Punch: Punch (101.1891)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [July 18, 1891.

•—^s^ jjs£ry~% Yes, the lion

^ti^^S^X (^W^A 1 t Thackeray had

S^Y-~t-\% m joined the Tabic,

^^o^? * J 3 \§ and thenceforth

V>'*' v. ^€^5^C:^illumined my
vvrfB^r /li "\ pages with his

IMf \/ / HI %l ^ ^n<^ r^)e

^~J^ /fa x /% \ wisdom, his grace-

inU^il^^^v \% ful prose, his

^^^^J^^^^^? /;' ' A3 polished verse,

':ffjif^^ / Piece to Volume

f II ^^^^C^^fff " V. (1843) was by

It---—. - ^.^1^Richard Doyle, a

^—/^^l piaiu foresbadow-

~^=1^™^~;-~---^:" • - / ing of the cele-

' brated design

which was ever after to form the familiar Cover of the Punch
Number. Doyle had now joined the Staff, and for many years his
fine fancy was allowed full play in my pages.

"At the end of the same Volume, upon page 260 of a supple-
ment, entitled, ' Punch''s Triumphal Procession,' appeared Tom
Hood's never-to-be-forgotten ' Song of the Shirt.' It is one of Mr.
Punch's pleasantest Reminiscences that this gentle genius, this true
poet, contributed this famous masterpiece to his pages.

"The scholarly, accomplished, and warm-hearted Tom Tayloe
was the next to join the Table, and his ' Spanish Ballads' (in 1846),
admirably illustrated by Doyle, made their mark, as did later his
' Unprotected Female.' In Volume XVI. Peecival Leigh com-
menced his ' Mr. Pips, his Diary, or, Manners and Customs of ye
Englyshe in 1849,' characteristically illustrated by Richard Doyle
at his graphic best. The same year was remarkable for the appear-
ance of Leech's most delightful character, the simple-minded,
sport-loving, philistine paterfamilias, Mr. Briggs, first met with in
connection with ' The Pleasures of Housekeeping,5 though subse-
quently associated especially with humorous sporting scenes.

" The frontispiece to Volume XIX., for the second half of the year
1850, was by a ' new hand,' none other than John' Tennisx the
' Cartoonist' par excellence, whose work henceforth was to be—as

of excellent work had voluntarily withdrawn from the Table, owing
to certain religious scruples, not wholly unconnected with the sub-
ject of his successor's first ' Big Cut.'

"Another member of my little army about this time was Geoege
Silvee, and my next recruits were the polished and witty Shirley
Beooes, and, one who was to develop into the greatest master of
Black-and-White Art this country has produced, Chaeles Keene
to wit, our dear, picturesque, unsophisticated 'Caelo,' lost to the
Table—an irreparable loss f—but a few months ago.

" At the opening of Volume XXVII. for the second half of the year
1854, you will observe, Mr. Anno Domini, a Picture by John
Tenniel (reproduced above), in which the then existing Staff of
Punch are humorously sketched. They are engaged in somewhat
varied sports and pastimes. Mr. Punch is keeping wicket in a game
in which Thaceeeay wields the bat, and Perctval Leigh is bowling;
Maek Lemon, and Gilbeet ABeckett are playing at battledore and
shuttlecock, and Douglas Jeeeold is having a solitary game of
skittles, the 'pins' being the Czae of Russia, &c. Shibley Brooks,
Mayhew, and Tom Tayloe are playing at Leapfrog, Tom Tayloe
' overing' Mayhew, whilst Shibley Beooes is following up. In the
background Johx Tennlel is 'sketching the Good Knight Pztnchius
upon a wall, whilst in the immediate foreground John* Leech, upon
a hobby-horse, is leaping over an easel. These were the chief of my
' Young Men' at this time. In front of the tent are two gentle-
men, one in a black, the other in a white, hat. The first is William
Beadbuey, the second is 'Pater' Evans, our ' proprietors and friends'
of that day.

" In 1856 an obituary notice showed that the Table had experienced
one of its earliest losses, that of Gilbeet Abbott aBeceett. And
on June 8th, in the following year, the boding black border appeared
' In Memoriam' of Douglas Jeeeold. Ah, me, Mr. Anno Domini,
the jingling of the cap-and-bells, howsoever merrily it may sound, is
perforce interrupted now and again by the chiming of a bell of deeper
note and sadder tone.

"Volume XXXIX. for 1860 saw the artistic advent of the Society
Satirist of the Victorian Era, Geoege du Maueiee ; and in Volume
XLIV. for the year 1863, the presence of another ' Xew Boy ' at

happily it still is—the pride of Mr. Punch and the delight of the ] my Table, was evidenced by the appearance of the burlesque London-
British Public. Tenniel's first Cartoon, 'Lord Jack the Giant- j Journalist. Novel, ' Mokeanna,' in which Francis Cowley Buenani
Killer,' graced Mr. Punches 499th Number, he having taken, at; parodied the ' Penny Dreadful.'

short notice, the place of Rich a bp Doyle, who after many years j " The very first page of my Volume for 1864, Mr. Anno Domini,