The Project Gutenberg eBook ofOld Coloured BooksThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Old Coloured BooksAuthor: George PastonRelease date: September 9, 2010 [eBook #33682]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Carol Brown and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD COLOURED BOOKS ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Old Coloured BooksAuthor: George PastonRelease date: September 9, 2010 [eBook #33682]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Carol Brown and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
Title: Old Coloured Books
Author: George Paston
Author: George Paston
Release date: September 9, 2010 [eBook #33682]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Carol Brown and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD COLOURED BOOKS ***
Illustration: THE REVD. DOCTOR SYNTAXTHE REVD. DOCTOR SYNTAX
THE REVD. DOCTOR SYNTAX
First Published in 1905
IpageRudolf Ackermann3Thomas Rowlandson5William Combe9IIThe Cruikshank Brothers16David Carey21Charles Molloy Westmacott23Pierce Egan and Theodore Lane26George Cruikshank28IIIHenry Alken32Charles James Apperley35Robert Smith Surtees39IVThePickwickIllustratorsRobert Seymour41Robert William Buss43Hablôt Knight Browne45
pageThe Rev. Dr. SyntaxFrontispieceFromThe Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the PicturesqueDr. Syntax in the Glass House8FromThe Second Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of ConsolationQuæGenus officiating at a Gaming House9FromJohnnyQuæGenusBy Gamblers Linked in Folly's Noose13FromThe Dance of LifeSubscription Room at Brooks14FromThe Microcosm of LondonVauxhall Gardens15FromThe Microcosm of LondonDeath's Dance19FromThe Dance of Death—Volume I.Hunting the Slipper20FromThe Vicar of WakefieldTom and Jerry in the Saloon at Covent Garden25FromLife in LondonAdventures in a Whiskey Parlour28FromReal Life in IrelandRace Horse34FromThe National Sports of Great BritainA New Hunter36FromThe Life of John MyttonMr. Ridgeway's Good Health38FromThe Life of a Sportsman"O, Gentlemen, Gentlemen!"39From Jorrocks' Jaunts and JollitiesMr. Jorrocks' Lecture on 'Unting40FromHandley CrossColoured Title Page41FromThe Analysis of the Hunting Field
It is an unromantic fact, but one which cannot fail to be of interest at the present time, that the remarkable development of the graver's art in England during the latter part of the eighteenth century was due, in a measure at least, to—Protection. In the middle of the century our trade in engravings was still an import one, English print-sellers being obliged to pay hard cash for the prints they bought in France, since the French took none in exchange. But with the accession of George III. a better prospect dawned for the artist and engraver. The young King, unlike his immediate predecessors, desired to patronise native talent; no budding Hogarth should draw unflattering comparisons between himself and the King of Prussia as an "Encourager of the Arts." And in spite of the gibes of Peter Pindar, in spite of the royal preference for Ramsay over Reynolds, it is probable that George III. was sincere in his desire to stimulate the growth of British art. In 1769 the long-talked-of Royal Academy was founded; while, for the benefit of the rising school of English engravers, bounties were granted on the exportation of English prints, and heavy duties imposed on the importation of French prints. Politics and patriotism were not without their influence upon the trade, many a good courtier being willing to help the cause by the purchase of an inexpensive print, though he was not yet prepared to patronise a British painter. Immense sums were cleared by John Boydell over Woollett's engravings after West and Copley; illustrated books, more especially of travel, were eagerly bought up; illustrated magazines flooded the market; print-shops multiplied, their windows "glazed with libels" in the shape of coloured caricatures; and foreign artists, engravers, and miniaturists flocked to the English Eldorado. In 1790 it was stated in a trade pamphlet that the prints exported from England at that time, as compared with those imported from France, were in the proportion of five hundred to one!
Rudolf Ackermann
The French Revolution, and the wars that followed, temporarily ruined our foreign trade in prints, the great fortune that Boydell had made by his judicious speculation in the talents of his countrymen, melting away under these adverse influences, and leaving him a ruined man by 1802. But as Boydell's star sank, that of another art-publisher, presumably less dependent on foreign trade, rose above the horizon. Rudolf Ackermann (1764-1834), the son of a Saxon coachbuilder, came to London about 1775, and after ten years spent in making designs for coachbuilders, set up for himself in the Strand as an art-publisher and dealer in fancy goods. Ackermann proved himself a man of really remarkable energy and initiative, with a mind always open to the reception of new ideas, and a spirit of commercial enterprise that was based upon artistic taste and sound judgment. He was also one of the few men who have ever successfully combined business and philanthropy on a large scale. During the years that followed the Reign of Terror, he was the chief employer of the Frenchemigrésin London, finding occupation for no fewer than fifty nobles, priests, and ladies, in the manufacture of screens, card-racks, and other articles for his "fancy department." Irrespective of his business as an art-publisher, this extraordinary man patented an invention for rendering cloth and paper waterproof, made experiments in air-balloons for the dissemination of news in war-time, designed Nelson's funeral-car, introduced lithography for the purposes of art-illustration into this country, raised and distributed a large sum for the relief of sufferers after the battle of Leipsic, undertook the same good offices for the Prussian soldiers after Waterloo, and was a generous employer to the Spanish exiles who took refuge in England in 1815. His Wednesday evening conversazione at the Repository of Arts, 101 Strand, became quite a feature in the literary and artistic world after 1813, while he played the part of protector and adviser to the more unpractical of the authors and illustrators who were employed upon his various undertakings.
Turning to Ackermann's numerous and valuable art-publications, we find that very early in his business career he was one of the chief employers of Rowlandson, the caricaturist, to whom he eventually became a kind of "foster-publisher," just as Humphrey was the foster-publisher of Gillray.
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) had received his artistic training partly in the Academy schools, and partly, thanks to French connections, in Parisian studios, where, in addition to a brilliant technique, he acquired a taste for gaming and all kinds of dissipation. A brief attempt to succeed as a portrait-painter was abandoned for caricature, as soon as he perceived the success that had been won in that field by his contemporaries Gillray and Bunbury, to say nothing of the easy triumphs of such minor workers in the grotesque as Collings and Woodward. The exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1784-87 of such admirable studies in social comedy asVauxhall Gardens,The Serpentine,French Barracks,An Italian Family, andGrog on Board, speedily established his reputation, and his future seemed secure. But his temperament made havoc of his career. He threw away, not only his earnings, but more than one substantial legacy, over the dice, remaining at the tables sometimes for a day and a night together. Though he had a horror of debt, and his I.O.U. was reckoned as good as sterling coin, his losses troubled him but little. "I have played the fool," he was accustomed to say when he came home with empty pockets, "but," holding up his famous reed-pen, "here is my resource." And for many years his faith in his own powers was abundantly justified. But as time passed on, his amazing rapidity of production began to spoil his market; while his facile but not profound imagination showed signs of wearying. The print-shops were flooded with his hasty sketches, and though his admirers were numerous and his patrons liberal, the demand failed to keep pace with the supply.
At this juncture it became apparent to the keen eye of Rudolf Ackermann that some effort must be made to turn this fine talent into new channels, and to organise its output. He had noted the popularity of such connected series of comic designs as Woodward'sEccentric Excursionand Bunbury'sAcademy for Grown Horsemen, and it occurred to him that humorous works illustrated with coloured etchings by Rowlandson, and issued in monthly parts, or in volume form at a moderate price, would have more chance of success than a multitude of detached plates.The Loyal Volunteers, published in 1799, seems to have been the earliest result of the connection between artist and publisher, and this was followed by a series of popular productions, including the well-knownMiseries of Human Life. But the most sensational success was made withThe Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, which appeared in thePoetical Magazinein 1810 and in book-form in 1812. The idea of a series of designs representing the adventures and misadventure of a ridiculous old pedagogue during a tour among the Lakes, appears to have been suggested to Rowlandson by his friend John Bannister, the comedian, but the subject was versified by William Combe, then an inmate of the King's Bench. Combe has described how every month "an etching or drawing was sent to me, and I composed a certain proportion of pages in verse, in which, of course, the subject of the design was included; the rest depended on what would be the subject of the second, and in this manner the artist continued designing, and I continued writing, till a volume containing nearly ten thousand words was produced." A contemporary states that Combe used to pin up the sketch against the screen of his room, and reel off his verses as the printer wanted them; but, owing to his dilatory habits, only one etching was sent to him at a time.
Illustration: DR. SYNTAX IN THE GLASS HOUSEDR. SYNTAX IN THE GLASS HOUSE
DR. SYNTAX IN THE GLASS HOUSE
Illustration: QUÆ GENUS OFFICIATING AT A GAMING HOUSEQUÆ GENUS OFFICIATING AT A GAMING HOUSE
QUÆ GENUS OFFICIATING AT A GAMING HOUSE
The success of this not very promising system of collaboration astonished the authors and delighted the publisher. The fortune of thePoetical Magazinewas made, new editions being called for so rapidly that the old plates were worn out and new ones had to be etched. Dr. Syntax hats, coats, and wigs became fashionable, while the old schoolmaster, his scolding wife and his ancient steed, were among the most popular of public characters. The many inferior imitations to which this success gave rise induced Ackermann to commission sequels from the same collaborators, and these appeared under the titles ofDr. Syntax in Search of Consolation(the hero having lost his wife),Dr. Syntax in Search of a Wife, andJohnny Quæ Genus, between 1820 and 1823. The popularity of these works was doubtless mainly due to Rowlandson's designs, in which British breadth of humour was combined with French lightness of touch; but Combe's versified account of the adventures of the long-suffering Doctor, though it has lost much of its savour for the present age, seems to have been completely to the taste of his own generation.
William Combe
William Combe (1741-1823) was a literary "bravo" of a type that was common enough in the eighteenth century. If he had not the truculence of John Churchill or the coarseness of Peter Pindar, he was little less unscrupulous in his use of the pen. The son of a Bristol merchant, he was educated at Eton and Oxford, and after making the grand tour he was called to the Bar. But "Duke" Combe, as his friends nicknamed him, was too fine a gentleman to work at his profession. He set up an expensive establishment, kept a retinue of servants and several horses, and, thanks to his good looks and attractive manners, obtained an entrance into the most "exclusive circles." At the end of two or three years, having squandered a small fortune left him by his godfather, Combe disappeared from his fashionable haunts, and, if tradition may be believed, underwent strange vicissitudes of fate. He is said to have enlisted as a private, first in the English and afterwards in the French army, and to have figured as a teacher of elocution, a waiter in a restaurant, and a cook at Douai College, where he made such excellent soup that the monks tried to persuade him to join their order. In 1772 he returned to England, and was induced to marry thechère amieof an English nobleman by the promise of a handsome annuity. The annuity not being forthcoming, he wrote a versified satire calledThe Diaboliad(1776), dedicated to the Worst Man in His Majesty's dominions, who has been variously identified as Lord Irnham and Lord Beauchamp. The satire having asuccès de scandale, was followed byThe Diablo-lady, and other lampoons in the same style. Combe now settled down to literary work—of a kind—and produced the spuriousLetters of the late Lord Lyttelton(which deceived many of the elect), and the equally spuriousLetters of Sterne to Eliza. He had made the acquaintance of Sterne during his travels in Italy, and used to boast that he had supplanted the sentimental divine in the good graces of Eliza. In 1789, Combe took service under Pitt as a political pamphleteer, with a pension of £200 a year. This salary ceased when Addington came into office in 1803, but he then obtained a post on the staff of theTimes. Crabb Robinson, who met him in theTimesoffice, said that he had known few men to be compared with Combe, and states that he was chiefly employed in consultation, important questions being brought to him to decide in Walter's absence.
Combe's connection with Ackermann began when he was about sixty years of age, and it is remarkable that his greatest successes should have been won when he was nearing seventy. That he was able to produce so much popular work at his advanced age, was probably partly due to the fact that, unlike most of his contemporaries, he was a confirmed water-drinker, and that his life within the Rules was free from anxiety and responsibility. The Rules were jokingly said to extend as far as the East Indies, and it is certain that they extended as far as Ackermann's hospitable table in the Strand. Combe stoutly refused to allow his friends to make any arrangement with his creditors, and no formal contract regulated his dealings with his publisher. "Send me a twenty-pounder," or "Send me a thirty-pounder," he wrote when funds were low, and his employer knew his value too well to neglect his demands. Besides contributing numerous articles to Ackermann's monthly,The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, and Manufactures(1809-28), Combe wrote the descriptive letterpress for several of the large illustrated books published by the same firm,The History of the Thames,The History of Westminster Abbey, and the third volume of the splendidMicrocosm of London, illustrated by Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin (1762-1832),[1]the former being responsible for the figures, the latter for the architecture. The first and second volumes were written by W. H. Pyne, author ofWine and Walnuts, who is perhaps better known by his pseudonym of "Ephraim Hardcastle." Combe is seen to most advantage, however, inThe English Dance of Death, which was published in 1815, with illustrations by Rowlandson, and followed the succeeding year byThe Dance of Life.
Illustration: By Gamblers link'd in Folly's Noose, Play ill or well, he's sure to loose.By Gamblers link'd in Folly's Noose,Play ill or well, he's sure to loose.
By Gamblers link'd in Folly's Noose,Play ill or well, he's sure to loose.
"The Infamous Combe," as Walpole unkindly dubbed him, was the author of over a hundred books; but as he only put his name to one, there is considerable doubt about the identity of his literary offspring. Though nominally confined in a debtors' prison, Combe, on the death of his first wife in 1814, married a sister of Mrs. Cosway's, but this union was no happier than the first, and the couple were soon separated. In his old age he appears to have amused himself with a platonic love-affair with a young girl,[2]and in the composition of his autobiography. If this was a truthful record of his career, it must have been a more exciting document than all his other books put together; but, unfortunately, in a fit of resentment at the marriage of his adopted son, he burned the manuscript leaf by leaf.
Illustration: SUBSCRIPTION ROOM AT BROOKSSUBSCRIPTION ROOM AT BROOKS
SUBSCRIPTION ROOM AT BROOKS
Illustration: VAUXHALL GARDENSVAUXHALL GARDENS
VAUXHALL GARDENS
Before quitting the subject of the triple alliance between Ackermann, Rowlandson, and Combe, a word is due to the method in which the delicately-tinted illustrations to their joint-productions were executed. According to Delaborde, the copperplate engravings printed in colour at the close of the eighteenth century, were usually printed from one plate, done in stipple, and the various tints were rubbed in by the printer, who used a sort of stump for this purpose instead of the ordinary dabbing-brush. This was a lengthy process, and not always satisfactory, since so much depended on the discretion of the printer. A more common method was to print broadly with three tints of printing ink, and afterwards to complete the colouring by hand with water-colours. Mr. Grego has described in some detail the manner in which the etchings of Rowlandson were produced by the conscientious Ackermann. The artist would saunter round to the Repository from his lodgings in the Adelphi, and call for reed-pens, drawing-paper, and saucers of vermilion and Indian ink, which last he proceeded to combine in his own inimitable fashion. "For the book-illustrations a finished drawing was first made, and then Rowlandson etched the outline firmly and sharply on the copperplate, an impression from the bitten-in outline was printed upon drawing-paper, and the artist put in his shadows, modelling of forms and sketchy distance in the most delicate handling possible. The shadows were then copied in acqua-tint on the outlined plate, sometimes by the designer, but in most cases by an engraver. Rowlandson next completed the colouring of his own Indian-ink shaded impression in delicate tints harmoniously selected. This tinted impression served as a copy for Ackermann's famous staff of colourists, who, having worked under his supervision for many years, attained a degree of perfection and neatness never arrived at before, and almost beyond belief in the present day." The result of this elaborate care may perhaps best be seen inThe Microcosm of London,The Dance of Death, and the charming edition ofThe Vicar of Wakefield, published in 1817.
[1]Father of the more celebrated Augustus Welby and Edward Welby Pugin.
[1]Father of the more celebrated Augustus Welby and Edward Welby Pugin.
[2]His letters to her were published the year after his death.
[2]His letters to her were published the year after his death.
Robert and George Cruikshank
In the early years of the nineteenth century, when Gillray was fast drinking himself into imbecility, and Rowlandson had turned his attention to book-illustration, English caricature, that once vigorous plant, showed signs of premature decay. In the opinion of all lovers of pictorial satire, the promise displayed in the as yet immature designs of a couple of youthful brothers, Robert and George Cruikshank, held out the best hopes for the future. The two boys were the sons of a Lowland Scotchman, Isaac Cruikshank (c.1756-c.1811), who came to London with his Highland wife some time in the "eighties," and made a modest mark as a water-colour painter and caricaturist. He produced a large number of political caricatures in the style of Gillray, which were coloured by his wife and later by his two boys, who enjoyed but little schooling, and only so much artistic training as he could give them. It was owing, probably, to Isaac's passion for Scotch whisky, which is said to have hastened his end, that the little household in Duke Street, Holborn, had a hard struggle to make both ends meet, and George (1792-1878), while yet a child himself, was set to illustrate children's books for the trade. Before he was out of his teens he was producing coloured caricatures, of which the arrest of Sir Francis Burdett is the earliest important example, and contributing etchings toThe Scourge(1811-16), a scurrilous publication, edited by "Mad Mitford." The principal subjects of his somewhat crude satire were the Regent, Buonaparte, and a certain number of too notorious personages in "high life." In 1814, George illustrated aLife of Napoleonin Hudibrastic verse, by Dr. Syntax, not our friend Combe, but some anonymous admirer of his hero. Young Cruikshank's talent attracted the attention of William Hone ofTable-Bookfame, who employed him to illustrate a series of radical squibs, includingThe Political House that Jack built,The Political Alphabet, andThe Queen's Matrimonial Ladder. It was for Hone that George designed his famous Bank-note "notto be imitated," which, he fondly believed, put a stop to hanging for the forgery of one pound notes. Hone seems to have been a very poor paymaster, but his custom brought the young artist great notoriety, and by 1820 "the ingenious Mr. Cruikshank" was firmly established as a popular favourite.
Illustration: DEATH'S DANCEDEATH'S DANCE
DEATH'S DANCE
After his father's death, George continued to keep house with his mother, sister, and brother, and we are told that the wild ways of her two boys gave the thrifty, serious Mrs. Cruikshank a great deal of anxiety. She is reported to have chastised George with her own hands when he came home tipsy o' nights, and she was accustomed to say, with more than maternal candour, "Take the pencil out of my sons' hands, and they are no better than two boobies." However, it was probably owing to their familiarity with "the haunts of dissipation" that they became acquainted with Pierce Egan (1772-1849), the pet of peers and pugilists, an accomplished professor of Cockney slang, and the greatest living authority on questions relating to boxing, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and all such "manly sports." Pierce, who handled a pen much as he might have handled a quarter-staff, had already won fame as a sporting reporter, and as the author ofBoxiana, or Sketches of Modern Pugilists, published in 1818. In 1821 he conceived, or had suggested to him, the idea of a book on Life in London as seen by a young man about town, and he engaged the brothers Cruikshank to illustrate it. It has been claimed that the idea originated with Robert Cruikshank, who drew the characters of Corinthian Tom, Jerry Hawthorn, and Bob Logic, from himself, his brother, and Pierce Egan. George IV. gave permission for the proposed work to be dedicated to himself, and in July 1821 it began to appear in monthly numbers, under the title ofLife 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. The work was illustrated by fifty-six hand-coloured etchings by the two Cruikshanks, as well as numerous engravings on wood. The very first number took the town by storm, and the colourists were unable to keep pace with the demand. Scenes from the tale were painted on fans, screens, and tea-trays, numerous imitations were put forth, even before the book was issued in volume form, and more than one dramatised version appeared on the stage. Every street broil was transformed into a "Tom and Jerry row," the Methodists distributed tracts at the doors of the theatres in which the piece was played, and it was declared that Egan had turned the period into an Age of Flash. But all protests were speedily drowned in a general chorus of admiration, to which theEuropean Magazineput the climax with its public declaration that "Corinthian Tom gives finished portraits; with all the delicacy and precision of Gerard Douw, he unites the boldness of Rubens with the intimate knowledge of Teniers!" Thackeray, in a charming essay, has recalled his early delight in the book, in those far-off days when every schoolboy believed that the three heroes were types of the most elegant and fashionable young fellows the town afforded, and thought their occupations and amusements those of all high-bred English gentlemen. Twenty years later, Thackeray describes how he went to the British Museum to renew his acquaintance with his old favourite, and was disillusioned by the letterpress, which he found a little vulgar, "but the pictures," he exclaims, "the pictures are noble still!"
Illustration: HUNTING THE SLIPPERHUNTING THE SLIPPER
HUNTING THE SLIPPER
David Carey
The earliest imitation ofLife in Londonwas calledReal Life in London, or the Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq., and his Cousin the Hon. Tom Dashall. By an Amateur.This book, which some have supposed to be the work of Egan in rivalry with himself, was illustrated by Rowlandson, Alken, and Dighton. A year later, in 1822, cameLife in Paris, Comprising the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours of Dick Wildfire and Squire Jenkins, by David Carey; whileThe English Spy, by Bernard Blackmantle, appeared in 1824. David Carey (1782-1824) was a young Scotchman, son of a manufacturer at Arbroath, who began his career in Constable's publishing house in Edinburgh but presently came south, and devoted himself to literary journalism. He attracted some attention by means of a satire, called theThe Ins and Outs, and also wrote some long-forgotten novels and sketches. In 1822 he went to Paris, where he wrote his account of life in that city; and then, his health breaking down, returned to his native town to die of consumption. It was claimed for the illustrations to his book, which were from the pencil of George Cruikshank, that "To accuracy of local delineation is added a happy exhibition of whatever is ludicrous and grotesque in character." Now George had never been in France, and therefore was obliged to take his local colour from the "views" of other artists, but the ludicrous and grotesque side of French life and character came only too easily to his John Bullish imagination. To him, as Thackeray points out, all Frenchmen were either barbers or dancing-masters, with "spindle shanks, pig-tails, outstretched hands, shrugging shoulders, and queer hair and moustaches." In his regenerate days, George was wont to assert,à proposofLife in London, that, finding the book was a guide to, rather than a warning against, the vicious haunts and amusements of the Metropolis, he had retired from the alliance with Egan, leaving about two-thirds of the plates to be executed by his brother Robert. If this be true, he showed some inconsistency in consenting to illustrate Carey's book, which is a frank imitation of Egan's, though in a French setting.
Charles Molloy Westmacott
A more ambitious book in the same genre wasThe English Spy; an Original Work, Characteristic, Satirical, and Humorous, comprising Scenes and Sketches in every Rank of Society, being Portraits of the Illustrious, Eminent, Eccentric, and Notorious. The author, Charles Molloy Westmacott,aliasBernard Blackmantle, editor ofThe Age, has been described as a typical editor of the rowdy school of journalism. He claimed to be the son of Sir Richard Westmacott, the Royal Academician, by a certain Widow Molloy, who kept the King's Arms at Kensington. The system of journalistic blackmail was brought to a higher degree of perfection by Westmacott than by any other free lance of the time. For thepièces justificativesrelating to a certain scandalous intrigue in which various exalted personages were implicated, Westmacott is said to have received nearly £5000. With his ill-gotten gains he fitted up a villa near Richmond, where for a time he lived in luxury, though not, it would appear, in security. In 1830 he was soundly horsewhipped by Charles Kemble for an insulting allusion to his daughter Fanny inThe Age, and he was threatened with the same punishment by Bulwer Lytton. In his portrait by Daniel Maclise he is represented with a heavy dog-whip, probably a necessary weapon of defence. In his later days Westmacott took refuge in Paris, where he died in 1868.
Illustration: TOM AND JERRY, IN THE SALOON AT COVENT GARDENTOM AND JERRY, IN THE SALOON AT COVENT GARDEN
TOM AND JERRY, IN THE SALOON AT COVENT GARDEN
In 1823, Westmacott published hisPoints of Misery, illustrated by George Cruikshank, and in 1825 he brought out aroman à clefcalledFitzalleyne of Berkeley, in which various scandals relating to the Berkeley family were introduced. The book was eagerly bought and read, and Westmacott, who had vainly tried to extort money for its suppression, must have made a handsome sum by its publication.The English Spywas brought out in two volumes, and contained seventy-two large coloured plates as well as numerous vignettes on wood, the majority being from the designs of Robert Cruikshank, who figures in the book under the pseudonym of "Robert Transit." Two of the coloured plates were contributed by Thomas Rowlandson, notably a sketch of the Life Academy at Somerset House, with the R.A.'s of the period busily engaged in drawing from a female model. Most of the social celebrities of the time are introduced into the book, Beau Brummell, Colonel Berkeley, Pierce Egan, Charles Matthews, "Pea-green" Hayne, and "Golden" Ball; while life at the University, in sporting and fashionable London, and at the popular watering-places, is vividly described. On the last page is an interesting little vignette representing the author and artist in the act of handing the second volume of their work to an eagerly expectant bookseller. The success of this book, and of many other imitations ofLife in London, induced Egan to compose a sequel to his work, which appeared in 1828 under the title ofThe Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic, in their Pursuits through Life in and out of London, illustrated by Robert Cruikshank. In this curious book an attempt is made to propitiate the Nonconformist conscience of that day by bringing the majority of the characters to a bad end. Corinthian Tom breaks his neck in a steeplechase, Corinthian Kate dies in misery, Bob Logic is also killed off, and Splendid Jem becomes a convict; but Jerry Hawthorn reforms, marries Mary Rosebud, a virtuous country maiden, and settles down at Hawthorn Hall as a Justice of the Peace and model landlord.
Pierce Egan and Theodore Lane
In 1824, Egan had started a weekly newspaper calledPierce Egan's Life in London, which, being sold to a Mr. Bell, enjoyed a long period of popularity asBell's Life in London. In the same year Pierce published hisLife of an Actor, dedicated to Edmund Kean, and illustrated by Theodore Lane. Lane, who was born at Isleworth in 1800, was the son of a drawing-master in poor circumstances. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to John Barrow, an artist and colourer of prints, who was living in St. Pancras. Thanks to the encouragement of his master, Lane early came into notice as a miniaturist and painter in water-colours, and he exhibited works of that class at the Academy between 1819 and 1826. But his real talent lay in the direction of the quaint and the humorous. In 1825 he made a series of thirty-six designs representing scenes in the life of an actor, which he took to Egan and begged that popular author to write the letterpress. After some hesitation, Egan undertook the task, chiefly, as he says, with the idea of introducing a meritorious young artist to the public. For his designs Lane received £150 from the publisher, and the book really proved a stepping-stone, not to fortune, but to regular employment. His work was praised by the two Cruikshanks, and a writer inThe Monthly Critical Gazettedeclared that his designs would not discredit the pencil of Hogarth. Lane illustrated Egan'sAnecdotes Original and Selected of the Turf, the Chase, the Ring, and the Stagein 1827, and also publishedtwo or seriesof humorous designs. In 1825 the young artist, though left-handed, took up oil-painting with success, and attracted favourable notice by his picturesThe Christmas PresentsandDisturbed by Nightmare, which were exhibited at the Academy in 1827 and 1828. His best work, however, wasThe Enthusiast—a gouty angler fishing in a tub of water—which is now in the National Gallery. On 21st May 1828 poor Lane's promising career was cut short in most tragical fashion. While waiting for a friend at the Horse Repository in the Gray's Inn Road, he stepped upon a skylight, and, falling through, his brains were dashed out upon the pavement below. He left a widow and two children, for whose benefit Egan published a little work in verse calledThe Show Folks, with illustrations by Lane, as well as a short memoir of the unfortunate artist. Of Egan's numerous other works it is only necessary to mention hisBook of Sports and Mirror of Life(1832), andThe Pilgrims of the Thames in Search of the National(1838), illustrated by his son, and dedicated by express permission to the young Queen Victoria. "The Fancy's darling child," as he has been aptly named, died at his house in Pentonville in 1849, "respected by all who knew him"—vide Bell's Life.
George Cruikshank
To return to George Cruikshank, who was now in the full tide of success and overwhelmed with commissions. It would be impossible here to give a complete list of his productions, but mention may be made of his illustrations toPeter Schlemihl, the Man without a Shadow, and to Grimm'sPopular Stories(1824), which were so much admired by Ruskin; of his Illustrations ofPhrenology(1826), which marks his first appearance as an independent author; the famousMornings at Bow Street(1815); theComic Almanac, which began in 1835; the series of etchings for theSketches by Boz(1836), and those forOliver TwistinBentley's Miscellany(1839), which led to his claim that he had originated the story—a claim that naturally put an end to his connection with Dickens. In 1839 began a long series of illustrations for the novels of Harrison Ainsworth (1805-82), the editor ofBentley's Miscellany. Ainsworth was born at Manchester, and bred up to "the law," but on coming to London to finish his legal studies, he neglected his law books for literature. He attained his first success withRookwoodin 1834, and in 1839 became editor ofBentley's Miscellany, in which his novelJack Sheppard, with illustrations by Cruikshank, first appeared. In 1842 he startedAinsworth's Magazine, and engaged Cruikshank, who had quarrelled with Bentley, as illustrator-in-chief, at a salary of £40 a month. The engagement proved a fortunate one, resulting in the excellent designs toThe Tower of London,The Miser's Daughter,Windsor Castle, and other novels, which Cruikshank himself described as "a hundred and forty-four of the very best designs and etchings I ever produced." The connection came to an end with the usual quarrel, Cruikshank claiming to have suggested the plot and characters of bothThe Miser's DaughterandThe Tower of London.
Illustration: ADVENTURES IN A WHISKEY PARLOURADVENTURES IN A WHISKEY PARLOUR
ADVENTURES IN A WHISKEY PARLOUR
In 1847, Cruikshank was converted to teetotalism, and thenceforward laboured in the cause with almost fanatic zeal. It was in this year that he executed his famous group of eight designs calledThe Bottle, which was reproduced in glyphography, and circulated at a cheap price by temperance societies. In 1850 he was employed to illustrate the second edition of Smedley's successful novelFrank Fairlegh. Frank Smedley was born at Great Marlow in 1818, and, being crippled by a malformation of the feet, he was educated at a private tutor's instead of at a public school. He contributed his first story,The Life of a Private Pupil, toSharpe's Magazinein 1846-48, and a couple of years later it was published under the title ofFrank Fairlegh. The book, in which Smedley's love of open-air life and sympathy with outdoor sports are strongly manifested, made a decided hit, and was followed during the next few years byLewis ArundelandHarry Coverdale's Courtship. Smedley has left an amusing account of his first interview with George Cruikshank, who, on seeing a cripple in a wheeled chair, could not conceal his wonder, but kept exclaiming, "Good God! I thought you could gallop about on horses." Smedley, who died of apoplexy in 1864, was editor of the ill-fatedCruikshank's Magazine, started in 1853, which only reached its second number.
George Cruikshank's last years were taken up in great measure with his work in the cause of temperance reform, and though he still occupied himself in book-illustration, it became increasingly evident that he had outlived his public. His large oil-painting,The Triumph of Bacchus, did not attract the multitude when exhibited at Exeter Hall in 1863, though he had devoted three years to its execution. Thanks to the kindness of his friends, and the grant of two small pensions, actual poverty was kept from his door, and he lived to a green old age, bright-eyed and alert, the best of good company over his glass of cold water, dancing a hornpipe at past eighty, or dressing up and singingThe Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman, which he had illustrated in 1839. He was taken ill early in 1878, and died on 1st February, finding his final resting-place in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral.
George Cruikshank, his biographer Blanchard Jerrold tells us, always worked with great care and deliberation, thinking out his subject thoroughly before beginning to realise his conception. "He made, to begin with, a careful design upon paper, trying doubtful points upon the margin. The design was heightened by vigorous touches of colour. Then a careful tracing was made, and laid, pencil side down, upon the steel plate. This was carried to the printer, who, having placed it between damp paper and passed it through the press, returned it, the black-lead outline distinctly appearing on the etching ground. And then the work wasstraightforwardto the artist's firm hand."
Henry Alken
The books illustrated in colour at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century may be classed under certain well-defined headings—narrative, topography, costume, and sport, the last being by no means the least important. Although neither Gillray nor Rowlandson ignored the sport of kings, it was Bunbury who, drawing upon his own personal experiences, set the fashion for hunting and "horsey" books, which were most commonly conceived in a vein of broad humour. Of such was Bunbury'sGeoffry Gambado, or the Academy for Grown Horsemen, of which several editions appeared between 1788 and 1808. The most distinguished of Bunbury's immediate successors was Henry Alken, an artist whose origin seems wrapped in mystery. It has been rumoured that he began his career as stud-groom or trainer to the Duke of Beaufort in the opening years of the nineteenth century. His early drawings were produced under the pseudonym of "Ben Tallyho," and the first work to which he signed his own name seems to have beenThe Beauties and Defects in the Figure of the Horse, comparatively Delineated, which appeared in 1816. This was followed by some sets of humorous etchings in frank imitation of Bunbury, such asSpecimens of Riding,Symptoms of being Amazed,A Touch at the Fine Arts, and, in 1821, by a folio volume,The National Sports of Great Britain. In 1824 we find a most complimentary allusion to Alken's work in an article on the fine arts inBlackwood's Magazine, probably written by Christopher North. The writer, after observing that George Cruikshank failed in one subject only—the gentlemen of England—proceeds: "Where Cruikshank fails, there, happily for England and for art, Henry Alken shines, and shines like a star of the first magnitude. He has filled up the great blank that was left by the disappearance of Bunbury. He is a gentleman—he has lived with gentlemen—he understands their nature both in its strength and its weakness.... In this work [A Touch at the Fine Arts] there is a freedom of handling that is really delightful. Yet I am not sure but I give the preference to my older favourite,The Symptoms. The shooting parties—the driving parties—the overturning parties—the flirting parties—the fighting parties in that series are all and each of them nearly divine. Positively you must buy a set of Alken's works—they are splendid things—no drawing-room is complete without them." Alken, it will be seen, had already made his mark, but it was his connection with Mr. Apperley,alias"Nimrod," that was to bring him his largest meed of fame.