," to Dr. Blakey's interesting volume, Ohl Faces in 
 New Moslem, (1859), in which may be seen two little groups, so 
 grimly felicitous in their light and airy touch, that we may regret 
 the artist did not give us a complete series to rival or even excel, 
 the Todtentanz of Holbein, Machaber, and Bethel, the Death's 
 Doings of Dagloy, and the Death-Dance of Eowlandson and Van 
 Assen. 
 
 I must pass with mere notice the wood-cuts for the Fairy Tales 
 from the German of Albert Ludwig Grimm, (1827) the weird illus- 
 trations to the English version of Victor Hugo's Hans of Iceland, 
 (1825), those to the Adventures of Munchausen, the True Legend 
 of St. Dunstan, the six exquisite etchings to J. E. Taylor's version 
 
 * The title of M. Tardieu's volume is Vieux Contea pour I'am'us&ment des Grands et du 
 Petita En/aTis, amis de li Gravures Comigucs. Paris, A. BouUand, 1830.
 
 The Arlisf, fJic Iliivwrist, and the Man. 53 
 
 of the Pentamerone, of Giambattista Basile, (a Neapolitan fuiry- 
 tale), (1848), Dudley Costello's IloUday with Hoh/oblins, (1861), 
 Keightlcy's Fairy Mytlwhgij, Hunt's Popular Romances of the 
 West of England, The Yide Log, (a glyphographic failure). The 
 Brownie and other Tales, and Loh lie by the Fire, by Juliana Horatia 
 Ewing, and the Discourse C07ieerning Ghosts, (1864) written, as well 
 as illustrated, by the artist himself. 
 
 Moreover, scattered through many of the volumes noticed in other 
 sections, will be found exquisite draughts of the Supernatural — 
 in Tln-ee Courses and, a Dessert, To7n Tliumb, Points of Humour, Tales 
 of other Days, The Inguldsby Legends, and the Falstaff series to 
 which I have already alluded. Philosophy and Science have tried 
 hard to "pull the old woman out of our hearts," as Addison phrases 
 it ; nevertheless a love of, if not a belief in, Witches, Ogres, Giants, 
 and Fairies, is still a survival among us. Thus Cruikshank's Fairy 
 Library, ("Hop o' my Thumb," "Jack of the Bean Stalk," " Cin- 
 derella," and "Puss in Loots"), found other and graver admirers 
 than "the little cliildren," the "dear young ladies and gentlemen," 
 whom the kindly artist, in his simple and affectionate address, said 
 he had " througli life done his best to amuse, and, if possible, 
 instruct." The explanation which follows was extorted from him 
 by a half-jocular paper in Household Words, entitled " Frauds on 
 the Fairies," in which his old friend and ally, Charles Dickens, 
 brought a charge against the artist of altering the hallowed text of 
 these old stories to suit his own taste, and enable him to 
 ventilate his peculiar crotchets. The defence of the artist 
 was, that as Shakspeare and Scott had thought proper to alter 
 Italian tales, and even history, to suit their purposes, he might 
 surely take a like liberty with " a common Fairy-tale," espe- 
 cially with the object of removing unsuitable and objectionable 
 passages, and inculcating moral principles. However this may 
 be, the controversy occasioned a coolness between the friends 
 which never wholly passed away ; and the book is now valued 
 for the exquisite illustrations alone. To enjoy these, however, in 
 any degree, it is necessary to secure a fairly early copy; the book 
 having been often republished, and, in later issues, the plates 
 so worn, that scarcely any life or spirit remains in the impressions.
 
 5 4 George Criiiksliaik. 
 
 Ill 1853, George made an abortive attempt to establish a "Magazine" 
 under his own name, with. " Frank Fairlegh " (Mr. Frank E. 
 Smedley) as editor. Only two numbers were issued ; but these are 
 especially interesting, as containing, besides the etchings and wood- 
 ctits, the artist's defence of his treatment of the " Fairy Tales," in 
 reply to the paper of Dickens to which I have alluded. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Paintings in Oil. Although it is not as an oU-painter that 
 George Cruikshank will be known to posterity, any notice of him 
 without some discussion of his capabilities and achievements 
 in this du'ection would be incomplete. Always ambitious to 
 attain distinction in the higher walks of art, for which he 
 believed he had a special vocation, he would early have recourse 
 to this noblest means of pictorial expression. AU great artists 
 have painted signs. Not to go back to Correggio, Holbein and 
 Domenichino, BonneU Thornton's exhibition, or the mythical 
 Dick Tinto, Hogarth himself did not disdain to paint a sign for 
 a " paviour," and " The Man loaded with IMischief" at 414, Oxford 
 Street. Sam. Wale and Catton, both Eoyal Academicians, employed 
 their brushes in a like manner ; as, in a later day, are said to have 
 done, old Crome and David Cox. Ibbetson painted "The Tippler" 
 at Troutbeck; Morland "The White Lion" at Paddington; Herring 
 the same noble animal at Doncaster ; Wilson " The Three Logger- 
 heads " at Mould; Harlow "The Queen Charlotte" at Epsom; 
 Sir Charles Eoss " The Magpie " at Sudbury ; and Millais " The 
 Saint George and Dragon " at the little village of Hayes in 
 Kent. So, in the storm and stress of the " Tom and Jerry " period, 
 well-nigh sixty years ago, George thought it no shame to paint a f ull- 
 ength portrait of Walbourne, as " Dusty Bob," for a sign to his 
 house, " The Maidenhead," Battle Bridge ; where, for aught I 
 know, it may be swinging still. To the Eoyal Academy Exhibition 
 of 1830, he contributed the subject " Fitting out Moses for the 
 Fair"; in 1852, " Tarn O'Shanter " ; and in 1853, a scene from 
 " Midsummer Night's Dream." He was also an occasional con- 
 tributor to tlie British Institution. His picture, " Disturbing the
 
 The Artist, the Ilinnonst, and the RIan. 55 
 
 Congregation," pnrcliased by, if not paintnd for, the Pi'ince 
 Consort, is well known from the engraving. Then there is a 
 favourite piece, full of spirit and humour, " The Eun away 
 Knock " ; and I remember a small picture (Grimaldi in a Barber's 
 Shop, I think),* exhibited some thirty years ago at a provincial 
 exhibition, which seemed instinct with liogarthian humour, and 
 painted with the knowledge and vigour of that great master. 
 Moreover, I have seen upon his easel canvasses of far larger size, 
 upon which the fairy world of Shakespeare was depicted with a 
 kindred felicity of imagination. From his youth up it had been a 
 subject of regret that the exigencies of early life had prevented 
 him retaining that place on the bench of the Academy for which 
 he had successfully fought ; and later on, the sight of Eaphael's 
 cartoons filled him with shame at his own deficiencies. Like Sir 
 Joshua when gazing on the same masterpieces, he felt that in art 
 he must again " become as a little child " ; and at the age of 
 sixty-four, with the pluck of Cato the Censor who began Greek 
 at seventy, he once more betook himself to the schools, and copied 
 from the antique with all the ardour of a youth. By and by, 
 falling more completely out of the movement of the time, he had 
 leisure to devote himself more completely to oil-painting, and 
 began, when a septuagenarian, bis opui ma/jnum, his vast cartoon, 
 "The Worship of Bacchus," measuring 13 feet 3 inches by 7 feet 
 8 inches, and containing more than a thousand figures. He had 
 the honour of exhibiting this when completed before the Queen ; 
 and afterwards accompanied it on a lecturing tour through the 
 provinces, — an expedition that resulted in a loss of some two 
 thousand pounds, — when I listened with intense interest to his own 
 exposition of the marvellous work.t This picture, with much 
 dramatic power, skilful grouping and clever drawing, is yet too 
 sketchy, too grotesque, too amorphous, to stand the test of criticism 
 from a rigid art-point of view. But it is manifestly unjust so to judge 
 it, and ignore its other claims to interest and admiration. Still, it 
 must be admitted that it has much to offend; and it is probable 
 
 * Probably " Grimakli being Shaved by a Girl," now in the Westminster Aquarium. See 
 Catalogue (No. 49) aud the long explanatory note, 
 t See the published lecture by the artist. The Worship of Bacchvs ; London, W. Tweedie, 
 
 iser.
 
 56 George Cr2!ikshank, 
 
 that in a later day, as now, it will be regarded as a gigantic failure, 
 the outcome of an enormous amount of misapplied and infructuous 
 labour. This picture, paiuted in 1862, was presented to the 
 National Gallery in 1869 by Mr. E. E. Loflft and other friends of 
 the painter. It has been engraved ; the artist himself outlining 
 the figures, and Mr. H. i\Iottram completing the work. 
 
 IX. 
 
 A few words seem opportune here of Cruikshank's labours in the 
 cause of Temperance. Heine would have had a sword instead of 
 a laurel-wieath laid upon his coffin, because he had been a brave 
 soldier in the war of the liberation of humanity. Cruikshank 
 might claim a similar trophy, — in place of the broken palette 
 which symbolized the " finis " of Hogarth, — for he too had been 
 a liardy warrior, not, like the Hamburgh Jew, in the struggle 
 against outworn creeds aud effete ideas, but against our national 
 vice, which he rightly esteemed to be the cause of nine-tenths of 
 the poverty, misery, and crime we see around us. 
 
 It cannot be a matter of doubt that by his devotion to this 
 cause, art and his own fortunes suffered together. A man of his 
 simplicity and thoroughness of character could hardly embrace a 
 cause like this, — and there is none nobler — without a devotedness 
 which the world is apt to term fanaticism. He was a man of a 
 single eye, and could not serve two masters. Moreover his style 
 suffered by the contraction of his ideas and sympathies, and his 
 art became associated with that vulgarity and want of ;estheticism 
 which, perhaps necessarily, characterises the movement. j\lore than 
 this, some of his earliest friends were alienated, and remunerative 
 work that might have been his was diverted, from sheer preju- 
 dice, into other hands. 
 
 But if it should appear necessary to seek a cause for the retire 
 mcnt of an octogenarian from active labour, another and more 
 legitimate explanation may be given for George Cruikshank's 
 partial disseverance froru art during the last decade of his life. The
 
 The Artist^ the Himiorist, and the Man. 57 
 
 most superficial study of the literature of Fiction, as it has been 
 cultivated during the past hundred years, will not fail to show 11s 
 that its aims, tendencies, and character have undergone a complete 
 change. The ludicrous situation, the comic adventure, the broad 
 joke, the coarse humour, which animate the pages of Fielding, 
 Smollett and Goldsmith, would be thought low and vulgar in these 
 days of hypersesthetical refinement. Facilities of travelling and 
 inter-communication, cheap literature, and popular art, have gone 
 far to obliterate the distinctions of class, of insularity, and of pro- 
 vincialism. You shall find a Dodo as readily as a Parson TruUiber ; 
 and Squire Western, Commodore Trunnion, Philosopher Square 
 and Doctor Primrose are as completely extinct as the ^Mastodon 
 and the Iclitliyosaurus. But if the more external and salient 
 features of humanity have undergone assimilation, there is still a 
 field for the masters and mistresses of fiction in tlio analysis of the 
 mental and moral nature. Subtle differentiation of character, nice 
 discrimination of motive, the ever insoluble problem — to man at 
 least — of femineity, the complexities arising from the sexual 
 relations, — all these are the farrago of the modern novelist, and 
 make altogether different demands upon illustrative art. Thus, 
 while the healthy manly humour of Charles Dickens in his early 
 works found in George Cruikshank its most felicitous exponent, 
 other collaboration was advisedly sought for the sickly pathos and 
 the mannered twaddle which the novelist gave us as his own attempt 
 to accommodate his style to the literary movement. It is not that 
 the art, the taste, the morality, the social conditions, the manners 
 of his age were necessarily inferior to those of the present day — 
 they were merely different. It was these which the artist had out- 
 lived ; not his genius, nor himself. 
 
 XL 
 
 It appears to me that in any account of George Cruikshank, how- 
 ever imperfect, some notice must necessarily be given to the brother 
 with whom, in his early art-life, he was associated, and for some 
 period even identified. Isaac Egbert — or, as he is gener;dly 
 called, Robert — Cruikshank, was just three years older than his
 
 58 
 
 Georoe Cnn/cs/iank. 
 
 no->v more celebrated Lrollier. The ffi'.hei-, old Isaac Cruiksliank, 
 liad not met with such encouragement in art as to lead to a desire 
 to hring his elder son up to his own profession ; and the mother, 
 a sailor's daughter, had maritime proclivities. Hence the lad was 
 sent as midshipman on E.I. C.'s vessel "Perseverance," where he re- 
 mained for some time. At length, returning home and finding that 
 Gillray, Woodward, Bunbury, and Dighton had vanished from the 
 scene, — that Eowlandson was growing old, fat, and careless, — and 
 that his brother George was beginning to get fair employment, — he, 
 too, determined to adopt art, for which he had an inherited talent, 
 as a profession. His age enabled him to take the upper hand ; in- 
 deed, as a draughtsman, he was thought to be the cleverer fellow of 
 the two, and many a plate, like " The Sparring Match at the Fives 
 Court," in Pierce Egan's Bo.dana, was etched by George from 
 a design by his elder brother. At this time it was the intention of 
 the pair to establish themselves as miniature jiainters — Eobert being 
 the draughtsman* and George the colourist — " the putter in of the 
 sublime" — as the former would laughingly term it. But tliis idea 
 was never fully carried out, and the brothers soon found remu- 
 nerative employment in the field of political and social caricature. 
 We have seen how they were associated in Pierce Egan's Life in 
 London, and how George's retirement from the engagement, in 
 disapprobation of the tendency of the work, left Eobert master of 
 the field. For \^''illiam Hone the latter worked as well as his 
 brother. In 1815 he drew the portrait of Elizabeth Penning, for 
 Hone's Report of the Trial of that unfortunate victim of circum- 
 stantial evidence. Like George, too, he took cither side in the 
 Caroline contest. For Dolby of the Strand he illustrated The New 
 Roijal Game of Chess; the Political J ll-Mij-KnacJc for the Year of 
 our Lord 1S21 ; The Quean and Magna Charta, or the Thing that 
 John signed; The Total Eclipse, a Grand Politico-Astronomical 
 Phmiomenon, 1S20, and others ; for Effingham WUson A Peep at 
 the P „ r , » » , ??, or Boiled Mutton with Caper Sauce at tlie 
 
 " "My brother, Isaac Robert," says George, in a letter to Mr. ReicI, " wa-s a very clever 
 miniature and portrait painter, and also a. desijjuer and etcher." There was unavoidable 
 rivalry and jealousy between the two men, and their habits and characters were lucon- 
 yruous ; but George .always spoke of his old associate with tender affection, and further on, 
 in the letter I hiivc quoted from, allud-3S to his "dear brother Robert."
 
 The Art is/, tlic Hnvwrist, a' d the Man. 59 
 
 Temple of Joss, 1820 ; for Dean and Munday The Men m the 
 
 Moon, or the Devil to Po.ij ; and he as well as George — though not 
 
 in unison — contributed designs of a more serious character to 
 
 Nightingale's Memoirs of Queen Caroline, a bulky octavo, x^ublishcd 
 
 by J. Eobius in 1820. 
 
 A very spirited etchiug, 16in. by 1 lin., published by G. Humiihroy 
 
 July 10, 1819, merits special attention. It is inscribed: "Every 
 
 Man on his Perch, or Going to Hobby Fair." Half a century 
 
 before, Ferguson, the astronomer, had told Dr. Johnson of " a new 
 
 invented machine which went without horses — a man who sat in it 
 
 turned a handle which worked a spring that drove it forward." 
 
 " Then, sir," replied the Doctor, " what is gained is, the man has 
 
 his choice whether ho will move himself alone, or himself and the 
 
 machine too " The laborious vehicle became obsolete, but at the 
 
 period of the publication of this pkite it was rc-iuvouted, and every 
 
 ''dandy" had his "hobby-horse," an instrument with either two or 
 
 three wheels, — no crank or treadles, — and requiring propulsion by 
 
 the impact of the riders' feet upon the ground. In one of Hone's 
 
 curious and scarce publications, The Age of latcUcd, or Clerical 
 
 Show-Folk and Wonderful Lay-FoTli. By Francis Jloore, Physician 
 
 (London, 1819, 8vo.) there is a curious coloured frontispiece by 
 
 Georrje Cruikshank, on which, among other woui.lli,; of the day, we 
 
 see one dandy painfidly struggling up-hUl on his bicycle, and 
 
 another, who, rushing precipitately down the too facilis descensus, 
 
 is in the act of performing an involuntary summe]'sault over his 
 
 runaway carriage. The following lines in the book make. aUusion 
 
 to the 
 
 " patent pedestrian accelcrator.s, 
 
 The fleeting Velocipedes — Perambulators — 
 
 Or Hobbies — which so much at present tlic rage are, 
 
 That asses they'll banish from Brighton I'll wager." 
 
 Page 171. 
 
 This is the fashion ridiculed in Eobert's plate, where, in four 
 parallel rows, we find represented twenty-four riders on Veloci- 
 pedes, — the dress of the former indicating their professions or 
 trades, and the latter appropriate to, or indicative of, the same by 
 some peculiarity of construction. Thus the sailor sits in a boat ; 
 the fiddler is astride on a violin ; the soldier i^ mounted on a
 
 60 George Cruikshank, 
 
 cannon; the tallow-chandler bestrides a huge candle ; and the 
 apothecary is bifurcated by one of his own labelled phials. The 
 plate is rare and equally clever in design and execution. There 
 is also before me a smaller etching by the same hand, inscribed 
 " Going to Hobby Fair," where we see a worthy cit of the Gilpin 
 type transcending Johnson, for he is not only moving himself and 
 the machine, but his wife and children into the bargain ! 
 
 In 1820, we have Lessons of Thrift puhlishcd for tlie General 
 Benefit, by a Member of the Save-all Club, containing eleven 
 clever coloured full-page etchings ; in 1821, a quarto volume, liand- 
 somely printed by Eulmer, Tales of the Cordelier Metamorphosed 
 (by G. Hibbert) ; and in 1824, Tlie Life and Exploits of Don 
 Quixote, " illustrated by 24 designs by Cruikshank " (Knight and 
 Lacey, 1824, 2 vols. 8vo.) The designs are cut on wood, full-page 
 size, and do not rise above mediocrity. 
 
 Several large foHo-size etchings, in the GiUray style, by Eobert 
 Cruikshank, will be found in the collection of which I have spoke 
 in a former page, entitled " Cruikshankiana." Among these may 
 be mentioned one inscribed "Dandy Fainting, or an Exi[uisite 
 in Fits ;" " The Broom Sold," (a hit at Lord Brougham) ; " House- 
 hold Troops," (a caricature of domestic servants) ; " Monstrosities 
 of 1827," (a Satire on the Fashions) ; and "A Tea-Party, or English 
 Manners and French Politeness." 
 
 I next lay my hand on a rare piece entitled Mock Heroics, or 
 
 Unuff, Tobacco, and Gin, and a Rhapsody on an LiJcstand, with 
 
 four appropriate caricature engravings by CruiJcshank, (1822) from 
 
 the last three lines of which we gain the unexceptionable moral : — 
 
 " Enjoy the gifts of Heaven in moderation, 
 And then nor Snuff, Tobacco, Gin, nor recreation, 
 Will in the least endanger your salvation." 
 
 In 1822 — 25 appeared an important serial work, now of consider- 
 able scarcity and value: — Annals of Sporting and Fancy Gazette: 
 a Magazine of Sporting Subjects and Fancy Pursuits. This is 
 illustrated with numerous coloured plates by E. Cruikshank. 
 II. Aiken, Egerton, &c. 
 
 As George published in 1823 his Points of Humour,* so Robert 
 
 ''George regarded this as an ''imitation" of his o^vn woric, and felt it nccossaiy to 
 announce " thuthe did not make a single drawing lor it." The following "Notice" also
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 61 
 
 in tho same year produced twenty clever designs for woodcuts 
 to illustrate Points of Miser ij, or FaUes for Mankind, Prose and 
 Verse, cMeflij original, by Charles Westmacott ;* of which there 
 were a hundred copies with proof impressions of the plates. By the 
 same author, under the iiseudonym of " Bernard Blackmantle," is 
 a very curious and important book, The English S}:)^, an original 
 work, Characteristic, Satirical, aad Humourous, Comprising Sceties 
 and Sketches in every rank of Society, being Portraits of the Illus- 
 trious, Eminent, Eccmifric and Notorious, (2 vols. 8vo., 1825.) In 
 the pages of these extraordinary volumes figure all the notabilities 
 of the day, either openly, or under slight disguise ; and Tom Best, 
 White-headed Bob, " Pea-green " Hayne, Pierce Egan, Colonel 
 Berkeley, the " Golden Ball," " Horse " Kett, Beau BrummeU, 
 Charles Matthews, Jemmy Gordon, and a host of others of equal 
 notoriety, mingle, cheek-by-jowl, in the vivid and moving panorama. 
 The seventy-two large colom'ed plates are almost all by Eobert 
 Cruikshank, and include two by the veteran, Eowlandson. Portraits 
 of the author are liberally introduced, and we find him especially 
 in one of the admirable vignettest on wood — the last in the book — 
 where " Bob Transit," his companion, is a likeness of the artist. In 
 this year, too, the latter furnished the large folding and other coloured 
 plates for the second edition of Pierce Egan's Sporting Anecdotes. 
 
 In the foUowing year (1826) we have the The Punster's Pocket- 
 Book; or the AH of Punning enlarged. By Bernard Blackmantle. 
 Some of the wood-cuts in this pretty volume, which is a rifacimento 
 of the Ars Punica of Dr. Sheridan, as enlarged by Swift, are 
 worthy, in spirit and delicacy, of George himself. 
 
 appeared at the same time; — "As there are works continually advertised, * with dilates by 
 Cruikshank,' the Putlio are particularly requested to observe that George Cruikshank has no 
 connexion with any Pulilieatious to which his Christian Name is not affixed ; and that all 
 Works, for which he has made designs, are advertised \vith his name in full." 
 
 ♦ Charles MoUoy Westmacott, a natural son of the celebrated sculptor whose name he 
 assumed, was a tj-pical editor of the "rowdy" period of journalism. He conducted the 
 Age newspaper, and wrote the Anmud Critical Catalogue to the Royal Academy. Charles 
 KemWe horsewhipped him in 1830 for an alleged insult to his d.aughter Fanny, and Bulwer 
 threatened a like procedme, but did not carry it out. He retired to Paris, where he died in 186S. 
 
 t There is an exquisite wood-cut on the title page which I find a difficulty lu attributing 
 to either of the artists, -Crnikshank, GiUray, Rowlandson, and Finlay— to whom the 
 vignettes are assigned. It illustrates the distich 
 
 " By Frolic, JUinh, and Fancy gay, 
 Old Father Time is borne away 
 — and IS worthy of Bartulozzi or Cipriani.
 
 62 George Cridkshank. 
 
 In 1827 the two brothers once more collaborated in the ilhisl ra- 
 tion of a charming volume, entitled London Cliaruders, which noAV 
 holds place in the estimation of collectors among the rarest and 
 most covetable in the entire kyriell of Cruikshankiaua. This was 
 published by Eobins, and contains twenty-four coloured plates, of 
 which nine are by Eobert Cruikshanli, and the remaining fifteen by 
 his brother George, among whose more admirable productions they 
 are justly reckoned. It is in 1 2mo. ; and a fine copy would probably 
 realize " pajjer." Ilobert contributed three illustrations also in this 
 year to the Fairy Tales, from the German of Albert Ludwig Grimm, 
 the remaining cuts being from the pencil of his brother George. 
 
 In 1828 appeared Doings in Loiulon, or Day and Night Scenes 
 of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the. Metrojjolis. 
 This book, which was written by George Smeeton, the prmter, con- 
 tains a large amount of really curious antiquarian information, and 
 is Illustrated by twenty-three very characteristic designs, cut on 
 wood by Bonner. By Smeeton also was published Tlie British 
 Dance of Death, exemplified by a Series of Engravings from 
 Drawings by Van Assen, for which Robert produced the admirable 
 coloured frontispiece, exhibiting in compartments the doings of the 
 King of Terrors, who, seated in the midst, with crowned head and 
 scythe, manipulates the globe which acknowledges his sway. In 
 this year, too, was published The Spirit of the Age Newspaper for 
 1828, the bastard title-page of which is adorned with a charming 
 vignette on wood by Bonner, which bears the name of our artist as 
 designer ; and The Universal Songster, or Museum of Mirth, form- 
 ing the most complete, extensive, and valuable Collection of Ancient 
 and Modern Songs in the English Language, Amatai'y, Bucchancdian, 
 Comic, Masonic, Naval, Sporting, ^c. (3 vols, 8vo.), with 
 humourous characteristic frontispieces, and 87 wood-cuts designed 
 by George and Eobert Cruikshank. We find also by the latter 
 thirteen coloured plates in London Oddities, or Theatrical Cabinet, 
 Tit Bits of Humour and, Eccentricity. 
 
 Hoy/ comes the Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and 
 Logic in their Pursuits through Life in and out of London. By 
 Pierce Egan, (1830,) with its thirty-six coloured " Scenes from Keal
 
 The Art is', the /Iiivwn'st, and the Man. 
 
 03 
 
 Life," and clever wood-out vignettes, all the worlc of T?oliort Crnik- 
 shank. Of this volume I havo already spoken at length on jjage 24. 
 A series of little books published about this time by Kidd, 
 Miller, and others, which have been since collected together in two 
 volumes, and issued under the common title of FaceticK : Being a 
 general collection of the Jeux (V Esprits, 'wJtich have been illustrated 
 by Robert CruiJcshanJc, contain some of the choicest and most 
 characteristic specimens of his talent. Among them we have Dibdin's 
 High Mettled Racer* Monsieur Nongtongpaw, Taylor's Monsieur 
 Tonson, Margate, Pierce Egan's Snuff-box and the Leetel Bird, Mon- 
 criefTs March of Intellect, and Old Booty, Montagu's Monsieur Mallet, 
 Coleridge's Devil's Walk, TJie Devil's Visit, The Real Devil's WuUc, 
 Brighton, and Steamers and Stages. In similar form we have also, 
 Wallcs about Town by an Antiquated Trio, The condition of the West 
 Indian Slave contrasted with that of the Infant Slave in onr English 
 Factories, Trip to Greenioich Fair, Cniikshank and the New Police, 
 Cruikshanh versus Witchcraft, Mary Ogllvy, Wee Watty, and 
 Robert Cniikshank versus Sir Andrew Agnew ; to which may be 
 added from Thomas's " Comic Drama," Poote's Tailors, n Tragedy 
 for Warm Weather, Kane O'Hara's Midas, a Burletta, Foote's 
 Mayor of Garratt, Gay's Beggar's Opera, and Shakespeare's 
 KatJierine and Petruchio. 
 
 The admirable designs in these charming little volimies, which 
 should find a place in every Cruikshankian collection, are variously 
 cut on wood by Bonner, Byfield, Kirchner, S. Williams, Sears, 
 .Slader, Walker, and Eoberl's son, Percy Cruikshank. 
 
 AVhen George published his Comic Alpjliabet, Ttobert was not 
 iOng in " following suit." I have before me The Comic Alphabd, 
 containing Twenty-six illustrations by Cruikshank., by W. E. Mac- 
 donaJd. The designs are circular, well cut on wood, and in spirit 
 and force worthy of the rival artist. 
 
 In 1831 was published by Moxon that exquisite piece of humour, 
 Satan in Search of a Wife, with the whole Process of his Courtship 
 and Marriage, and who danced at the Wedding. By an Eye-Witness. 
 This "eye-witness" was no other than Charles Lamb, whose 
 
 * Soutliey (C'oHu^inVi I. 33tl-) said of this liallad that -'it ought to 1)6 printed iil every 
 snelling-book, and learnt by heart in every nursery."
 
 64 George Crnikshank, 
 
 ovine tiirn of thouglit is discernible in every stanza. It is exces- 
 sively rare, and altliougli one of the happiest and most characteristic 
 productions of the man, has not been included in any collection of 
 "Eliana." I can hardly venture to assert that the clever cuts by 
 Bonner are from the pencil of Eobert Cruikshank; but I do not 
 jjnow to whom I may otherwise attribute them. 
 
 In 1334 appeared a very elegant volume : Original Fables, with 
 Morals and Ethical Index, written by Job Crithannah, embeUinhed 
 with an elaborate frontispiece and eighty-four original designs by 
 R. Cruickshank (sic), engraved on wood by Slader, Dodd, WiUiams, 
 Bonner, and others, — the author's real name being, I beheve, 
 Nathan Bii'ch. In 1836, we have : Readings from Dean Swiff, His 
 " Tale of a Tub," with Variorum Notes, and a Supplement. For the 
 use of the Nineteenth Century. By Quinbus Flestrin Grildrig, with 
 six hard and coarsely executed wood-cuts ; in 1838, Divine Em- 
 blems, by Johann Abricht, A.M. ; in 1839, The Lady and tlie 
 Saints, with ten vignettes on wood ; in 1843, Tales and Legends 
 of the Isle of IFight. By Abraham Elder, with fourteen etchings, of 
 very careless and indififerent character (originally published without 
 the illustrations in Bentley's Miscellany) ; in 1843, Chronicles of the 
 Bastille, with 40 plates; and in 1349, The Orphan, or Memoirs of 
 Matilda by Eugene Sue, translated by the Hon. D. G. Osborne, 
 with 24 illustrations. Without date, but a few years earlier, we 
 have the Hudibrastic History of Lord Amherst's Visit to China, by 
 W. A. Kentish, "with a Parody of God Save the King"; Kidd's 
 London Directory and London Ambulator; Kidd's Golden Key of the 
 Treasures of Knowledge, and the Little World of Great and Good 
 Things ; and CruihshanlSs Offering of Mirth. 
 
 For George Daniel, of Canonbury Square, Islington, the sale of 
 whose extraordinary collection in 1864 constitutes an epoch in the 
 annals of bibliography, our artist, in conjunction with John Leech, 
 illustrated with etchings Merrie England in the Olden Time, a book 
 containing no smaU amount of curious antiquarian information, 
 drawn from the marvellous literary stores of the author. The original 
 issue of 1841 has become very scarce, but a cheap reprint can now 
 be obtained from Messrs. Warno and Co. 
 
 With the same George Daniel as editor, and K. W. Buss and T.
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the I\fan. G5 
 
 Wageman as artists, he was associated in the illustration of Cumher- 
 laml's Bfitidt and Minor Theatre, the piiblishors of which describe 
 his designs as " prominent scenes, excellently well engraved by 
 Bonner, from drawings sketched in the Theatre by the celebrated and 
 eccentric Eobert Cruikshank, than whom, in the delineation of 
 mirth, mischief, extravagance and whim, a more cunning wight 
 never wielded pencil or brush." 
 
 The collector will hardly neglect the acquisition of three amusing 
 volumes entitled Cruikshank at Home, with their full-page wood- 
 cuts and numerous clever vignettes. These were supplemented by 
 The Odd Volume, or Book of Variety; illustrated hij tioo odd 
 felloios, Seymour and Cruikshank. In the Preface to this we read 
 tliat the " Engravings are the joint production of two clever artists — 
 the one, Mr. Cruikshank, a long-established favourite, — the other, 
 Mr. Seymour, a gentleman of far superior talent, but hitherto, 
 perhaps, not quite so extensively known, in consequence of his 
 short residence in London." We get fui-ther bibliographical infor- 
 mation in a note : — 
 
 " These designs were originally intended for a fourth volume of 
 Cruikshank at Home ; but in consequence of the late disagree- 
 ment between the two brothers Cruikshank (in reference to the 
 question, ' Which is the real Simon Pure V) the projected title has 
 been changed, and the work, by the assistance of Mr. Seymour, 
 metamorphosed into an ' Odd ' Volume." 
 
 Hereby hangs a curious story, of which I am reminded as I 
 write. When a certain ingenious German writer, Herr Nagler, 
 compiling a Kunstler's Lexicon, came to draw up a notice of George 
 Cruikshank, his eye was caught, in looking over some Ent^Hsh 
 review, by the statement, in answer to the question cited above, 
 that "the real Simon Pure was George Cruikshank." The formula, 
 become proverbial among ourselves, was not familiar to him and 
 he took it to mean that the latter was an assumed name and the 
 former the real one. He accordingly commenced his biography 
 thus, — " Pure (Simon), the real name of the celebrated caricaturist, 
 George Cruikshank," &c. ! 
 
 The fact is, George, who was not improperly tenacious of his 
 own merits and reputation, had, since his professional severance
 
 66 George Cniikshank, 
 
 from his brother, suffered rrmch annoyance from the dishonesty of 
 certain publisliers, who sought, by the omission of the Christian 
 name, to impose upon the public as his designs those of the elder and 
 less able artist. Years after, when poor Eobert had departed " ad 
 plures," there was stiU a second " Cruilvshank " to claim a share of 
 the honour and rewards associated with the name. Thus George 
 thought it " a duty " to inform the public that he hAd a nephew 
 whose Christian name was " Percy," — that he was employed by 
 " a person of the name of Eead," — that the latter, in advertising any 
 work executed by the nephew, announced it " as by ' Cruikshank,' " 
 and that numerous persons, he was informed, had purchased such 
 publications under the impression that they were illustrated by 
 himself. He therefore cautioned the public against buying any 
 work as his with the name of Eead, of Johnson's Court, upon it as 
 publisher, — that he " never did anything for that person and never 
 should," — and that his "observations" were not directed against 
 his nephew, to whom he wished every good, but against the said 
 Eead, who by leaving out the Christian name of the latter had 
 deprived him of his just credit, and created a " confusion of persons 
 which if not done for the purpose of deceiving the public, ajipears 
 to be very much like it." The King, however, never dies ; and of 
 late years we have had a second " George Cruikshank," a son of the 
 aforesaid Percy, (who, by the way, besides being a designer, was a 
 skilful engraver on wood, and cut many of his uncle's and father's 
 designs). This second George, duruig the life-time of his great 
 uncle, very properly appended " Junior " to his signature, or styled 
 himself " Calvert " Cruikshank, from the name of his mother, a 
 daughter of an artist of cjusiderable talent, formerly resident in 
 Birmingham. Thus, when in 1875, he illustrated for Messrs. 
 Grant and Co. a Hiniory of Bluebeard's Wives, he styled himself 
 on the title-page " George Cruikshank Junior." It was this probably 
 that incited the authorities of the British Museum to describe the 
 George Cruikshank as " the elder," on every occurrence of his name 
 in their Catalogue,- — a precaution which may possibly load to the 
 attribution to old Isaac himself of some of the works of liis gifted 
 son ; and, in a future day, to still further " confusion of persons," 
 when the coUeotor, puzzled by so many " Eichmonds in the field,"
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 67 
 
 may have difficulty in discriminating between these various repre- 
 sentatives of four (generations of comic artists. ^ need only add 
 that of this " yoimger " George I possess, or have seen, designs of 
 considerable merit, and that he seems likely to sustain worthily 
 the reputation of the name. Still, the practised eye will distinguish 
 the " Georgium Sidus " from its satellites, — alike now and to the end 
 of time, to the connoisseur, there can be but one George Cruikshant. 
 But before I bid farewell to Eodert, a parting word remains to 
 be said. I have hitherto spoken only of his book-illustrations, 
 which were too often hasty, slovenly, and uninformed by that 
 earnest and conscientious spirit which characterized every thing to 
 which the yoimger brother put his hand. They were in fact " pot- 
 boilers," and were so regarded by the careless artist. But the same 
 cannot be said of the exquisitely finished water-colour drawings 
 which he occasionally made fur jjrivate patrons, ;iud by which his 
 capabilities may be more fairly judged. Here, says one who 
 knew him long and well, — the late George Daniel, of Islington, his 
 literary coadjutor in Cumberland's British Tlieatre : — " His genius 
 is advantageously seen. He was apt to conceive and prompt to 
 execute. He had a quick eye and a ready hand. With all his 
 extravagant drollery, his drawing is anatomically correct ; his 
 details are minute, expressive, and of careful finish; and his 
 colouring is bright and delicate. The best efforts of Gillray and 
 Eowlandson may hardly compare with them. Of these choice 
 specimens there were, unhappily, bat few. He could afford neither 
 time nor study to produce them unless a patron came forth, and 
 then their production was his especial delight." In private life, he 
 was a man of considerable reading, fluent conversation, gentlemanly 
 manners, and liberal hospitahty. He had much of the carelessness 
 of genius, and a disposition to indulge too freely in the pleasures 
 of the table. The favorite amusement of his leisure hours was 
 archery. He was an ardent toxophilite ; and had acquu-ed such skill 
 in the use of the bow that in the days gone by he would hardly have 
 been deemed an "vnperfyte shoter" by old Ascham himself, or failed 
 to cleave the wUlow-wand in the glades of merry Sherwood. He 
 had known, as well as drawn, " each shade of many coloured Hfe " ; 
 and had experienced one and the other fortune. His chequered
 
 68 
 
 George Crtdkshank, 
 
 career came to a close on Marcli 13th, 1856, ■when he died, after a 
 short illness, of bronchitis, in the 66th year of his age "An 
 eminent aitist, a facetious companion, and a kindly man has just 
 passed away," — wrote his ancient ally, George Daniel, in a short 
 but feeling tribute to the memory of his old acquaintance, in his 
 little volume Love's Last Labour Not Lost, (London, Pickering, 1863), 
 p. 163. He left a son, Percy, alluded to above as a designer, but 
 better kiiown by his more legitimate profession of an engrav(n' on 
 wood. In this capacity he executed, as we have seen, some of the 
 
 (From an Original Pencil Draiving.) 
 
 engravings from his father's designs ; and a vignette engraved by 
 him fioin a drawing by his uncle, George, will be found in a 
 curious volume entitled Martin's Vagaries ; being the sequel to "A
 
 The Artist, the rhimorist, and the Man. G9 
 
 Tale of a Tub," recently discovered at (he University of Oxford. Edited 
 with Notes by Scriblerus Oxoniensis. (London, 1 843, 8 ■/o),— in which 
 are also two full-page etchings, signed " George Cmikshank." 
 
 I do not protend to have written a life, or anything approacliing 
 to an exliaustive bibliography, of Eobert Cruikshank. All that I 
 have attempted to do is to put together some trivial m^moires pour 
 servir, by mdicating from the materials before me, some noteworthy 
 points in his career as an artist. To accomplish this much appeared 
 desirable for the following reasons :— I have never seen any account 
 of him, and am not aware that any exists ; he was a draughtsman 
 of considerable talent, and supremely typical of his interesting 
 period ; he was the early associate of the immortal George, and the 
 work of the two men is, in some cases, indistinguishable ; he is 
 unwisely, as it appears to me, ignored and neglected by collectors ; 
 and lastly, because, in my opinion, the jjar nohile fratrum should 
 be associated by their works, through all time, in the same portfolio. 
 
 Aa it is. I may be thought to have indulged in too long an 
 excursus, and must return to the " Simon Puee " of the present 
 essay. 
 
 XII. 
 
 "We aU know the story of the pedant of Hierocles, who, wishuig 
 to sell his house, carried about with him a brick as a specimen. In 
 the analysis of his art-AVork which I have attempted, I have, of 
 course, found it necessary to particularize; but it is by no such pro- 
 cedure that an adequate estimate can be formed of the genius of 
 George Cruikshank. This must be guaged, not by a few master- 
 pieces, as in the case of some great artists, but by the entu-e range 
 and aggregate of his productions. " Look at one of his works," as 
 Thackeray well puts it, " and we pronounce him an excellent 
 humourist ; look at all, his reputation is increased by a kind of 
 geometrical progression, — as a whole diamond ia a hundred times 
 more valuable than the hundred splinters into which it might be 
 broken.'- And, whether we regard it collectively or in detail, what 
 ar. enormous mass of admirable work is the outcome of these well- 
 nigh four score years of earnest, honest, single-minded labour ! He 
 was a man of unflagging industry, inexhaustible invention, and the
 
 70 George Crziik shank, 
 
 utmost facility of execution. His life, as he himself once described 
 it to me, had been as that of a squirrel in its cage, — paddling with 
 his Iiands, as he spoke, to suggest the monotonous action of the little 
 animal Thus the mere number of his productions is something 
 prodigious. Mr. Eeid has registered nearly 5,000 separate designs, 
 though his Catalogue stops at the year 1870; and the largest known 
 collection, that of Mr. Edward Truman, of 23, Old Bui'lington 
 Street, contains over 7,000. Yet when we reflect that the art-woi'k 
 of John Leech, extending over a period of not more than five and 
 twenty years, represents a totality of 5,000 designs, we are forced 
 to the conclusion that even these coUeotions are comparatively 
 insignificant and incomplete. Indeed, I should myself have hazarded 
 the supposition that George Cruikshank must have altogether pro- 
 duced not less than from 15,000 to 20,000 separate pieces. 
 
 Here may once more be suggested the problem, which I shall not 
 now attempt to solve, whether the artist suffers a dynamical loss in 
 direct ratio with the numerical increase of his productions. Thacke- 
 ray's metaphor hardly runs on all fours; for after all, the diamond has 
 been broken into splinters, and its market value can never more be 
 the same. Again, the old question as to what constitutes " High 
 Alt," — so well answered by Charles Lamb, — may stUl be put, 
 legitimately enough, by those who are so constituted as not to 
 receive elevated or agreeable impressions from a certain class of 
 subjects, and to whom a primrose is but a primrose, however 
 glorified by art.* I" or my own part, I must confess, that in the 
 intense gratification which I have derived from the study of the 
 productions of Georgo Cruikshank, it never occm'red to me, as 
 a matter to be regretted, that he had not employed his genius in a 
 different direction. But such a regret has been felt, and expressed 
 in exquisite language, by a critic whose purity of sentiment and 
 eloquence of diction always captivate the soul, even whore his 
 reasoning fails to convince the understanding. Withoiit venturing 
 to express an opinion of my own on a subject where so much 
 might be said, I conclude this section with the passage I refer to : 
 
 * " A Primrose by a river's brim, 
 A yellow priiuro-se was to him, 
 AU'l it wui nothing mure." 
 
 — WonDswonrii, PeUr Bell
 
 The Artist^ the Humorist, and the RTan. 71 
 
 — " Among the forumost men wliose power lias had to assert itself, 
 though witli contest, yet with countless loss, through peculiarly 
 English disadvantages of circumstance, are assuredly to be ranked 
 together, both for honour and for mourning, Thomas Bewick and 
 George Cruikshank. There is, however, less cause for regret in the 
 instance of Bewick. "We may understand that it was \vell for us once 
 to see what an entirely powerf id painter's genius, and an entirely keen 
 and true man's temper, could achieve together, unhelped, but also un- 
 harmed, among the black banks and wolds of Tyne. But the genius 
 of Cruikshank has been cast away in an utterly ghastly and lament- 
 able manner : his superb line-work, worthy of any class of subject, 
 and his powers of conception and composition, of which I cannot 
 venture to estimate the range in their degraded ajsplication, having 
 been condemned by his fate, to be spent either in rude jesting, or 
 in vain war with conditions of vice too low alike for record or 
 rebuke, among the dregs of the British populace. Yet perhaps I 
 am wrong in regretting even this : it may be an appointed lesson 
 for futurity that the art of the best English etcher in the nineteenth 
 century, spent on illustrations of the lives of burglars and drunkards, 
 should one day be seen in museums beneath Greek vases fretted 
 with drawings of the wars of Troy, or side by side with Diii-er's 
 'Knight and Death.'"* 
 
 XIII. 
 
 It may appear strange that an artist of such amazing energy of 
 productiveness, — his name a household word in our homes, — an.. 
 his work giving popularity and value to anything with which it 
 was associated, — should not have accumulated wealth for himself 
 as weU as for others. But the explanation is not far to seek. " Of 
 all arts and professions in this country," writes Thomas Keightley 
 in the amusingly egotistical preface to his Fairn Mijtliology, " that 
 of literature is the least respected and the worst remunerated." This 
 might have been asserted with even more truth of comic art, — at 
 least during the period of George's greatest fecundity. " He has 
 
 *The (iLxn of the Air, being a Study of the Gretk Myths of Cloud and Storm. By John 
 Euskin, L.IJ.D., Loudon, 1869, 8vo, p. 161.
 
 72 GeoTge Crtdkshank, 
 
 been oHiged to sell liis wit for liis bread, week by weeic," say 
 Thackeray, " to wring laughter day by day, sometimes, perliaps, out 
 of want, often certainly from ill-healtb or depression, — to keep the 
 fire of his brain perpetually alight, for the greedy public will 
 giv'e it no leisure to cool; " and the same author adds, " time was 
 (we are told so in print) when for a picture with thirty heads in it 
 he was paid three guineas — a poor week's pittance truly, and a dire 
 week's labour ! " For the designs for Hone's Political squibs I have 
 heard that the artist's ordinary remuneration was half a guinea each 
 only. Mr. Sala, a very competent authority, states that ho was, 
 "as a rule, very poorly paid," — that for an Ulustrative etching on 
 a plate octavo-size he never received more than twenty -five pounds, 
 and had been paid as low as ten, — that he had often drawn "a charm- 
 ing little vignette on wood" for a guinea, — and questions whether his 
 average income, taking the bad years with the good, exceeded six 
 hundred pounds a year. But besides that he lived before the days 
 of liberal art-remuneration, he was of an open, trustful disposition, 
 gave and lent freely, kept a respectable establishment, and had, 
 moreover, sustained heavy losses in certain enterprizes connected 
 with his profession. Thus, years ago, Thackeray had felt it neces- 
 sary to ask if there was " no way in which the country could 
 acknowledge the long services' and brave career of such a friend and 
 benefactor," — of this " fine rough English diamond," as he termed 
 him. But nothing was done ; and a new generation came on who 
 knew not George, — or knowing him, regarded him as already 
 belonging to the past. Thus, when in 1S6G, a committee, with 
 John Buskin at its head, sought to give a practical answer to the 
 question by the collection of a " Subscription Testimonial," the 
 attempt was a failure, hundreds only being received when thousands 
 were exjjectcd. It is, however, a consolation to know that the 
 lionourable poverty of this distinguished man was, in some measure, 
 alleviated by a pension of £100 from the Civil List, on the ground 
 of his public services as an artist ; and that this, by the direction of 
 the Earl of Eeaconsfield, is continued to his respected widow. He 
 also enjoyed a pension of £50 from the Eoyal Academy's " Turner" 
 Annuities. 
 
 "With Ibis slender viaticum for the evening of that day whoso
 
 
 n^e f^&e d.nc[ Djc cJltu
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the J} fan. 73 
 
 morning-march had hcen so worthily and independently accom- 
 plished, the artist approached the conclusion of liis ninth decade. 
 So late as last year was puhlished Mrs. Octavian Blewitt's Rose 
 and IMij, hoio they became the Emblems of England and France, a 
 Fairy Tale, containing a frontispiece " Designed and etched by 
 George Cruikshanlc, age 83—1875 "—probably the last book illus- 
 trated by his hand ; and only a few months ago his name was sub- 
 scribed to a letter in the Times, concerning the statue of Bruce for 
 the battle-field of Bannockburn, of which he claimed to be the 
 designer, — his last appearance before the public. Eetaining, even 
 in this advanced age, much of the vivacity of temperament, the 
 sprightliness of fancy, the warmtli of heart, and the cheerfulness of 
 disposition which had characterized him through life, he seemed to 
 realize 8ir Walter Scott's beautiful description of King Een6 : — 
 " A mirthful man he was ; the snows of age 
 Fell, but they did not chill him. Gaiety, 
 Even in life's closing, touched his teemiug brain 
 With such wild visions as the setting sun 
 Raises in front of some hoar glacier. 
 Painting the bleak ice with a thousand hues." 
 Of a fine constitution, active habits,* and that type of bodily 
 conformation which seemed to promise longevity, he bade fair to 
 furnish an example of centenarianism in which even the sagacity 
 of a Thoms could find no flaw. But alas ! though Art is 
 immortal, the Artist dies, — • 
 
 nee pietas moram 
 
 Eugis, et instanti senectre 
 Ali'eret, indomitaBque morti." 
 Early in this year George Cruikshank was attacked by bronchitis 
 — the same malady which just at this period carried ofi' two 
 honoured veterans in literature — Professor Creasy and Doctor 
 DoRAN. He made successful battle against the disease, and hopes 
 were entertained of liis final recovery. But this wai not to be; 
 
 * Nearly seventy years ago, he served as private iu the Loyal North British Volunteers. 
 The establishment of the Volunteer foree afl'orded him, in 1859, an opportunity of again 
 displaying his military ardour. He joined the Havelock, or 4Sth Middlesex Rifle Corps,— 
 all, by the way, total abstainers,— of which he became Lieutenant Colonel. This post he 
 continued to hold iu spite of the expressed opinion of his oflicers that ho was, from his 
 great age, incompetent for the duties of the position. A memorial on the subject was sent 
 to the Lord Lieutenant, and by him forwarded to the War Office. The result was an order, 
 in an., 1S69, to cashier every one of the fourteen officers who had signed the document. 
 Then the regiment was left with three or four oIBoers only,— an octo-onarian commander 
 and the rest mere lads. His own resignation followed.
 
 74 George Ci-uikshank. 
 
 and on Feb. 1, 1878, a universal feeling of sorrow was occasioned 
 by the intelligence that the great master who had lived in the 
 reigns of four English monarchs, and delighted by his art as many 
 successive generations of men, had passed away from among us. 
 A noble appeal was made in the columns of the Daily Telegraph 
 by his old friend Mr. Sala, for a sepulchre in St. Paul's ; but 
 this, from actual want of space in the crypt could not, at the time, 
 be accorded. So, on the following Saturday, his honoured remains 
 were borne* to a resting place at Kensall Green, amid the regrets 
 of the few who loved him for his noble nature, the many who 
 knew liim but by his art, and a host of feUow-workers in the great 
 harvest-field of Temperance. 
 
 XIV, 
 
 / EEE in conclusion, I may venture to express in brief 
 and hasty summary the opinion which personal 
 knowledge and loving study have led me to 
 form of George CRUiKsnANK, in the threefold 
 aspect in which I have sought to exhibit him : — 
 As a Man, few have led so pure and blame- 
 less a life as he; or left behind a name and 
 reputation so altogether unsmirched. Honourable, truthful, 
 generoxis, unselfish, open, warm-hearted, and single-minded, he 
 retained to the last day of his long and noble life, the wit 
 of a man with the simplicity of a child. Mixing freely with 
 the miserable, the profligate and the vicious of mankind, he 
 was " among them, but not of them ; " familiar from his boy- 
 hood with the metropolitan dens of misfortune, infamy, and crime, 
 he ever came out the purer from the contact. His singularly pure 
 »nd healthy nature refused the assimilation of evU ; or rather, like 
 the Pontic monarch of olden days, he foimd wholesome nourishment 
 in the very poison, and throve on that which woidd have been the 
 death of a weaker nature. With an adequate conception of his 
 own talents, and some jealousy as to their fitting recognition, he 
 had yet much of the humility of true genius, and was generous in 
 acknowledgement of the merits of others. He was fearless as 
 
 * Tlio bearers were Lord Houghton (Moncton Millies), Samuel Carter IlaU, F.S,A. 
 Cbarles Landseer, B.A., George Augustus Sala, Mr. Ellis, aud General MeMurdo.
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 75 
 
 "Bayard in what he deemed to ho riglit, and had the manliness and 
 chivalry of nature of an ancient Paladin. In a century prolific to 
 an extraordinary degree of remarkable men, he stands out one of 
 the most noteworthy, typical, and interesting. He never made an 
 enemy, and was beloved by his contemporaries of the successive 
 generations thi'ough which he lived. " His friends," said tlic learned 
 antiquary, the late Thomas Wright, "not only admire him for his 
 talents, but love him for his kind and genial sphit ; " and among 
 these, — to adopt the words of the same accomplished writer — none 
 loved and admired him more than ho who now pens this imperfect 
 tribute to his memory. 
 
 As a HUMOURIST,* it is his glory that by his example and 
 influence he emancipated Comic Art from the grossness and 
 vulgarity with which, till his day, it had been associated ; 
 raised it to the highest point to which it has yet attained ; 
 
 *At the commencement of the present essay, I sought to characterise broadly, and yet 
 definitely, the four artists whom I considered to be the canUnal representatives of the 
 various branches of pictorial satire, as it has been practised in this country. But I by no 
 no means expect that every ai-t-critic will consider* my choice judicious. It is the old 
 difficulty:— 
 
 " Quid dera? quid uou dem? renuis quod tu, jubet alter." 
 — An able and genial French writer, M. Ernest Chesneau, in a paper entitled, " Un Humor- 
 iste Anglais : John Leech," in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, (1875, p. 632), places that artist in 
 a higher rank than I, admirable as I admit his talents to be, shoirld be disposed to concede 
 to him ; and would, I doubt not, consider any generalization imperfect which did not include 
 him as the typical head and representative of a class. As bearing upon Hogarth, George 
 Cruikshank, and Satiric Art in England, the remarks of a critical foreigner will be read 
 with interest, if not with entire concurrence : — 
 
 "1/9 uom de John Leech mi'rite de prendre place dans la mimoire de tons les amateurs 
 aupres d'un autre nom justement celibre, celui de Wiluam Hooabth. q. 
 
 "John Leech ne nous apparait pas plus quo William Hooabth comme rni caricaturisto. 
 lis se ."iervent I'uu et I'autre du crayon ou de la brosse dans une flu 6trang4re A celle du rire 
 qui est le but des deformations apportces A la r^aUte par la caricature. On sait quel terrible 
 morabste, quel satirique violent, cruel, implacable, fut ce grossier Saxon d' Hogarth, dont 
 le genie amer, vigoureux, anime par une verve cndiabWe, fit hurler sous le fouet les laideurs, 
 les inflrmitSs, et les vices de ses contemporains. n s'attaque aux monstruosites morales 
 et pathologiques de son temps,— 6troitement solidaires, celles-ci de celles-Ii,— aveo I'em- 
 portement sanguiu et la bileuse dnergie d'une misanthropic iudign^e, rcvoltde dans tous ses 
 instincts honnetos. Hogarth est de la famine do Timon d'Ath{:nes, une sorte d'Alcesta 
 trivial et brutal. * » « ♦ " Chez John Leech, il faut le ripeter, parceque e'cst un 
 trait caracteristique, la vieille rudesse anglaise s'est extr§mement adoucie, Je I'opposais 
 k Hogarth au deliut de ces quelques pages : j'aurais pu etendre la comparaison et opposer 
 son aimable philosophie aux violences, aux brutalites, aux grossi^retes, aux indccences, i 
 I'aprete, a I'ardeur de vengeance, au fiel, 4 la haine des caricaturistes anglais en ce siecle, 
 du miserable Gillray, de Bdnbury, de SEVMonR, d'ALKEN, de Rowlandson, et surtout 
 de I'apostat Ceuikshank, dont le.s oeuvi-es pleines d'imaginatioB, de verve, de fougue, 
 d'energie, d'ardem-, de fantaisie, de trait, de caprice, sont a lieuvre de Leech ce qu'une 
 suite de furieuses invectives serait t, la fine 4pigramme d'un galaut homme et d'un lettri"
 
 76 George Cruikshank, 
 
 and did much to gain it tlie position which it ought to occupy :* 
 that he never transgressed the narrow line that separates wit from 
 buffoonery and vulgarity, pandered to sensuality, glorified vice, or 
 raised a laugh at the expence of decency. Satire, in his hands, 
 never degenerated into brutality or scurrility. A moral purpose 
 ever underlaid his humour ; he sought to instruct or improve when 
 he amused. " He has told us," finely says Thackeray, " a thousand 
 now truths in as many strange and fascinating ways ; he has given 
 a thousand new and pleasant thoughts to millions of people ; he 
 has never used his wit dishonestly; he has never, in all the 
 exuberance of his frolicsome nature, caused a single painful or 
 guilty blush. How little do we think of the extraordinary power 
 of this man, and how ungrateful we are to him ! " 
 
 As an Artist, ia his own special line, he is primus absque 
 secundo ; — "none but himself can be his parallel." He reigns 
 supreme and solitary in a clearing — so to speak — of his own ; 
 distinct, on the one hand, from the high park-lands of the 
 aristocracy of Art, and on the other, from the common sward of 
 the indiscriminate mob. With his talents, energy, and industry, 
 fie might doubtless have done anything that any one had done 
 before him ; have made a name, had he so wiUed it, in Art 
 Religious or Historical, — in Portraiture, Landscape, Con- 
 versations, Animal or StiU I,ife. But he instinctively took a 
 domain or walk of his own ; and having taken it, made it and 
 himself famous. Simple, intelligible, and popular in all that he 
 did, he had gained an impregnable lodgment in the hearts of the 
 people a generation before his merits as an artist proper had been 
 recognized by the critics.! His genius was strictly autochthonic ; 
 
 * That is, as a branch of tho Fine Ai-ts. Its importance in the domain of Archajology 
 has been sufficiently viniUcatcd by Malcolm f Historical Sketch oj the Art 0/ Caricaturing 
 London, 1813, 4to) ; Panofka (Parodicn mid Karilcalarcn auf iVerketi der KtassiJcen Kunstt 
 Berlin, 1S50, Svo) ;) Wright fA History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature aild Art^ 
 London, ISGj, 4t.o) ; and Champfleuxy (llistoire de la Caricature Antique et an Uoyen-dge 
 Paris, 1S72, 2 vols., 12mo.) 
 
 t Anions these may be cited an admirable artist and able critic, Mr. P. 0. Hamerton, 
 whose well-considered judgment I should regret not to be able to pl.ace on record : — " There 
 is in CuuiKSUANK an artist within or behind the caricaturist ; and this artist is a person of 
 exceptional endowment. His invention is Wvid, and his power of drawing the fignrea 
 invented is singularly sprightly and precise. There are etchings by CnuiKSiiiixK, though 
 these are not numerous in proportion to the mass of his great laboiu-.t, which arc aa 
 exci-llcnt .irtistica'Iy as they are notable for genius and wit, where the stroke of tho needle
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, ar.d the Man. 77 
 
 he belonged to no Suhool or Academy ; lie held no diploma or 
 titular distinction ; he had neither rival nor imitator ; and as he 
 had no master, so he had no discijile,* and lias left no successor.+ 
 He was a man sui generis ; in British Art, like Jean Paul Eichter 
 in German literature, he is bev (Siusigc, — -"the only one"; and 
 of him, now that ho has left us, it may be aptly said, as of another 
 great humourist of a former day : — 
 
 " Long shall we seek his likeness, — long in vain, 
 And turn to all of him which may remain, 
 Sighing that Nature form'd but one such man, 
 All J broke the die " t 
 
 XV. 
 
 §il(jlto0ra|jljtana. 
 
 Annotated List of the various Publications,— Books, Eeviews, 
 Magazine and Newspaper Articles, &c., — relating to the 
 genius, works, and character of Gboege Ceuikshank, 
 which appeared dming his Life ; the Pamphlets, Letters 
 to the " Times," &c., written by himself ;— and the Leading 
 Articles, Lectures, Notices Critical and Obituary, and 
 miscellaneous Essays, occasioned by his Death. 
 
 (1) DURING HIS LIFE. 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, July 1823. " Lectures on the Fine Arts, No. 1. On 
 George Cruikshank," attributed variously to J. G. Lockhart and Professor 
 Wilson— has special reference to the "Points of Humour." 
 
 i9 as haPOT as the thouglit, and where the student of etching may find models, as the 
 student ofmanncrs flnds°a record, or a suggestion. In etehiugs of this class CnumsHAKK 
 carries one great vii-luo of the art to perfection-its simple Iraukness. He is so direct and 
 unaffected that only those who know the difficulties of etching can appreciate the power 
 that lies hehind his nnpretemUng skill; there is never, in his most admuable plates, the 
 trace of a vain oSovV— Etching and Etchers, 1S7S. 
 
 * I use this word advisedly, in its more extensive sense ; 1 do not forget that Mr. Watts 
 Phillips was a pupil of the artist. 
 
 t "All the real masters of caricature deserve honour in this respect, that their gift is 
 peculiarly their own,-iunate and incommunicable. No teaching no hard study, will ever 
 enabe other people o equal, in their several ways, the works of Leech and CBfmsBANK ; 
 w cicas, lepowerof pure drawing is communicable, within certain limits to everyone 
 who has good sight and industry. I do not, indeed, know how far, by devoting the atten- 
 won tTpoints of character, caricaturist-skill may be laboriously attained ; but certainly the 
 power is, in the masters of the school, innate from their childhood 
 
 "Taken, all in all, the works of Cruikshank have the most sterling value of any 
 belonging to this class produced in England." _^^^^^_^.^ ^^^^^^^^^ p^^,,,^,.^^ ^^^ j^ _ ^ j-j, 
 t Btion. " Monody on the Death of Sheridan."
 
 78 George Cruikshanky 
 
 The town was just theu running mad after the Life hi London^ and the 
 
 critic, dazzled by the effulgence of that literary comet, bursts into a fine 
 
 strain of eulogy : — 
 
 " But what a start did he make when his genius had received a truer and 
 diviner impulse from the spleudid imagination of an Egan ! How completely, how 
 toto ccelo, did he ont-Cruikshank hiraself whi?n he was called upon to embody the 
 conceptions of that remarkable man in the designs for 'Tom and Jerry'? The 
 world felt this, and he felt it himself." 
 
 Aspersions Answered : an Explanatoiy Statement addressed to the Public at 
 
 Large, and to every Reader oi Wia Quarterly EcvUio \-q. \\^\-i\cv\Q.\. By 
 
 William Hone, 1824, 8vo. 
 
 Contains the interesting passage relating to G. C, quoted in the present essay, 
 page IS. 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, Feb. 1824. "Lectures on the Fine Arts, No. 2. On 
 Henry Aiken and others," — with, incidentally, some important remarks 
 on G. C. 
 
 Somerset House Gazette and Literary Museum, or Weekly Miscellany of Fine 
 Arts, Antiquities, and Literary Chit-Chat. Edited by Ephraim Hardcastle 
 (W. H. Pyne, the Artist), London, 1824, 2 vols, 4to. 
 
 Review of Cv}nk^B.tik*& Points of Humour. After speaking of Gillray, — 
 "that extraordinary genius, tlie prince of caricaturists, the inventor of 
 pictorial burlesques," — the critic goes on to say : — 
 
 " The original style is, we repeat, the invention of Gillray ; its application, 
 and what the clever genius in question has superadded, is the next point for con- 
 sideration. We will roundly assert, then, that George Cruikshank has proved 
 himself worthy of stepping into his witty predecessor's shoes, and wonderously as 
 they have been worn, they fit as though he had been measured for them. They 
 are yet as strong, and well to wear, and everything but new. * * •* *!^ 
 
 "In this littlevohime of /i7(/f plates, he lias established his reputation as a ^reat 
 master; and if we might be allowed to coin a title for his ci'ippn; we should 
 desiijnate them 'Gems of Humour.' We admire the beautiful and spirited needles 
 of 'Delia Bella' and *Callott' (sic); the truth and unaffected style of TloUar's 
 point, and the taste of many other famous etchers we could name, but certainly 
 none but the unique point of Geoi'ge Cruikshank ever incorporated the workings of 
 passion and expression in the human visage on the diminutive size of a millet seed. 
 
 "We neglected to notice that spirited scrap, the Doiunfall of the CJnirch, in the 
 first part of the work in question. It is the happiest etfortofthe masterly art of 
 etching in small, ancient or modern, that we could name. To those unacquainted 
 with connoisseurship in these m itters, we shall refer tlu-m to this plate as an 
 example of the clearness and brilliancy of the execution, when the operation of 
 biting the line is successfully performed. * * * We must repeat that these 
 pointed emanations of his prolific point are unique gems of humour." vol. 1., 
 p. 365. 
 
 The Cigar; by Ebeuezer CuUchickweed. London, 12mo, (n.d.) 
 
 This witty and amusing volume of tales and anecdotes was really written by 
 William Clarke to whom allusion is made at page 44 of the present essay. It 
 originally appeared about 1S25 ; but my edition is a more recent issue, — a fat little 
 volume of nearly 500 pages, without date. It contains, (p. 426), a short article on 
 G. C. as The Young Hogarth. 
 
 Blackwood's Magazine, June 1827, vol. xsvii. 
 
 A discursive rhapsodical article by Professor Wilson on the nitiMmfinns of 
 7/)/i<*, praising the artist, dfalin*,; Jem" Ward a " facer," atta-'kin:^ ^r^hakcspi^are's 
 Witches, Ghosts and Fairies, lauding the Magazine, and winding; up with an invita- 
 tion to George Cruikshank to pay a visit to Edinburgh, and bei ora; " one of the 
 Nodes A nibrosi/i no;" —whivh being interpreted means " The Ambrosian Knights." 
 Reprinted in The Works of John iVilson, 1850, (" Essays Critical imd Imaginative,") 
 vol. v., pp. 128-157.
 
 The Ariist^ the Hiiniorist, and the Mmi. 79 
 
 Uoiics Evcnj Day Booh, 1827, Svo. Article on Phrenological IJlustrationB,— 
 vol. 2, p. 1821. 
 
 Each plate is separately characterized through seven columns of text ; 
 
 and the article winds up with the following remarks upon the artist : — 
 
 " His inimitable powers have hitherto entertaiued and delii^hted the public far 
 more to the emolument of others than himself ; and now that he has ventured to 
 * take a benetlt ' on his own account, there caTinot be a doubt tliat his admirers 
 will encourage their ' old favorite ' to successive endeavours for their amusement 
 and instruction. His entire talents have never been called foith ; and some are of 
 a far higher order than even the warmest friends to his pencil can conceive." 
 
 In the former volume of the Ev^ry Day Book (I, 903), is a spirited sketch 
 
 of "The London Barrow "Woman/* an obsolete street trader, cut on wood 
 
 by Henry White. Of this Hone says :— 
 
 "Mr. George Cruikshanb, who.se pencil is distinguished by power of decision 
 in every character he sketches, and whose close observation of passing manners is 
 un-.lvaUed by any artist of the day, has sketched the Barrow Woman for the Every 
 Bay Book from liis own recollection of her, aided by my own." 
 
 The Every Mght Boole, or Life After Dark. By the author of " The Cigar," 
 
 (WUliam Clarke). London, 1827, Svo. 
 
 Humorous vignette by G. C. on title-page ; contains the allusion, to George 
 Cruikshank cited on page 45 ; and the story aboat Moncrieff and his dramatization 
 of " Tom and Jsrrj'," referred to on page 37. 
 
 The Mirror of Literature , Amusement, and Instruction, London, 1828, Svo, 
 
 vol. xi., page 102. 
 
 A four column review of Punch and Judy, in which, but for the statement that 
 ** his sketches are full of the vis comica," it mi^^ht have been said that the part of 
 the artist was left out. 
 
 Eraser s Magazine, J nne, IS^O. A Review of Three Courses and a Dessert, 
 pp. 549-554. 
 
 " We rejoice to see this eminent artist at last fairly emerged from the slough 
 of politics, in which it was his original fate to be plunged. His illustrations of 
 Mr. Hone's pamphlets, which floated ihe lumber, for nothing was more dull or 
 leaden than the dead bodies of the prose and verse to which they were tied, could 
 not fail to be received with dislike or disgust by a class which acknowledged his 
 merits, and would gladly have jtatronised his labours. * * * * Ridiculing and 
 caricaturing a husband, no matter what liis rank may be, for endeavouring to get 
 rid of a wife whose guilt was nutoiious, and whose conduct was disgraceful, were 
 tasks that ought to be left to the herd who prostitute their pens and pencils for 
 hire, and not to liave formed the occupation of a man of genius. It was work quite 
 good enough for Hone ; but altogether unworthy of Cruikshank. 
 
 "He has now, however, shaken off the sable stains, and is enriching our 
 language — we were about to say — with productions of Hogarthian humour. In 
 this path we are happy to know that the humour he is sure of obtainmg, will 
 not be barren. Under the jiatronarje of his former friends, his labours, which 
 redeemed their dulness and put money iuto their pm>es, were almost unpaid. 
 We have heard it said that the rauuificeut remuneration he received from Hone 
 amounted to eighteen pounds. Such is too often the fate of genius when, with its 
 characteristic improvidence, it suflfers trading avarice to prey upon it." 
 
 Pierce Egan's Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic, in their 
 
 Pursuits through Life In and Out of London, illustrated by the pencil of 
 
 Robert Cruikshank. London, 1830, Svo. 
 
 Several references to the brothers Cruikshank in Chapter I. ; and the state- 
 ment of Moncrieff, the Dramatist, cited, with that half-and-half sort of demur 
 which seems almost equivalent to assent, to the etfect : — that "the characters of 
 Tom, Jerrj' and Logic, were ai(^o- biographical sketches of the artists to whom they 
 originally severally owe their being. The talented, spirited George Cruikshank 
 was himself, in all the better points, the spirited Tom be has .■^o aduii:ably
 
 80 George Cruikshank, 
 
 delineated ; his very clever brother Isaac, then, perhaps, less experienced, con- 
 descended to pass for Jerry ; and the downey Pierce (' none but himself can be 
 his parallel') was his own Loorc. Having, tria jinicta in um, produced the 
 admirable foundation of this Piece, may they speedily furnish the public with 
 some more of their Larks, Sprees, and Rambles— the world will thank them for the 
 gift."— page 25. 
 
 Frascr's Magazine^ August, 1833. 
 
 Notice by Maginn ; portrait by Maclise. Both reproduced in the Maclise 
 GalUry, by William Bates. Chatto and Windiis, 1874, 4to. 
 
 Th^ Monthly Magazine. 
 
 Essay on Life and Genius, with portrait and "illustrations of his talent at 
 various periods of his career." 
 
 The Georgian Era ; Memoirs of the most Celebrated PcrsonSj iS:c. London, 
 
 1834, 4 vols, 8vo. 
 
 Long notice of George Cruikshank, the "Prince of Humorous Designers," 
 (vol. iv., p. "2213), written probably by William Clarke, the editor, or Gilbert Abbott 
 a' Becket, his coadjutor. 
 
 The Qiicm and the Union ! I^o Repeal ! l^o O'Conndl I 
 
 An anti-repeal broadside, with forty-eight lines of text, signed "G. C." sur- 
 mounted by a large emblematic wood-cut, representing O'Connell, striking with a 
 hatchet, inscribed "Repeal," at the clasped hands of Britannia and Hibernia. 
 Designed and published by George Cruikshank, sold by Da^id Bogue, &c. Price 
 threepence. — n, d., circa 1843. 
 
 The Lomlon and Westminster Review ^ August, 1833. Yol. xxxi.. No. 2. 
 Essay on Wood-engraving, with illustrations, includiug two by G, C. 
 
 The Westminster Review J Aug., 1840. 
 
 Contains the celebrated illustrated article by W. M. Thackeray ; issued 
 separately, "with additional etchings," by H. Hooper, Pall Mali, in the same 
 year ; reprinted in the author's complete works, without the illustrations. 
 
 Portraits of PMic Characters. By tlie Author of Random Recollections , The 
 
 Great Metropolis, &c. London, 1841. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 The writer of tliiswork. — James Grant, — has [jiven us (Vol. IL, pp. 236-257) a 
 not altogether uninteresting account of the artist, the numerous absurdities and 
 blunders in whi<;h are doubtless iitfributable to the strange principle on which he 
 drew his " portraits," — the stu«lied abstMice of their pi'Ototypes. " In order," say.s 
 he, "to write with greater freedom, fairness and lidelity, 1 have liad no inter- 
 course, while preparing the work, with any of the sulijet-ts of my sketches." A 
 good-tempered and humorous exposure of' the silly tittle-tattle contained in this 
 paper, purporting to be from the pen of the Artist himself, and entitled "My 
 Portrait," forms the leading paper in No. 1 of the Omnibus. 
 
 The Omnibus, No. I., 1841. 
 
 Contains the article referred to above entitled " My Portrait." purporting 
 to bo written hy the artist, and accumpauied by a liucly-executed portrait of 
 himself on steel. 
 
 The London Journal t Nov. 20, 1840. 
 
 Portrait, Biographical Notice, and Illustrations copied from the Bottle series. 
 
 household Words, Aug. 23, 1851. 
 
 Contains an article by Charles Dickens entitled " Whole Hogs," referring to 
 the Fairy Library of G. C, and lUo liberties taken with the timo-hallowed Nurserv 
 ■turios.
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 81 
 
 Btop Thief I or Hints to Houmkciyrrs to 2yrevetii Housebreaking. By George 
 Cruikshank. 3rd ed., London (1851) 8vo. 
 
 Household JFords, No. 184, Oct. 1, 1853. 
 
 _ Contains the article " Frauds on the Fairies," written bv Charles Dickens in 
 which the following passage occurs : ' ' 
 
 " We have lately observed with pain the intrusion of a Whole Ilog of un- 
 wieldy dimensions into the fairy flower-garden. Tlie rooting of the animal among 
 the roses would in itself have awakened in us nothing but inrlignation ; our paia 
 arises from his being violently driven in by a man of genius, our beloved friend, 
 Mr. George Cruikshank. That incomparable artist is, uf all men, the last who 
 should lay his exquisite hand on fairy text. In his own art he understands it so 
 perfectly, and illustrates it so beautifully, an humourously, so wisely, that he 
 should never lay down his etching-needle to ' edit ' the Ogre, to whom' with that 
 little instrument he can render such extraordinary justice." 
 
 Neues Allgcrtieines KiliistUr Lexicon^ von G. R. Nagler. Miinchen, 1835-52, 
 22 vols., 8vo. 
 
 Contains biographlco- critical notice of G. C. 
 
 Poems. By Matthew Arnold. London, 1854, 8vo. 
 Contains the Sonnett referred to, page 37 : — 
 
 To George Cruikshank, Esq., 
 On Seeing for the First Time his Picture of "The Bottli;," 
 IN THE Country. 
 Artist, whose hand, with horror wing'd, hath torn 
 From the rank life of towns this leaf ; and flung 
 The prodig>' of full-blown crime among 
 Valleys and men to middle fortune born, 
 Not innocent, indeed, yet not forlorn : 
 Say, what shall calm us, when such guests intrude. 
 Like comets on the heavenly solitude ? 
 Shall breathless glades, cheer'd by shy Dian's horn, 
 ^ Cold-bubb'ing springs or caves ? Not so ! The Soul 
 Breasts her own griefs : and, urg'd too fiercely, says : 
 " Why tremble? True, the nobleness of man 
 May be by man effaced : man can coutroul, 
 To pain, to death, the bent of his own days. 
 Know thou the worst. So much, not more, he mn." p. 227. 
 
 Museum of Foreign Literature. PliiladelpLia, 8vo, vol. V., p. 563. 
 Contains Essay on genius of G. C. I have not actually seen this. 
 
 George CnUksha7ik''s Magazine. Edited by "Frank Fairlegh " (ilr. Frank E. 
 
 Smedley). London, D. Bogue, 1854. 
 
 This venture survived through two numbers only; but it is worthy to be 
 specially mentioned here as containing (Feb. 1854) the Artist's defence of the 
 liberties he had taken with Fairy Tales, in answer to the paper of Charles 
 Dickens, " Frauds on the Fairies," in /ffH(seAoi[Hrorf/s, referred to in a preceding 
 article. 
 
 The Glass and the New Crystal Palace. By George Cruiksliank. Willi cuts. 
 
 London, 1853, Svo, 
 
 Interesting from its personal details. After relating how he came tn be a 
 Teetotaler, George adds: — "I used to smoke, and clung to that contemptible, 
 stupid and dirty habit for three years after I had left off wine and beer, anil 
 stnjiped my grog. I had been reasoning with myself for years against this silly 
 and injurious bad habit of smoking ; but at last I laid down my meer.schaum pipe, 
 and said, lie you there ! and I will never take you np again, — and I never have, — 
 nor never will. As I had been an inveterate smoker for jipwards of thirty years, it 
 shows that this habit may bo broken as well as the pipe." p. 21.
 
 82 George Cruikshank. 
 
 The Illustrated London Magaziiw : a monthhj Journal of Literature and Art. 
 Vol. V. Oct. and Nov., 1855. (Ward, Locke and Co.) 
 
 Contains a paper entitled " Art and Humour ; No. I,, George CRUiKSHiNK,' 
 illustrated by 15 wood-cut designs chiefly from Mominris iii Bow Sttret ; and a 
 Review of the 7'fue Legend of St. Dumtan,\vith three illustrations by G. C. from 
 that worlc. The following passage is worth preser\'atiou : — 
 
 "Copies of the works of this artist, from first to last, would fill a couple of 
 waggons. No one, not even himself, has a perfect collection ; but an imperfect 
 one, of a great Cruikshank collector of our acquaintance, not containing a teiUh 
 of his works, fills eight large elephant volumes ; that is, the woodcuts and plates 
 are mounted to that size, eight or so of them on a sheet ! Not one of these plates, 
 also, but has its beauties ; not one of them but is full of patient thought, kindly, 
 honest purpose, and thorough good feeling. To look over them would astonish 
 our readers, and make them feel gratitude and wonder ; wonder at such unceasing 
 thought, such unwearied industry ; gratitude for the thousand pleasant and kindly 
 fancies ; the hundred hints, advice, merry quips, and cranks, and turns, which 
 have been given to this work-a-day world by an artist's pencil ; and, let us add, by 
 which it has, day by day, from the old times of ' Tom aud Jerry,' been humanised 
 and reformed." p. 279. 
 
 Men of the Time: Biographical Sketches of Smincnt Living Characters. 
 London, 1856, Svo. 
 
 Long biographical notice of G. C. See also later editions. 
 
 A Slice of Bread and Butter cut by George Cruikshank, being the Sjubstance 
 of a Speech, &c. London, 1857, Svo. 
 
 Cambridge School of Art: Inaugural Soiree. Mr. Raskin's Address, and 
 Reports of the Speeches of S. Redgrave, R.A., and Mr. George Cruik- 
 shank, -with a full account of the Proceedings of the Evening. 
 Cambridge, 1858, 16ino. 
 
 Old Faces in New Masks. By Robert Blakey, Ph. D. London, 1859, Svo. 
 
 Contains, besides the admirable etched front, and title by G. C, an essay, 
 " Historical Sketch of British Caricature," (pp. 164—205) in which a short but 
 laudatory mention of the artist occurs. 
 
 Elements of Drawings in Three Letters to Beginiicrs, by John Ruskin, A.M., 
 
 1860, Svo. 
 
 *' If you ever happen to meet with the two volumes of Grmin's Gernuin 
 SUiries, which were illustrated by him (G. C.) long ago, pounce upon them 
 instantly : the etchings in them are tlie finest things, next Rembrandt's, that, as 
 far as I know, have been done since etching was invented You cannot work at 
 them too much, nor copy them too often," &q. p. 350. 
 
 British Artists, from Hogarth to Turner, <S:e. By "Walter Thornbury, 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1861, Svo. 
 
 Contains a long and admirable article on "The English Caricaturists and 
 King Cruikshank." 
 
 A Pop-Gun fired off by George Cruikshank in Defeiux of llic British 
 Volunteers of 1803, against the uncivil attack upon that body by General 
 W. Napier. With observations on our National Defence, Self-Defenoe, 
 &c. London, Svo. (1860.) 
 
 Contains eight wood-cuts from designs by the author, including two portraits 
 of himself.
 
 The Arfisi. ike Hiunorist, mid the Ma7t. 83 
 
 The Wcekhj Record, Nov. 29, 1862. 
 
 Catalogue of Pictures, Sketches, &c., ia "The George Cruiksliank Gallery," 
 
 Blackwood's Magazijie, August, 1863. 
 
 Contains an excellent article on G, C. ; with inci'Iental remarks on Gillray 
 and Doyle. 
 
 TJie Autographic Mirror, Dec. 15, 1864. 
 
 Fac-simile of holograph, letter from G. C. to ■William Hayw<ard relative to 
 etchings for the Comic Almamick, and Thackeray's essay in the Westininster, — with 
 some fac-siraile pencillings. 
 
 The Worship of Bacchus. A critiqiie by John Stewart ; a Descriptive 
 Lecture by Goorgc Cruikshauk ; and Opinions of the Press. London, 
 1863, 8vo., pp. 24. 
 
 In justice to the artist, I would here remind the reader that this picture, — 
 or rather coloured cartoon, -which has provoked so much adverse criticism, 
 should be regarded as a sketch, rather than as a perfected work of art. In a letter 
 to myself now before me, Oct. 11, 1S76. he states that " it was never perfectly 
 finished ;" and regrets this the more, as it is " contrary to the laws of the National 
 Gallery to allow an artist to touch his work after it is once iu the possession of 
 the authorities. " There was a long article on the picture, about this period, in 
 Chainbers's Journal. 
 • Goldsmith, in his 'well-known epitaphian verses on Ned Purdon, has well 
 
 indicated the miseries of the " hooksidlcrs" hack " of his day. I havi-ily know that 
 matters have much changed fur the better in our own time ; and the luckless 
 wight, whether author or artist, wlio has to seek the intermediary aid of the 
 publisher, will find,— some few exceptions apart, — that, metaphorically speaking, 
 he gets as many kicks as halfpence. That George Cruikshank was, all his life, in 
 this position, is the great secret of his failure to accumulate wealth ; and so con- 
 vinced was he,— as he expressed in conversation shortly before his death,— after 
 an experience of neaidy three quarters of a century, of the inevitability of this 
 result, that, if he liad to begin his career again, he said, it would be the pii I )U in g-h rush, 
 and not the etching -needle which should express his inventions ; and he would have 
 done altogether with the middlemen, who had, in all their mutual transactions, 
 managed to " swallow the oyster and leave him the shells." 
 
 The veteran artist farther asserted that the most profitable jobs Gillray, 
 Rowlandson, and he himself had m:t with in their working careers, were what he 
 termed, the " washing of other people's dirty linen, "-—by which he meant the 
 putting on to copper the crude designs of fashionable amateiu's. Such jobs were 
 quickly executed, and liberally paid for ; and the artists regarded them, to use 
 the words of a valueil correspondent tn whom I am indebted for the statement, as 
 "so much ' fat,' — a sort of Caauau in the wilderness." 
 
 Loves Last Labour Not Lost. By George Daniel. London, Pickering, 
 1863, 8vo, 
 
 Only 250 copies were printed of this interesting little volume, which contains 
 (p. 163) an appreciative and feeling tribute to the memory of the autliur's old 
 friend and literary associate, Robert Cruikshank. 
 
 A Catalogue of a Selection from the Works of George Cruikshank^ extending 
 
 over a period of upwards of Sixty Years, from 1799 to 1S63. London, 
 
 1863, 4to. 
 
 The objects exhibited at Exeter Hall in 1863 are described as consisting of 
 "upwards of one hundred oil-paintings, water-colour drawings, and original 
 sketches, together with over a thousand proof etchings from popular works, 
 caricatures, scrap-books, songdieadings, &c., and the 'Worship of Bacchus.'" 
 There is a short preface to the Catalogue by the Artist himself, in which he says : 
 — "The 'George Cruikshank Gallery,' as it is called, originated in consequence of 
 many persons having expressed their belief that G. C, the caricaturist of former 
 days, was the grandfather of the person who produced the ' Worship of Bacchus.' 
 The Committee, therefore, who are exhibiting ' the Worship of Bacchus ' requested 
 to have some of my early works, in order to show that they were the production 
 of one and the same person ; or to prove, in fact, that I am not my own 
 grandfather. "
 
 84 George Criiikshank. 
 
 A Discovery conceniiiio Ghosts, with a Rap at the " Spirit Rappers," by George 
 
 Crnikshauk. TllastrcCted with Cuts; to which is added a few Parli'iig 
 
 Raps at the "Rappers," with Questions, Suggestions and Advice to tM 
 
 Davenport Brotlicrs, Dedicated to the Ghost Club. Price One Shilling. 
 
 London, IS64. Royal Svo, pp. 60. 
 
 Second edition, with 10 woodcuts. The former edition appeared in the pre- 
 ceding year. 
 
 Once a Wcelc, Sept. 30, 1865. 
 
 A paper on "Caricature," by C. D. Y. (pp. 40f>-414), with incidental remarks 
 upon G. C. 
 
 Didionnaire Universel dcs Contemporains, <£r. Par G. Vapereau. Troisieme 
 
 edition. Paris, 1865, Svo. 
 
 We may learn from a foreig:ner even something concerning George Cruikshank 
 with which we were previously unacquainted : — " La collection du Punch, et celle 
 du Comic Almanack, dout il fut le constant coUaborateur fournissent aussi de 
 nombreuses preuves de son talent pour la caricature." It is generally believed in 
 his own country that he never made a single design for Punch. 
 
 A Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical, by John Jackson 
 
 and W. A. Chatto. Second edition. London (Bohn), 1866, Svo. « 
 
 A short notice of G. C. (p. 595*), with four illustrations by him, and one by 
 his brother Robert. 
 
 Essays on Art, by Francis Turner Palgrave. London, 1866, Svo. 
 Contains article on " The Cruikshank Exhibition," July, 1S63. 
 
 Fine Art, chiefly contemporary ; Notices reprinted with Bevisions. By William 
 Michael Rossetti. London, 1867, Svo. 
 
 Contains article on " The Exhibition of Cruikshank's Collected Works," 1862. 
 
 Caricature History of the Georges, or Annals of the House of Hanover, <fce. 
 
 By Thomas Wright, F.S.A. Loudon, 8vo. (1868) 
 
 " Cruikshank was the great caricaturist of the period " — writes the author in 
 his brief notice of the Regency lampoons. It may seem strange that no further 
 allusion is made to the artist ; and it is from the "Pl-eface" alone that we learn 
 that the ground professedly covered by the History is that of the " Heigns of the 
 Three Georges" only. 
 
 Etching and Etchers, by Philip Gilbert Uamerton. London, Macmillan, 
 1868, 4to. 
 
 "Cruikshank and Doyle," pp. 133-141. Second edition, 1S76. 
 
 Les MervciUcs de la Gravure, par George Duplessis. Paris, 1869, Svo. 
 
 " La Gravure en Angletorre, — I'ecole humoristique,' p. 244,— notices of 
 Hogarth, Gillray, Eowlandson, and the Cruikshanks. 
 
 Memories of My Time, including Personal Reminiscences of Eminent Men. 
 
 T>^ George Hodder. London, 1870, Svo. 
 
 Notice of George Cruikshank, pp. 104-108.— "By a natural associntiou of 
 ideas,"— commences the Rtminiscent, — "the name of Geouce Cruikshank srems 
 to connect itself with that of Kenny Meadows, for there is not much dilfercnce in 
 their ages, and botli have spent the greater part of a lone life in illustrating 
 popular works by the exercise of an imaginative power which has always added 
 strength and grace to the subject-matter they have undei-taken to embody."
 
 The Art is:, the H^imorist, and I lie Maft. 85 
 
 Life of Charles Dickens. By !!. Slieltou Mackenzie, M,.D. I'liilailel|i!ii:i, 
 
 1870, 8vo. 
 
 Here, among the reminiscences of the brothers Cruikshauk, with whoux the 
 writer states he was intimate when in London, we liave, reproiluced, the claim of 
 George to be the originator of most of tile characters in Oliver Twist. This story, 
 originally pnblished by Dr. Mackenzie in the Round Table, a tj'ansatlantic serial, 
 and copied in the biography of Dickens put forth by the late John Camden Hotten, 
 is treated in Forster's i-f/t; 0/ C7i«r?es Z)icA:eHS, vol. I., p. 132, and the preliminary 
 matter to vol. II. 
 
 Notes and Queries. March 19th, 1870. 
 
 Contains a paper by Mr. J. C. Roger, giving an account of the pii-atical 
 appropriation of some of G. C.'s designs in the Illustrations of Time, &c., by the 
 proprietor of Bell's Life in London, and the artist's inability to obtain redress. 
 
 Remarks on Education hy George Cruiksliank, with a Slice of Bread and 
 Butter on the same subject. London, 1870, 8vo., pp. 16. 
 Contains three wood-cuts after G. C. 
 
 Universal Catalogue of Books on Art, <fcc. , published by the Science and Art 
 Department of the Committee of Council on Education, South Kensing- 
 ton. "First Proofs." London, 1870, 2 vols. 4to. 
 
 A bibliography of George Cruikshank describing about 120 separate piece?. 
 
 The Period. Sept. 17, 1870. 
 
 Article and coloured caricature-portrait of George Cruikshank riding a Hobby- 
 horse, as "The Champion of Temperance." 
 
 Notes and Queries. Nov. 12, 1870, and Jan. 14, 1871. 
 
 Account of G. C.'s illustrations for Eoswe's Novelist's Lihrary. 
 
 A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of George Cruikshank, Etchings, Wood- 
 cuts, Lithngra}ths, Glyphographs, li-c. With a list of Books illustrated 
 by him. By George William Reid, Keeper of the Prints and Diawings 
 in the British Museum. With an Essay on his Genius and Works, by 
 Edward Bell, M.A., and three hundred and thirteen illustrations on 
 India paper. London, 1871, 4to, Bell and Daldy. 
 
 Of this sumptuous work the impression was limited to 135 copies, and one of 
 these is worth now a dozen guineas at least. Of the designs recorded, 2657 
 are Etchings, 1(393 are Wood-cuts, 72 are Glyphographs, and 60 are Lithographs ; 
 while the books, pamphlets, broadsides, &c., described amount to nearly 400. 
 
 Essay on tJie Genius and Character of George Cruikshank. By R. Shelton 
 Mackenzie, LL.D. 
 
 Published in America. Dr. Mackenzie will be remembered as once resident in 
 Birmingham, and connected with the local press of that town. He is author of 
 Titian, a novel, 3 vols., Svo., &c. 
 
 The Illustrated Review. No. XXX. January 1st, 1872. 
 Contains portrait and illustrations. 
 
 The Portfolio : An Artistic Periodical. Edited by Philip Gilbert Hamerton. 
 Contains a critical article on G. C, by F. G. Stephens, with an illustration.
 
 86 George Cruikshank, 
 
 The Artist and the Author : A Statement of Facts. By the Artist, George 
 Cruikshank. London (1872), Bell and Daldy. 8vo. pp. 16. 
 
 The object of this pamphlet is to set forth the artist's claim to have been 
 "the ori!;iaator" of certain of the novels of Charles Dickens and W. Harrison 
 Ainsworth. 
 
 Pro and Con. March, April, and May, 1S73. 
 Portrait and illustrations. 
 
 The Lomlon Figaro. Oct. 1, 1873. 
 
 Contains a paper entitled " O'.'R George," in the series of the so-called 
 "Parnassian Portrait Gallery." 
 
 The Illustrated Review. London, 1873-4. 
 
 Contains a valuable series ofp.apcrs "Caricature Past and Present," by Mr. 
 Joseph Grego, on Gillray, Bunbury, Isaac Cruikshank, &c. The arUclos, wliich 
 extend over a period of six months, are copiously illustrated ; and the one on Gillray 
 forms a sort of introduction to the large and exliaustive essay on that " Prince 
 of Caricaturists," from the same pen, published in Dec. 1873, by Chatto and 
 Windus, with the name of the late Thomas Wright, M.A., upon the title-page, as 
 "Editor." These papers have been translated into French. 
 
 English Graphic Satire, ami its relation to diljerenl stijles of Painting, 
 
 Sculpture, and Engraving : a Contribution to the History of the English 
 
 School of Art. The numerous illustritions selected and drawn from the 
 
 originals by Robert William Buss, painter, designer, and etcher, and 
 
 reproduced by photo-lithography. Printed for tlie author by Virtue and 
 
 Co. for private circulation only, 1874. 4to. pp. XX. and 195. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that this able contribution to the history of 
 caricature is not more genoi'ally accessible to the public. 
 
 A G tilery of Illustrious Literary Characters (1830-1838), drawn by tlie late 
 
 Daniel Maclise, R.A., and accompanied by Notices chiefly by the late 
 
 AVilliam Maginn, LL.D. Edited by AVilliam Bates, B. A., &c. London, 
 
 Chatto and Windus, 1874, 4to. 
 
 Contains Maclise 's portrait, and Maginn's notice from Fraser's Magazine; long 
 "Note" by the Editor, pp. 106-109 ; and supplementary "Note" on the "Cruik- 
 shank Testimonial," p. 227. 
 
 A Dic'ionary of the Artists of the English School, Painters, Sculi>tors, Archie 
 tects, Engravers, and Ornamentists, dc. By Samuel Redgrave. London, 
 1874, 8vo. 
 
 The Bookseller. Christmas number, 1875. 
 
 Contains essay on the v^orks of G. C, with illustrations. 
 
 The Daily Telegraph, July 5th, 1875. 
 
 Contains article on G. C. and his work. 
 
 V Art. P.CCUC Uehdomadairc lUustrie. Deuxihncann(e,to\af:l\l.,Xi. 144, 187C. 
 A notice of George Cruikshank's works as exhibited at the Koyal Westminster 
 Aquarium. 
 
 See also Tome 11., 1875, p. 300. Tome HI., pp. 277-304.
 
 The Artist^ the Htimorist, and I he Alan. 87 
 
 The Leisure Hour. Nov., 1875. 
 
 A series of papers on the Enirlish Caricaturists, including, of course, G. C 
 
 VAi't. llcviic Hchdomadairc Illustr6e. PremUre annec^ 1875. 
 
 Contains articles, " La Caricature An^laise Conteniporaine," par Victor 
 Clianipier. For special reference to G. C. see tome ler. pp. 291-0. 
 
 A History of Caricature and Grotes(juc in Lilcratitrc and Art. By Thomas 
 
 Wright, M, A., F.vS.A. AVith numerous iUublratioiis drawn and engraved 
 
 by F. "VV. Fairholt, F.S.A. London, 1865, 4to. 
 
 This ahli! and interesting work, wliicli winds up with an eulogy upon the 
 genius and character of G. C, was translated into French by Auicdee Fichot. 
 (Paris, 1875, 8vo.) 
 
 The Daily Telegraph. Aug. 7, 1876. 
 
 Leading article on George Cruikshauk as an Etcher and a Draughtsman on 
 Wood, doubtless by Mr. G. A. Sala. 
 
 Eighty-two Illustrations on Steel, Stone, and Wood, by George CruiJcshanky 
 
 with letter-press descriptions, 4tOj n.d. 
 
 Contains designs which had previously appeared in various books issued by 
 the publisher, William Tegg. 
 
 The West Middlesex Advertiser. January 19th, 1878, 
 
 Catalogue of a Selection from the IVorks of George Cruikshank, Ei>q. Pro- 
 duced froin 1799 to 1S75 ; C07isisting of upwards of one hundred Oil 
 Paintings, IVatcr Colour Draioings, and Original Sketches. Together 
 ivilh over a thousand Proof Etchings, d-c. The Property of the Iloyal 
 Aquarium Society. Loudon, 1877, 8vo., pp. 22. 
 
 (2) AFTER HIS DEATH. 
 
 The Times. Februaiy 2, 1878. 
 
 Leading article, probably written by Tom Taylor, M. A., concluding with the 
 following remarks :— " What Cruikshank has left behind him— and it is enormous 
 in amount, and wonderfully various in quality — contains much that will, if we 
 arft not mistaken, secure him a place in the ai-tistic liistory of his country, next to 
 Hogarth, and not far behind him. * * * There is not a single beautiful face or 
 figure, probably, in the whole range of Cruikphank's work. But nowhere in it is 
 there anytliini; base, anything loose, anything in the largest sense of the word 
 imnmrnl. It is something remarkable that a satirist who chastised fashionable 
 and ])Opular vice for more than sixty years almost without intermission, should 
 have left not one drawiug beliiiKl him that might not be handed raund in the 
 family circde of any English household. In this respect, at least, Cbujksuank 
 might claim to be superior to Hooartu, and his inferiority in other respects is not 
 so signal that they may uot be named together as the two greatest caricaturists 
 that England has produced." 
 
 The Daily Neivs. Feb. 2, 1878. 
 Leading article. 
 
 The Birmingham Daily Mail. Feb. 2, 1878. 
 Leading article. 
 
 The Daily Telegraph. Feb. 4, 1878. 
 
 Leading article by Mr. G. A. Sala.
 
 George Crutkshank. 
 
 The Standard. Feb. 4, 1878. 
 Leading article. 
 
 The Globe. Feb. 4, 1878. 
 
 Long leading article in which the following remarks occur ; '* That he 
 
 was essentially an artist of original genius is beyond question. There have been, 
 and there are, many men more completely masters of their art in all technical 
 knowledge and skill, but we know of none, either English or foreign, more richly 
 endowed with the faculty of invention, witli a more geauine sense of humour, or 
 witli a power of convejing his meaning with more incisive clearness, &c." 
 
 The Christian Herald. Feb. 6, 1878. 
 Portrait and article. 
 
 The Temperance Record. Feb. 7, 1878. 
 Article and extracts. 
 
 The Christian Globe. Feb. 7, 1878. 
 Portrait and article. 
 
 The AthzmrAim. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 Long obituary article, from which I extract the following remarks :—*' He 
 was a pure satirist of the richest vein, inexhaustible in invention, incomparably 
 dramatic, often profoundly pathetic, and, in those tender passages which it was 
 his delight to portray, he often stirred us in an unexampled fashion. As an artist 
 jycr se his rank ought to be higher than that popularly awarded to him, for, some 
 defects of taste apart, defects which were mostly due to the influence of the age 
 iu which he was boru, he always drew with admirable fidelity, precision and 
 felicity, &c." 
 
 Th-c Academy. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 Long obituary article by Mr. W. B. Scott. 
 
 The Saturday Review. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 Obituary article. 
 
 T/ie Bidlder. Feb. 9, 1878, 
 Obituary article. 
 
 Punch. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 "England is the poorer by what she can ill spare— a man of genius. Good, 
 kind, genial, honest, and enthusiastic George Cruik^hank, whose frame appeared 
 to have lost so little of its wiry strength and acti\'ity, whose brain seemed as full 
 of tire and vitality at four-score as at forty, lias passed away quietly and painlessly 
 after a few days' struggle. He never worked for Punch, but he always worked 
 with him, putting his unresting brain, his skill - in some forma of Art unrivalled — 
 and his ever productive fancy, at the service of humanity and progi'ess, good 
 works and good-will to man. His object, like our own, was always to drive home 
 truth and urge on improvement by the ])owerful forces of fuu and humour, 
 (■lutlit'd in forms sometimes powerful, sometimes grotesque, but never sullied by a 
 fuul tlionght, and ever dignilied by a wholesome purpose. 
 
 " His four-score and six years of life have been years of unintcrmiiting labour, 
 that was yet, always, labour of love. There never was a purer, simpler, more 
 straightfonvard, or altogether more blameless man. His nature IkkI something 
 ciiild-likc in its transparency. You saw through him completely. There was 
 iKitht'v wish nor ellbrt to disguise his self-complacency, his high a]>preciation of 
 liims.-lf, his delight in the appreciation of others, any more tiian tliere was to 
 make himself out betti-r, or cleverer, or more unselfisli tlian his neiglibourt». 
 
 *' In liim England has lost one who was, in every sense, as true a man as lie 
 was a rare and original genius, and a i>ionoer in the arts of illustration. It is 
 giatifying to see the tributes of hearty rcognition his death Jtas called forth. It 
 is a duty on Punch's part, as a soMrt in lh<' same army in which Gkokc:e Oruik- 
 biiANK held such high rank so long, to add his wreath to the number already laid 
 upon this bruvo old captain's grave."
 
 The A^'tist^ the Hitmorist, and the Man. 89 
 
 Notes and Queries. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 I II ti resting reminiscences of the deceased artist by Mr. II. S. Aslibee, F.S.A. 
 who relates the following eharacleristic anecdote: — "Cruikshank was hapjiy, to 
 the veiy last, in the possession of both mental and physical activity. He was a 
 mau of progi-ess; he went with the times, and liad sympatliy with the young 
 generation springing up around him. He eagerly .joined the Volunteers, and 
 became a leading iiguro in the movement. In early life he had been destined for 
 the sea, and only escajied being sent on board a man-of-war (thcisc were tlie times 
 of the press-gang) by hiding away. When mentioning to me onee that episode in 
 his life, which must have changed liis whole career, and deprived the world (as I 
 then suggested to him) of such a fund of amusement and instruction—' Well, 
 answered Cruikshank, with a simplicity that was one of the great charms of his 
 conversation, ' well, I should have done my duty, and become an admiral.' " 
 
 The Graphic. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 Article by Miss Grace Stebbing, 
 
 2 he Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 Long article, and portrait from the " Maelise Gallery." 
 
 Reynolds's Newspaper. Feb. 10, 1873. 
 Short notice. 
 
 Land and IVatcr. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 A column of gossip on G. C, by a septuagenarian. 
 
 The Week. Feb. 9, 1878. 
 
 Obituary notice— two columns : — "We cannot conclude these remarks with 
 more fitting praise thau by saying that at the end of a long and busy and laborious 
 life as au ai-tist, and forced, as he was, to deal largely with the fashionable vices of 
 the last two— may we not say nearly three? — generations, he was one of those 
 chosen few caricaturists who could boast that they had never pencilled a single 
 di'awiug which an English mother would hesitate for a moment to place under the 
 eyes of her daughter." 
 
 The Daily Tdrgraph. Feb. 11, 1878. 
 Account of the funeraL 
 
 Mayfair. Feb. 12, 1878. 
 
 Article— column and a half,— with caricature portrait of G. C. as pall-hearer 
 at the funeral of Andrew Halliday. The following reminiscences merit preserva 
 tiou : — " Eveiy anecdote concerning Mr. Cruikshank's personal career — and they 
 are legion — is more or less connected with total abstinence in its 'muscular' j>h.ise. 
 The story is told bow tlie painter, in his quality of colonel of a regiment of volun- 
 teers, once set out with three oranges in his pocket, one of which he brought home 
 at night, and how, towards the close of the field-day, he taunted the exhausted 
 soldiers, who had freely imbibed, with an exulting reference to his own abstinence 
 and consequent freshness. Most of the daily papers have mentioned Mr. Cmik 
 shaiik's prowess in capturing, at the age of seventy or more, a desperate burglar 
 But the most characteristic part of the story has, as far as we are aware, been 
 omitted. While keeping a firm grasp of the thief with his left hand, the doughty 
 little painter felt his own pulse with the other, and, fiudiug that the accustomed 
 75 beats to the minute had not been increased by a single one in spite of exertion 
 and excitement, he gravely began to enlarge upon the benefits of temperance, com 
 paring his own calm with the thief's panting condition. That the rogue was also a 
 drunkard he assumed as a matter of course. In this strange condition the pair 
 were found by the policeman." 
 
 i'un. Feb. 13, 1878. 
 
 outains the following memorial stanzas ; — 
 
 George Cruikshank. 
 " While in unholy war foe strives with foe, 
 Dead lies the hero of a great crusade ; 
 Tlie pale-faced warr or lays our hero low. 
 Whose mighty we.ipon aye for right was swayed.
 
 90 George Cruzkshank, 
 
 Vice fled before it, Falsehood bowed its head ; 
 
 Injustice, cowed, turned on its recreant heel ; 
 VThile the tierce light of honest Truth was shed 
 
 In dazzling rays from his aU-glorious steel. 
 
 Tlie pen is mightier than the sword, they say ; — 
 
 Let both for once to his grand pencil yield ; 
 Look back upon the foes in grim array 
 
 His pencil left heart-pierced upon the field ! 
 It tore the victim from Death's vengefnl grasp, 
 
 It fought with vice in many a secret den ; 
 The old knight falls, his weapon in his clasp. 
 
 And leaves its work his monument to men." 
 
 The London Figaro. Feb. 13, 20, 27, March 6, 13, 1878. 
 
 A series of papers, entitled, " Personal Recollections of George Cruikshank/ 
 from the pen of " Cuthbert Bede " (The Rev. E. Bradley.) 
 
 George CruiksUank : Artist^ Humorist, Moralist. With several illustratimis. 
 Published by John Bursill, 36, Kennington Koad, London. Price two- 
 pence, 1878, 8yo, p. 16. 
 
 On the cover is an announcement addressed, " To Temperance Literary 
 Societies, &c.," informing them that "Mr. J. Francis Bursill is prepared to give 
 his highly-instructive and interesting Lecture, entitled, ' George Cruikshank : 
 Artist, Humorist, and Temperance Reformer ; his Life and Labours ; ' illustrated 
 by a beautiful series of dissolving views, specially prepared for Mb. Bursill, 
 being principally photographs, coloured and plain, from G. Ckuiksu.\nk's works. 
 In this Mr. Bursill has been assisted by several eminent collectors and publishers, 
 and the collection of photographic transparencies used to illustrate this lecture is 
 quite unique, embracing the entire career of the great artist." 
 
 L'Art. Rcvuc Hch.lomadairc Illustric, Quatrieme annie. Tome I., page 
 
 168, 1878. 
 
 Necrology of the artist, in which the following remarks occur :— " Le metier 
 du p^re a ete le point de depart du talent du fils qui, sans instruction premiere, 
 sans education esthetique, mais grace k une production constante. grace h un esprit 
 alerte, original, humoiistique, tlairant le gout du jour, suivant I'actualit^ tant 
 litti§raire que politique, en a fait un art veritable, bien que de second plan, et tire 
 une c61ebrit6 surabondamment justifiee par soixante-quinze aus de pratique et de 
 succes. Nen senlement Georoe Cruikshank fut un physionomie, une person- 
 nalite, mais son o>uvre est etroitcment liee a la vie anglaise depuis le commence- 
 ment de ce siecle si bien qu' un critique pent 6crire aujourdhui, sans trop 
 d'exag^eration, que, sans lui, cette vie semble desormais impossible." 
 
 Illustrated London News. Feb. 16, 1878. 
 
 Portrait of G. C. and obituary notice, in which the following remarks occur :— 
 *' It is indeed possible that, if his early training and employment had been conver- 
 sant with forms of beauty, grace, and majesty, instead of the uncouth and whim- 
 sical ugliness belonging to the caricature style, Cruikshank might have been the 
 Turner of figure-painting — as it were the Shakspeare of that branch of art — dis- 
 playing the widest ranj;c of conception and expression in his i)Ortraiture of diverse 
 hninoiirs, and of the various passions and affections of the mind. He might, at 
 any rate, have been so qualified as to rival Hogarth, the most Sliakspearian of all 
 our painters ; but caricature and grotesque invention, which almost wludly en- 
 gi'O.ssed the youth and prime manhood of our gifted contemporary, left his mind 
 and hand no leisure for rei>reseuting noble types and wortiiy aspects of liuman 
 character, &c." 
 
 In the same number, Mr. G. A. Sala gives in his " Echoes of the Week " a 
 short account of the burial of the arti.st in Kcusal Green Cemetery, to which the 
 following extract from the newspapers of Dec, 1S7S, will serve as supplement : — 
 
 " The remains i)f the late George Cruikshank have been removed 
 
 from their temporary resting place in Kcnsal Green Cemetery, and deposited in 
 their final resting place in St. Paul's Cathedral. In compliance with a gem-rally 
 expressed publii- wish, the Dean of St. Paul's gave liis consent to the burial in the 
 Cathedral, but as the Crypt was under repairs, the reception of the remains was 
 cleferred until last week. Tho ceremony was of the simplest kind."
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man. 91 
 
 The Fuhlishers' Circular. Feb. 16, 1878. 
 
 Obituary iioticci :— " To omit tlic name of George Cruiljshanlt from tlic history 
 of England in the nineteentii century would lie to leave out an essential factor 
 from tlie story of the passions, merriments and moods of the people. Unhappily 
 we have now to chronicle his death, and, although he died at the ago of eighty-six, 
 he was so full of vit.ality and vigour that his departure seems sudden and un- 
 timely. It was but a few days ago that, meeting jMr. B. H. Home at the house of 
 Mr. Bentley, the publisher, the veteran artist and colonel of volunteers, like 
 Johnny Armstrong, ' danced a spring,' or r.alher, footed the difficult anil rapid 
 shuffle of the hornpipe, to show tli.at tliero was yet life in him. * '' • Cruikshank 
 was entirely a draughtsman per se of exulting strength, value, honesty, purity, 
 industry, and worth. He was a John Bull caricaturist of a now lost race ; a man 
 of a true, nohle, virtuous, and not over well-paid life, who has done the nation 
 sound service, and of whom it may well be proud." 
 
 Chambers's Journal. Maroli 16, 1878. 
 
 Long article, " The Story of George Cruikshank." 
 
 The WceUy Welcome. Marcli 30, 1878. 
 Portrait and article. 
 
 Notes and Queries. April 18, 1878. 
 
 Keminiscences of G. C. and his "Magazine "—six column article by "Cuthbert 
 Bede" (Rev. E. Bradley). 
 
 The Leisure Hour. April 27, 1878. 
 
 Fine portrait of G. C., accompanied by a long and interesting article, which 
 closes with the following remarks :— " In appearance Cruikshank was no ordinary 
 person. He was rather under the middle size, of gi-aceful build, and firm muscular 
 flf ure. His features were strikingly expressive,— an eye that looked you through, 
 a'nose rather of the Roman type, a mouth and lips of classical mould, and a 
 capacious forehead, the whole countenance in middle life rather wildly set in a 
 redundance of hair. He was constitutionally courageous, and being highly 
 impulsive, was quickly stirred to action. Always prompt to take the initiative, 
 whatever his hand found to do, he did it with all his might, not at all like your 
 ultra-deliberate man who hesitate and hesitate, deterred by this difflculty and 
 that, until the opportunity for action is past. His facile lingers were ever in the 
 forelock of Time, grasping with a determined hold the as yet undevelo]jed events, 
 and pressing them into his service. Hence the astonishing number and variety of 
 his works, which will be hoarded and cherished long after the e\ euts and circum- 
 stauces which gave rise to them have passed into oblivion. The last of Engkand's 
 purely satii'ical designers, he will be assuredly regarded as the greatest." 
 
 Koles cmA Queries. June 1, 1878. 
 
 An interesting communication from Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.B.H.S., with 
 extracts from a letter to him from G. C. relating to his illustrations to Paradise 
 Lost. See page 4S of the present essay. 
 
 Ocorge OruiJcslumk, Artist and Humourist, with numerous Illustrations and 
 a £1 Bank Note. By "Walter Hamilton, F.K.G.S. London, Eliot 
 Stock. Feb., 1878, 8vo., pp. 64. 
 
 Reprint, with .additions, of a lecture read before the Chelsea Literary and 
 Scientilic Institution. Contains reproduction of the portrait from Tlie Omnibus, 
 and many wood-cuts. 
 
 The Bookseller. March 2, 1878. 
 
 The Bookseller. April 3, 1878. 
 
 The last two articles contain a chronological bibliography of the books 
 illustrated by George Cruikshank, which, though not quite free from errors, will 
 be found to convey much interesting information. 
 
 The Temple Bar Magazine. April, 1878. 
 Article by Mr. Frederick Wedmore.
 
 92 Geoj'gc Crnikshaitk, 
 
 The Gentleman's Magazine. May, 1878. 
 
 Article, "George Cruiksliank ; a Life Memory," by George Augustus Sala. 
 
 Notes and Queries. May 26, 1873. ' 
 
 A note by "Olphar Hauist," (Jlr. Ralph Thomas) on G. C.'s libraiy, audits 
 recent sale by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. 
 
 Notes and Queries. June 15, 1878. 
 
 A letter from Mr. William Tegg, the eminent publisher, about Mirth and 
 Morality, illustrated by G. C. 
 
 The Art Journal. May, 1878. 
 Obituary notice. 
 
 Seribncr's Monthly. June, 1878. (A Transatlantic serial). 
 
 Article on George Cruikshauk, with tw enty-tlircc iIlu.strations. 
 
 George Cruikshank: The Artist, the Uumourist, and the Man. A Crilieo- 
 
 Bibliographical Essay by JVilliam Bates, B.A., d-c. With mimerous 
 
 illttstrations , of •which some are from original drav:ings never before 
 
 engraved. Birmingham, Houghton and Hammond ; London, Houlston 
 
 and Sons, 1878, Svo., i)p. 80. Price 1/- 
 
 Of this Essay, 200 copies wee struck off on largo and thick paper, 4to, with 
 the plates, of which many are additional, on India paper. Price 5/- 
 
 The same Work. Second edition, revised, with an additional section of 
 " Bibliographiana," and several extra illustrations on India paper. 
 Jan., 1879, 4to. Price 10/6. 
 
 Birmingham Daily Mail. Nov. 11, 1878. 
 
 Long article on the above-mentioned Essay. 
 
 The Life of RowlandsoH, the Caricaturist, with anecdotal descriptions of his 
 Works and Times, and Sketches of his Contemporaries. (With numerous 
 illustrations.) By Joseph Grego. Chatto and Windus, London, 1879, 
 4to. 
 
 This impoi-tant contribution to the histnr>' of cai-icature art is not yet before 
 the public ; but by the kindness of the author I have en.ioyed the privilege of 
 perusing some of the proof-sheets, and place the book on record here as con- 
 taining (pp. 15-19.) George Cbi.'ikshank's opinion of his great predecessors or 
 contemporaries. His admiration for Gillray,— " the greatest man, in his eyes 
 whoever lived, indisputably 'the prince of caricaturists,' as he has appropriiUcly 
 christened him," — was intense; while he expressed the most enthusiastic 
 appreciation of Rowlandson, not so much as a caricaturist as one might have 
 thought, but as "an accomplished water-colour painter, the equal, as he considered, 
 of most of the founders of our special school," and whose maritime sketches 
 especially "recall in a forcible degree the drawings of William Vandevelce 
 who was, in Cruikshank's opinion, the only artist whose marine studies could be 
 quoted in comparison. 
 
 (3) LETTERS WPJTTEN BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, 
 
 AND PAK.VGR.VPns KELATIXG TO HIM AND HIS WORICS, IN THE " TIMES '' 
 NEWSPAPER, DURING THE LAST DECADE OF HIS LIFE. 
 
 1865, November 7. Page 12. 
 
 Letter from G. C. on " Moderation in Drinking."
 
 The Artist, the Humorist, and the Jl/an. 93 
 
 1866, April 6. Page 5. 
 
 Letter from G. C. on "The Brighton Review." 
 
 868, January 4. Page 10 
 
 Letter from G. C. on the formation of a Tenipearnce C'oriJS. 
 
 1868, July 17tli. Page 10. 
 
 Paragraph conveying G. C.'s request to the Editor to state that the "George 
 Cruikshank, Junior, Artist" whope name had appeared in the Bankruptcy list 
 of tlie preceding day, wai a grandson of his brother Robert. 
 
 1870, January 29. Page 9. 
 
 Letter from G. C. on the *' National Education League." 
 
 1870, December 20. Page 9. 
 
 Priced sale-list of Etchings and other Illustrations by G. C. 
 
 1871, December 30. Page 8. 
 
 Letter from G. C. claiming to be the originator of Oliver Twist. 
 
 1872, April 8 ; Page 14. And April 11 ; Page 12. 
 
 Letters on the origin of W. H, Atusworth's Miser's Daughter, 
 
 1872, May 27. Page 14. 
 
 A h;ilf-volumc of test headed " A Shakespeaiv Gallery by George Cruik^'hank 
 giving a laudatory critical account of the \\ ater-eolour drawing, " Tlie first appeal 
 anee of William Shakespeare on the Stage of tlio Globe," produced by " the Nestor 
 of Contemporary Art," and as then reproduced by the " Autotype Fine Art 
 Comjjany." 
 
 1872, December 28. Page 9. 
 
 Letter from G. C., stating that certain illustrations which had recently 
 appeared in London Society were not by him, but by "the son of his nephew, 
 Percy Cruikshank"; and suggesting that, to avoid confusion, the latter should 
 sign himself " G. Percy Cruikshank," instead of " George Cruikshank, Junior." 
 
 1873, May 31. Page 5. 
 
 Letter from G. C. relating to his 'J Subscription Tostimnnial" ; .<• peaking of the 
 serious loss which he had recently iucikred from the forgery of a peison with 
 whom he had been induced to connect himself in an attempt to estalilish an In- 
 surance Society for the Working Classes ; stating that hid *'eftbrts to serve his 
 fellow-creatures " had cost him no less than £3,000, so that "the balance was on 
 the wrong side" ; and that, as for his Pensions, to which some allusion had been 
 made, it would be a long time before they covered his losses. 
 
 1875, January 9. Page 7. 
 
 Paragraph giving account of the republication of the " liottle " scries, in 
 cheap form ; and the influence which it had had in abating Intemperance. 
 
 1875, June 28. Page 13. 
 
 Paragraph giving account of the formation of a Committee to purchase from 
 the Artist, for the Nation, a "complete Collection of his Works," produced 
 during 76 years, consisting of 1,100 specimens, and wliieh could be obtained from 
 him for some £3,000. 
 
 1875, December 25. Page 7. 
 
 Account of the purchase, for the " New Winter Garden, Westminster," of tlie 
 large Cruikshank collection, " exhibited a few years since at Exeter HaU."
 
 94 
 
 George Cruikshank. 
 
 1876, August 3. Page 9. 
 
 Account of the Collection of the Works of G. C. at the ** Royal Westm inster 
 Aquarium," as arranged by the Artist : about a third ol a column. 
 
 1876, September 28. Page 9. 
 
 Letter from G. C. on "Street Accidtnts." 
 
 1877, June 22. Page 4. 
 
 Letter from G. C. on *• CaX'ital Punishment." 
 
 1877, December 6. Page 10 : and December 19, page 9. 
 
 Letters from G. C. asserting his claim to he the righlful designer of the 
 Monument to Robert Bruce on the battle-held of Baunockburn ; and complaining 
 of the treatment he had received. 
 
 1878, May 17. Page 7. 
 
 Account of the Sale of his Pictures and other personal effects. 
 
 1878, May 22. Page 11. 
 
 Statement that the Civil List Pension, enjoj-ed by the Artist, is to he continued 
 to his Widow. 
 
 (From Original Pencil Drawing.) 
 
 FINIS.
 
 BIRMINGHAM : 
 
 Houghton and Hammond, Printebs, Scotland Passage.
 
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