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Cornell University Library 
 PR5631.H831864 
 
 Thackeray the humourist and the man of I 
 
 3 1924 013 562 867 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3562867 
 
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. 
 
 A RECENT pnOTOGHAPH TIT ERNEST EDWARDS, B.A. 
 
 His Kesidence in Kensington Palace Gardens, 
 
 built after a favourite design in red bricli, and similar in style to Old Kensington 
 Palace close by, which was finished in the reign of Queen Anne. 
 
THACKEEAY 
 
 THE 
 
 HUMOUEIST AND THE MAN OF LETTEES. 
 
 t Siorg 0f pis W^ft, 
 
 I>-CLUDIlla 
 
 A SELECTION FROM HIS CHARAOTERISTIO SPEECHES, NOW 
 EOR THE FIRST TIME GATHERED TOGETHER. 
 
 By THEODORE TAYLOR, Esq., 
 
 Metope de la Soditi dee Oens de Lettrea. 
 
 WITH PHOTOGRAPH FROM LIFE BY ERNEST EDWARDS, B.A., AND 
 ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCAD;LL;5r. 
 
 1864. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 SAVILIi AHD EBWAEDS, PEISTEBa, 
 
 CHASflbS BTBBEI. 
 
PHEEACE. 
 
 The following brief Memoir of the late Mr. 
 Thackeray may, perhaps, be acceptable as filling 
 an intermediate place between the newspaper or 
 review article and the more elaborate biography 
 which may be expected in due course. The 
 writer had some peculiar means of acquiring in- 
 formation for the purpose of his sketch; and to 
 this he has added such particulars as have been 
 already made public in English and foreign pub- 
 lications and other scattered sources. 
 
 The common complaints against memoirs of this 
 necessarily hasty and incomplete character will not 
 be repeated by those who are accustomed to test 
 questions in morals by the principles which underlie 
 them. That there is nothing necessarily indelicate 
 or improper in the desire of the public to obtain 
 some personal knowledge of the great and good 
 who have just passed awayis assumed by every daily. 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 weekly, and quarterly journalj which, on occasions 
 of this kind, furnish their readers with such 
 details as they are able to obtain, and who in no 
 case confine themselves strictly to the public career 
 of the deceased. 
 
 Although some facts in the private life of Mr. 
 Thackeray will be found to be touched upon in 
 these pages, the writer ia not conscious of having 
 written a line which could give pain to others. 
 
 The writer cannot conclude without acknow- 
 ledging the kind assistance he has received in 
 furnishing anecdotes and other particulars from 
 Arthur Kinglake, Esq., Dr. Chambers, Mons. 
 Lacroix, Mr. Goodwin, Mr. George Linley, 
 and others whose names he is not permitted to 
 mention. 
 
 T. T. 
 
 Qrand Hotel Lowoois, Rue Richelieu, Paris, 
 25th Jan., 1864. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THAOKERAr's ANOESTOBS — DR. TH0MA8 THAOKERAT, HEAD-MASTER 
 
 OF HARROW BISHOP HOADLEY — THEODOSIA WOODWARD — THE 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE CONNEXION OF THE THACKERArS WITH INDIA — 
 BIRTH_OF THE FUTURE NOVELIST — VOTAQE TO BNOLAND — RECOL- 
 LECTION OP NAPOLEON AT 6T. HELENA THE DEATH OF THE PRIN- 
 CESS CHARLOTTE — HADLEY — THE^ CHARTERHOUSE— PARTIOULARS 
 OP HIS CAREER THERE — CAMBEIDSE — OONDUCTS " THE SNOB," A 
 CAMBRIDOB FACETIOUS MAOAZINE — SPECIMENS OF HI8 EAHLT 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE SNOb" — TENNYSON AND JOHN MITCHELL 
 
 KEMBLE — SOJOURN AT WEIMAR — RECOLLECTIONS OP GOETHE 
 
 VISIT TO ROME — DESTINED FOR THE BAR — ART-STUDIES IN PARIS 
 
 FRIENDSHIP FOR LOUIS MARVY THACKERAy's CRITICISMS ON 
 
 THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE PAINTERS . pp. 1 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY CONNEXION WITH " PHASER'S MAGAZINE" — RESIDENCE IN AL- 
 BION-STREET — FONDNESS FOR PARIS LIFE ANECDOTE OP A VISIT 
 
 TO THAT CITY WHEN A BOY — THE QUARTIER LATIN — KINDNESS TO 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES IN PARIS — ANECDOTES OP SUBSEQUENT VISITS 
 
 TO FRANCE DISLIKE OP FRENCH INSTITUTIONS THE PARADISE 
 
 OF YOUNG PAINTERS HIS ACCOUNT OF ART-STUDENT LIFE IN 
 
 PARIS OPINIONS ON THE FRENCH SCHOOL OP PAINTlN6-;;GR0WINa_ 
 
 LOVE OP AUTHORSHIP PICKWICK MACAULAY EARLY OPINIONS 
 
 oS'ranB OLD NOVELISTS — PREFERENCE FOR NOVELS OVER HISTORY 
 
 MAGINN AND " PRASBr's MAGAZINE" — MAOLISe's PICTURE OF 
 
 THE FRABEEIAN8 IN 1834 — FATHER PROUT ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 YELLOWPLUSH IDEA pp. 36 — 58 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INTEBTIBW WITH MB. D1CKEK8 — OITEB TO ILLnBTBATE " PICKWIOk" 
 — EAELT ADHIBATION OP " BOZ" — EIEOUTIOH OP FIEBCHI — 
 
 BTAETINO OF THE " OOSBTITDTIONAl" POLITICAL OPINIOHB 
 
 LAMAN BLANCHAED AND JEREOLD — PAILUBE OF THE JOUBKAL — 
 loss OP FOBTUNF. — MABBIAOE — THE " TOECh" AMD " PAETHE- 
 
 MOH" — DOMESTIC ArFLIOTIOIT GEOEOE CEtriKSHANK THE 
 
 " PAEIS BKETCH-BOOk" EE8 ANGUSTA DOMI — ANECDOTE OF HIS 
 
 TAltOE, M. ABETZ — COMIC TALE3 AND SKETCHES SECOKD 
 
 FCNEEAIi OF NAPOLEON CONTEIBUTIONS TO " FEASEe" AND THE 
 
 " NEW monthly" THE " COMIC ALMANAO" THE " SHABBY 
 
 GENTEEL STOEy"— ADVENTUEE AT LILLE — TOUK IN THE BAST 
 
 CONNEXION WITH " PUNCH" POPCLAEITY OP " JEAMEB's DIAET" 
 
 CHRISTMAS BOOKS — RESIDENCE IN YOUNG-STBEET, KENBIBSTON 
 
 CHAMBERS IN THE TEMPLE pp. 59 — 100 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 PUBLICATION OP " VANITY FAIe" — THE " EDINBURGH BEVIBW" 
 
 " PENDENNIS" ^LETTER TO THE " MOENINO CHEONICLe" THE 
 
 STATUS OP MEN OP LETTERS — QUARREL WITH THE " TIMES" 
 
 THUNDER AND SMALL BEER — LECTURES ON THE " HUMOURISTS" 
 
 MISS BRONTE — ANECDOTE OP DELIVEKINO OF THE LECTURES 
 
 AT OXFORD — FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA — EXCITEMENT IN NEW 
 
 YORK — AMERICAN SKETCHES OP PERSONAL PECULIARITIES 
 
 CHARITY LECTURE AT BOSTON — FAREWELL LECTURE NEW YORK 
 
 EDITION OP HIS MnjOE PIECES — ADDRESS TO AMERICAN READERS 
 — PUBLICATION OP " ESMOND" — ALLEGED ATTACK IN THE 
 " NEWOOMES" ON " MR. WASHINGTON" ^MR. THACKERAy's REPLY 
 
 -Second trip to America — the lectures on the " georges" 
 — catherine hayes the singer and catherine hayes the 
 murderess — week-day preachers — contest foe the oxford 
 election — election address and speeches — anecdotes — 
 
 towh-talk dispute with a member op the gaeriok club 
 
 correspondence with me. dickens . . . pp. 101 — 167 
 
Contents. vii 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OP THE " OOENHILL MAQAZINe" — UNSUOCESSPUL 
 ATTEMPT AS A DEAMATIC WEITEK — THE WOLF AND THE LAMB — 
 
 THE " MOUNTAIN BTLPh" THE " ADVENTDEE9 OP PHILIP" — THE 
 
 LECTHEES ON THE " QEOBOEa" — EDITORIAL TKODBLES — ANEC- 
 DOTES OP HIS CORRESPONDENTS — WITHDRAWAL PROM THE 
 EDITOESHIP OP THE " CORNHILL" — BUILDING OP HOUSE IN KEN- 
 SINGTON PALACE GARDENS — MB. HAKHAV's ANECDOTES — DEATH 
 OP ME. THACKEEAY — CIECUM8TANCES OP HIS ILLNESS — THE 
 FUNERAL — HIS ONFINISHED WORK . . pp. 168 — 187 
 
 ANECDOTES AND EEMINISCENCES. 
 
 MR. Thackeray's manuscripts — lys early lipe at ottery 
 
 ST. MARY TEESES ON CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION MEETING — M. 
 
 LOUIS BLANC's LEOTUKES — ME. ROBERT BELL SCENE AT LECTURE 
 
 AT ST. martin's HALL — OONVEKSATIONAL POWERS — THACKERAY 
 AND FIELDING — ^DINNER AT THE LONDON TAVERN — MB. BHIELEY 
 BEOOKS' EEMINiaOENOE — PARTICULARS OP THE THACKERAY 
 FAMILY — CONCLUSION . pp. 188 — 205 
 
 ME. THACKEEAY'S PUBLIC SPEECHES. 
 
 LITERATURE V. POLITICS REALITY OP NOVELIST'S CREATIONS — 
 
 AUTHORS AND THEIR PATRONS — THE NOVELIST'S FUTURE 
 LABOURS COMMERCE AND LITEBATURE . pp. 206 — 223 
 
THACKERAY; 
 
 THE 
 
 IIUMOUKIST AND THE MAN OF LETTERS. 
 
 THE STORY 
 
 OF HIS LITE AND LABOURS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THACKEEAT'S ANCESTOES — DE. THOMAS THACKBEAT, HEAD- 
 
 MASTEE OF HAEEOW BISHOP HOADLET — THEOBOSIA 
 
 WOODWAED — THE OEIGIN OF THE CONNEXION OF THE 
 THACKEEA1S WITH INDIA — BIETH OF THE FUTCTEE 
 NOVELIST — VOTAGE TO ENGLAND — EECOLLBCTION OF 
 NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA — THE DEATH OF THE PEIN- 
 
 CBSS CHAELOTTE HADLET THE CHABTEEH0T7SE 
 
 PAETICITLAES OF HIS CABEBK THEEE OAMBEIDGE — 
 
 CONDUCTS " THE SNOB,'' A CAMBRIDGE FACETIOtTS MAGA- 
 ZINE — SPECIMENS OF HIS EAELT CONTEIBtJTIONS TO 
 " THE SNOB " — TENNYSON AND JOHN MITCHELL KBMBLB 
 — SOJOTJEN AT WEIMAE — EECOLLECTIONS OF GOETHE — 
 TISIT TO EOME— DESTINED FOB THE BAE — AET-STUDIE8 
 IN PAEIS — FEIENDSHIP FOE LOUIS MAKVT — THACKE- 
 EAY's CEITICISMS ON THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE 
 PAINTEES. 
 
 The fondness of Mr. Thackeray for lingering 
 amidst the scenes of a boy's daily life in a public 
 grammar school, has generally been attributed to 
 
Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 his early education at the Charterhouse, that 
 celebrated monastic-looking establishment in 
 the neighbourhood of Smithfield, -which he 
 scarcely disguised from his readers as the original 
 of the familiar "Grey Friars" of his works of 
 fiction. Most of our novelists have given us in 
 various forms their school reminiscences ; but 
 none have reproduced them so frequently, or 
 dwelt upon them with such manifest bias towards 
 the subject, as the author of " Vanity Fair," 
 "The Newcomes," and "The Adventures of 
 Philip." It is pleasing to think that this habit, 
 which Mr. Thackeray was well aware had been 
 frequently censured by his critics as carried to 
 excess, was, like his partiality for the times of 
 Queen Anne and the Georges, in some degree 
 due to the traditional reverence of his family for 
 the memory of their great-grandfather. Dr. 
 Thomas Thackeray, the well-remembered head- 
 master of Harrow. No memoir of William 
 Makepeace Thackeray should begin with any 
 other name than that of this excellent man, ' 
 who was in every sense the founder of his family. 
 If the evil which men do finds its unhappy conse- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 
 
 quences ia the generations that come after, it is 
 no less true that the life bene acta, sows seeds 
 of good of which none can foretell the final fruit. 
 It would not, perhaps, be " considering too 
 curiously," to trace something of the success of 
 his great descendant to that meritorious life of 
 studious industry which secured to the good 
 doctor's family the means of giving to their 
 children, and through them to their children's 
 children, the benefits, of culture and good habits. 
 The memory of Dr. Thomas Thackeray is still 
 held in honour at Harrow among those of the 
 masters who have most contributed to raise the 
 school to the high character it has long enjoyed. 
 The Thackerays came originally from Hamps- 
 thwaite, near Knaresborough, in the West Eiding 
 of Yorkshire. In this little village Dr. Thomas, 
 the future head-master of Harrow, was bora. Of 
 the position in life of the Thackeray family at 
 Hampsthwaite we are not able to give any account; 
 but it is probable that they were of humble means. 
 At all events, Thomas was admitted on the founda- 
 tion to Eton, from which school he was elected to 
 a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, in 
 
 B 3 
 
Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 1711. The Yorkshire lad took degrees and reaped 
 honours rapidly. He was A.B. in 1715, and A.M. 
 in 1719. Subsequently he returned as assistant- 
 master to the school to which he owed his early 
 education, and was a candidate for the provostship 
 of King's College in 1744, when Dr. George was 
 elected. Dr. Thackeray, however, was in most 
 things a fortunate man. In 1746 he succeeded 
 to the head-mastership of Harrow, where he soon 
 made powerful friends. The renown of the school 
 rapidly increased under his rule. He obtained 
 several livings, became Archdeacon of Surrey, and 
 was appointed chaplain to Frederick, Prince of 
 Wales, the dull and despicable father of George 
 III., whom the author of the " Lectures on the 
 Four Georges" sketches with so strong a hand. 
 Dr. Edmund Pyle, of Lynn, in a letter dated 1756, 
 gives some interesting particulars of the Master of 
 Harrow's history. He says : " Dr. Thackeray, 
 who keeps a school at Harrow-on-the-Hill, has 
 one living and fourteen children : a man bred at 
 Eton, and a great scholar in the Eton way, and a 
 good one every way ; a true Whig, and proud to 
 be so by some special marks of integrity. He 
 
and the Man of Letters. 
 
 was candidate for the headship of King's, and 
 •would have beat all men but George, and George 
 too, if Sir Robert Walpole had not made George's 
 promotion a point. Since this disappointment he 
 took the school at Harrow, to educate his own and 
 other people's children, where he has performed 
 all along with great reputation. The Bishop of 
 Winchester never saw this man in his life, but had 
 heard so much good of him, that he resolved to 
 serve him some way or other if ever he could, but 
 said nothing to anybody. On Friday last, he 
 sent for this Dr. Thackeray, and when he came 
 into the room my Lord gave him a parchment, 
 and told him he had long heard of his good cha- 
 racter, and long been afraid he should never be 
 able to give him any serviceable proof of the 
 good opinion he had conceived of him : that what 
 he had put into his hands was the Archdeaconry 
 of Surrey, which he hoped would be acceptable to 
 him, as he might perform the duty of it yearly at 
 the time of his leisure in the Easter holidays. Dr. 
 Thackeray was so surprised and overcome with this 
 extraordinary manner of doing him a favour, that 
 he was very near fainting as he was giving him 
 
Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 institution/'* This Bishop was the celebrated 
 Hoadley, if we are not mistaken ; but Mr. 
 Thackeray could hardly have been aware of this 
 family anecdote when, in his " Lectures on the 
 Four Georges," he somewhat harshly described 
 this unlucky mark for the controversial pamph- 
 leteers of his time as " creeping from bishopric to 
 bishopric." Dr. Thackeray's death is announced in 
 the " Gentleman's Magazine" for October, 1760. 
 His widow survived him nearly half a century, and 
 died in January, 1797, in her 90th year. The 
 Doctor had doubtless courted and won her at 
 Eton in the early days of his studious life. She 
 was Theodosia, the daughter of John Woodward, 
 Esq., of that town and of Butler's Merston, an- 
 other of whose daughters married Dr. Nicholas 
 Boscawen, Canon of Windsor. Theodosia bore 
 the Doctor six sons and ten daughters, one of 
 whom, the Eev. Elias Thackeray, was Vice- 
 Provost and Bursar of King's College, Cam- 
 bridge; another son was chaplain at St. Peters- 
 burg j another held an appointment in the Custom- 
 house for forty years ; and two became Doctors 
 
 * Eiohards'3" History of Lynn." 1812. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 
 
 of Medicine^ and settled at Cambridge and 
 "Windsor. 
 
 The marriages of two of the daughters seem to 
 have laid the foundation of the connexion of the 
 Thackerays with India. Jane married Major 
 Rennell of the East India Company's Service, and 
 Surveyor-General of Bengal ; and Henrietta, 
 James Harris, Esq., of the East India Company's 
 Civil Service, and chief of Dacca. The grand- 
 father of the author of " Vanity Fair", was the 
 youngest son of this large family. He was 
 christened, for what reason we do not know, 
 William Makepeace ; and it was doubtless by the 
 interest of his sisters' husbands that he also ob- 
 tained an appointment in the East India Company^s 
 Service. William Makepeace married a Miss 
 Webb,* and subsequently retired to England 
 with a competency, leaving behind him his son, 
 Eichmond Thackeray, to follow the same career. 
 Eichmond obtained awritership in 1797, and suc- 
 
 * Mr. Hannay tells us that this lady was of the old 
 English family to which the Brigadier Webb of Marl- 
 borough's wars belonged, whose portrait is drawn with 
 something of the geniality of kinsmanship in " Esmond." 
 
Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 cessively officiated as Judge and Magistrate of 
 Eanghyr, Secretary to the Board of Revenue at 
 Calcutta, and Collector of the House Tax at Cal- 
 cutta. Here his son, William Makepeace, the 
 future novelist, was born in 1811 — the year be- 
 fore that which gave to the world his illustrious 
 contemporary and fellow-labourer in the field of 
 fiction — Charles Dickens. Mr. Thackeray's. father 
 died in Calcutta on the 13th of September, 1815, 
 the very year of the battle of Waterloo, the his- 
 tory of which is so wonderfully interwoven with 
 the story of "Vanity Fair." The son, after 
 remaining in India for some time with his widowed 
 mother, finally bade adieu for ever to that country, 
 and was brought to England in 1817. His mother, 
 who had subsequently married Major Carmichael 
 Smyth, still survives, a lady of more than 
 eighty years of age, whose vigorous health and 
 cheerful spirits are proverbial in her son's 
 family. 
 
 Sketches of Indian life and Anglo-Indians 
 generally are abundantly interspersed through 
 Mr. Thackeray's writings, but he left India too 
 early to have profited much by Indian experi- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 9 
 
 ences. He is said, howeverj to have retained so 
 strong an impression of the scene of his early 
 childhoodj as to have long wished to visit it, and 
 recal such things as were still remembered by 
 him. In his seventh year he was sent to England, 
 when the ship having touched at St. Helena, he 
 was taken up to have a glimpse of Bowood, and 
 there saw that great Captain at whose name the 
 rulers of the earth had so often trembled. It is 
 remarkable that in his little account of the second 
 funeral of Napoleon, which he witnessed in Paris 
 in 1840, no allusion to this fact appears ; but he 
 himself has described it in one of his latest works. 
 " When I first saw England," he says, " she was 
 in mourning for the young Princess Charlotte,* 
 the hope of the empire. I came from India as a 
 child, and our ship touched at an island on our 
 way home, where my black servant took me a long 
 walk over rocks and hills, until we reached a 
 garden where we saw a man walking. ' That 
 is he !' cried the black man ; ' that is Bona- 
 parte ! He eats three sheep every day, and all the 
 children he can lay hands on V With the same 
 * The Princess Charlotte died 6 Nov., 1817. 
 
10 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 childish attendant/' he adds, " I remember peep- 
 ing through the colonnade at Carlton House, and 
 seeing the abode of the Prince Regent. I can 
 yet see the guards pacing before the gates of the 
 palace. The palace ! What palace ? The palace 
 exists no more than the palace of Nebuchadnezzar. 
 It is but a name now."* 
 
 We fancy that Mr. Thackeray was placed 
 under the protection of his grandfather, William 
 Makepeace Thackeray, who had settled with a 
 good fortune, the fruit of his industry in India, 
 at Hadley, near Chipping Bamet, a little village 
 in the churchyard of which lies buried the once- 
 read Mrs. Chapone, the authoress of the " Letters 
 on the Improvement of the Mind," the corre- 
 spondent of Richardson, and the intimate friend 
 of the learned Mrs. Carter and other blue-stocking 
 ladies of that time. 
 
 In the course of time — we believe in his twelfth 
 year — Mr. Thackeray was sent to the Charter- 
 house School, and remained there as a boarder 
 in the house of Mr. Penny. He appears in the 
 Charterhouse records for the year 1832 as a boy 
 * " The Tour Georges," p. 111. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 11 
 
 on the tenth form. In the next year we find him 
 promoted to the seventh form ; in 18iJ4 to the 
 fifth ; and in 1838, when he had become a day- 
 boy, or one residing with his friends, we find him 
 in the honourable positions of a first-form boy and 
 one of the monitors of the school. He was, how- 
 ever, never chosen as one of the orators, or those 
 who speak the oration on the Founder's Day, nor 
 does he appear among the writers of the Charter- 
 house odes, which have been collected and printed 
 from time to time in a small volume. The 
 school then enjoyed considerable reputation under 
 the head-mastership of Dr. Eussell, whose death 
 happened in the same year as that of his illustrious 
 pupil. No one who has read Mr. Thackeray's 
 novels can fail to know the kind of life he led 
 here. He has continually described his expe- 
 riences at this celebrated school — the venerable 
 archway into which, in Charterhousa-square, still 
 preserves an interesting token of the old monkish 
 character of the neighbourhood. Only a fort- 
 night before his death he was there again, as was 
 his custom, on the anniversary of the death of 
 Thomas Sutton, the munificent founder of the 
 
12 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 school. " He was there," says one who has de- 
 scribed the scenCj "in his usual back seat in the 
 quaint old chapel. He went thence to the 
 oration in the Governors' roomj and as he 
 walked up to the orator with his contribution, 
 was received with such hearty applause as only 
 Carthusians can give to one who has immortalized 
 -their school. At the banquet afterwards he sat 
 at the side of -his old friend and artist -associate 
 in ' Punch/ John Leech ; and in a humorous 
 •speech proposed, as a toast, the noble founda- 
 tion which he had adorned by his literary fame, 
 and made popular in his works." " Divine ser- 
 vice," says another describer of this scene, for 
 ever memorable as the last appearance of Mr. 
 Thackeray in private life, " took place at four 
 o'clock, in the quaint old chapel ; and the appear- 
 ance of the brethren in their black gowns, of the 
 old stained glass and carving in the chapel, of the 
 tomb of Sutton, could hardly fail to give a 
 peculiar aud interesting character to the service. 
 Prayers were said by the Rev. J. J. Halcombe, 
 the reader of the house. There was only the 
 Msual parochial chanting of the Nunc Bimitiis; 
 
and the Man of Letters. 13 
 
 the familiar Commemoration-day psalms, 123 
 and 100, were sung after the third collect and 
 before the sermon ; and before the general thanks- 
 giving the old prayer was offered up expressive of 
 thankfulness to God for the bounty of Thomas 
 Sutton, and of hope that all who enjoy it might 
 make a right use of it. The sermon was preached 
 by the Rev. Henry Earle Tweed, late Tellow of 
 Oriel College, Oxford, who prefaced it with the 
 ' Bidding Prayer,' in which he desired the con- 
 gregation to pray generally for all public school* 
 and colleges, and particularly for the welfare of 
 the house ' founded by Thomas Sutton for the 
 support of age and the education of youth.' " 
 
 From Charterhouse School Thackeray went 
 to Trinity College, Cambridge, about 1828, the 
 year of his leaving the Charterhouse, and 
 among his fellow-students there, had Mr. John 
 Mitchell Kemble, the great Anglo-Saxon scholar, 
 and Mr. Tennyson. With the latter — then un- 
 known as a poet — ^he formed an acquaintance 
 which he maintained to the last, and no reader of 
 the Poet-laureate had a more earnest admiration 
 of his productions than his old Cambridge associate 
 
14 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Mr. Thackeray. At college, Thackeray kept seven 
 or eight terms, but took no degree ; though he 
 was studious, and his love of classical literature is 
 apparent in most of his writings, either in his 
 occasional apt two words from Horace, or in the 
 quaint and humorous adoption of Latin idioms in 
 which, in his sportive moods, he sometimes in- 
 dulged, A recent writer tells us that his knowledge 
 of the classics — of Horace at least — was amply 
 suflScient to procure him an honourable place in 
 the "previous examination." 
 
 The earliest of his literary efforts are associated 
 with Cambridge. It was in the year 1829 that 
 he commenced, in conjunction with a friend 
 and fellow-student, to edit a series of humourous 
 papers, published in that city, which bore the 
 title of " The Snob : a Literary and Scientific 
 Journal." The first number appeared on the 
 9th of April in that year, and the publication was 
 continued weekly. Though affecting to be a 
 periodical, it was not originally intended to 
 publish more than one number ; but the project 
 was carried on for eleven weeks, in which period 
 Mr. Lettsom had resigned the entire management 
 
and the Man of Letters. 15 
 
 to his friend. The contents of each number — 
 which consisted only of four pages of about 
 the size of those of the present volume — were 
 scanty and slight, and consisted entirely of squibs 
 and humorous sketches in verse and prose, many 
 of which, however, show some germs of that 
 spirit of wild fun which afterwards distinguished 
 the " Yellowplush " papers in " Fraser," When 
 completed, the papers bore the following title : — 
 
 THE SNOB: 
 
 A LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL. 
 NOT 
 
 « CONDUCTED By MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY.' 
 
 Tityre, tupatula recubans sub tegminefagi 
 Syl-uatrem. Viegii.. 
 
 QTamSrittge: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY W. H. SMITH, 
 BOSE CRESCENT. 
 
 1829. 
 
16 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 A few specimens of the contents of this curious 
 publication cannot hut he interesting to the 
 reader. The first specimen we shall select is a 
 clever skit upon the Cambridge Prize Poem, as 
 follows : — 
 
 TIMBUCTOO. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SNOB.'' 
 
 Sir, — Though your name be "Snob," I trust you 
 will not refuse this tiny " Poem of a Gownsman," 
 which was unluckily not finished on the day appointed 
 for delivery of the several copies of verses on Timbuc- 
 too. I thought, Sir, it would be a pity that such a 
 poem should be lost to the world ; and conceiving 
 " The Snob " to be the most widely-circulated periodical 
 in Europe, I have taten the liberty of submitting it for 
 • insertion or approbation. 
 
 I am, Sir, yours, &e. &c. &c. 
 
 TIMBUCTOO. — PART I. 
 The situation. 
 In Africa (a quarter of the world). 
 Men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curl'd, 
 
 Lines 1 and 2. — See Guthrie's Geography. 
 
 The site of Timbuctoo is doubtful ; the Author has 
 neatly expressed this in the poem, at the same time 
 giving us some slight hints relative to its situation. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 17 
 
 And somewhere there, unknown to public view, 
 A mighty city lies, called Timbnctoo. 
 The natural history. 
 
 There stalks the tiger, — there the lion roars, 5 
 
 Who sometimes eats the luckless blackamoors ; 
 All that he leaves of them the monster throws 
 To jackals, vultures, dogs, cats, kites, and crows ; 
 His hunger thus the forest monster gluts, 
 And then lies down 'neath trees called cocoa nuts. 10 
 The liorihunt. 
 
 Quick issue out, with musket, torch, and brand. 
 The sturdy blackamoors, a dusky band ! 
 The beast is found — pop goes the musketoons — 
 The lion falls covered with horrid wounds. 
 
 Line 5. — So Horace : " leonum arida nutrix." 
 Line 8.— Thus Apollo : 
 
 eXoipia Tevj(e KvvEaaiv 
 Oidivoicri TE 7r3.(7i. 
 
 Lines 5-10. — How skilfully introduced are the ani- 
 mal and vegetable productions of Africa ! It is worthy 
 to remark the various garments in which the Poet hath 
 clothed the lion. He is called, 1st, the "Lion;" 2nd, 
 the "Monster" (for he is very large); and 3rd, the 
 " Forest Monarch," which undoubtedly he is. 
 
 Lines 11-14. — The author confesses himself under 
 peculiar obligations to Denham's and Clapperton's 
 Travels, as they suggested to him the spirited descrip- 
 tion contained in these lines. 
 
 Line 13, — " Pop goes the musketoons." A learned 
 
 c 
 
18 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 Their lives at home. 
 At home their lives in pleasure always flow, 15 
 But many have a different lot to know ! 
 Abroad. 
 
 They're often caught, and sold as slaves, alas ! 
 Jlejlections on the foregoing. 
 
 Thus men from highest joys to sorrow pass. 
 
 Yet though thy monarchs and thy nobles boil 
 
 Back and molasses in Jamaica's isle ; 20 
 
 Desolate Afrio ! thou art lovely yet !! 
 
 One heart yet beats which ne'er thee shall forget. 
 
 What though thy maidens are a blackish brown, 
 
 Does virtue dwell in whiter breasts alone ? 
 
 Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no ! 25 
 
 It shall not, must not, cannot, e'er be so. 
 
 The day shall come when Albion's self shall feel 
 
 Stern Afric's wrath, and writhe 'neath Afric's steel. 
 
 I see her tribes the hill of glory mount. 
 
 And sell their sugars on their own account ; 30 
 
 While round her throne the prostrate nations come, 
 
 Sue for her rice, and barter for her rum ! 32 
 
 friend suggested " Bang " as a stronger expression, but 
 as African gunpowder is notoriously bad, the Author 
 thought "Pop" the better word. 
 
 Lines 15-18. — A concise but affecting description is 
 here given of the domestic habits of the people. The 
 infamous manner in which they are entrapped and sold 
 as slaves is described, and the whole ends with an 
 appropriate moral sentiment. The Poem might here 
 finish, but the spirit of the bard penetrates the veil of 
 
and the Man of Letters. 19 
 
 This concludes with a little vignette in the " Tit- 
 marsh" manner, representing an Indian smoking 
 a pipe of the type once commonly seen in the 
 
 faturity, and from it cuts off a bright piece for the 
 hitherto unfortunate Africans, as the following beau- 
 tiful lines amply exemplify. 
 
 It may perhaps be remarked that the Author has here 
 "changed his hand." He answers that it was his 
 intention to do so. Before, it was his endeavour to be 
 elegant and concise, it is now his wish to be enthusi- 
 astic and magnificent. He trusts the Reader will per- 
 ceive the aptness with which he has changed his style ; 
 when he narrated facts he was calm, when he enters 
 on prophecy he is fervid. 
 
 The enthusiasm which he feels is beautifully ex- 
 pressed in lines 25 and 26. He thinks he has very 
 successfully imitated in the last six lines the best 
 manner of Mr. Pope ; and in lines 12-26, the pathetic 
 elegance of the author of " Australasia and Athens." 
 
 The Author cannot conclude without declaring, that 
 his aim in'writing this Poem^will be fully accomplished, 
 if he can infuse into the breasts of Englishmen a sense 
 of the danger in which they lie. Yes — Africa ! If he 
 can awaken one particle of sympathy for thy sorrows, of 
 love for thy land, of admiration for thy virtue, he shall 
 sink into the grave with the proud consciousness that 
 he has raised esteem, where before there was contempt, 
 and has kindled the flame of hope on the mouldering 
 ashes of despair ! 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 shape of a small carved image at the doors of 
 tobacconists' shops. la another paper we find 
 the following pretended 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This day is published, price 3s. 6c?., " An Essay on 
 the Great Toe," together with the nature and proper- 
 ties of Toes in general, with many sagacious inquiries 
 why the Great Toes are bigger than the Little, and 
 why the Little are less than the Great. Proving 
 also that Gout is not the Dropsy, and that a Gentleman 
 may have a swelled Face without a pain in his Back. 
 Also a Postscript to establish that a Chilblain is very 
 unlike a Lock-jaw. Translated from the original 
 Chaldee. 
 
 N.B. A few light summer lectures on Phrenology to 
 be disposed of; enquire of Mr. Smith. 
 
 A little further we come upon an exercise in 
 Malapropisms,* under the form of a letter from 
 Mrs. 
 
 EAMSBOTTOM IN CAMBRIDGE. 
 Badish Ground Buildings. — Dear Sir, — I was sur- 
 prized to see my name in Mr. Bull's paper, for I give 
 you my word I have not written a syllabub to him 
 since I came to reside here, that I might enjoy the 
 satiety of the litera'ry and learned world. 
 
 * Signed "Dorothea Julia Eamsbottom," after Theodore 
 Hook's "Paris Correspondent." 
 
and the Man of Letters. 21 
 
 I have the honour of knowing many extinguished 
 persons. I am on terms of the greatest contumacy 
 with the Court of A.lderman, who first recommended 
 your weekly dromedary to my notice, knowing that I 
 myself was a great literatL When I am at home, I 
 make Lavy read it to me, as I consider you the 
 censure of the anniversary, and a great upholder of 
 moral destruction. 
 
 When I came here, I began reading Mechanics 
 (written by that gentlema,n whose name you whistle) , 
 I thought it would be something like the " Mechanics' 
 Magazine,'' which my poor dear Ram used to make me 
 read to him, but I found them very foolish. What do 
 I want to know about weights and measures and bull's 
 eyes, when I have left off trading. I have, therefore, 
 begun a course of ugly physics, which are very odd, 
 and written by the Marquis of Spinningtoes. 
 
 I think the Library of Trinity College is one of the 
 most admiral objects here. I saw the busks of several 
 gentlemen whose statutes I had seen at Room, and who 
 all received their edification at that College. There 
 was Aristocracy who wrote farces for the Olympic 
 Theatre, and Democracy who was a laughing philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 I forgot to mention that my son George Frederick 
 is entered at St. John's, because I heard that they take 
 most care of their morals at that College. I called on 
 the tutor, who received myself and son very politely, 
 and said he had no doubt my son would be a tripod, 
 and he hoped perspired higher than poUy, which I did 
 
22 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 not like. I am going to give a tea at my house, wlien 
 I shall be delighted to see yourself and children. 
 Believe me, dear Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient and affectionate, 
 
 Dorothea Julia RamsbottoMj 
 
 Further still, we have an example of droll 
 errors in orthography similar to those in which 
 Thackeray afterwards learned to revel in the 
 characters of " Yellowplush,'' and " Jeames of 
 Buckley Square." This is entitled : — 
 
 A STATEMENT ON FAX EELATIVE TO THE 
 LATE MURDER. 
 
 By D. J, Eamsbottom. 
 
 " Come I to speak in Caesar's faneral." 
 
 Milton. Julius Oasar, Act m. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 3rd of June, as I was sitting in 
 my back parlour taking tea, young Frederick Tudge 
 entered the room ; I reserved from his dislevelled hair 
 and vegetated appearance, that something was praying 
 on his vittles. When I heard from him the cause of 
 his vegetation, I was putrified ! I stood transfigured ! 
 His father, the editor of " The Snob," had been mace- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 23 
 
 rated in the most sanguine manner. The drops of 
 compassion refused my eyes, for I thought of him 
 whom I had lately seen high in health and happiness ; 
 that ingenuous indivisable, who often and often when 
 seated alone with me has " made the Table roar," as 
 the poet has it, and whose constant aim in his weakly 
 dromedary, was to delight as well as to reprove. His 
 son Frederick, too young to be acquainted with the 
 art of literal imposition, has commissioned me to 
 excommunicate the circumstances of his death, and 
 call down the anger of the Proctors and Court of 
 Aldermen on the phlogitioua perforators of the deed. 
 
 It appears he was taking his customary rendezvous 
 by the side of Trumpington Ditch, he was stopped by 
 some men in under-gravy dresses, who put a pitch- 
 plaister on him, which completely developed his nose 
 and eyes, or, as Shakspeare says, " his visible ray." 
 He was then dragged into a field, and the horrid deed 
 was replete ! Such are the circumstances of his 
 death ; but Mr. Tudge died like Wriggle-us, game to 
 the last ; or like Csesar in that beautiful faction of 
 the poet, with which I have headed my remarks, I 
 mean him who wanted to be Poop of Room, but was 
 killed by two Brutes, and the fascinating hands of a 
 perspiring Senate. 
 
 With the most sanguinary hopes that the Anniver- 
 sary and Town wUl persecute an inquiry iato this 
 dreadful action, I will conclude my repeal to the 
 pathetic reader ; and if by such a misrepresentation 
 of fax, I have been enabled to awaken an apathy for 
 the children of the late Mr. Tudge, who are left in 
 
24 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 the most desultory state, I shall feel the satisfaction of 
 having exorcised my pen in the cause of Malevolence, 
 and soothed the inflictions of indignant Misery. 
 
 D. J. Eamsbottom. 
 
 P.S. , The Publisher requests me to state that the 
 present Number is published from the MS. found in 
 Mr. Tudge's pocket, and one more number will be 
 soon forthcoming, containing his inhuman papers. 
 
 About 1831 he repaired to Weimar in Saxony, 
 where, as he describes it, he lived -with a score of 
 young English lads, " for study, or sport, or so- 
 ciety." Mr. G. H. Lewes, iu his " Life of Goethe," 
 tells us that Weimar albums still display with pride 
 the caricatures which the young artist sketched at 
 that period. "My delight in those days" (says 
 Mr. Thackeray), was to make caricatures for 
 children," a habit, we may add, which he never 
 forgot. Years afterwards, in the fulness of his 
 fame, revisiting the " friendly little Saxon capital," 
 he found, to his great delight, that these were 
 yet remembered, and some even preserved still; 
 but he was much more proud to be told, as a lad, 
 that the great Goethe himself had looked at some 
 of them. In a letter to his friend Mr. Lewes, 
 inserted by the latter in the work referred to, Mr. 
 
and the Man of Letters, 25' 
 
 Thackeray has given a pleasing picture of this 
 period of his life, and of the society in which he 
 found himself. The Grand Duke and Duchess (he 
 tells us) received the English lads with the kindliest 
 hospitality. The court was splendid, but yet most- 
 pleasant and homely. They were invited in turns- 
 to dinners, balls, and assemblies there. Such 
 young men as had a right appeared in uniforms^ 
 diplomatic and military. Some invented gorgeous 
 clothing : the old Hof Marschall, M. de Spiegel, 
 who (says Mr. Thackeray) had two of the most 
 lovely daughters ever looked on, being in nowise 
 difficult as to the admission of these young Eng- 
 landers. Of the winter nights they used to- 
 charter sedan chairs, in which they were carried 
 through the snow to these court entertainments. 
 Here young Thackeray had the good luck to pur- 
 chase Schiller's sword, which formed a part of his- 
 court costume, and which hung in his study till 
 the day of his death, to put him (as he said) 
 in mind of days of youth the most kindly and 
 delightful. 
 
 Here, too, he had the advantage of the society 
 of his friend and fellow-student at Cambridge 
 
36 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Mr. W. G. Lettsom, at present Her Majesty's 
 Charge- d' Affaires at Uruguay, but who was at the 
 period referred to attached to the suite of the 
 English Minister at Weimar. To the kindness 
 of this gentleman he was indebted in a consi- 
 derable degree for the introductions he obtained 
 to the best families in the town. Mr. Thackeray 
 was always fond of referring to this period of 
 his life. In a private letter written long after- 
 wards, speaking of one of Turner's pictures, 
 he says : — " I recollect, many years ago, at 
 the theatre at Weimar, hearing Beethoven's 
 ' Battle of Vittoria,' in which, amidst a storm of 
 glorious music, the air of ' God Save the Xing' 
 was introduced. The very instant it begun every 
 Englishman in the theatre stood upright, and so 
 stood reverently until the air was finished. Why 
 so? From some such thrill of excitement as 
 makes us glow and rejoice over Mr. Turner and 
 his ' Fighting Temeraire.' " 
 
 Devrient, who appeared some years since at the 
 St. James's Theatre in German versions of Shak- 
 speare, was performing at Weimar at that period ; 
 and Madame Schroder Devrient was appearing in 
 
and the Man of Letters. 27 
 
 Fidelia. In frequenting the performances at the 
 theatres, or attending the levees of the Court 
 ladies, the young students spent their evenings. 
 " After three-and- twenty years' absence (continues 
 Mr. Thackeray) " I passed a couple of summer 
 days in the well-remembered place, and was for- 
 tunate enough to find some of the friends of my 
 youth. Madame de Goethe was there, and re- 
 ceived me and my daughters with the kindness 
 of old days. We drank tea in the open air at 
 the famous cottage in the park, which still be- 
 longs to the family, and had been so often in- 
 habited by her illustrious father. In 1831, 
 "though he had retired from the world, Goethe 
 would nevertheless very kindly receive strangers. 
 His daughter-in-law's tea-table was always spread 
 for us. We passed hours after hours there, and 
 night after night with the pleasantest talk and 
 music. We read over endless novels and poems 
 in French, English, and German. * * * 
 He remained in his private apartment, where only 
 a very few privileged persons were admitted ; but 
 he liked to know all that was happening, and 
 interested himself about all strangers. * * * 
 
38 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Of course I remember very well the perturba- 
 tion of spirit with which, as a lad of nineteen, 
 I received the long-expected intimation that 
 the Herr Geheimrath would see me on such 
 a morning. This notable audience took place in 
 a little ante-chamber of his private apartments, 
 covered all round with antique casts and bas-reliefs. 
 He was habited in a long grey or drab redingote, 
 with a white neckcloth and a red riband in his 
 buttonhole. He kept his hands behind his back, 
 just as in Ranch's statuette. His complexion 
 was very bright, clear, and rosy ; his eyes ex- 
 traordinarily dark, piercing, and brilliant. I felt 
 quite afraid before them, and recollect comparing 
 them to the eyes of the hero of a certain romaifce 
 called ' Melmoth the Wanderer,' which used to 
 alarm us boys thirty years ago ; eyes of an indivi- 
 dual who had made a bargain with a certain person, 
 and at an extreme old age retained these eyes in 
 all their awful splendour. I fancied Goethe must 
 have been still more handsome as an old man 
 than even in the days of his youth. His voice, 
 was very rich and sweet. He asked me questions. 
 about myself, which I answered as best I could. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 29 
 
 I recollect I was at first astonished, and then 
 somewhat relieved, when I found he spoke French 
 with not a good accent. Vidi tantum. I saw 
 him but three times. Once walking in the gar- 
 den of his house in the Frauenplan ; once going 
 to step into his chariot on a sunshiny day, wearing 
 a cap, and a cloak with a red collar. He was 
 caressing at the time a beautiful little golden- 
 haired granddaughter, over whose sweet fair face 
 the earth has long since closed too. Any of us 
 who had books or magazines from England sent 
 them to him, and he examined them eagerly. 
 'Eraser's Magazine' had lately come out, and I 
 remember he was interested in those admirable 
 outline portraits which appeared for a while in its 
 pages. But there was one, a very ghastly carica- 
 ture of Mr. K, ,* which, as Madame de Goethe 
 
 told me, he shut up and put away from him 
 angrily. ' They would make me look like that,' 
 he saidj though in truth I can fancy nothing 
 more serene, majestic, and healthy -lodkmg than 
 the grand old Goethe. Though his sun was 
 setting, the sky round about was calm and bright, 
 * Samuel Bogers, the. poet. 
 
30 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 and that little Weimar illumined by it. In 
 every one of those kind salons the talk was still 
 of art and letters. * * * * 
 
 At court the conversation was exceedingly 
 friendly, simple and polished. The Grand 
 Duchess (the present Grand Duchess Dowager), 
 a lady of very remarkable endowments, would 
 kindly borrow our books from us, lend us 
 her own, and graciously talk to us young men 
 about our literary tastes and pursuits. In the 
 respect paid by this court to the patriarch of 
 letters there was something ennobling, I think, 
 alike to the subject and sovereign. With a five- 
 and-twenty years' experience since those happy 
 days of which I write (says Mr. Thackeray) and 
 an acquaintance with an immense variety of 
 human kind, I think I have never seen a society 
 more simple, charitable, courteous, gentlemanlike, 
 han that of the dear little Saxon city where the 
 good Schiller and the great Goethe lived and lie 
 buried."* 
 
 The Weimar reminiscences show how early 
 
 * The whole of this long and beautiful letter may be 
 read in Mr. Lewes's biography of " the Grreat Goethe," 
 a cheap edition of which has just been published. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 31 
 
 his passion for art had developed itself. One 
 who knew him well affirms that he was 
 originally intended for the barj but he had, 
 indeed, already determined to be an artist, and 
 for a considerable period he diligently followed his 
 bent. He visited Rome, where he stayed some 
 time, and subsequently, as we shall see, settled for a 
 considerable time in Paris, where, says a writer in 
 the " Edinburgh Review" for January, 1848, 
 " we well remember, ten or twelve years ago, 
 finding him, day after day, engaged in copying 
 pictures in the Louvre, in order to qualify him- 
 self for his intended profession. It may be 
 doubted, however," adds this writer, " whether 
 any degree of assiduity would have enabled him 
 to excel in the money-making branches, for his 
 talent was altogether of the Hogarth kind, and 
 was principally remarkable in the pen-and-ink 
 sketches of character and situation which he 
 dashed off for the amusement of his friends." 
 This is just criticism ; but Thackeray, though 
 caring little himself for the graces of good 
 drawing or correct anatomy, had a keen appre- 
 ciation of the beauties of his contemporary 
 
32 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 artists. Years after — in 1848 — ■when, as he says, 
 the revolutionary storm which raged in France 
 " drove many peaceful artists, as well as kings, 
 ministers, tribunes, and socialists of state for 
 refuge to our country," an artist friend of his 
 ■early Paris life found his way to Thackeray's 
 home in London. This was Monsieur Louis 
 Marvy, in whose atelier the former had passed 
 many happy hours with the family of the French 
 artist — in that constant cheerfulness and sun- 
 shine, as his English friend expressed it, which 
 the Parisian was now obliged to exchange for a 
 dingy parlour and the fog and solitude of London. 
 A fine and skilful landscape painter himself, M. 
 Marvy, while here, as a means of earning a living, 
 made a series of engravings after the works, of our 
 English landscape painters. For some of these his 
 friend obtained for M. Marvy permission to take 
 copies in the valuable private collection of Mr. 
 Thomas Baring. The publishers, however, would 
 not undertake the work without a series of letter- 
 press notices of each picture from Mr. Thackeray^ 
 and the latter accordingly added some criticisms 
 which are interesting as developing his theory of 
 
and the Man of Letters. 33 
 
 this kind of art. The artists whose works are en- 
 graved are Calcott^ Turner, Holland, Danby, Cres- 
 wick, Collins, Eedgrave, Lee, Cattermole, W. J. 
 Miiller, Harding, Nasmyth, Wilson, E. W. Cooke, 
 Constable, De Wint, and Gainsborough. Of 
 Turner he says : — " Many cannot comprehend 
 the pictures themselves, but stand bewildered before 
 those blazing wonders, those blood-red shadows, 
 those whirling gamboge suns — awful hieroglyphics, 
 which even the Oxford undergraduate (Mr. 
 Ruskin), Turner's most faithful priest and wor- 
 shipper, cannot altogether make clear. Nay, 
 who knows whether the prophet himself has any 
 distinct idea of the words which break out from him 
 as he sits whirling on the tripod, or of what spirits 
 will come up as he waves his wand and delivers 
 his astounding incantation ? It is not given to 
 all to understand; but at times we have glimpses 
 of comprehension, and in looking at such pic- 
 tures as the " Fighting Temeraire" for instance, 
 or the " Star Ship," we admire, and can scarce 
 find words adequate to express our wonder at the 
 stupendous skill and genius of this astonishing 
 master. If those words which we think we un- 
 
34 Thackeray ; the Humourist, 
 
 derstand are sublime, what are those others which 
 are unintelligible? Are they sublime, too, or 
 have they reached that next and higher step 
 which by some is denominated ridiculous ? Per- 
 haps we have not arrived at the right period for 
 judging, and Time, which is proverbial for settling 
 quarrels, is also required for sobering pictures." 
 Of Danby he says, " His pictures are always 
 still. You stand before them alone, and with a 
 hushed admiration, as before a great landscape 
 when it breaks on your view." On Constable's 
 well-known picture of the Cornfield in the 
 National Gallery he says : " This beautiful piece 
 of autumn appears to be under the influence of a 
 late shower. The shrubs, trees, and distance are 
 saturated with it. What a lover of water that 
 youngster must be who is filling himself within 
 after he has been wetted to the skin by the rain 
 which has just passed away. As one looks at 
 this delightful picture one cannot but admire the 
 manner in which the specific character of every 
 object is made out : the undulations of the ripe 
 com, the chequered light on the road, the fresh- 
 ness of the banks, the trees and their leafage, the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 35 
 
 brilliant cloud, awfully contrasting against the 
 trees, and here and there broken with azure." 
 Such were the opinions of the author of the 
 grotesque illustrations of ''Vanity Fair" and 
 " Pendennis" upon those great landscape painters 
 of whom England is proud — opinions which show 
 at least a warm sympathy with that higher order 
 of art in which he had failed to achieve a satis- 
 factory degree of success. 
 
 Facsimile of the little vignette in the Cambridge " Snoh." 
 {See above, page 19.) 
 
 D 3 
 
36 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 CHAPTER II.. 
 
 EAELT CONNEXION WITH PEASEE's MAGAZINE — EESI- 
 DENCB IN AlBION-STEBET — FONDNESS FOE PAEIS LIFE 
 — ^ANECDOTE OF A VISIT TO THAT CITY WHEN A BOY — 
 THE QUAETIEE LATIN KINDNESS TO OLD ACQUAIN- 
 TANCES IN PAEIS — ANECDOTES OF STTBSEQUENT VISITS 
 
 TO FEANCE DISLIKE OP FEENCH INSTITUTIONS THE 
 
 PAEADISE OF YOUNG- PAINTERS — HIS ACCOUNT OP AET- 
 8TUDBNT LIFE IN PAEIS — OPINIONS ON THE PEBNCH 
 
 SCHOOL OF PAINTING GBOWING LOVE OF AUTHOESHIP 
 
 — PICKWICK — MACAULAT — EAELY OPINIONS ON THE OLD 
 NOVELISTS — PEEFBEENCE FOE NOVELS OVEE HI8T0EY — 
 MAGINN AND " FEASEe's MAGAZINE" — MACLISE's PICTUEE 
 OF THE FEASEEIANS IN 1834 — FATHEE PEOUT — OEIGIN 
 OF THE YELLOWPLUSH IDEA. 
 
 It was, we believe, in 1834, and while residing 
 for a short period iu Albion-street, Hyde 
 Park, the residence of his mother and her second 
 husband, Major - Carmichael Smyth, that Mr. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 37 
 
 Thackeray began his literary career as a contri- 
 butor to " Eraser's Magazine." The pseudonyms 
 of " Michael Angelo Titmarsh," " Fitz Boodle/' 
 " YeUowplush/' or " Lancelot Wagstaff," under 
 which he afterwards amused the readers of the peri- 
 odicalsj had not then been thought of. His early 
 papers were chiefly relating to the Fine Arts ; but 
 most of them had some reference to his French ex- 
 periences. He seems to have had a peculiar fancy 
 for PariSj where he resided, with brief intervals, 
 for some years after coming of age, and where 
 most of his Magazine papers were written. In 
 one of those delightful essays in which he makes 
 his readers the confidants of his personal remi- 
 niscences, he has given us an amusing anecdote of 
 his first furtive trip to that capital. He tells us 
 how, when a lad of nineteen, he found himself one 
 day at a certain inn in Dover, whose exorbitant 
 charges he more than once in his writings touches 
 on for the benefit of his readers, and how, having 
 paid his coach-fare to London, the bill of that 
 unreasonable hostelry reduced his allowances so 
 low, that a bare half-crown for the customary fee 
 to coachman was all that remained. It was in 
 
38 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 the Easter vacation of his Cambridge life, and he 
 had just returned from Paris, where he had been 
 without leave of his friends : an awful sense of 
 guilt weighed on his mind. The possession of a 
 spare twenty pounds, and the wish to see a friend 
 in Paris, had proved temptations too strong to be 
 resisted. But the worst part of the case was the 
 fact that he had prevaricated with his College 
 tutor — told him, in fact, a fib ; for, having been 
 asked by him where he intended to spend his holi- 
 day, he had answered with a friend in Lincoln- 
 shire. Telling this anecdote more than thirty 
 years afterwards, he humorously adds: "GuUt, 
 sir — guilt always remained stamped on the 
 memory ; and I feel easier in my mind now that 
 it is liberated of this old peccadillo." 
 
 A recent writer has given some amusing parti- 
 culars of his Paris life, and his subsequent interest 
 in the city, where he had many friends and was 
 known to a wide circle of readers. " He lived," 
 says this writer, " in Paris ' over the water,' and 
 it is not long since, in strolling about the Latin 
 Quarter with the best of companions, that we 
 visited his lodgings, Thackeray inquiring after those 
 
and the Man of Letters. 39 
 
 who were already forgotten — unknown. Those 
 who may wish to learn his early Parisian life and 
 associations should turn to the story of ' Philip on 
 his Way through the World.' Many incidents in 
 that narrative are reminiscences of his own youth- 
 ful literary struggles whilst living modestly in this 
 city. Latterly, fortune and fame enabled the 
 author of ' Vanity Fair ' to visit imperial Paris in 
 imperial style, and Mr. Thackeray put up gene- 
 rally at the Hotel de Bristol, in the Place Ven- 
 d6me. Never was increase of fortune more 
 gracefully worn or more generously employed. 
 The struggling artist and small man of letters 
 whom he was sure to find at home or abroad, was 
 pretty safe to be assisted if he learned their wants. 
 I know of many a kind act. One morning, on 
 entering Mr. Thackeray's bedroom in Paris, I 
 found him placing some napoleons in a pill-box, 
 on the lid of which was written, ' One to be taken 
 occasionally.' 'What are you doing?' said I. 
 ' Well,' he replied, ' there is an old person here 
 who says she is very ill and in distress, and I 
 strongly suspect that this is the sort of medicine 
 she wants. Dr. Thackeray intends to leave it with 
 
40 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 her himself. Let us walk out together.'* Thack- 
 eray used to say that he came to Paris for a 
 holiday and to revive his recollections of French 
 cooking. But he generally worked here, espe- 
 cially when editing the ' Cornhill Magazine.' " f 
 
 Thackeray's affection for Paris, however, ap- 
 pears to have been founded upon no relish for 
 the gaieties of the French metropolis, and cer- 
 tainly not upon any liking for French institutions. 
 His papers on this subject are generally criticisms 
 upon political, social, and literary failings of the 
 French, written in a severe spirit which savours 
 more of the confident judgment of youth than of 
 the calm spirit of the citizen of the world. The 
 reactionary rule of Louis Philippe, the Government 
 of July, and the boasted Charter of 1830, were 
 the objects of his especial dislike ; nor was he 
 less unsparing in his views of French morals as 
 exemplified in their law courts, and in the novels 
 of such writers as Madame Dudevant. The 
 truth is, that at this period Paris was, in the 
 
 * A similar story has been told of Goldsmith, which, 
 however, may have suggested the pill-box remedy in the 
 instance in the text. 
 
 t Paris Correspondent, Morning Fast. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 41 
 
 eyes of the art-student, simply the Paradise of 
 young painters. Possessed of a good fortune — 
 said to have amounted on his coming of age in 
 1832 to £20,000 — ^the young Englishman passed 
 his days in the Louvre, his evenings with his 
 French artist acquaintances, of whom his preface 
 to Louis Marvy's sketches gives so pleasant a 
 glimpse ; or sometimes in his quiet lodgings in 
 the Quartier Latin, in dashing off for some English 
 or foreign paper his enthusiastic notices of the 
 Paris Exhibition, or a criticism on French writers, 
 or a story of French artist life, or an account of 
 some great cause celebre then stirring the Pari- 
 sian world. This was doubtless the happiest 
 period of his life. In one of these papers he 
 describes minutely the life of the art student in 
 Paris, and records his impressions of it at the 
 time. 
 
 "To account (he says) for the superiority 
 over England — which, I think, as regards art, is 
 incontestable — it must be remembered that the 
 painter's trade, in France, is a very good one; 
 better appreciated, better understood, and, gene- 
 rally, far better paid than with us. There are 
 
43 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 a dozen excellent schools in which a lad may 
 enter here, and, under the eye of a practised 
 master, learn the apprenticeship of his art at an 
 expense of about ten pounds a-year. In England 
 there is no school except the 'Academy,' unless 
 the student can afford to pay a very large sum, 
 and place himself under the tuition of some par- 
 ticular artist. Here, a young man for his ten 
 pounds has all sorts of accessory instruction, 
 models, &c. ; and has farther, and for nothing, 
 numberless incitements to study his profession 
 which are not to be found in England ; the 
 streets are filled with picture-shops, the people 
 themselves are pictures walking about; the 
 churches, theatres, eating-houses, concert-rooms, 
 are covered with pictures ; Nature itself is in- 
 clined more kindly to him, for the sky is a 
 thousand times more bright and beautiful, and 
 the sun shines for the greater part of the year. 
 Add to this, incitements more selfish, but quite 
 as powerful: a French artist is paid very hand- 
 somely ; for five hundred a-year is much where 
 all are poor ; and has a rank in society rather 
 above his merits than below them, being caressed 
 
and the Man of Letters. 43 
 
 by hosts and hostesses in places where titles are 
 laughed at, and a baron is thought of no more 
 account than a banker's clerk. 
 
 " The life of the young artist here is the easiest, 
 merriest, dirtiest existence possible. He comes 
 to Paris, probably at sixteen, from his province ; 
 his parents settle forty pounds a-year on him, 
 and pay his master ; he establishes himself in 
 the Pays Latin, or in the new quarter of N6tre 
 Dame de Lorette (which is quite peopled with 
 painters) ; he arrives at his atelier at a tolerably 
 early hour, and labours among a score of com- 
 panions as merry and poor as himself. Each 
 gentleman has his favourite tobacco-pipe, and 
 the pictures are painted in the midst of a cloud 
 of smoke, and a din of puns and choice French 
 slang, and a roar of choruses, of which no one 
 can form an idea who has not been present at such 
 an assembly." In another paper he discourses 
 enthusiastically of the French school of painting 
 as exemplified in a picture in the Exhibition by 
 Carel Dujardin, as follows : — 
 
 " A horseman is riding up a hill, and giving 
 money to a blowsy beggar-wench. O 
 
44 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 rores aureeque salubres ! in what a wonclerful 
 way has the artist managed to create you out of 
 a few bladders of paint and pots of varnish. You 
 can see the matutinal dews twinkling in the 
 grass, and feel the fresh, salubrious airs ('the 
 breath of Nature blowing free/ as the Corn-law 
 man sings) blowing free over the heath. Silyery 
 vapours are rising up from the blue lowlands. 
 You can tell the hour of the morning and the 
 'time of the year; you can do anything but de- 
 scribe it in words. As with regard to the 
 Poussin above-mentioned, one can never pass it 
 without bearing away a certain pleasing, dream- 
 ing feeling, of awe and musing ; the other land- 
 scape inspires the spectator infallibly with the 
 most delightful briskness and cheerfulness of 
 spirit. Herein lies the vast privilege of the 
 landscape-painter; he does not address you with 
 one fixed particular subject or expression, but 
 with a thousand never contemplated by himself, 
 and which only arise out of occasion. You may 
 always be looking at a natural landscape as at a 
 fine pictorial imitation of one ; it seems eternally 
 
and the Man of Letters. 45 
 
 producing new thoughts in your bosom, as it 
 does fresh beauties from its own." 
 
 It is certain that he had developed a talent 
 for writing long before he had abandoned his 
 intention of becoming a painter, and that he 
 became a contributor to magazines at a tim& 
 when there was at least no. necessity for his- 
 earning a livelihood by his pen. It is probable, 
 therefore, that it was his success in the 
 literary art, rather than his failure, as has been\ 
 assumed, in acquiring skill as a painter, which \ 
 gradually drew him into that career of author- I 
 ship, the pecuniary profits of which became after -7 
 wards more important to him. Other papers of 
 his, written at this undecided period of his life,, 
 contain numerous interesting evidences of his 
 growing love of literature. Of his contemporary 
 English writers he has much to say. " Pick- 
 wick," and " Nicholas Nickleby," then publish- 
 ing, are frequently mentioned. We have seen 
 how he quotes the Corn Law Rhymer, then 
 but little known to the English public. Speak- 
 ing of the French he says, "They made Tom 
 
46 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Paine a deputy ; and as for Tom Macaulay they 
 would make a dynasty of him." In a paper 
 "On French fashionable Novels," in an American 
 newspaper, of which he was the Paris correspon- 
 dent he thus alludes to the circulating libraries 
 of Paris, from which he obtained his supply of 
 contemporary reading : 
 
 " Twopence a volume bears us whithersoever we 
 will ; — ^back to Ivanhoe and Coeur de Lion, or to 
 Waverley and the Young Pretender, along with 
 Walter Scott ; up to the heights of fashion with 
 the charming enchanters of the silver-fork school ; 
 or, better still, to the snug inn parlour or the 
 jovial tap-room, with Mr. Pickwick and his faithfal 
 Sancho Weller. 
 
 " I am sure that a man who, a hundred 
 years hence, should sit down to write the his- 
 tory of our time, would do wrong to put that 
 great contemporary history of ' Pickwick' aside, as 
 a frivolous work. It contains true character under 
 false names ; and, like ' Roderick Random,' an 
 inferior work, and ' Tom Jones' (one that is im- 
 measurably superior), gives us a better idea of 
 the state and ways of the people, than one could 
 
and the Man of Letters, 47 
 
 gather from any more pompous or authentic his- 
 tories." 
 
 In another paper on Caricatures and Lithogra- 
 phy, in the same Journal, containing a kindly allu- 
 sion to his friend, George Cruikshank, he developes 
 this idea further, giving us a still more interesting 
 view of his reading, and of his growing preference 
 for fiction over other forms of literature'. " At the 
 close," he says, "of his history of George II., 
 SmoUet condescends to give a short chapter on 
 Literature and Manners. He speaks of Glover's 
 * Leonidas,' Gibber's ' Careless Husband,' the 
 poems of Mason, Gray, the two Whiteheads, ' the 
 nervous style, extensive erudition, and superior 
 sense of a Cooke ; the delicate taste, the polished 
 muse, and tender feeling of a Lyttelton.' ' King,' 
 he says, ' shone unrivalled in Eoman eloquence, 
 the female sex distinguished themselves by their 
 taste and ingenuity. Miss Carter rivalled the 
 celebrated Dacier in learning and critical know- 
 ledge; Mrs, Lennox signalized herself by many 
 successful efforts of genius, both in poetry and 
 prose; and Miss Reid excelled the celebrated 
 Rosalba in portrait paihting, both in miniature 
 
48 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 and at large, in oil as well as in crayons. The 
 genius of Cervantes was transferred into the novels 
 of Melding, who painted the characters and 
 ridiculed the follies of life with equal strength, 
 humour, and propriety. The field of history and 
 biography was cultivated by many writers of 
 ability, among whom we distinguish the copious 
 Guthrie, the circumstantial Ralph, the laborious 
 Carte, the learned and elegant Robertson, and, 
 above all, the ingenious, penetrating, and com- 
 prehensive Hume,' &c. &c. We will quote no 
 more of the passage. Could a man in the best 
 humour sit down to write a graver satire ? Who 
 cares for the tender muse of Lyttelton ? Who 
 knows the signal efibrts of Mrs. Lennox's genius ? 
 who has seen the admirable performances, in 
 miniature and at large, in oil as well as in crayons, 
 of a Miss Reid ? Laborious Carte, and circum- 
 stantial Ralph, and copious Guthrie, where are 
 they, their works, and their reputation? Mrs. 
 Lennox's name is just as clean wiped out of the 
 list of worthies as if she had never been born; 
 and Miss Reid, though she was once actual flesh 
 and blood, ' rival in miniature and at large ' of 
 the celebrated Rosalba, she is as if she had never 
 
MR. THACKERAY AND THE AGE OF QUEEN ANNE. 
 
 (An imaginary sketch made at the Garrick Club many years ago, This poi'tralt 
 of Hr, Thackeray as he used to appear, 12 or IS years since, is remarkable for 
 its singular excellence, although the hair is represented slightly different from 
 its appearance in later years.) 
 
 THE THACKERAY ARMS. 
 (The professional pen and pencil are made to take the place of a Falcon, the 
 proper family crest; and the farourite spectacles, so generally observed in Mr. 
 Thackeray's early sketches, do service as the motto.) 
 
and the Man of Letters. 49 
 
 been at all ; her little farthing rushlight of a soul 
 and reputation having burnt outj and left neither 
 wick nor tallow. Death, too, has overtaken 
 copious Guthrie and circumstantial Ralph, Only 
 a few know whereabouts is the grave where lies 
 laborious Carte ; and yet, oh ! wondrous power of 
 genius ! Fielding's men and women are alive, 
 though history's are not. The progenitors of 
 circumstantial Ralph, sent forth, after much labour 
 and pains of mating, educating, feeding, clothing, 
 a real man-child — a great palpable mass of flesh, 
 bones, and blood (we say nothing about the spirit), 
 which was to move through the world, ponderous, 
 writing histories, and to die, having achieved the 
 title of circumstantial Ralph ; and lo ! without 
 any of the trouble that the parents of Ralph had 
 undergone, alone, perhaps, in a watch or spung- 
 ing-house, fuddled, most likely, in the blandest, 
 easiest, and most good-humoured way in the 
 world, Henry Fielding makes a number of men 
 and women on so many sheets of paper, not only 
 more amusing than Ralph or Miss Reid, but more 
 like flesh and blood, and more alive now than 
 they. 
 
50 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 " Is not Amelia preparing her husband's little 
 supper ? Is not Miss Snap chastely prevent- 
 ing the crime of Mr. Firebrand? Is not 
 Parson Adams in the midst of his family, and 
 Mr. Wild taking his last bowl of punch with the 
 Newgate Ordinary ? Is not every one of them 
 a real substantial Aawe-been personage now ? — 
 more real than Reid or Ralph ? For our parts, 
 we will not take upon ourselves to say that they do 
 not exist somewhere else ; that the actions attri- 
 buted to them have not really taken place ; cer- 
 tain we are that they are more worthy of credence 
 than Ralph, who may or may not have been cir- 
 cumstantial; — who may or may not even have 
 existed, a point unworthy of disputation. As for 
 Miss Reid, we will take an affidavit that neither , 
 in miniature nor at large did she excel the cele- 
 brated Rosalba ; and with regard to Mrs. Lennox, 
 we consider her to be a mere figment, like Nar- 
 cissa, Miss Tabitha Bramble, or any hero or 
 heroine depicted by the historian of ' Peregrine 
 Pickle.' " 
 
 Mr. Thackeray had scarcely attained the age 
 of three-and-twenty when the young literary art- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 51 
 
 student in Paris was recognised as an established 
 contributor of " Eraser," worthy to take a per- 
 manent place among that brilliant staff which 
 then rendered this periodical famous both in Eng- 
 land and on the continent. It was at that time 
 under the editorship of the celebrated Maginn, 
 one of the last of those compounds of genius and 
 profound scholarship with reckless extravagance 
 and loose morals, who once flourished under the 
 encouragement of a tolerant public opinion. 
 There can be no doubt that the editor and 
 Greek scholar who is always in difficulties, who 
 figures in several of his works, is a faithful pic- 
 ture of this remarkable man as he appeared to 
 his young contributor. His friend Mr. Hannay 
 
 " Certain it is that he lent — or in plainer 
 English, gave — five hundred pounds to poor old 
 Maginn when he was beaten in the battle of 
 life, and like other beaten soldiers made a pri- 
 soner — in the Fleet. With the generation going 
 out, — that of Lamb and Coleridge, — he had, we 
 believe, no personal acquaintance. Sydney Smith 
 he met at a later time ; and he remembered with 
 
 E 3 
 
52 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 satisfaction that something which he wrote ahout 
 Hood gave pleasure to that delicate humourist 
 and poet in his last days.* But his first friends 
 were the Fraserians, of whom Father Prout, 
 always his intimate, and Carlyle, always one 
 of his most appreciating friends, survive. From 
 reminiscences of the wilder lights in the ' Fraser' 
 constellation were drawn the pictures of the queer 
 fellows connected with literature in ' Pendennis,' 
 — Captain Shandon, the ferocious Bludyer, 
 stout old Tom Serjeant, and so forth. Maga- 
 zines in those days were more brilliant than they 
 are now, when they are haunted by the fear of 
 shocking the Fogy element in their circulation; 
 and the effect of their greater freedom is seen in 
 the buoyant, riant, and unrestrained comedy of 
 Thackeray's own earlier ' Fraser' articles. ' I 
 suppose -we all begin by being too savage,' is the 
 phrase of a letter he wrote in 1849 ; ' I know one 
 who did.' He was alluding here to the ' Yel- 
 
 * He had certainly seen Sydney Smith. A quaint, half- 
 caricature, outline sketch, of the latter was contributed by 
 ■" Titmarah" to " Eraser's Magazine," at an early period of 
 his connexion with that journal^ 
 
and the Man of Letters. 53 
 
 lowplush Papers' in particular, where living men 
 •were very freely handled. This old, wild satiric 
 spirit it was which made him interrupt even the 
 early chapters of ' Vanity Fair,' by introducing 
 a parody which he could not resist of some con- 
 temporary novelists."* 
 
 But we have a proof of the fact of how fully 
 he was recognised by his brother Praserians as one 
 of themselves in Maclise's picture- of the Fraser 
 contributors, prefixed to the number of "Fraser's 
 Magazine " for January, 1835 — a picture which 
 must have been drawn at some period in the 
 previous year. This picture represents a banquet 
 at the house of the publisher, Mr. Fraser, at 
 which, on some of his brief visits to London, 
 Thackeray had doubtless been preisent, for it is 
 easy to trace in the juvenile features of the tall 
 figure with the double eyeglass — Mr. Thackeray 
 was throughout life somewhat near-sighted — a 
 portrait of the future author of "Vanity Fair." 
 Mr. Mahony, the well-known " Father Prout" of 
 the magazine, in his account of this picture 
 written in 1859, tells us that the banquet was. 
 * Edinburgh Evening Courant, Jan. 5, 1864. 
 
54 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 no fiction. In the chair appears Dr. Maginu 
 in the act of making a speech ; and around 
 him, among a host of contributors, including 
 Bryan Walter Procter (better known then as 
 Barry Cornwall), Robert Southey, William Har- 
 ' risen Ainsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, James 
 Hogg, John Gait, Eraser the publisher, having on 
 his right, Mr. Lockhart, Theodore Hook, Sir David 
 Brewster, Thomas Carlyle, Sir Egerton Brydges, 
 Bev. — Gleig, Edward Irving, and others, num- 
 bering twenty-seven in all — of whom, in 1859, 
 eight only were living. 
 
 This celebrated cartoon of the Fraserians 
 appears to place Mr. Thackeray's connexion with 
 the Magazine before 1835 ; but we have not suc- 
 ceeded in tracing any contribution from his hand 
 earlier than Nov. 1837. Certainly, the after- 
 wards well-used noms de plume of Michael 
 Angelo Titmarsh, Fitzboodle, Charles Yellow- 
 plush, and Ikey Solomons, are wanting in the 
 earlier volumes. 
 
 It is in the number for the month and 
 year referred to that we first find him con- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 55 
 
 tributing a paper which is not reprinted in 
 his "Miscellanies," and which is interesting as 
 explaining the origin of that assumed character 
 of a footman in which the author of the " Yel- 
 iowplush Papers" and "Jeames's Diary" after- 
 wards took delight. A little volume had been 
 published in 1837, entitled " My Book ; or the 
 Anatomy of Conduct, by John Henry Skelton." 
 The writer of this absurd book had been a 
 woollen-draper in the neighbourhood of Kegent- 
 street. He had become possessed of the fixed 
 idea that he was destined to become the instructor 
 of mankind in the true art of etiquette. He 
 gave parties to the best company whom he could 
 induce to eat his dinners and assemble at his 
 conversaziones, where his amiable delusion was 
 the frequent subject of the jokes of his friends. 
 Skelton, however, felt them little. He spent 
 what fortune he had, and brought himself to a 
 position in which his fashionable acquaintances 
 no longer troubled him with their attentions; 
 but he did not ceaste to be, in his own estima- 
 tion, a model of deportment. He husbanded his 
 
56 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 small resources, limiting himself to an humble 
 dinner daily at a cofifee-house in the neighbour- 
 hood of his old home, where his perfectly fitting 
 dress-coat — for in this article he was still en- 
 abled to shine — ^his brown wig and dyed whiskers, 
 his ample white cravat of the style of the Prince 
 Regent's days, and his well polished boots, were 
 long destined to raise the character of the house 
 on which he bestowed his patronage. In the days 
 of his prosperity Skelton was understood among 
 his acquaintances to be engaged on a work which 
 should hand down to posterity the true code of 
 etiquette — that body of unwritten law which 
 regulated the society of the time of his favourite 
 monarch. In the enforced retirement of his 
 less prosperous days, the woollen-draper's literary 
 design had time to develop itself, and in the year 
 1837, " My Book ; or the Anatomy of Conduct, 
 by John Henry Skelton," was finally given tO' 
 the world. 
 
 It was this little volume which fell in the 
 way of Thackeray, who undertook to review 
 it for " Eraser's Magazine." In order to do 
 
and the Man of Letters. 57 
 
 full justice to the -work, nothing seemed more 
 proper than to present the reviewer in the as- 
 sumed character of a fashionable footman. The 
 review, therefore, took the form of a letter from 
 Charles Yellowplush, Esq., containing " I'ashion- 
 able fax and polite Annygoats," dated from 
 
 "No. , Grosvenor Square, (N.B. — Hairy 
 
 Bell)," and addressed to Oliver Yorke, the well- 
 known pseudonym of the Editor of " Eraser." 
 To this accident may be attributed those extra- 
 ordinary efforts of cacography which had their 
 germ in the Cambridge " Snob," but which 
 attained their full development in the Miscel- 
 lanies, the Ballads, the Snob papers, and other 
 short works, and also in some portions of the 
 latest of the author's novels. The precepts and 
 opinions of " Skelton," or " Skeleton," as the 
 reviewer insisted on calling the author of the 
 " Anatomy," were fully developed and illustrated 
 by Mr. Yellowplush. The footman who reviewed 
 the " fashionable world " achieved a decided suc- 
 cess. Charles Yellowplush was requested by 
 the editor to extend his comments upon society 
 
58 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 and books, and in January, 1838, the "Yel- 
 lowplush Papers" were commenced, with those 
 peculiar rude illustrations by the author, which 
 appear at first to have been suggested by the 
 style of Maclise's portraits in the same maga- 
 zine, but which afterwards became habitual to 
 him. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 59 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 INTEETIBW WITH ME. DICKENS — OEEEB TO ILITJSTEATE 
 " PICKWICK " — EABLT ADMIEATION 01' " BOZ " — EXECU- 
 TION OF EIESCHI — STABTING OF THE "CONSTITUTIONAL" 
 — POLITICAL OPINIONS — LAMAN BLANCHAED AND JEE- 
 EOLD — FAILUEE OF THE JOUENAL — LOSS OF FOETUNE— 
 MAEEIAGB — THE " TOECH AND PAETHENON " — DOMESTIC 
 AFFLICTION — GEOEGE CEUIKSHANK THE PAEIS SKETCH- 
 BOOK — EES ANGUSTA DOMI — ANECDOTE OF HIS TAILOE, 
 M. AEETZ — COMIC TALES AND SKETCHES — SECOND FU- 
 NEEAL OF NAPOLEON — CONTEIBUTIONS TO " FEASEE " 
 AND THE " NEW MONTHLY "—THE " COMIC ALMANAC " — 
 THE SHABBY-GENTEEL STOEY— ADTENTUEB AT LILLE — 
 — TOUE IN THE EAST— CONNEXION WITH " PUNCH " — 
 POPULAEITY OF " JBAMBs's DIAET " — CHEISTMA8 BOOKS 
 — EESIDBNCE IN YOUNG STEBET, KENSINGTON— CHAM 
 BEES IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 It was in the year 1836 that Mr. Thackeray, 
 according to an anecdote related by himself, 
 offered Mr. Dickens to undertake the task of 
 illustrating one of his works. The story was told 
 by the former at an anniversary dinner of the 
 Eoyal Academy a few years since, Mr. Dickens 
 being present on the occasion. " I can remember 
 (said Mr. Thackeray) when Mr. Dickens was a 
 
60 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 very young man, and had commenced delighting 
 the world vrith some charming humorous works in 
 covers, which were coloured light green, and came 
 out ouce a month, that this young man wanted an 
 artist to illustrate his writings; and I recollect 
 walking up to his chambers in Furnival's Inn, 
 with two or three drawings in my hand, which, 
 strange to say, he did not find suitable. But for 
 the unfortunate blight which came over my artis- 
 tical existence, it would have been my pride and 
 my pleasure to have endeavoured one day to find 
 a place on these walls for one of my performances." 
 The work referred to was the " Pickwick Papers," 
 which were originally commenced in April of that 
 year, as the result of an agreement with Mr. 
 Dickens and Mr. Seymour the comic artist — the 
 one to write, and the other to illustrate a book 
 which should exhibit the adventures of cockney 
 sportsmen. As our readers know, the descriptive 
 letterpress, by the author of the " Sketches by 
 Boz," soon attracted the attention of the world ; 
 while the clever illustrations by Seymour, which 
 had the merit of creating the well-known pictorial 
 characteristics of Mr. Pickwick and his friends. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 61 
 
 became regarded only as illustrations of the new 
 humourist's immortal work. Unhappily, only 
 two or three monthly numbers had been com- 
 pleted, when Seymour destroyed himself in a fit 
 of derangement. A new artist was wanted, and 
 the result was the singular interview between the 
 two men whose names, though representing schools 
 of fiction so widely different, were destined to 
 become constantly associated in the public mind. 
 Mr. Dickens was then entering into that great 
 fame as a writer of fiction which has never flagged 
 from that time: the young artist had scarcely 
 attempted literature, and had still before him 
 many years of obscurity. The slow growth of his 
 fame presents a curious contrast to the career of 
 his fellow-novelist. So much as Mr. Thackeray 
 subsequently worked in contributing to " Eraser," 
 in co-operating with others on daily newspapers, 
 in writing for " Cruikshank's Comic Almanac," 
 for the " Times " and the " Examiner," for 
 *' Punch," and for the " Westminster" and other 
 JReviews, it could not be said that he was really 
 known to the public till the publication of 
 "Vanity Fair," when he had been an active 
 
62 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 literary man for at least ten years, and had at« 
 tained the age of thirty-seven. The " Yellowplush 
 Papers" in " Fraser" enjoyed a sort of popularity, 
 and -were at least widely quoted in the newspapers ; 
 but of their author few inquired. Neither did the 
 two volumes of the " Paris Sketch Book," though 
 presenting many good specimens of his peculiar 
 humour, nor the account of the second funeral of 
 Napoleon, nor even the " Irish Sketch Book," do 
 much to make their writer known. It was his 
 " Vanity Fair," which issued, in shilling monthly 
 parts, took the world of readersas it were by storm; 
 and an appreciative article from the hand of a friend 
 in the " Edinburgh Review" in 1848, which for the 
 first time helped to spread the tidings of a new 
 master, of fiction among us, destined to make a 
 name second to none in English literature in its 
 own field. 
 
 A leading article in a morning newspaper on the 
 occasion of Mr. Thackeray's death, in telling the 
 anecdote of his offer to illustrate "Pickwick," 
 adds, that disappointed at the rejection of his ofier, 
 he exclaimed, " "Well, if you will not let me draw, 
 I will write ;" and from that hour determined to 
 
and the Man of Letters. 63 
 
 compete with his illustrious brother novelist for 
 public favour. Nothing could be more opposed 
 to the facts than this coloured version of the 
 anecdote. It was not for a year or two after the 
 event referred to that he began seriously to de- 
 vote himself to literary labour ; and his articles, 
 published anonymously, and only now for the first 
 time brought into notice, because recognised from 
 their no7ns de plume to have been written by him, 
 contain the best evidences that he felt no shadow of 
 iU-will for a rejection which he always good- 
 humouredly alluded to as " Mr. Pickwick's lucky 
 escape." He was an early and sincere admirer 
 of Mr. Dickens's writings. , In the midst of the 
 often savagely sarcastic reviews of literature which 
 he contributed to home and American journals, 
 there are frequent references — ^generally enthu- 
 siastic, and even when taking exception to some 
 feature of the work, always respectful — to the great 
 powers of the man whom the readers of a subse- 
 quent period delighted to contrast with himself as 
 the only living writer of fiction worthy to be 
 named with the author of " Vanity Pair." In 
 " Eraser's Magazine" for February, 1840, at the end 
 
€4 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 of a clever satire upon the Newgate Calendar 
 school of romance, purporting to be written by 
 Ikey Solomons, jun., he thus remarks upon "Oliver 
 Twist :" — " No man has read that remarkable tale 
 without being interested in poor Nancy and her 
 murderer, and especially amused and tickled by 
 ■the gambols of the skilful Dodger and his com- 
 panions. The power of the writer is so amazing that 
 the reader at once becomes his captive, and must 
 follow him whithersoever he leads; and to what 
 are we led ? Breathless to watch all the crimes 
 of Fagin, tenderly to deplore the errors of Nancy, 
 ■to have for Bill Sikes a kind of pity and admira- 
 tion, and an absolute love for the society of the 
 Dodger. All these heroes stepped from the novel 
 on. to the stage ; and the whole London public, 
 from peers to chimney-sweeps, were interested 
 about a set of ruffians whose occupations are 
 thievery, murder, and prostitution. A most 
 agreeable set of rascals, indeed, who have their 
 virtues, too, but not good company for any man. 
 We had better pass them by in decent silencej 
 for, as no writer can or dare tell the whole truth 
 -concerning them, and faithfully explain their 
 
and the Man of Letters. 65 
 
 vices, there is no need to give ex-parte statements 
 of their virtues. ***** 
 
 The pathos of the workhouse scenes in ' Oliver 
 Twist/ of the Pleet Prison descriptions in ' Pick- 
 wick/ is genuine and pure — as much of this as 
 you please; as tender a hand to the poor, as 
 kindly a word to the unhappy as you will, but 
 in the name of common sense let us not expend 
 our sympathies on cut-throats and other such 
 prodigies of evil \" 
 
 Still later, when commenting on the Royal 
 Academy Exhibition, we find another interest- 
 ing reference to Mr. Dickens, with a prophecy 
 of his future greatness: — "Look (he says, 
 in the assumed character of Michael Angelo 
 Titmarsh), at the portrait of Mr. Dickens, — well 
 arranged as a picture, good in colour and light 
 and shadow, and as a likeness perfectly amazing; 
 a looking-glass could not render a better facsimile. 
 Here we have the real identical man Dickens: 
 the artist must have understood the inward Boz 
 as well as the outward before he made this ad- 
 mirable representation of him. What cheerful 
 intelligence there is about the man's eyes and 
 
66 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 large forehead ! The mouth is too large and 
 full, too eager and active, perhaps ; the smile is 
 very sweet and generous. If Monsieur de Balzac, 
 that voluminous physiognomist, could examine 
 this head he would no doubt interpret every line 
 and wrinkle in it : the nose firm and well placed, 
 the nostrils wide and fiill, as are the nostrils of 
 all men of genius (this is Monsieur Balzac's 
 maxim). The past and the future, says Jean 
 Paul, are written in every countenance. I think 
 we may promise ourselves a brilliant future from 
 this one. There seems no flagging as yet in it, 
 no sense of fatigue, or consciousness of decaying 
 power. Long mayest thou, O Boz ! reign over 
 thy comic kingdom j long may we pay tribute, 
 whether of threepence weekly or of a shilling 
 monthly, it matters not. Mighty prince ! at thy 
 imperial feet, Titmarsh, humblest of thy servants^ 
 offers his vows of loyalty and his humble tribute 
 of praise." 
 
 But a still more touching and beautiful tribute 
 to Mr. Dickens's genius from the yet unknown 
 Michael Angelo Titmarsh appears in " Fraser " for 
 July, 1844. A box of Christmas books is sup- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 67 
 
 posed to have been sent hj the editor to Titmarsh 
 in his retirement in Switzerland, whence the latter 
 writes his notions of their contents. The last book 
 of all is Mr. Dickens's Christmas Carol — we mean 
 the story of old Scrooge — the immortal precursor 
 of that long line of Christmas stories which are 
 now so familiar to his readers. 
 
 "And now (says the critic) there is but one 
 book left in the box, the smallest one, but oh ! 
 how much the best of all. It is the work of the 
 master of all the English humourists now alive ; 
 the young man who came and took his place 
 calmly at the head of the whole tribe, and who 
 has kept it. Think of all we owe Mr. Dickens 
 since those half dozen years, that store of happy 
 hours that he has made us pass, the kindly 
 and pleasant companions whom he has introduced 
 to us ; the harmless laughter, the generous wit, 
 the frank, manly, human love which he has taught 
 us to feel! Every month of those years has 
 brought us some kind token from this delightful 
 genius. His books may have lost in art, perhaps, 
 but could we afford to wait? Since the days 
 when the ' Spectator' was produced by a man of 
 
 f2 
 
68 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 kindred mind and temper, what books have ap- 
 peared that have taken so affectionate a hold of 
 the English public as these ? 
 
 ***** 
 
 Who can listen to objections regarding such a 
 book as this ? It seems to me a national benefit, 
 and to every man or woman who reads it a per- 
 sonal kindness. The last two people I heard 
 speak of it were women ; neither knew the other, 
 or the author, and both said by way of criticism, 
 ' God bless him !' * * * * * 
 
 As for Tiny Tim, there is a certain passage in the 
 book regarding that young gentleman about 
 which a man should hardly venture to speak in 
 print or in public, any more than he would of any 
 other affections of his private heart. There is 
 not a reader in England but that little creature 
 will be a bond of union between author and him ; 
 and he will say of Charles Dickens, as the woman 
 just now, ' God bless him !' What a feeling is 
 this for a writer to be able to inspire, and what a 
 reward to reap." 
 
 Mr. Thackeray was in Paris in March, 1836, 
 at the time of the execution of Fieschi and 
 
and the Man of Letters. 69 
 
 Lacenaire^ upon which subject he wrote some 
 remarks in one of his anonymous papers which it 
 is interesting to compare with the more advanced 
 views in favour of the abolition of the punishment 
 of death which are familiar to the readers of his 
 subsequent article, " On Going to see a Man 
 Hanged." He did not witness the execution 
 either of Fieschi or Lacenaire, though he made 
 unsuccessful attempts to be present at both 
 events. 
 
 The day for Fieschi's death was purposely 
 kept secret ; and he was executed at a remote 
 quarter of the town. But the scene on the 
 morning when his. execution did not take place 
 was never forgotten by the young English 
 artist. 
 
 It was carnival time, and the rumour had pretty 
 generally been carried abroad, that the culprit 
 was to die on that day. A friend who accom. 
 pauied Thackeray came many miles through 
 the mud and dark, in order to be "in at the death." 
 They set out before light, floundering through the 
 muddy Champs Elysees, where were many others 
 bent upon the same errand. They passed by the 
 
70 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Concert of Musard, then held in the Rue St. 
 Honore ; and round this, in the wet, a number 
 of coaches were collected : the ball was just up ; 
 and a crowd of people, in hideous masquerade, 
 drunk, tired, dirty, dressed in horrible old frippery 
 and daubed with filthy rouge, were trooping out 
 of the place ; tipsy women and men, shrieking, 
 jabbering, gesticulating, as French will do ; parties 
 swaggering, staggering forwards, arm in arm, 
 reeling to and fro across the street, and yelling 
 songs in chorus. Hundreds of these were bomid 
 for the show, and the two friends thought them- 
 selves lucky in finding a vehicle to the execution 
 place, at the Barriere d'Enfer. As they crossed 
 the river, and entered the Rue d'Enfer, crowds of 
 students, black workmen, and more drunken devils, 
 from more carnival balls, were filling it j and on 
 the grand place there were thousands of these 
 assembled, looking out for Eieschi and his cortege. 
 They waited, but no throat-cutting that morning ; 
 no august spectacle of satisfied justice ; and the 
 eager spectators were obliged to return, disap- 
 pointed- of the expected breakfast of blood. "It 
 would" (says Mr. Thackeray) " have been a fine 
 
and the Man of Letters. 71 
 
 scene, that execution^ could it but have taken place 
 in the midst of the mad mountebanks and tipsy 
 strumpets -who had 'Rocked so far to witness it, 
 wishing to wind up the delights of their carnival 
 by a bonne-bouche of a murder." 
 
 The other attempt was equally unfortunate. 
 The same friend accompanied him, but they ax- 
 rived too late on the ground to be present at the 
 execution of Lacenaire and his co-mate in murder, 
 Avril. But as they came to the spot (a gloomy 
 round space, within the barrier — three roads led 
 to it — and, outside, they saw the wine-shops and 
 restaurateurs of the barrier looking gay and 
 inviting), they only found, in the midst of it, a 
 little pool of ice, just partially tinged with red. 
 Two or three idle street boys were dancing and 
 stamping about this pool ; and when the English- 
 men asked one of them whether the execution had 
 taken place, he began dancing more madly than 
 ever, and shrieked out with a loud fantastical 
 theatrical voice, " Venez torn Messieurs et Dames, 
 voyez id le sang du monstre Lacenaire, et de son 
 compagnon, le traitre Avril;" and straightway 
 all the other gamins screamed out the words ip 
 
72 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 chorus, and took hands and danced round the 
 little puddle. " Oh, august Justice ! " exclaimed 
 the young art-student, " youl- meal was followed 
 by an appropriate grace ! Was any man 
 ■who saw the show deterred, or frightened, or 
 moralized in any way ? He had gratified his 
 appetite for blood, and this was all. Remark 
 what a good breakfast you eat after an execution ; 
 how pleasant it is to cut jokes after it, and upon 
 it. This merry, pleasant mood, is brought on by 
 the blood-tonic." 
 
 Mr. Thackeray returned to London in March, 
 1836, and resided for a few months in the house 
 of his step-father. Major Henry Carmichael Smyth. 
 The principal object of his return was to concert 
 with the Major, who was a gentleman of some 
 literary attainments, a project for starting a daily 
 newspaper. The time was believed to be re- 
 markably opportune for the new journal ; the old 
 oppressive newspaper stamp being about to be 
 repealed, and a penny stamp, giving the privi- 
 lege of a free transmission through the post, 
 to be substituted. Their project was to form a 
 small joint-stock company, to be called the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 
 
 Metropolitan Newspaper Company, with a capital 
 of 60,000/., in shares of 10/. each. The Major, 
 as chief proprietor, became chairman of the new 
 company ; Laman Blanchard was appointed 
 editor, Douglas Jerrold the dramatic critic, and 
 Thackeray the Paris correspondent. An old and 
 respectable, though decaying journal, entitled the 
 Public Ledger, was purchased by the company ; 
 and on the 15th of September, the first day of 
 the reduced stamp duty, the newspaper was started 
 with the title of the Constitutional and Public 
 Ledger. The politics of the paper were ultra- 
 liberal. Its programme was entire freedom of 
 the press, extension of popular suffrage, vote by 
 ballot, shortening of duration of parliaments, 
 equality of , civil rights and religious liberty 
 A number of the most eminent of the advanced 
 party, including Mr. Grote, Sir William Moles- 
 worth, Mr. Joseph Hume, and Colonel Thompson, 
 publicly advertised their intention. to support the 
 new journal, and to promote its circulation. Mr, 
 Thackeray's Paris letters, signed " T. T.," com- 
 menced on the 24th of September, and were con- 
 tinued at intervals until the spring of the follow- 
 
74 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 ing year. They present little worth notice. At 
 that time the chatty correspondent who discourses 
 npon all things save the subject of his letter was a 
 thing unknown. Bare facts, such as the telegraph- 
 wire now bring us, with here and there a soupqon 
 of philosophical reflection, was the utmost that the 
 readers of newspapers in those days demanded 
 of the useful individual who kept watch in the 
 capital of civilization for events of interest. Gene- 
 rally, however, the letters are characterized by a 
 strong distaste for the Government of July, and 
 by an ardent liberalism which had but slightly 
 cooled down when, at the Oxford election in 
 1857, he declared himself an uncompromising 
 advocate of vote by ballot. Writing from Paris 
 on October 8, he says : — " "We are luckily too 
 strong to dread much from open hostility, or to 
 be bullied back into Toryism by our neighbours ; 
 but if Radicalism be a sin in their eyes, it exists, 
 thank God ! not merely across the Alps, but 
 across the channel." The new journal, however, 
 was far from prosperous. After enlarging its 
 size and raising its price from fourpence-halfpenny 
 to fivepence, it gradually declined in circulation. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 75 
 
 The last number appeared on the 1st of July, 
 1837, bearing black borders for the death of the 
 king. " We can estimate, therefore (says the dying 
 speech of the Constitutional), the feelings of the 
 gentleman who once- walked at his own funeral," 
 and the editor, of perhaps his late Paris Corres- 
 pondent, adds : " The adverse circumstances have 
 been various. In the philosophy of ill-luck it 
 may be laid down as a principle that every point 
 of discouragement tends to one common centre 
 of defeat. When the fates do concur in one dis- 
 comfiture their unanimity is wonderful. So has 
 it happened in the case of the Constitutional. In 
 the first place, a delay of some months conse- 
 quent upon the postponement of the newspaper 
 stamp reduction, operated on the minds of many 
 who were originally parties to the enterprise j in 
 the next, the majority of those who remained 
 faithful were wholly inexperienced in the art and 
 mystery of the practical working of an important 
 daily journal ; in the third, and consequent upon 
 the other two, there was the want of those abun- 
 dant means, and of that wise application of re- 
 sources, without which no efficient organ of the 
 
76 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 interests of any class of men — to say nothing of 
 the interests of that first and greatest class whose 
 ■welfare has been our dearest aim and most con- 
 stant object — can be successfully established. 
 Then came further misgivings on the part of 
 friends, and tbe delusive undertakings of friends 
 in disguise." The venture proved in every way 
 a disastrous one. Although nominally sup- 
 ported by a joint-stock company, the burden of 
 the undertaking really rested upon the original 
 promoters, of whom Major Smyth was the 
 principal, while his step-son, Mr. Thackeray, also 
 lost nearly all that remained of his fortune. 
 
 It was shortly after the failure of the Consti- 
 tutional that Mr, Thackeray married in Paris a 
 Miss Shaw, sister of the Captain Shaw, an Indian 
 officer, who was one of the mourners at his fune- 
 ral, an Irish lady of good family, who bore him two 
 daughters, the elder of whom has recently shown 
 something of her illustrious father's talent, in the 
 remarkable story of " Elizabeth," written by her, 
 andpublished in the "Cornhill Magazine." In 1837 
 he left that city with his family, and resided for 
 two years in Great Coram-street, London, when 
 
and the Man of Letters. 77 
 
 he began to devote himself seriously to literary 
 labour, adding, we believe, occasional work as 
 an illustrator. We are told that he contributed 
 some papers to the Times during the late 
 Mr. Barnes's editorship — an article on "Field- 
 ing" among them. He is believed to have been 
 connected with two literary papers of his time — 
 the Torch, edited by Felix Fax, Esq., and the 
 Parthenon, which must not be confounded with a 
 literary journal with the same name recently 
 existing. The Torch, which was started on the 
 26th of August, 1837, ran only for six months, 
 and was immediately succeeded by the Parthenon,. 
 which had a longer existence. In neither paper, 
 however, is it possible to trace any sign of that 
 shrewd criticism or overflowing humour which 
 distinguish the papers in " Fraser." For the latter 
 public3,tion he laboured assiduously, and it was 
 at this time that the " Yellowplush Papers" ap- 
 peared, with occasional notices of the Exhibitions 
 of Paintings in London. Among his writings of 
 this period (1837-1840), we also find " Stubb's 
 Calendar, or the Fatal Boots," contributed to his 
 friend Cruikshank's " Comic Almanac" for 1839, 
 
78 Tliackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 and since included in the Miscellanies ; " Cathe- 
 rine, by Ikey Solomons, jun.," a long continuous 
 story, founded on the crime of Catherine Hays, 
 the celebrated murderess of the last century, and 
 intended to ridicule the novels of the school of 
 Jack Sheppard ; " Cartouche" and " Poinsonnet," 
 two stories, and " Epistles to the Literati." 
 In 1839 he visited Paris again at the request of 
 the proprietor of 'Traser," in order to write an 
 account of the French Exhibition of Paintings, 
 which appears in the December number. 
 
 On his return he devoted himself to the writing 
 of " The Shabby Genteel" story, which was begun 
 in " Eraser " for June, and continued in the 
 numbers for July, August, and October, when it 
 stopped unfinished at the ninth chapter. The 
 story of this strange failure is a moTirnful one. 
 While busily engaged in writing this beautiful 
 and affecting story, a dark shadow descended upon 
 his household, making all the associations of that 
 time painful to him for ever. The terrible truth, 
 long suspected, that the chosen partner of his good 
 and evil fortunes could never participate in the 
 success for which he had toiled, became confirmed. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 79 
 
 The mental disease which had attacked his wife 
 rapidly developed itself, until the hopes which had 
 sustained those to whom she was most dear were 
 wholly extinguished. Mr. Thackeray was not one 
 of those who love to parade their domestic sorrows 
 before the world. No explanation of his omis- 
 sion to complete his story was given to his 
 readers ; but, years afterwards, in reprinting it in 
 his Miscellanies, he hinted at the circumstances 
 which had paralyzed his hand, and rendered him 
 incapable of ever resuming the thread of his story, 
 with a touching suggestiveness for those who knew 
 the facts. The tale was interrupted, he said, " at 
 a sad period of the writer's own life." When the 
 republication of the Miscellanies was announced, 
 it was his intention to complete the little story — 
 but the colours were long since dry — the artist's 
 hand had changed. It " was best," he said, " to 
 leave the sketch as it was when first designed 
 seventeen years ago. The memory of the past is 
 renewed as he looks at it."* 
 
 It was in 1840 that Mr. Thackeray contributed 
 to the " Westminster" a kindly and appreciative 
 * "Miscellanies," vol. iv. p. 324. 
 
80 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 article upon the productions of his friend George 
 Cruikshank, illustrated — an unusual thing for the 
 great organ of the philosophers of the school of 
 Bentham, J. Mill, and Sir W. Molesworth — with 
 numerous specimens of the comic sketches of the 
 subject of the papers. His defence of Cruikshank 
 from the cavils of those who loved to dwell upon 
 his defects as a draughtsman is full of sound cri- 
 ticism, and his claim for his friend as something far 
 greater, a man endowed with that rarest of all 
 faculties, the power to create, are inspired by a 
 generous enthusiasm which give a life and spirit 
 to the paper not often found in a critical review. But 
 perhaps the noblest defence of his friend was in the 
 concluding words : — " Many artists, we hear, hold 
 his works rather cheap ; they prate about bad 
 drawing, want of scientific knowledge — they would 
 have something vastly more neat, regular, ana- 
 tomical. Not one of the whole band, most likely, 
 but can paint an academy figure better than him- 
 self — nay, or a portrait of an alderman's lady and 
 family of children. But look down the list of the 
 painters, and tell us who are they ? How many 
 among these men are poets, makers, possessing 
 
and the Man of Letters. 81 
 
 the faculty to create, the greatest among the gifts 
 with which Providence has endowed the mind of 
 man ? Say how many there are ? Count up what 
 they have done, and see what, in the course of 
 some nine-and-twenty years, has been done by 
 this indefatigable man. What amazing energetic 
 fecundity do we find in him ! As a boy, he began 
 to (ight for bread, has been hungry (twice a-day, 
 we trust) ever since, and has been obliged to sell 
 his wit for his bread week by week. And his wit, 
 sterling gold as it is, will find no such purchasers 
 as the fashionable painter's thin pinchbeck, who 
 can live comfortably for six weeks, when paid for 
 and painting a portrait, and fancies his mind pro- 
 digiously occupied all the while. There was an 
 artist in Paris — an artist hairdresser — who used to 
 be fatigued and take restoratives after inventing a 
 new coifi"ure. By no such gentle operation of 
 head-dressing has Cruikshank lived ; 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. 
 We make no doubt that the same labour would at 
 present bring him twenty times the sumj but 
 
82 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 whether it be ill-paid or well, what labour has Mr, 
 Cruikshank's been ! Week by week, for thirty- 
 years, to produce something new ; some smiling 
 offspring of painful labour, quite independent and 
 distinct from its ten thousand jovial brethren ; in 
 what hours of sorrow and ill-health to be told by 
 the world, ' Make us laugh, or you starve — give 
 us fresh fan ; we have eaten up the old, and are 
 hungry.' And all this has he been obliged to do 
 — to wring laughter day by day, sometimes, 
 perhaps, out of want, often, certainly, from ill- 
 health and depression — to keep the fire of his 
 brain perpetually alight, for the greedy public will 
 give it no leisure to cool. This he has done, and 
 done well. He has told a thousand new 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 ungrate- 
 ful we are to him !" This long paper, signed 
 with the Greek letter Theta, is little known, but 
 
and the Man of Letters. 83 
 
 Mr. Tbaekeray freqti^tly referred to it as a 
 labour in whicH he had felt ai- peculiar pleasure. 
 
 . In a private letter to a literary friend, written 
 ift 1850, he says: — "Don't forget the copy of 
 C/s Almanack. There is one print of a wedding 
 party, which, if it amuses you as it has amused 
 tne, will be worth the price and carriage. When 
 you get it, note the gruff old gentleman on the 
 right, who has screwed up his face with a firm 
 resolve that he will not shed tears with the 
 rest of' the company. I fancy he is a moneyed! 
 mail, and that there have been family ' expecta- 
 tions' 'from him. Something seems wanting 
 about his head. Can it be a pen behind the ear? 
 And now I think of it, those features have a bill- 
 discouilting expression, and he has been accus- 
 tomed to say ' Ko ; couldn't entertain it !' "* 
 
 ' In the summer of 1840 he collected some of 
 his sketches inserted in "Fraser," and other pe- 
 riodicals, English and foreign, and republished 
 them under the title of. "The Paris Sketch Book." 
 This work is interesting as the first indepen- 
 
 * The author has been fortunate in obtaining permission 
 to insert a copy of the picture referred to. 
 
 g2 
 
84 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 dent publication of the author, but of its contents 
 few things are now remembered. The dedi- 
 catory letter prefixed, however, is peculiarly 
 characteristic of the writer. It relates to a cir- 
 cumstance ■which had occurred to him some time 
 previously in Paris. The old days when money 
 was abundant, and loitering among the pictures 
 of the Paris galleries could be indulged in with- 
 out remorse had gone. The res angusta domi 
 with which genius has so often been disturbed in 
 its day-dreams began to be familiar to him. The 
 unfortunate failure of the Constitutional, — a loss 
 which he, years afterwards, occasionally referred 
 to as a foolish commercial speculation on which he 
 had ventured in his youth, had absorbed the whole 
 of his patrimony. At such a time a temporary 
 difficulty in meeting a creditor's demand was not 
 uncommon. On one such occasion, a M. Aretz, a 
 tailor in the Rue Richelieu, who had for some time 
 supplied him with coats and trousers, presented him 
 ■with a small account for those articles, and was 
 met with a statement from his creditor that an im- 
 mediate settlement of the bill would be extremely 
 inconvenient to him. To his astonishment the 
 reply of the creditor was, " Mon Dicu, sir, let 
 
and the Man of Letters. 85 
 
 not that annoy you. If you want money, as a 
 gentleman often does in a strange country^ I 
 have a thousand-franc note at' my house which is 
 quite at your service." The generous offer was 
 accepted. The coin which, in proof of the 
 tailor's esteem for his customer, was advanced 
 without any interest, was duly repaid together 
 with the account] but the circumstance could 
 not be forgotten. His debtor felt how becoming 
 it was to acknowledge, and praise virtue, as he 
 slyly said, wherever he might find it, and to point 
 it out for the admiration and example of his 
 fellow-men. Accordingly, he determined to dedi- 
 cate his first book to the generous tailor, giving at 
 full length his name and address. In the dedi- 
 catory letter, he accordingly alludes to this 
 anecdote, adding — 
 
 " History or experience, sir, makes us ac- 
 quainted with so few actions that can be com- 
 pared to yours ; a kindness like yours, from a 
 stranger and a tailor, seems to me so astonishing, 
 -that you must pardon me for thus making your 
 virtue public, and acquainting the English nation 
 with your merit and your name. Let me add, 
 sir, that you live on the first floor; that your 
 
86 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 clothes and fit are excellent, and your charges 
 moderate and just ; and, as an humble tribute of 
 my admiration, permit me to lay these volumes 
 at your feet. 
 
 " Your obliged, faithful servant, 
 
 "M. A. TlTMARSH." 
 
 A second edition of the " Paris Sketch Book" 
 was announced by the publisher, Macrone — the 
 same publisher who had a few years before given 
 to the world the " Sketches by Boz," the first 
 of Mr. Dickens' publications ; but the second 
 edition was probably only one of those conven- 
 tional fictions with which the spirits of young 
 authors are sustained. Though containing many 
 flashes of the Titmarsh humour, many eloquent 
 passages, and much interesting reading of a light 
 kind, the public took but a passing interest in it. 
 Years after, in quoting its title, the author good- 
 humouredly remarked, in a parenthesis, that some 
 copies, he believed, might still be found unsold at 
 the publisher's ; but the book was forgotten and 
 most of its contents were rejected by the writer 
 when preparing his selected miscellanies for the 
 press. A similar couple of volumes published by 
 
and the Man of Letters. 87 
 
 Cunningham in 1841, under the title of " Comic 
 Tales and Sketches, edited and illustrated by- 
 Mr. Michael Angelo Titmarsh," and an indepen- 
 dent republication, also in two volumes, of the 
 " Yellowplush Papers," from " Fraser," were 
 somewhat more successful. The former contained 
 " Major Gahagan," and " The Bedford-row Con- 
 spiracy," reprinted from " The New Monthly ;" 
 " Stubbs's Calendar, or the Fatal Boots," from 
 Cruikshank's " Comic Almanack ;" some amusing 
 criticisms on the " Sea Captain," and " Lady Char- 
 lotte Bury's Diary," and other papers from 
 " Fraser." The illustrations to the volumes were 
 tinted etchings of a somewhat more careful cha- 
 racter than those unfinished artistic drolleries 
 in which he generally indulged. 
 
 In Dec. 1840, he again visited Paris, and 
 remained there until the summer of the following 
 year. He was in that city on the memorable 
 occasion of the second funeral of Napoleon, or the 
 ceremony of conveying the remains of that great 
 warrior, of whom, as a child, he had obtained a 
 living glimpse, to their last resting place at the 
 Hdtel des Invalides. An account of that cere- 
 
88 Tliackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 mony iu the form of a letter to Miss Smith, was 
 published by Macrone. It was a small square 
 pamphlet, chiefly memorable now as contain- 
 ing at the end his remarkable poem of " The 
 Chronicle of the Drum." About this time he 
 advertised as preparing for immediate publication, 
 a book entitled " Dinner Reminiscences, or the 
 Young Gormandiser's Guide at Paris, by Mr. M. A. 
 Titmarsh," It was to be issued by Hugh Cunning- 
 ham, the publisher, of St.Martin's-place, Trafalgar- 
 square, but we believe was never published. 
 
 It was in the September number of " Praser," 
 for 1841, that he commenced his story of the 
 " History of Samuel Titmarsh, and the Great 
 Hoggarty Diamond," which though it failed to 
 achieve an extraordinary popularity, first con- 
 vinced that select few who judge for themselves 
 in matters of literature and art, of the great 
 power and promise of the unknown " Titmarsh." 
 Mr. Carlyle, in his " Life of John Sterling," 
 quotes the following remarkable passage from a 
 letter of the latter to his mother, written at this 
 period : — " I have seen no new books, but am 
 reading your last. I got hold of the two first 
 
and the Man of Letters. 
 
 numbers of the ' Hoggarty Diamond,' and read 
 them with extreme delight. What is there better 
 in Fielding or Goldsmith ? The man is a true 
 geniusj and with quiet and comfort might produce 
 masterpieces that would last as long as any we 
 have, and delight millions of unborn readers. 
 There is more truth and nature in one of these 
 papers than in all 's novels put toge- 
 ther/' "Thackeray (adds Mr. Carlyle), always a 
 close friend of the Sterling house, will observe 
 that this is dated IS^l, not 1851, and will have 
 his own reflections on the matter." The " Hog- 
 garty Diamond" was continued ia the numbers 
 for October and November, and completed in 
 December, 1841. In the number for June of the- 
 following year, " Fitzboodle's Confessions " were 
 commenced, and were continued at intervals down, 
 to the end of 1843. The " Irish Sketch Book," in 
 two volumes, detailing an Irish tour, was also pub- 
 lished in the latter year. The " Sketch Book " did 
 not at the time attract much attention. The "Luck 
 of Barry Lyndon," by many considered the most 
 original of his writings, was begun and finished 
 at No. 88, St. James-street, previously known 
 
90 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 as the Conservative Club, where at this time he 
 occupied chambers. The first part appeared in 
 " Fraser " for January, 1844, and was continued 
 regularly every month, till its completion in the 
 December number. He was engaged a short time 
 before this as assistant editor of the Examiner 
 newspaper, to which journal he contributed nume- 
 rous articles ; and among his papers in < " Fraser " 
 and other magazines of the same period, we find, 
 " Memorials of Gormandising ;" " Pictorial Rhap- 
 sodies on the Exhibitions of Paintings ;" " Blue- 
 beard's Ghost;" a satirical article on Grant's ''Paris 
 and theParisians ■" a "Review of a Box of Novels," 
 (already quoted from) ; " Little Travels and Road- 
 side Sketches," (chiefly in Belgium) ; " The Partie 
 Fine, by Lancelot Wagstaff ;" a comic story, with 
 a sequel entitled " Arabella, or the Moral of the 
 Partie Fine ;" " Carmen Lilliense ;" " Picture 
 Gossip ■" more comic sketches, with the titles of 
 "The Chest of Cigars, by Lancelot Wagstaff;" 
 " Bob Robinson's First Love ;" and " Barmecide 
 Banquets," and an admirable satirical review 
 entitled " A Gossip about Christmas Books." 
 The " Carmen Lilliense" will be well remem- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 91. 
 
 bered by tbe readers of the " Miscellanies/' pub- 
 lished in 1857, in which it was included. Mr. 
 Thackeray was in the north of France and in 
 Belgium about the period when it is dated (2nd 
 September, 1843) ; and the ballad describes a real 
 accident which befel him, though doubtless some- 
 what heightened in efiPect. It tells how leaving 
 Paris, with only twenty pounds in his pocket, for 
 a trip in Belgium, he arrived at Antwerp, where 
 feeling for his purse, he found it had vanished 
 with the entire amount of his little treasure. 
 Some rascal on the road had picked his pocket, 
 and nothing was left but to borrow ten guineas of 
 a friend whom he met, and to write a note to 
 England addressed to " Grandmamma," for whom 
 we may probably read some other member of the 
 Titmarsh family. The ten guineas, however, were 
 soon gone, and the sensitive Titmarsh found him- 
 self in a position of great delicacy. What was to 
 be done ? " To stealing," says the ballad, " he 
 could never come." To pawn his watch he felt 
 himself " too genteel ;" besides, he had left his 
 watch at holne, which at once put an end to any 
 debates on this point. There was nothing to do 
 
92 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 but to wait for the remittaace, and beguile the 
 time with a poetical description of his woes. The 
 guests around him ask for their bills. Titmarsh 
 is in agonies. The landlord regards him as a 
 " Lord- Anglais/' serves him with the best of 
 meat and drink, and is proud of his patronage. 
 A sense of being a kind of impostor weighs upon 
 him. The landlord's eye became painful to look 
 at. Opposite is a dismal building — the prison- 
 house of Lille, where, by a summary process, 
 familiar to French law, foreigners who run in 
 debt without the means of paying may be lodged. 
 He is almost tempted to go into the old Flemish 
 church and invoke the saints there after the 
 fashion of the country. One of their pictures on 
 the walls becomes, in his imagination, like the 
 picture of " Grandmamma," with a smile upon 
 its countenance. Delightful dream ! and one of 
 good omen. He returns to his hotel, and there 
 to his relief, finds the long-expected letter, in the 
 well-known hand, addressed to " Mr. M. A. Tit- 
 marsh, Lille." He obtains the means of redeem- 
 ing his credit, bids farewell to his host without 
 any exposure, takes the diligence, and is restored 
 
and the Man of Letters. 93 
 
 to his home that eTcning. Such are the 
 humorous exaggerations with which he depicts 
 his temporary troubles at Lille, ia the shape of a 
 ballad, originally intended we believe for the 
 amusement of his family, but finally inserted in 
 " Fraser." 
 
 It was in July, 1844, that Mr. Thackeray 
 started on a tour in the East — the result of a 
 hasty invitation, and of a present of a free pass 
 from a friend connected with the Peninsular and 
 Oriental Steam Navigation Company, His 
 sudden departure, upon less than thirty-six hours' 
 notice, is pleasantly detailed in the preface to his 
 book, published at Christmas, 1845, with the 
 title of " Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to 
 Grand Cairo by way of Lisbon, Athens, Constan- 
 tinople, and Jerusalem : performed in the steamers 
 of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. By 
 M. A. Titmarsh, author of The Irish Sketch 
 Book," &c. 
 
 The book was illustrated with coloured draw- 
 ings by the author, treating, in a not exaggerated 
 Tein of fun, the peculiarities of the daily life of 
 the East. The little book was well received, and 
 
94 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 in the reviews of it there is evidence of the grow- 
 ing interest of the public in the writer. For the 
 first time it presented him to his readers in his 
 true name; for though the " Titmarsh" fiction is 
 preserved on the title page, the prefatory matter 
 is signed " W. M. Thackeray." 
 
 " ' Who is Titmarsh T says one of his critics at 
 this time. Such is the ejaculatory formula in which 
 public curiosity gives vent to its ignorant impati- 
 ence of pseudonymous renown. ' Who is Michael 
 Angelo Titmarsh ?' Such is the note of inter- 
 rogation -which has been heard at intervals these 
 several seasons back, among groups of elderly 
 loungers in that row of clubs, Pall-mall ; from 
 fairy lips, as the light wheels whirled along the 
 row called 'Rotten;' and oft amid keen-eyed 
 men in that grandfather of rows which the chil- 
 dren of literature call Paternoster. * * * 
 
 " This problem has been variously and conflict- 
 ingly solved, as in the parallel case of the grim 
 old stat nominis umbra. There is a hint in both 
 instances of some mysterious connexion with the 
 remote regions of Bengal, and an erect old pigtail 
 of the E.I.C.S. boasts in the 'horizontal' jungle 
 
and the Man of Letters. 95 
 
 off Hanover-square, of having had the dubious 
 advantage of his personal acquaintanceship in 
 Upper India, where his I O U's were signed 
 Major Goliah Gahagan j and several specimens 
 of that documentary character, in good preserva- 
 tion, he offers at a low figure to amateurs." 
 
 The foundation in 1841 of a weekly periodical, 
 serving as a vehicle for the circulation of the 
 lighter papers of humourists, had had unquestion- 
 ably an important influence in the development 
 of his talents and fame. From an early date he 
 was connected with " Punch," at first as the 
 " Fat Contributor," and soon after as the author 
 of " Jeames's Diary," and " The Snob Papers." 
 If satire could do aught to check the pride of the 
 vulgar upstart, or shame social hypocrisy into 
 truth and simplicity, these writings would accom- 
 plish the task. In fact Thackeray's name was 
 now becoming known, and people began to dis- 
 tinguish and inquire for his contributions ; his 
 illustrations in " Punch" being as funny as his 
 articles were. The series called " Jeames' Diary" 
 caused great amusement and no little flutter in 
 high polite circles, for the deposition from the 
 
96 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 throne of railwaydom of the famous original of 
 " Jeames de la Pluche" had hardly then begun, 
 though it was probably accelerated by the uni- 
 versal titters of recognition which welcomed the 
 weekly accounts of the changing fortunes of 
 " Jeames." 
 
 The great work, however, which was to stamp 
 the name of Thackeray for ever in the minds of 
 English readers was yet to come. Hitherto all his 
 writings had been brief and desultory, but in con- 
 tributing to magazines his style had gradually 
 ■matured itself. That ease of expression, and that 
 repose which seems so full of power, were never 
 more exemplified than in some of his latest essays 
 in " Eraser," before book writing had absorbed 
 all his time. His article on Sir E. B. Lytton's 
 " Memoir of Laman Blanchard," his paper " On 
 Illustrated Children's Books," his satirical pro- 
 posal to Mons. Alexandre Dumas for a continua- 
 tion of " Ivanhoe," all contributed to " Eraser" 
 in 1846, and his article — we believe the last 
 which he wrote for that periodical — entitled " A 
 Grumble about Christmas Books," published in 
 January, 1847, are equal to anything in his later 
 
and the Man of Letters. 97 
 
 works. The first-mentioued of these papers, 
 indeed— the remonstrance with Laman Blan- 
 chard's biographer — is unsurpassed for the elo- 
 quence of its defence of the calling of men of 
 letters, and for the tenderness and manly simpli- 
 city with which it touches on the history of the 
 unfortunate subject of the memoir. 
 
 " Mrs. Perkins's Ball/' a Christmas Book, was 
 published in December, 1846. But its author had 
 long been preparing for a more serious under- 
 taking. Some time before, he had sketched some 
 chapters entitled " Pencil Sketches of English 
 Society," which he had offered to the late Mr. 
 Colburn for insertion in the "New Monthly 
 Magazine." It formed a portion of a continuous 
 story, of a length not yet determined, and was 
 rejected by Mr. Colburn after consideration. The 
 papers which Mr. Thackeray had previously contri- 
 buted to the " New Monthly" were chiefly slight 
 comic stories — perhaps the least favourable speci- 
 mens of his powers. They were, indeed,not superior 
 to the common run of magazine papers, and were 
 certainly not equal to his contributions to 
 *' Fraser." In fact, as a contributor to the " New 
 
 H 
 
98 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Monthly" he had achieved no remarkable success, 
 and his papers appear to have been little in de- 
 mand there. Whether the manuscript had been 
 offered to "Fraser" — the magazine in which 
 " Titmarsh" had secured popularity, and where he 
 was certainly more at home — we cannot say. 
 Happily, the author of " Pencil Sketches of Eng- 
 lish Society," though suspending his projected 
 work, did not abandon it. He saw in its opening 
 chapters — certainly not the best portions of the 
 story when completed — the foundations of a. work 
 which was to secure him at last a fame among 
 contemporary writers in his own proper name. 
 The success of Mr. Dickens's shilling monthly 
 parts suggested to him to make it the commence- 
 ment of a substantive work of fiction, to be pub- 
 lished month by month, with illustrations by the 
 author. The work grew up by degrees, and finally 
 took shape under the better title of "Vanity 
 Fair." It was during this time, the latter part 
 of 1846, that he removed to his house at No. 
 13, Young-street, Kensington, a favourite locality 
 with him, in which house he resided for some 
 years. He also at this time occupied chambers at 
 
and the Man of Letters. 99 
 
 No. 10, Crown-office-row, Temple, the comfortable 
 retirement in which, " up four pair of stairs," with 
 its grand view, when the sun was shining, of the 
 chimney-pots over the way, he has himself de- 
 scribed. His friend, Mr. Tom Taylor, the well-known 
 dramatist and biographer, had chambers in the 
 same house ; and we believe, on the demolition of 
 No. 10, Crown-office-row, wrote a poem, published 
 in the pages of " Punch," in which, if we remember 
 rightly, mention is made of the fact of Thackeray's 
 having resided there. Mr. Thackeray was called 
 to the bar by the Hon. Society of the Middle 
 Temple in 1848, though he never practised, and 
 never probably intended to do so. The Benchers, 
 however, were not insensible to the addition to the 
 numerous literary associations with their venerable 
 and quiet retreat which they thus gained. After 
 his death, there was some proposition to bury him 
 in the Temple, of which he was a member, amid 
 {as Spenser says) — 
 
 Those bricky towers 
 The which on Thames' broad back do ride, ^ 
 Where now the student lawyers have their bowers, 
 Where whilom wont the Templar Enights to bide, 
 Till they decayed through pride. 
 
 H 3 
 
100 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 There Goldsmith is buriedj and Thackeray's ashes 
 ■would have been fitly laid near those of the author 
 of the "Vicar of Wakefield/' whose brilliant 
 genius he so heartily eulogised and whose many 
 shortcomings he so tenderly touched upouj in the 
 " Lectures on the Humourists." But, after consul- 
 tation with his relations it was deemed better that 
 he should rest with his own family in Kensal 
 Green. Pending this decision, the sanction of the 
 Benchers to interment within the precincts of the 
 Temple Church had been asked and cheerfully 
 accorded, and when the Kensal Green Cemetery 
 was finally decided upon, the Benchers were 
 requested to permit the erection of a memorial 
 slab in their church. Their reply to this was, 
 that not only should they be honoured by such g, 
 memento, but that, if allowed, they would have it 
 erected at their own cost.* 
 
 * Letter of Mr. Edmund Yates in the Belfast WIdg. 
 
and the Man of Letters, 101 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PUBLICATION OF "VANIT-J FAIE" — THE " EDINBUEGH EE- 
 TIBW" — PENDBSTNIS — LETTEE TO THE " MOENING CHEO- 
 NICLE" — THE STATUS OF MEN OF LETTEES — QUAEEEL 
 
 WITH THE " times" THUNDEE AND SMAM BEEE— 
 
 lECTUEBS ON THE HUM0UEIST8 — MISS BEONTE — ANEC- 
 DOTE OF DELIVEET OF THE LECTUEES AT OXFOED— 
 FIEST VISIT TO AMEEICA — EXCITEMENT IN NEW TOEK— 
 AMEEICAN SKETCHES OP PEESONAL PECULIAEITIES— 
 CHAEITT LECTUEE AT BOSTON — FAEEWELL LECTUEE— 
 NEW TOEK EDITION OF HIS MINOE PIECES — ADDEESS 
 
 TO AMEEICAN EEADBES — PUBLICATION OF ESMOND 
 
 ALLEGED ATTACK IN THE NEWCOMBS ON " ME. WASHING- 
 TON" — ME. THACKEEAT's EEPLT — SECOND TEIP TO 
 AMBEICA — THE LECTUEES ON THE GEOEGES — CATHBEINE 
 HATES THE SINGEE AND CATHEEINB HATES THE MUE- 
 DBEBSS — WEEKDAT PEEACHBES — CONTEST FOE THE 
 OXFOED ELECTION — ELECTION ADDEESS AND SPEECHES- 
 ANECDOTES — TOWN TALK — DISPUTE WITH A MEMBEE 
 OF THE GAEEICK CLUB — OOEEESPONDENCE WITH ME. 
 DICKENS. 
 
 The first monthly portion of "Vanity Fair" was 
 published on the 1st of February, 1847, in the 
 yellow wrapper which served to distinguish it 
 from Mr. Dickens's stories, and which afterwards 
 became the standard colour for the covers 
 of Mr. Thackeray's serial stories. The work 
 
103 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 was continued monthly, and finished with the 
 number for July of the following year. The 
 friends of Mr. Thackeray, and all those who had 
 watched his career with special interest, saw in it 
 at once a work of greater promise than any that 
 had appeared since the dawn of Mr. Dickens's 
 fame ; but the critical journals received it some- 
 what coldly. There were indeed few tokens of 
 its future success in the tone of its reception at 
 this early period. 
 
 It is generally acknowledged that, to the 
 thoughtful and appreciatiye article in the " Edin- 
 burgh Review " of January, 1848, reviewing the 
 first eleven numbers of the work only, is due 
 the merit of authoritatively calling attention to 
 the great power it displayed. The writer was 
 evidently one who knew Mr. Thackeray well; 
 for he gives a sketch of his life, and mentions 
 having met him some years before painting in the 
 Louvre in Paris. " In fqrming (says this judicious 
 critic) our general estimate of this writer, we 
 wish to be understood as referring principally, if 
 not exclusively, to 'Vanity Fair' (a novel in 
 monthly parts), which though still unfinished, 
 is immeasurably superior, in our opinion, to 
 
and the Man of Letters. 103 
 
 every other known production of his pen. The 
 great charm of this work is its entire freedom 
 from mannerism and afifectation both in style and 
 sentiment — the confiding frankness with which 
 the reader is addressed — the thoroughbred care- 
 lessness with which the author permits the 
 thoughts and feelings suggested by the situations 
 to flow in their natural channel^ as if conscious 
 that nothing mean or unworthy, nothing requir- 
 ing to be shaded^ gilded, or dressed up in com- 
 pany attire, could fall from him. In a word^ the 
 book is the work of a gentleman, which is one 
 great merit, and not the work of a fine (or 
 would-be fine) gentleman, which is another. Then, 
 again, he never exhausts, elaborates, or insists too 
 much upon anything ; he drops his finest remarks 
 and happiest illustrations as Buckingham dropped 
 his pearls, and leaves them to be picked up and 
 appreciated as chance may bring a discriminating 
 observer to the spot. His effects are uniformly 
 the efiects of sound, wholesome, legitimate art; 
 and we need hardly add, that we are never har- 
 rowed up with physical horrors of the Eugene 
 Sue school in his writings, or that there are no 
 melodramatic villains to be found in them. One 
 
104 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 touch of nature makes the whole world kin, and 
 here are touches of nature by the dozen. His 
 pathos (though not so deep as Mr. Dickens') is 
 exquisite ; the more so, perhaps, because he seems 
 to struggle against it, and to be half ashamed of 
 being caught in the melting mood ; but the 
 attempt to be caustic, satirical, ironical, or philo- 
 sophical, on such occasions, is uniformly vaiuj 
 and again and again have we found reason to 
 admire how an originally fine and kind nature 
 remains essentially free from worldliness, and, in 
 the highest pride of intellect, pays homage to the 
 heart." 
 
 It was at this time his friend Mr. Hannay 
 tells us that he first had the pleasure of seeing 
 him. "'Vanity Fair,'" he adds, "was then 
 unfinished, but its success was made; and he 
 spoke frankly and genially of his work and his 
 career. ' Vanity Fair' always, we think, ranked 
 in his own mind as best in story of his greater 
 books ; and he once pointed out to us the very 
 house in Russell-square where his imaginary 
 Sedleys lived — a curious proof of the reality his 
 creations had for his mind." The same writer tells 
 
and the Man. of Letters. 105 
 
 us that when he congratulated Mr. Thackeray, 
 many years ago, ou the touch in "Vanity Fair" in 
 which Becky admires her husband when he is giving 
 Lord Steyne the chastisement which ruins her for 
 life, the author answered with that fervour as 
 well as heartiness of frankness which distinguished 
 him : — " Well, when I wrote the sentence, I 
 slapped my fist on the table, and said, ' That is a 
 touch of genius !' " " Vanity Fair" soon after- 
 wards rose rapidly in public favour, and a new 
 work from the pen of its author was 'eagerly 
 looked for. 
 
 During the time of publication of " Vanity 
 Fair" he had found time to write and publish 
 the little Christmas book entitled " Our Street," 
 which appeared in December, 1847, and reached 
 a second edition soon after Christmas. " Vanity 
 Fair" was followed in 1849 with another long 
 work of fiction, entitled the " History of Pen- 
 dennis ; his Fortunes and Misfortunes, his Friends 
 and his Greatest Enemy; with Illustrations by 
 the Author;" which was completed in two volumes. 
 In this year, too, he published " Dr. Birch" and 
 " Rebecca and Rowena." It was during the pub- 
 
106 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 lication of " Pendennis" that a criticism in the 
 Morning Chronicle and in the Examiner news- 
 papers drew from him the following remarkable 
 letter on the " Dignity of Literature," addressed 
 to the Editor of the former journal : — 
 
 " Brform Club, Jam. %th, 1850. 
 " To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. 
 
 " Sir, — In a leading article of your journal of 
 
 Thursday the 3rd instant you commented upon 
 
 literary pensions and the status of literary men 
 
 in this country, and illustrated your argument by 
 
 extracts from the story of ' Pendennis,' at present 
 
 in course of publication. You have received my 
 
 writings with so much kindness that, if you have 
 
 occasion to disapprove of them or the author, I 
 
 can't question your right to blame me, or doubt 
 
 for a moment the friendliness and honesty of my 
 
 critic ; and however I might dispute the justice 
 
 of your verdict in my case, I had proposed to 
 
 submit to it in silence, being indeed very quiet in 
 
 my conscience with regard to the charge made 
 
 against me. But another newspaper of high 
 
 character and repute takes occasion to question 
 
 the principles advocated in your article of Thurs- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 107 
 
 day; arguing in favour of pensions for literary 
 persons, as you argued against them ; and the 
 only point upon which the Examiner and the 
 Chronicle appear to agree unluckily regards my- 
 self, who am offered up to general reprehension 
 in two leading articles by the two writers : by the 
 latter, for ' fostering a baneful prejudice' against 
 literary men ; by the former, for ' stooping to 
 flatter' this prejudice in the public mind, and con- 
 descending to caricature (as is too often my habit) 
 my literary fellow -labourers, in order to pay court 
 to * the non-literary class.' The charges of the 
 Examiner against a man who has never, to his 
 knowledge, been ashamed of his profession, or 
 (except for its dulness) of any single line from his 
 pen — grave as they are, are, I hope, not proven. 
 ' To stoop to flatter* any class is a novel accusa- 
 tion brought against my writings ; and as for my 
 scheme ' to pay court to the non-literary class by 
 disparaging my literary fellow-labourers,' it is a 
 design which would exhibit a degree not only of 
 baseness but of folly upon my part, of which I 
 trust I am not capable. The editor of the 
 Examiner may, perhaps, occasionally write, like 
 
108 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 other authors, in a hurry, and not be aware of the 
 conclusions to which some of his sentences may 
 lead. If I stoop to flatter anybody's prejudice for 
 some interested motives of my own, I am no more 
 nor less than a rogue and a cheat : which deduc- 
 tions from the Examiner's premises I will not 
 stoop to contradict, because the premises them- 
 selves are simply absurd. I deny that the con- 
 siderable body of our countrymen described by 
 the Examiner as ' the non-literary class' has the 
 least gratification in witnessing the degradation or 
 disparagement of literary men. Why accuse ' the 
 non-literary class' of being so ungrateful ? If the 
 writings of an author give a reader pleasure or 
 profit, surely the latter will have a favourable 
 opinion of the person who so benefits him. What 
 intelligent man, of what political views, would not 
 receive with respect and welcome that writer of 
 the Examiner of whom your paper once said, that 
 ' he made all England laugh and think ?' Who 
 would deny to that brilliant wit, that polished 
 satirist, his just tribute of respect and admiration ? 
 Does any man who has written a book worth 
 reading — any poet, historian, novelist, man of 
 
and the Man of Letters. 109 
 
 science — lose reputation, by his character for 
 genius or for learning ? Does he not, on the 
 contrary, gee friends, sympathy, applause — money, 
 perhaps ? — all good and pleasant things in them- 
 selves, and not ungenerously awarded as they are 
 honestly won. That generous faith in men of 
 letters, that kindly regard in which the whole 
 reading nation holds them, appear to me to be so 
 clearly shown in our country every day, that to 
 question them would be as absurd as, permit me 
 to say for my part, it would be ungrateful. 
 What is it that fills mechanics' institutes in the 
 great provincial towns when literary men are 
 invited to attend their festivals? Has not every 
 literary man of mark his friends aud his circle, 
 his hundreds or his tens of thousands of readers ? 
 And has not every one had from these constant 
 and affecting testimonials of the esteem in which 
 they hold him ? It is of course one writer's lot, 
 from the nature of his subject or of his genius, to 
 command the sympathies or awaken the curiosity 
 of many more readers than shall choose to listen 
 to another author ; but surely all get their hear- 
 ing. The literary profession is not held in dis- 
 
110 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 repute; nobody wants to disparage it; no man 
 loses his social rank, whatever it may be, by prac- 
 tising it. On the contrary, the pen gives a place 
 in the world to men who had none before — a fair 
 place fairly achieved by their genius ; as any other 
 degree of eminence is by any other kind of merit. 
 Literary men need not, as it seems to me, be in 
 the least querulous about their position any more, 
 or want the pity of anybody. The money-prizes 
 which the chief among them get are not so high 
 as those which fall to men of other callings — to 
 bishops, or to judges, or to opera-siugers and 
 actors ; nor have they received stars and garters 
 as yet, or peerages and governorships of islands, 
 such as fall to the lot of military officers. The 
 rewards of the profession are not to be measured 
 by the money standard : for one man spends a 
 life of learning and labour on a book which does 
 not pay the printer's bill, and another gets a little 
 fortune by a few light volumes. But, putting the 
 money out of the question, I believe that the 
 social estimation of the man of letters is as good 
 as it deserves to be, and as good as that of any 
 other professional man. With respect to the 
 
and the Man of Letters. Ill 
 
 question in debate between you and the Exa- 
 miner as to the propriety of public rewards and 
 honours for literary men, I don't see why men 
 of letters should not very cheerfully coincide with 
 Mr. Examiner in accepting all the honours, 
 places, and prizes which they can get. The 
 amount of such as will be awarded to them will 
 not, we may be pretty sure, impoverish the 
 country much ; and if it is the custom of the State 
 to reward by money, or titles of honour, or stars 
 and garters of any sort, individuals who do the 
 country service, and if individuals are gratified at 
 having ' Sir ' or ' My lord ' appended to their 
 names, or stars and ribands hooked on their coats 
 and waistcoats, as men most undoubtedly are, and 
 as their wives, families, and relations are, there 
 can be no reason why men of letters should not 
 have the chance, as well as men of the robe or the 
 sword ; or why, if honour and money are good for 
 one profession, they should not be good for another. 
 No man in other callings thinks himself degraded 
 by receiving a reward from his Government ; nor, 
 surely, need the literary man be more squeamish 
 about pensions, and ribands, and titles, than the 
 
112 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 ambassador, or general, or judge. Every European 
 State but ours rewards its men of letters; the 
 American Government gives them their full share 
 of its small patronage, and if Americans, why 
 not Englishmen ? If Pitt Crawley is disappointed 
 at not getting a riband on retiring from his diplo- 
 matic post at Pumpernickel, if General O'Dowd 
 is pleased to be called Sir Hector O'Dowd, K.C.B., 
 and his wife at being denominated my Lady 
 O'Dowd, are literary men to be the only persons 
 exempt from vanity, and is it to be a sin in them 
 to covet honour ? And now, with regard to the 
 charge against myself of fostering baneful preju- 
 dices against our calling — to which I no more 
 plead guilty than I should think Fielding would 
 have done if he had been accused of a design to 
 bring the Church into contempt by describing 
 Parson Trulliber — permit me to say, that before 
 you deliver sentence it would be as well if you had 
 waited to hear the whole of the argument Who 
 knows what is coming in the future numbers of 
 the work which has incurred your displeasure and 
 the Examiner's, and whether you, in accusing me 
 of prejudice, and the Examiner (alas !) of swindling 
 
and the Man of Letters. 113 
 
 and flattering the public, have not been premature? 
 Time and the hour may solve this mystery, for 
 which the candid reader is referred ' to our next.' 
 That I have a prejudice against running into debt, 
 and drunkenness, and disorderly life, and against 
 quackery and falsehood in my profession, I own, 
 and that I like to have a laugh at those pretenders 
 in it who write confidential news about fashion 
 and politics for provincial gobemouches ; but I am 
 not aware of feeling any malice in describing this 
 weakness, or of doing anything wrong in exposing 
 the former vices. Have they never existed amongst 
 literary men ? Have their talents never been urged 
 as a plea for improvidence, and their very faults 
 adduced as a consequence of their genius ? The 
 only moral that I, as a writer, wished to hint in 
 the descriptions against which you protest, was, 
 that it was the duty of a literary man, as well as 
 any other, to practise regularity and sobriety, to 
 love his family, and to pay his tradesmen. Nor 
 is the picture I have drawn ' a caricature which 
 I condescend to,' any more than it is a wilful and 
 insidious design on my part to flatter ' the non- 
 literary class.' If it be a caricature, it is the 
 
 I 
 
114 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 result of a natural perversity of vision, not of an 
 artful desire to mislead : but my attempt was to 
 tell the truth, and I meant to, tell it not unkindly, 
 I have seen the bookseller whom Bludyer robbed 
 of his books : I have carried money, and from a 
 noble brother man-of-letters, to some one not 
 unlike Shandon in prison, and have watched the 
 beautiful devotion of his wife in that dreary place. 
 Why are these things not to be described, if they 
 illustrate, as they appear to me to do, that strange 
 and awful struggle of good and wrong which takes 
 place in our hearts and in the world ? It may be 
 that I worked out my moral ill, or it may be pos- 
 sible that the critic of the Examiner fails in appre- 
 hension. My efforts as an artist come perfectly 
 within his province as a censor; but when Mr. 
 Examiner says of a gentleman that he is ' stooping 
 to flatter a public prejudice,' which public preju- 
 dice does not exist, I submit that he makes a 
 charge which is as absurd as it is unjust, and am 
 thankful that it repels itself. And, instead of 
 accusing the public of persecuting and disparaging 
 us as a class, it seems to me that men of letters 
 had best silently assume that they are as good aa 
 
and the Man of Letters. 115 
 
 any other gentlemen, oior raise piteous contro- 
 versies upon a question -which all people of sense 
 must take to be settled. If I sit at your table, I 
 suppose that I am my neighbour's equal as that he 
 is mine. If I begin straightway with a protest of 
 ' Sir, I am a literary man, but I would have you 
 to know I am as good as you,' which of us is it 
 that questions the dignity of the literary profession 
 — my neighbour who would like to eat his soup 
 in quiet, or the man of letters who commences 
 the argument ? And I hope that a comic 
 writer, because he describes one author as im- 
 provident and another as a parasite,*] may not 
 only be guiltless of a desire to vilify^ his 
 profession, but may really have its honour at 
 heart. If there are no spendthrifts or parasites 
 amongst us, the satire becomes unjust ; but if 
 such exist, or have existed, they are as good sub- 
 jects for comedy as men of other callings. I 
 never heard that the Bar felt itself aggrieved be- 
 cause 'Punch' chose to describe Mr. Dunnp's 
 notorious state of insolvency, or that the picture 
 of Stiggins in ' Pickwick ' was intended as an in- 
 sult to all Dissenters, or that all the attorneys in 
 
 I 2 
 
116 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 the empire were indignant at the famous history 
 
 of the firm of ' Quirk, Gammon, and Snap. ' Are 
 
 we to be passed over because we are faultless, or 
 
 because we cannot afford to be laughed at ? And 
 
 if every character in a story is to represent a 
 
 class, not an individual — if every bad figure is to 
 
 have its obliged contrast of a good one, and a 
 
 balance of vice and virtue is to be struck — novels, 
 
 I think, would become impossible, as they would 
 
 be intolerably stupid and unnatural, and there 
 
 would be a lamentable end of writers and readers 
 
 of such compositions. 
 
 "Believe me, Sir, to be your very faithful 
 
 servant, 
 
 " W. M. Thackeray." 
 
 It was a peculiarity of Mr. Thackeray to feel 
 annoyed at adverse criticism, and to show his an- 
 noyance in a way which more cautious men 
 generally abstain from. He did not conceal his 
 feeling when an unjust attack was levelled at him 
 in an influential journal. He was not one of 
 those remonstrators who never see anything in 
 the papers, but have their " attention called " to 
 them by friends. If he had seen, he frankly 
 
and the Man of Letters, 117 
 
 avowed that he had seen the attack, and did not 
 scruple to reply if he had an opportunity, and 
 the influence of the journal or reviewer made 
 it worth while. "With the Times he had had 
 yery early a bout of this kind. When the little 
 account of the funeral of Napoleon in 1840 was 
 published, the Times, as he said, rated him, and 
 talked in " its own great roaring way about the 
 flippancy and conceit of Titmarsh," to which he 
 had replied by a sharp paragraph or two. In 
 1850 a very elaborate attack in the chief journal 
 roused his satirical humour more completely. 
 The article which contained the offence was on 
 the subject of his Christmas Book, entitled " The 
 Kickleburys on the Rhine," published in Dec. 
 1850, upon which a criticism appeared in that 
 journal, beginning with the following passage : — 
 " It has been customary, of late years, for the 
 purveyors of amusing literature — the popular 
 authors of the day — to put forth certain opus- 
 cules, denominated ' Christmas Books,' with the 
 ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhila- 
 ration, or other expansive emotions, incident upon 
 the exodus of the old and the inauguration of the 
 
118 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 new year. We have said that their ostensible in- 
 tention was such, because there is another motive 
 for these productions, locked up (as the popular 
 author deems) in his own breast, but which be- 
 trays itself, in the quality of the work, as his 
 principal incentive. Oh ! that any muse should 
 be set upon a high stool to cast up accounts and 
 balance a ledger ! Yet so it is ; and the popular 
 author finds it convenient to fill up the declared 
 deficit and place himself in a position the more 
 effectually to encounter those liabilities which 
 sternly assert themselves contemporaneously and 
 in contrast with the careless and free-handed ten- 
 dencies of the season by the emission of Christ- 
 mas books — a kind of literary assignats, repre- 
 senting to the emitter expunged debts, to the 
 receiver an investment of enigmatical value. For 
 the most part bearing the stamp of their origin 
 in the vacuity of the writer's exchequer rather 
 than in the fulness of his genius, they suggest by 
 their feeble flavour the rinsings of a void brain 
 after the more important concoctions of the ex- 
 pired year. Indeed, we should as little think of 
 taking these compositions as examples of the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 117 
 
 merits of their authors as we should think of 
 measuring the valuable services of Mr. Walker 
 the postman, or Mr. Bell the dust-collector, by 
 the copy of verses they leave at our doors as a 
 provocative of the expected annual gratuity — 
 eflfusions with which they may fairly be classed 
 for their intrinsic worth no less than their ulti- 
 mate purport." 
 
 Upon this, and upon some little peculiarities 
 of style in the review, such as a passage in which 
 the learned critic compared the author's satirical 
 attempts to " the sardonic divings after the pearl 
 of truth whose lustre is eclipsed in the display 
 of the diseased oyster," Mr. Thackeray replied in 
 the preface to a second edition of the little book, 
 published a few days later, and entitled "An 
 Essay on Thunder and Small Beer." The style 
 of the Times critique, which was generally attri- 
 buted to the late Mr. Samuel Phillips, afforded 
 too tempting a subject for the satirical pen of the 
 author of " Vanity Fair " to be passed over" The 
 easy hnmour with which he exposed the pompous 
 affectation of superiority in his critic, the tawdry 
 sentences and droll logic of his censor, whom he 
 
120 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 likened not to the awful thunderer of Printing 
 House-square, but to the thunderer's man, " Jupi- 
 ter Jeames, trying to dazzle and roar like his 
 awful employer," afforded the town, through the 
 newspapers which copied the essay, an amount 
 of amusement not often derived from an 
 author's defence of himself from adverse criticism. 
 The essay was remembered long after, when work 
 after work of Mr. Thackeray was severely 
 handled in the same paper ; and the recollection 
 of it gave a shadow of support to the theory by 
 which some persons, on the recent occasion of 
 Mr. Thackeray's death, endeavoured to explain 
 the fact that the obituary notice in the Times, 
 and the account of his funeral, were more curt 
 than those of any other journal, while the Times 
 alone, of all the daily papers, omitted to insert a 
 leading article on the subject of the great loss 
 which had been sustained by the world of 
 letters. 
 
 In 1851 Mr. Thackeray appeared in an entirely 
 new character, but one which subsequently proved 
 so lucrative to him, that to this cause, even more 
 than the labours of his pen, must be attributed 
 
and the Man of Letters. 121 
 
 that easy fortune which he had accumulated before 
 he died. In May he commenced the delivery of a 
 series of lectures on the English Humourists. The 
 subjects were — Swift ; Congreve and Addison ; 
 Steele; Prior, Gay and Pope; Hogarth, Smollet 
 and Fielding, and Sterne and Goldsmith. The 
 lectures were delivered at Willis's Rooms. The 
 price of admission was high, and his audience 
 was numerous, and of the most select kind. It 
 was not composed of that sort of people who 
 crowd to pick up information in the shape of 
 facts with which they have been pi'eviously unac- 
 quainted, but those who, knowing the eminence 
 of the lecturer, wished to hear his opinion on a 
 subject of national interest. One of the two 
 great humourists of the present age was about to 
 utter his sentiments on the humourists of the age 
 now terminated, and the occasion was sufficient 
 to create an interest which not even the attractive 
 power of the Great Exhibition, then open, could 
 check. The newspapers complained slightly of 
 the low key in which the lecturer spoke, from 
 which cause many of his best points were some- 
 times lost to the more distant of his auditors. 
 
123 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 " In other respects," says a newspaper report, " we 
 cannot too highly praise the style of his delivery." 
 Abstaining from rant and gesticulation, he relied 
 for his effect too on the matter which he uttered, 
 and it was singular to see how the isolated 
 pictures by a few magic touches descended into 
 the hearts of his hearers. Among the most 
 conspicuous of the literary ladies at this gathering 
 was Miss Bronte, the authoress of " Jane Eyre." 
 She had never before seen the author of " Vanity 
 Pair," though the second edition of her own 
 celebrated novel was dedicated to him by her, 
 with the assurance that she regarded him " as 
 the social regenerator of his day — as the very 
 master of that working corps who would restore 
 to rectitude the warped state of things." Mrs. 
 Gaskell tells us that, when the lecture was over, 
 the lecturer descended from the platform, and 
 making his way towards her, frankly asked her 
 for her opinion. "This," adds Miss Bronte's 
 biographer, " she mentioned to me not many days 
 afterwards, adding remarks almost identical with 
 those which I subsequently read in ' Villette,' 
 where a similar action on the part of M. Paul 
 
and the Man of Letters. 123 
 
 Emanuel is related." The remarks of this sin- 
 gular woman upon Mr. Thackeray and his writings, 
 and her accounts of her interviews with him, are 
 curious, and will be found scattered about Mrs. 
 Gaskell's popular biography. Readers of the 
 " Cornhill Magazine" wiU not have forgotten Mr. 
 Thackeray's affectionate and discriminating sketch 
 of her, which appears some years later in that 
 periodical. 
 
 The course was perfectly successful, and the 
 Lectures, subsequently reprinted, rank among the 
 most beautiful of his writings. They were delivered 
 again soon afterwards in some of the provincial 
 cities, including Edinburgh. A droll anecdote 
 was related at this period in the newspapers, in 
 connexion with one of these provincial appearances. 
 Previously to delivering them in Scotland, the 
 lecturer bethought himself of addressing them to 
 the rising youth of our two great nurseries of the 
 national mind; and it was necessary, before ap- 
 pearing at Oxford, to obtain the license of the 
 authorities — a very laudable arrangement of 
 course. The Duke of Wellington was the Chan- 
 cellor, who, if applied to, would doubtless have 
 
134 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 understood at once the man and his business. 
 The Duke lived in the broad atmosphere of the 
 every-day world, and a copy of " Vanity Fair" was 
 on a snug shelf at Walraer Castle. But his 
 deputy at Oxford, on whom the modest applicant 
 waited, knew less about such trifles as "Vanity 
 Fair" and " Pendennis." " Pray what can I do 
 to serve you, sir ?" inquired the bland functionary. 
 " My name is Thackeray.'' " So I see by this 
 card." " I seek permission to lecture within the 
 precincts." " Ah ! you are a lecturer ; wha,t 
 subjects do you undertake — religious, or poli- 
 tical ?" " Neither ; I am a literary man." 
 " Have you written anything ?" " Yes ; I am 
 the author of ' Vanity Fair.' " " I presume a 
 dissenter — has that anything to do with John 
 Bunyan's book ?" " Not exactly j I have also 
 written ' Pendennis.' " " Never heard of these 
 works; but no doubt they are proper books." 
 " I have also contributed to ' Punch.' " " ' Punch !' 
 I have heard of that ; is it not a ribald publica- 
 tion ?" 
 
 An invitation to deliver the lectures in 
 America speedily followed. The public interest 
 
and the Man of Letters. 125 
 
 which heralded his coming in the United States 
 was such as could hardly have been expected for 
 a writer of fiction who had won his fame by so 
 little appeal to the love of exciting scenes. His 
 visit (as an American critic remarked at the time) 
 at least demonstrated that if they were unwilling 
 to pay English authors for their books, they were 
 ready to reward them handsomely for the oppor- 
 tunity of seeing and hearing them. 
 
 At first the public feeling on the other side of 
 the Atlantic had been very much divided as to 
 his probable reception. " He'll come and humbug 
 us, eat our dinners, pocket our money, and go 
 home and abuse us, like Dickens," said Jonathan, 
 chafing with the remembrance of that grand ball 
 at the Park Theatre, and the Boz tableaux, and 
 the universal speaking and dining, to which the 
 author of " Pickwick" was subject while he was 
 their guest. " Let him have his say," said others, 
 "and we will have our look. We will pay a 
 dollar to hear him, if we can see him at the same 
 time ; and as for the abuse, why it takes even 
 more than two such cubs of the roaring British 
 lion to frighten the American eagle. Let him 
 
126 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 come, and give him fair play." He did come, 
 and certainly had fair play ; and as certainly there 
 was no disappointment with his lectures. Those who 
 knew his books found the author in the lecturer. 
 Those who did not know the books, says one 
 enthusiastic critic, " were charmed in the lecturer 
 by what is charming in the author — the unaffected 
 humanity, the tenderness, the sweetness, the 
 genial play of fancy, and the sad touch of truth, 
 with that glancing stroke of satire which, light- 
 ning-like, illumines while it withers.^' He did 
 not visit the West, nor Canada. He went home 
 without seeing Niagara Falls. But wherever he 
 did go, he found a generous social welcome, 
 and a respectful and sympathetic hearing. He 
 came to fulfil no mission ; but it was felt that his 
 visit had knit more closely the sympathy of the 
 Americans with Englishmen. Heralded by various 
 romantic memoirs, he smiled at them, stoutly as- 
 serted that he had been always able to command 
 a good dinner, and to pay for it, nor did he seek 
 to disguise that he hoped his American tour would 
 help him to command and pay for more. He 
 promised not to write a book about the Americans, 
 and he kept his word. 
 
and the Man of Letters, 127 
 
 His first lecture was delivered to a crowded 
 audience : on the 19tli of November, he com- 
 menced his lectures before the Mercantile Library 
 Association, in the spacious New York church 
 belonging to the congregation presided over by 
 the Rev. Dr. Chapin. 
 
 Before many days the publishers told the 
 world that the subject of Mr. Thackeray's talk 
 had given rise to a Swift and Congreve and 
 Addison furor. The booksellers were driving a 
 thrifty trade in forgotten volumes of " Old Eng- 
 lish Essayists ;" the " Spectator^' found its way 
 again to the parlour-tables; old Sir Roger de 
 Coverley was waked up from his long sleep. 
 " Tristram Shandy^' even was almost forgiven his 
 lewdness, and the Ass of Melun and Poor 'Le 
 Fevre were studied wistfully, and placed on the 
 library-table between " Gulliver" and the " Rake's 
 Progress." Girls were working Maria's pet lamb 
 upon their samplers, and hundreds of Lilliput 
 literary ladies were twitching the mammoth Gul- 
 liver's whiskers. 
 
 The newspaper gossipers were no less busy in 
 noting every personal characteristic of the author. 
 
128 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 One remarks : — " As for the man himself who has 
 lectured us, he is a stout, healthful, broad- 
 shouldered specimen of a man, with cropped 
 greyish hair, and keenish grey eyes, peering very 
 sharply through a pair of spectacles that have a 
 very satiric focus. He seems to stand strongly 
 on his own feet, as if he would not be easily blown 
 about or upset, either by praise or pugilists; a 
 man of good digestion, who takes the world easy, 
 and scents all shams and humours (straightening 
 them between his thumb and forefinger) as he 
 would a pinch of snufi"." A London letter of the 
 time says : — " The New York journalists preserve, 
 on the whole, a delicate silence (very creditable 
 to them) on the subject of Mr. Thackeray's nose ; 
 but they are eloquent about his legs ; and when 
 the last mail left, a controversy was raging among 
 them on this matter, one party maintaining that 
 ' he stands very firm on his legs,' while the 
 opposition asserted that his legs were decidedly 
 ' shaky.' " 
 
 These, however, were light matters compared 
 with the notices in other newspapers, which un- 
 scrupulously raked together, for the amusement 
 
and the Man of Letters. 139 
 
 of their readers, details whicli were mostly untrue, 
 and where true, were of too private a character 
 for public discussion. This led to a humorous 
 remonstrance, forwarded by Mr. Thackeray to 
 " Fraser's Magazine," where it appeared with the 
 signature of " John Small." In this he gave a 
 droll parody of his newspaper biographers' style, 
 which caused some resentment on the part of the 
 writers attacked. One transatlantic defender of 
 the New York press said that "the two most 
 personal accounts of Thackeray published .appeared 
 in one of the Liverpool papers, and in the London 
 Spectator ;" adding, " the London correspondents 
 of some of the provincial papers spare nothing 
 of fact or comment touching the private life of 
 public characters. Nay, are there not journals 
 expressly devoted to the contemporary biography 
 of titled, wealthy, and consequential personages, 
 which will tell you how, and in what company, 
 they eat, drink, and travel; their itinerary from 
 the country to London, and from the metropolis 
 to the Continent ; the probable marriages, alii- 
 ances, &c. ? No journal can be better acquainted 
 with these conditions of English society than the 
 
 K 
 
130 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 classical and vivacious ' Fraser.' Why, then, does 
 John Small address that London editor from New 
 York, converting some paltry and innocent-enough 
 penny-a-liner notice of the author of ' Vanity Pair' 
 into an enormous national sin and delinquency." 
 Among the lectures delivered at Nevr York, he- 
 fore he quitted the gay circles of the " Empire 
 City " for Boston, was one in hehalf of a charity ; 
 and the charity lecture was stated to be a melange 
 of all the others, closing very appropriately with 
 an animated tribute to the various literary, social, 
 and humane qualities of Mr. Charles Dickens. 
 " Papa," he described his daughter as exclaiming 
 with childish candour ; " papa, I like Mr. Dickens's 
 book much better than yours." 
 
 The remonstrance of John Small in " Fraser," 
 however, did not conclude without a warm acknow- 
 ledgment of the general kindness he had received 
 in America, thus beautifully expressed in his last 
 lecture of the series, delivered on the 7th of April. 
 " In England," he said, " it was my custom, after 
 the delivery of these lectures, to point such a moral 
 as seemed to befit the country I lived in, and to 
 protest against an outcry which some brother 
 
and the Man of Letters. 131 
 
 authors of mine most imprudently and unjustly 
 raise, when they say that our profession is neg- 
 lected and its professors held in light esteem. 
 Speaking in this country, I would say that such 
 a complaint could not only not be advanced, but 
 could not even be understood here, where your 
 men of letters take their manly share in public 
 life ; whence Everett goes as minister to Wash- 
 ington, and Irving and Bancroft to represent the 
 republic in the old country. And if to English 
 authors the English public is, as I believe, kind and 
 just in the main, can any of us say, will any who 
 visit your country not proudly and gratefully 
 own, with what a cordial and generous greeting 
 you receive us? I look around on this great 
 company. I think of my gallant young patrons 
 of the Mercantile Library Association, as whose 
 servant I appear before you, and of the kind hand 
 stretched out to welcome me by men famous 
 in letters, and honoured in our own country as in 
 their own, and I thank you and them for a most 
 kindly greeting and a most generous hospitality. 
 At home and amongst his own people, it scarce 
 becomes an English .writer to speak of himself; 
 
 k2 
 
132 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 his public estimation must depend on his works ; 
 his private esteem on his character and his life. 
 But here, among friends newly found, I ask leave 
 to say that I am thankful ; and I think with a 
 grateful heart of those I leave behind me at home, 
 who will be proud of the welcome you hold out 
 to me, and will benefit, please God, when my 
 days of work are over, by the kindness which you 
 show to their father." 
 
 A still more interesting paper was his Preface 
 to Messrs. Appleton and Co.'s New York edition 
 of his minor works. Readers wUl remember Mr. 
 Thackeray's droll account, in one of his lectures, 
 of his first interview with the agent of Appleton 
 and Co., when holding on, sea-sick, to the bul- 
 warks of the New York steam-vessel on his out- 
 ward voyage. The preface referred to contains 
 evidence that the appeal of the energetic represen- 
 tative of that well-known publishing house was 
 not altogether fruitless. It is as follows ; — 
 
 " On coming into this country I fotmd that the pro- 
 jectors of this series of little books had preceded my 
 arrival bj publishing a number of early works, which 
 have appeared tinder various pseudonyms during the 
 last fifteen years. I was not the master to choose what 
 
and the Man of Letters. ] 33 
 
 stories of mine should appear or not ; these miscel- 
 lanies were all advertised, or in course of publication ; 
 nor have I had the good fortune to be able to draw a 
 pen, or alter a blunder of author or printer, except in 
 the case of the accompanying volumes which contain 
 contributions to ' Punch,' whence I have been enabled 
 to make something like a selection. In the ' Letters 
 of Mr. Brown,' and the succeeding short essays and 
 descriptive pieces, something graver and less burlesque 
 was attempted than in other pieces which I here pub- 
 lish. My friend, the ' Pat Contributor,' accompanied 
 Mr. Titmarsh in his 'Journey from Cornhill to Cairo.' 
 The prize novels contain imitations of the writings of 
 some contemporaries who still live and flourish in the 
 novelists' calling. I myself had scarcely entered on it 
 when these burlesque tales were begun, and I stopped 
 further parody from a sense that this merry task of 
 making fun of the novelists should be left to younger 
 hands than my own ; and, in a little book published 
 some four years since, in England, by my friends 
 Messrs. Hannay and Shirley Brooks, 1 saw a caricature 
 of myself and writings to the full as ludicrous and 
 faithful as the prize novels of Mr. Punch. Nor was 
 there, had I desired it, any possibility of preventing 
 the reappearance of these performances. Other pub- 
 lishers, besides the Messrs. Appleton, were ready to 
 bring my hidden works to the light. Very many of 
 the other books printed, I have not seen since their 
 appearance twelve years ago, and it was with no small 
 feelings of curiosity (remembering under what sad 
 circumstances the tale had been left unfinished) that I 
 
134 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 boTiglit the incomplete ' Shabby Genteel Story,' in a 
 railway car, on my first journey from Boston hither, 
 from a rosy-cheeked, little peripatetic book merchant, 
 ■who called out ' Thackeray's Works,' in such a kind, 
 gay voice, as gave me a feeling of friendship and 
 ■welcome. 
 
 " There is an opportunity of being either satiric or 
 sentimental. The careless papers written at an early 
 period, and never seen since the printer's boy carried 
 them away, are brought back and laid at the father's 
 door ; and he cannot, if he would, forget or disown his 
 own children. 
 
 " Why were some of the little brats brought out of 
 their obscurity ? I own to a feeling of anything but 
 pleasure in reviewing some of these misshapen juvenile 
 creatures, which the publisher has disinterred and re- 
 suscitated. There are two performances especially, 
 (among the critical and biographical works of the 
 erudite Mr. Yellowplush) which I am very sorry to 
 see reproduced ; and I ask pardon of the author of the 
 ' Caxtons' for a lampoon, which I know he himself has 
 forgiven, and which I wish I could recall. 
 
 " I had never seen that eminent writer but once in 
 public when this satire was penned, and wonder at the 
 recklessness of the young man who could fancy such 
 personality was harmless jocularity, and never calcu- 
 late that ib might give pain. The best experiences of 
 my life have been gained since that time of youth and 
 gaiety, and careless laughter. I allude to them, per- 
 haps, because I would not have any kind and friendly 
 American reader judge of me by the wild performances 
 
and the Man of Letters. 135 
 
 of early years. Such, a retrospect as the sight of these 
 old acquaintances perforce occasioned, cannot, if it 
 would, be gay. The old scenes return, the remem- 
 brance of the bygone time, the chamber in which the 
 stories were written, the faces that shone round the 
 table. 
 
 " Some biographers in this country have been pleased 
 to depict that homely apartment after a very strange 
 and romantic fashion ; and an author in the direst 
 struggles of poverty, waited upon by a family domestic 
 in ' all the splendour of his menial decorations, has 
 been circumstantially described to the reader's amuse- 
 ment as well as to the writer's own. I may be per- 
 mitted to assure the former that the splendour and 
 the want were alike fanciful ; and that the meals were 
 not only sufficient but honestly paid for. 
 
 " That extreme liberality with which American 
 publishers have printed the works of English authors 
 has had at least this beneficial result for us, that our 
 names and writings are known by multitudes using 
 our common mother tongue, who never had heard of 
 us or our books but for the speculators who have sent 
 them all over this continent. 
 
 " It is of course not unnatural for the English writer 
 to hope that some day he may share a portion of the 
 profits which his works bring at present to the persons 
 who vend them in this country ; and I am bound 
 gratefully to say myself, that since my arrival here I 
 have met with several publishing houses who are will- 
 ing to acknowledge our little claim to participate in the 
 advantages arising out of our books ; and the present 
 
136 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 writer having long since ascertained that a portion of a 
 loaf is more satisfactory than no br^ad at all, grate- 
 fully accepts and acknowledges several slices which the 
 book-purveyors in this city have proffered to him of 
 their own free-will. 
 
 " If we are not paid in full and in specie as yet, 
 English writers surely ought to be thankful for the 
 very great kindness and friendliness with which the 
 American public receives them ; and if in hope some 
 day that measures may pass here to legalize our right 
 to profit a. little by the commodities which we invent 
 and in which we deal, I for one can cheerfully say that 
 the good-will towards us from publishers and public is 
 undoubted, and wait for still better times with perfect 
 confidence and good-humour. 
 
 " If I have to complain of any special hardship, it is, 
 not that our favourite works are reproduced, and our 
 children introduced to the American public — children 
 whom we have educated with care, and in whom we 
 take a little paternal pride — but that ancient magazines 
 are ransacked, and shabby old articles dragged out, 
 which we had gladly left in the wardrobes where they 
 have lain hidden many years. There is no control, 
 however, over a man's thoughts — once uttered and 
 printed, back they may come upon us on any sudden 
 day ; and in this collection which Messrs. Appleton are 
 publishing, I find two or three such early productions 
 of my own that I gladly would take back, but that they 
 have long since gone out of the paternal guardianship. 
 
 " If not printed in this series, they would have ap- 
 peared from other presses, having not the slightest need 
 
and the Man of Letters. 137 
 
 of the author's own imprimatur j and I cannot sufficiently 
 condole with a literary gentleman of this city, who (in 
 his voyages of professional adventure) came upon an 
 early performance of mine, which shall be nameless, 
 carried the news of the discovery to a publisher of 
 books, and had actually done me the favour to sell my 
 book to that liberal man ; ■when, behold, Messrs. 
 Appleton announced the book in the press, and my 
 eonfrire had to refund the prize-money which had been 
 paid to him. And if he is a little chagrined at finding 
 other intrepid voyagers beforehand with him in taking 
 possession of my island, and the American flag already 
 floating there, he will understand the feelings of the 
 harmless but kindly-treated aboriginal, who makes 
 every sign of peace, who smokes the pipe of submission, 
 and meekly acquiesces in his own annexation. 
 
 " It is said that those only who win should laugh : I 
 think, in this case, my readers will not grudge the losing 
 side its share of harmless good-humour. If I have 
 contributed to theirs, or provided them with means of 
 amusement, I am glad to think my books have found 
 favour with the American public, as I am proud to own 
 the great and cordial welcome with which they have 
 received me. 
 
 " W. M. Thackeray. 
 
 "New York, December, 1852." 
 
 Such words could not fail to be gratifying to 
 the American people, as an evidence of Thacke- 
 ray^s sense of the reception he had received, and 
 
138 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 in spite of a subsequent slight misunderstanding 
 founded on a mistake and speedily cleared up, it 
 may be said that no English writer of fiction 
 was ever more popular in the United States. 
 
 The publication of " The Adventures of Henry 
 Esmond," which appeared just as its author was 
 starting for America in 1852, marked an im- 
 portant epoch in his career. It was a continuous 
 story, and one worked out with closer attention 
 to the thread of the narrative than he had hitherto 
 produced — a fact due, no doubt, partly to its 
 appearance in three volumes complete, instead of 
 in detached monthly portions. But its most 
 striking feature was its elaborate imitation of the 
 style and even the manner of thought of the time 
 of Queen Anne's reign, in which its scenes were 
 laid. The preparation of his Lectures on the 
 Humourists had no doubt suggested to him the 
 idea of writing a story of this kind, as it after- 
 wards suggested to him the design of writing a 
 history of that period which he had long enter- 
 taiaed, but in which he had, we believe, made no 
 progress when he died. But his fondness for 
 the Queen Anne writers was of older date. Affec- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 139 
 
 tionate allusions to Sir Richard Steele — like 
 himself a Charterhouse hoy — and to Addison, and 
 Pope, and Swift, may he found in his earliest 
 magazine articles. That the style with which the 
 author of " Vanity Fair " and " Pendennis " had 
 so often delighted his readers was to some degree, 
 formed upon those models so little studied in his 
 boyhood, cannot be doubted by any one who is 
 familiar with the literature of the "Augustan age." 
 The writers of that period were fond of French 
 models, as the writers of Elizabeth's time looked 
 to Italy for their literary inspiration j but there 
 was no time when English prose was generally 
 written with more purity and ease ; for the trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures, which is generally referred 
 to as an evidence of the perfection of our English 
 speech in Elizabeth's time, owed its strength and 
 simplicity chiefly to the rejection by the pious 
 translators of the scholarly style most in vogue, 
 in favour of the homely English then current 
 among the people. If we except the pamphlet 
 writers of earlier reigns, the Queen Anne writers 
 were the first who systematically wrote for the 
 people in plain Saxon English, not easy to imitate 
 
140 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 in these days. "Esmond" was from the first 
 most liked among literary men who can appreciate 
 a style having no resemblance to the fashion of 
 the day; but there was a vein of tenderness and 
 true pathos in the story which, in spite of some 
 objectionable features in the plot, and of a some- 
 what wearisome genealogical introduction, have 
 by degrees gained for it a high rank among the 
 author's works. "Esmond" was followed by 
 " The Newcomes," in 1855, a work which revealed 
 a deeper pathos than any of his previous novels, 
 and showed that the author could, when he pleased, 
 give us pictures of moral beauty and loveliness. 
 In this work he returned to the yellow numbers 
 in the old monthly form. 
 
 An incident in connection with the publication 
 of "The Newcomes" may here be mentioned. 
 Mr. Thackeray's fondness for irony had frequently 
 brought him into disgrace with .people not so 
 ready as himself in understanding that dangerous 
 figure. A passage in one of his chapters of this 
 story alluding to " Mr. Washington," in a parody 
 of the style of the British Patriot of the times of 
 the War of Independence,was so far misunderstood 
 in America that the fact was alluded to by the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 141 
 
 New York correspondent of the Times. Upon 
 which Mr. Thackeray addressed the following- 
 letter to that journal : — 
 
 " Sir, — Allow me a word of explanation in answer 
 to a strange charge which has been brought against me 
 in the United States, and which your New York 
 correspondent has made public in this country. 
 
 " In the first number of a periodical story which I 
 am now publishing, appears a sentence in which I 
 should never have thought of finding any harm until it 
 has been discovered by some critics over the water. 
 The fatal words are these : — 
 
 " ' When pigtails grew on the backs of the British 
 gentry, and their wives wore cushions on their heads, 
 over which they tied their own hair, and disguised it 
 with powder and pomatum ; when ministers went in 
 their stars and orders to the House of Commons, and 
 the orators of the opposition attacked nightly the noble 
 lord in the blue riband j when Mr. Washington was 
 heading the American rebels with a courage, it mutit 
 be confessed, worthy of a better cause, — there came 
 to London, out of a northern county, Mr., etc' 
 
 " This paragraph has been interpreted in America 
 as an insult to Washington and the whole Union; and 
 from the sadness and gravity with which your cori-e- 
 spondent quotes certain of my words, it is evident he, 
 too, thinks they have an insolent and malicious 
 meaning. 
 
 " Having published the American critic's comment, 
 permit the author of a faulty sentence to say what he 
 did mean, and to add the obvious moral of the apologue 
 
143 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 whicli has been so oddly construed. I am speaking of 
 a young apprentice corning to London between the years 
 1770 and '80, and want to depict a few figures of the 
 last century. (The illustrated head-letter of the chapter 
 was intended to represent Hogarth's ' Industrious 
 Apprentice.') I fancy the old society, with its hoops 
 and powder — BarrS or Fox thundering at Lord North 
 asleep on the Treasury bench — the news readers at the 
 coffee-room talking over the paper, and owning that 
 this Mr. Washington who was leading the rebels, was 
 a very courageous soldier, and worthy of a better cause 
 than fighting against King George. The images are 
 at least natural and pretty consecutive. 1776 — the 
 people of London in '76 — the Lords and House of Com- 
 mons in '76 — Lord North — Washington — what the 
 people thought about Washington — I am thinking 
 about '76. Where, in the name of common sense, is 
 the insult to 1853 ? The satire, if satire there be, 
 applies to us at home, who called Washington 'Mr. 
 Washington ;' as we called Frederick the Great ' the 
 Protestant Hero,' or Napoleon ' the Corsican Tyrant,' 
 ' or General Bonaparte.' Need I say, that our officers 
 ■were instructed (until they were taught better man- 
 ners) to call Washington ' Mr. Washington V and that 
 the Americans were called rebels during the whole of 
 that contest ? Rebels ! — of course they were rebels ; 
 and I should like to know what native American 
 ■would not have been a rebel in that cause ? 
 
 " As irony is dangerous, and has hurt the feelings of 
 kind friends whom I would not wish to offend, let me 
 say, in perfect faith and gravity, that I think the cause 
 for which Washington fought entirely just and right, 
 
and the Man of Letters. 143 
 
 and the champion the very noblest, purest, bravest, 
 best of God's men."* 
 
 Another journey to the United States, equally 
 successful, and equally profitable in a pecuniary 
 sense, was the chief event in his life in 1856. 
 The lectures delivered were those beautiful anec- 
 dotical and reflective discourses on the " Four 
 Georges," made familiar to readers by their pub- 
 lication in the " Cornhill Magazine," and since 
 then, in a separate form. The subject was not 
 favourable to the display of the author's more 
 genial qualities. But where in English lite- 
 rature could we find anything more solemn 
 and affecting than his picture of the old King, 
 the last of that name. When " all light, all 
 reason, all sound of human voices, all the plea- 
 sures of this world of God were taken from him" — 
 concluding with the affecting appeal to his Ame- 
 rican audience — " O brothers ! speaking the same 
 
 * A somewhat similar circumstance happened during the 
 delivery of the lectures in America, an allusion in which 
 to " Catheriue Hayes" was warmly resented by the Irish 
 newspapers, until the explanation arrived from Mr. Thack- 
 eray that the allusion was not to Catherine Hayes, the 
 famous Irish singer, but to Catherine Hayes, the murderess 
 of the last century. 
 
144 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 dear mother tongue — O comrades! enemies no more, 
 let us take a mournful hand together as we stand 
 by this royal corpse, and call a truce to battle ! 
 Low he lies to whom the proudest used to kneel 
 once, and who was cast lower than the poorest — 
 dead whom millions prayed for in vain. Hush, 
 Strife and Quarrels over the solemn grave ! 
 Sound Trumpets, a mournful march. Pall, Dark 
 Curtain, upon his pageant, his pride, his grief, his 
 awful tragedy !" 
 
 These lectures were successfully repeated in 
 England. Mr. Thackeray, indeed, was now re- 
 cognised as one of the most attractive lecturers of 
 the day. His appearance, whether in lecturing 
 on the " Georges" for his own profit, or on " Week- 
 day Preachers" or some other topic for the benefit 
 of the families of deceased brother writers, such 
 as the late Mr. Angus B. Reach and Mr. Douglas 
 Jerrold, always attracted the most cultivated 
 classes of the various cities in which he appeared ; 
 but an attempt to draw together a large audience 
 of the less educated classes by giving a course of 
 lectures at the great Music Hall, was less happy. 
 In Edinburgh, his reception was always in the 
 highest degree successful. He was more exten- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 145 
 
 sively known and admired among the intellectual 
 portion of the people of Scotland than any living 
 ■writer, not excepting Mr. Thomas Carlyle. There 
 was something in his peculiar genius that com- 
 mended him to the Northern temperament. About 
 seven years before Thackeray was delivering his 
 lectures on the " Four Georges" in Scotland to 
 larger and more intellectual audiences than ever 
 listened to any other lecturer, and he lectured 
 there since for the benefit of Mr. Angus B. 
 Reach's widow.' Nearly all the men of Edin- 
 burgh, with any tincture of literature, had met 
 him personally, and a few knew him well. He 
 was almost the only great author that the majo- 
 rity of the lovers of literature in it had seen and 
 heard, and his form and figure and voice, with 
 its tragic tones and pauses, well entitled him to 
 take his place in any ideal rank of giants. He 
 was much gratified (says Mr. Hannay) by the 
 success of the " Four Georges," (a series which 
 superseded an earlier scheme for as many dis- 
 courses on " Men of the World,") in Scotland. 
 " I have had three per cent, of the whole population 
 here," he wrote from Edinburgh in November, 
 
 I. 
 
146 Thackeray ; the Humowrist 
 
 1856. " If I could but get three per cent, out of 
 London \" 
 
 Most of Mr. Thackeray's readers will remeni' 
 ber that in 1857 he was invited by some friends 
 to offer himself as a candidate for the representa- 
 tion in Parliament of the city of Oxford. Mr. 
 Hannay, in his graceful and affectionate memoir 
 of Thackeray, published in the Edinburgh Courant, 
 tells his readers, with a natural zeal for his 
 party, that the Radicals hated Mr. Thackeray as 
 the associate of aristocratic personages. But the 
 Radical party had no ground for such a feeling. 
 From his earliest life he had professed strong liberal 
 views, and he maintained them to the last. An 
 accident brought him into connexion with the 
 scurrilous Tory writers who formed the staff of 
 " Eraser," but his own papers in that magazine 
 had nothing to do with politics; and no hints 
 will be found in them of sympathy with the poli- 
 tical views of his associates. In 1836, when 
 writing for the Constitutional, he wrote strongly 
 in favour of advanced liberal views. In 1857, 
 when a prosperous man, he contested the vacant 
 borough of Oxford against the Government can- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 147 
 
 didate, as an advocate of the Ballot — a fact which 
 brought down upon him still more strongly the 
 ready pens who write under Government inspira- 
 tion in the Times. But the following passages 
 from his Address to the Electors of Oxford will 
 best show his views on politics at this time. 
 
 " Gentlemeit, — I should be unworthy of the great 
 
 kindness and cordiality with which you have received 
 
 me to-night, were I to hesitate to put your friendship 
 
 to the test and ask you to confirm it at the poll. 
 ****** 
 
 " I would use my best endeavours not merely to 
 enlarge the constituencies, but to popularize the Go- 
 vernrnent of this country. With no feeling but that 
 of good-will towards those leading aristocratic families 
 who are administering the chief oflSces of the State, 
 I believe that it could be benefited by the skill and 
 talents of persons less aristocratic, and that the country 
 thinks so likewise. 
 
 " I think that to secure the due freedom of repre- 
 sentation, and to defend the poor voter from the chance 
 of intimidation, the ballot is the best safeguard we 
 know of, and would vote most hopefully for that 
 measure. I would have the suffrage amended in 
 nature, as well as in numbers ; and hope to see many 
 educated classes represented who have now no voice in 
 
 elections. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " The usefulness of a Member of Parliament is best 
 
 i2 
 
148 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 tested at home ; and should you think fit to elect nie 
 as your representative, I promise to use my utmost 
 endeavour to increase and advance the social happi- 
 ness, the knowledge, and the power of the people. 
 
 « W. M. Thackeray. 
 "Mitre, July 9, 1857." 
 
 At the hustings he spoke as follows : — 
 
 " As I came down to this place, I saw on each side 
 of me placards announcing that there was no manner 
 of doubt that on Tuesday the friends of the Right Hon. 
 Edward Cardwell would elect him to a seat in Parlia- 
 ment. I also saw other placards announcing in similar 
 terms a confidence that there was no doubt that I 
 should be elected to a seat in Parliament for the city 
 of Oxford. Now as both sides are perfectly confident 
 of success — as I, for my part, feel perfectly confident, 
 and as my opponents entertain the same favourable 
 opinion in regard to themselves — surely both sides 
 may meet here in perfect good-humour. I hear that 
 not long since — in the memory of many, now alive — 
 this independent city was patronized by a great uni- 
 versity, and that a great duke, who lived not very far 
 from here, at the time of election used to put on his 
 boots and ride down and order the freemen of Oxford 
 to elect a member for him. Any man who has wan- 
 dered through your beautiful city as I have done 
 within these last few days cannot but be struck with 
 the difference between the ancient splendour, the aca- 
 demic grandeur that prevailed in this place — the pro- 
 cessions of dons, doctors, and proctors — and your new 
 
and the Man of Letters, 149 
 
 city, which is not picturesque or beautiful at all, but 
 •which contains a number of streets, peopled by thou- 
 sands of hard-working, honest, rough-handed men. 
 These men have grown up of late years, and have 
 asserted their determination to have a representative 
 of their own. Such a representative they found three 
 months ago, and such a representative they returned 
 to Parliament in the person of my friend Mr. Neate.* 
 But such a representative was turned out of that Par- 
 liament by a sentence which I cannot call unjust, 
 because he himself is too magnanimous an(J generous 
 to say so, but which I will call iniquitous. He was 
 found guilty of a twopenny^orth of bribery which he 
 never committed ; and a Parliament which has swal- 
 lowed so many camels strained at that little gnat, and 
 my friend, your representative, the very best man you 
 could find to represent you was turned back, and you 
 were left without a man. I cannot hope — I never 
 thought to equal him j I only came forward at a 
 moment when I felt it necessary that some one pro- 
 fessing his principles, and possessing your confidence, 
 should be ready to step into the gap which he had 
 made. I know that the place was very eagerly sought for 
 by other folks on the other side, entertaining other 
 opinions. Perhaps you don't know that last week 
 there was a Tory baronet down here, walking about in 
 the shade, as umbrageous almost as that under which 
 my opponent, Mr. Cardwell, has sheltered himsel£ 
 
 * Mr. jSTeate was then Professor of Political Economy in 
 the University. 
 
150 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 Of course you know there came down a ministerial 
 nominee — Lord Monck ; but you do not know that 
 Mr. Hayter, who is what is called the Whipper-in for 
 the Ministerial party, came down here also on Saturday 
 week in a dark and mysterious manner, and that some 
 conversation took place, the nature of which I cannot 
 pretend to know anything about, because I have no spies, 
 however people may be lurking at the doors of our 
 committee-room. But the result of all was that Lord 
 Monck disappeared, and Mr. Hayter vanished into 
 darkness and became a myth j and we were informed 
 that a powerful requisition from the city of Oxford 
 Lad invited Mr, Cardwell. Mind, Mr. Cardwell has 
 given no note in reply — no mark, no sign. We do 
 not know, even now, whether he accepted that polite 
 invitation ; we do not know it even to this day, except 
 that his godfathers have been here, and have said so. 
 After the manner in which the electors of Oxford have 
 received me, could I possibly have gone back simply 
 because we are told that Mr, Cardwell had received an 
 invitation, which we did not know whether he had 
 accepted or not ? I feel it, therefore, to be my humble 
 duty to stand in the place where I found myself. I 
 do not know that I would have ventured to oppose 
 Mr. Cardwell under other circumstances. I am fully 
 aware of his talents. I know his ability as a states- 
 man, and no man can say that I have, during the whole 
 of my canvass, uttered a word at all unfriendly or dis- 
 respectful towards that gentleman, I should have 
 hesitated on any other occasion in opposing him, but 
 I cannot hesitate now, because I know that we have 
 
and the Man of Letters. 151 
 
 the better cause, and that we mean to make that better 
 
 cause triumphant. 
 
 **»**♦ 
 
 I say they have, and that any man who belongs to the 
 Peelite party is not the man who ought to be put for- 
 ward by any constituency at the eve of a great and 
 momentous English war. As to my own opinions on 
 public questions, you may have heard them pretty freely 
 expressed on many occasions. I only hope if you elect 
 me to Parliament, I shall be able to obviate the little 
 difficulty which has been placarded against me — that 
 I could not speak. I own I cannot speak very well, 
 but I shall learn. I cannot spin out glib sentences by 
 the yard, as some people can ; but if I have got any- 
 thing in my miiid, if I feel strongly on any question, I 
 have I believe got brains enough to express it. When 
 you send a man to the House of Commons, you do not 
 want him to be always talking ; he goes there to con- 
 duct the business of the country ; he has to prepare 
 himself on the question on which he proposes to speak 
 before six hundred and fifty-six members, who would 
 be bored if every man were to deliver his opinion. He 
 must feel and understand what he is going to say, and 
 I have not the least doubt that I shall be able to say 
 what I feel and think, if you will give me the chance 
 of saying it. If any one in the House of Commons 
 talked all he thought upon everything, good God ! what 
 a Babel it would be ! You would not get on at all 
 On the first night I came among you, many questions 
 were put to me by a friend, who capped them all by 
 aaying, 'Now, Mr. Thackeray, are you for the honour 
 
152 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 of England V I said that that was rather a wild and 
 a wide question to put, but to the best of my belief I 
 was for the honour of England, and would work for it 
 to the best of my power. About the ballot we are all 
 agreed. If I was for the ballot before I came down 
 here, I am more for the ballot now. As to triennial 
 Parliaments, if the constituents desire them, I am for 
 them." 
 
 A voice here inquired if Mr. Thackeray "would 
 have the ballot to-morrow 1" and he continued — 
 
 " No, we are too manly, too plucky, too honest, and 
 we will beat them without it ; but another day, when 
 we have a better representation, we will have the 
 ballot. If you elect me, I shall not go to the House 
 of Commons hostile to the present Ministry, but deter- 
 mined to keep them to their work, and to prevent them 
 from shrinking from any of the promises they have 
 made. I think them in a war crisis eminently the best 
 men to carry on the councils of the country, and to 
 contend against the Tories and Peelites, who have very 
 nearly paralyzed their arms.'' 
 
 The oflBcial declaration showed that the popular 
 novelist, was beaten, but by so narrow a majority in 
 a contest with an opponent backed by the powerful 
 support of the Government, as to afford abundant 
 evidence of the favour of the electors. The result 
 was declared on the 21st July, by the Mayor, at 
 
and the Man of Letters- 153- 
 
 six o'clock, and the yard attached to the Townhall 
 ■was as fully crowded as it had been on the pre- 
 vious morning. The announcement was received 
 with a mixture of cheers and hisses ; but on Mr- 
 Thackeray coming forward to address the meet- 
 ing, he was welcomed with loud and prolonged 
 cheering. He said — 
 
 " Give me leave to speak a few words to you on this- 
 occasion, for although the red, white and blue are my 
 friends, I hope to make the green and yellow my 
 friends also. Let me tell you a little story, but a true- 
 one. Some years ago, when boxing was more common 
 in this country than it is at the present time, two 
 celebrated champions met to fight a battle on Moulsey 
 Heath. Their names were Gully and Gregson. They 
 fought the most tremendous battle that had been known 
 for many long years, and Gregson got the worst of it. 
 As he was lying on his bed some time afterwards, 
 blinded and his eyes closed up, he asked a friend to 
 give him something to drink. A person in the room 
 handed him some drink and grasped him by the hand. 
 ' Whose hand is this V asked Gregson. ' 'Tis Jack 
 Gully's ' was the reply. Now Gregson was the man 
 who was beaten and Gully was the conqueror, and he 
 was the first man to shake him by the hand, to show 
 him that he had no animosity against him. This 
 should be the conduct of all loyal Englishmen, to fight 
 a good fight, and to hold no animosity against the 
 
154 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 opposite side. With this feeling I go away- from Oxford. 
 With this feeling I shall have redeemed one of the 
 promises I made you yesterday ; the other I cannot 
 by any possibility answer, because, somehow or other, 
 pur side has come out a little below the other side. I 
 wish to shake Mr. Cardwell by the hand, and to con- 
 gratulate him on being the representative of this great 
 city. I say' it is a victory you ought to be proud of; 
 it is a battle which you ought to be proud of who 
 have taken part in it ; you have done your duty nobly 
 arid fought most gallantly. I am a man who was 
 unknown to most of ■ you, who only came before you 
 with, the recommendation of my noble and excellent 
 friend Mr. Neate, but I have met with many friends. 
 You have fought the battle gallantly against great in- 
 fluen,ces, against an. immense strength, which have been 
 brought against you, and in favour of that honoured 
 and respected man Mr. Cardwell." 
 
 Some hisses having greeted this remark, Mr. 
 Thackeray exclaimed — 
 
 "Stop! .don't hiss. When Lord Monck came down 
 here and addressed the electors, he was good enough 
 to say a kind word in favour of me. Now, that being 
 the case, don't let me be outdone in courtesy and 
 generosity, but allow me to say a few words of the 
 respect, and cordiality which I entertain for Mr. Card- 
 well. As for the party battle which divides you, I 
 am, gentlemen, a stranger, for I never heard the name 
 of certain tradesmen of this city till I came among yoUi 
 
and the Man of Letters. 155 
 
 Perhaps I thought my name was better known than it 
 is. You, the electors of Oxford, know whether I have 
 acted honestly towards you ; and you on the other side 
 will say whether I ever solicited a vote when I knew 
 that vote was promised to my opponent ; or whether 
 I have not always said — 'Sir, keep your word; here is 
 my hand on it, let us part good friends.' With my 
 opponents I part so. With others, my friends, I part 
 with feelings still more friendly, not only for the 
 fidelity you have shown towards me, but for your noble 
 attachment to the gallant and tried whom you did 
 know, and who I hope will be your representative at 
 some future time." 
 
 In answer to a cry of "Bribery-j" he con- 
 tinued — 
 
 " Don't cry out bribery : if you know of it, prove it ; 
 but as I am innocent of bribery myself, I do not choose 
 to fancy that other men are not equally loyal and 
 honest. It matters very little whether I am in the 
 House of Commons or not, to prate a little more j but 
 you have shown a great spirit, a great resolution, and 
 great independence ; and I trust at some future day, 
 when you know me better than you do now, you will 
 be able to carry your cause to a more successful issue. 
 Before I came to Oxfoi-d, I knew that there was a cer- 
 tain question that would go against me, and which I 
 would not blink to be made a duke or a marquis to- 
 morrow. In March last, when I was at a dinner at 
 Edinburgh, some friend of mine asked me to stand for 
 the representation of their city. My answer was this ; 
 
156 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 'That I was for having the people amused after they 
 had done their worship on a Sunday.' I knew that I 
 was speaking to a people who, of all others, were the 
 most open to scruples on that point, but I did my duty 
 as an honest man, and stated what my opinion was. 
 I have done my duty honestly to this city, and I- 
 believe that this is the reason why I am placed in a 
 minority ; but I am contented to bow to that decision. 
 I told you that I was for allowing a man to have harm- 
 less pleasures when he had done his worship on Sundays, 
 I expected to have a hiss, but they have taken a more 
 dangerous shape — the shape of slander. Those gentle- 
 men who will take the trouble to read my books — and 
 I should be glad to have as many of you for subscribers 
 as will come forward — will be able to say whether there 
 is anything in them that should not be read by any 
 one's children, or by my own, or by any Christian man. 
 I say, on this ground I will retire, and take my place 
 with my pen and ink at my desk, and leave to Mr. 
 Cardwell a business which I am sure he understands 
 better than I do." 
 
 A characteristic anecdote has recently heen told 
 in the newspapers relating to the Oxford elec- 
 tion by one who was staying with Mr. Thackeray 
 at his hotel during his contest with Mr. Cardwell. 
 Whilst looking out at window a crowd passed 
 along the street, hooting and handling rather 
 roughly some of Mr, Cardwell's supporters, Mr. 
 
and ike Man of Letters. 157 
 
 Thackeray started up in the greatest possible ex- 
 citementj and using some strong expletive, rushed 
 down stairs, and notwithstanding the efforts of some 
 old electioneerers to detain him, who happened 
 to be of opinion that a trifling correction of the 
 opposite party might be beneficial jJOMr encourager 
 les autres, he was not to be deterred, and was 
 next seen towering above the crowd, dealing about 
 him right and left, in defence of his opponent's 
 partisans, and in defiance of his own friends. 
 
 The year 1858 was marked by an unfortunate 
 episode the facts of which cannot be omitted from 
 this narrative, because though trifling in their 
 origin, they finally led to a temporary estrange- 
 ment between Mr, Thackeray and his great 
 brother novelist Mr. Dickens, with whom he had 
 hitherto had only relations of the most friendly 
 character. On the 12th of June in that year an 
 article had appeared in a periodical called " Town 
 Talk," which professed to give an account of 
 Mr. Thackeray — ^his appearance, his career, and 
 his success. The article was coarse and offensive 
 in tone, but it was notorious that the periodical 
 was edited by a clever writer of the day, well 
 
158 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 known to Mr. Thackeray as a brother member 
 of a Club to which he belonged. As such^ the 
 subject of the attack felt himself compelled to 
 tiake notice of it. In order to understand the 
 resentment displayed by the latter at this unpro- 
 voked attackj it is necessary to quote the following 
 passage from the article : — 
 
 "his appeakance. 
 " Mr. Thackeray is forty-six years old, though from 
 the silvery whiteness of his hair he appears somewhat 
 older. He is very tall, standing upwards of six feet 
 two inches ; and as he walks erect, his height makes 
 him conspicuous in every assembly. His face is blood- 
 less, and not particularly expressive, but remarkable for 
 the fracture of the bridge of the nose, the result of an 
 accident in youth. He wears a small grey whisker, 
 but otherwise is clean shaven. No oneTneeting him 
 could fail to recognize in him a gentleman : his bearing 
 is cold and uninviting, his style of conversation either 
 openly cynical or affectedly good-natured and benevo- 
 lent ; his honhommie is forced, his wit biting, his pride 
 easily touched — but his appearance is invariably that 
 of the cool, suave, well-bred gentleman, who, whatever 
 may be rankling within, suffers no sur&ce display of 
 his emotion. 
 
 "HIS StICCESSj 
 
 " Commencing with ' Vanity Fair,' culminated with 
 his 'Lectures on the English Humourists of the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 159 
 
 Eighteenth Century,' -which -vrere attended by all the 
 court and fashion of London. The prices were extra- 
 vagant, the Lecturer's adulation of birth and position 
 was extravagant, the success was extravagant, No one' 
 succeeds better than Mr. Thackeray in cutting his coat' 
 according to his cloth: here he flattered the aristo- 
 cracy, but when he crossed the Atlantic; George' 
 Washington became the idol of his worship, the' 'Pour 
 Georges' the objects of his bitterest attacks. Th'esel 
 last-named Lectures have been dead failures in Eng- 
 land, though as literary compositions they are most 
 excellent. Our own opinion is, that his success is on' 
 the wane; his writings never were understood or 'a|)- 
 preciated even by the middle classes ; the' aristocracy' 
 have been alienated by his American onslaught ontheir 
 body, and the educated and refined are liot suffibiently' 
 numerous to constitute an audience ; nioreover, there 
 is a want of heart in all he writes, which is not'to be 
 balanced by the most brilliant sarcasm afld the most* 
 perfect knowledge of the workings of the huihan 
 heart." 
 
 Two days later Mr. Thackeray addressed the, 
 
 assumed writer of this article, in the following. 
 
 letter : — 
 
 " 36, Onslow-square, S.W., June 14. 
 
 " Sib, — I have received two mimbers of a little paper 
 called * Town Talk,' containing notices respecting my- 
 self, of which, as I learn from the best authority, yoiC 
 are the writer. 
 
 " In the first article of 'Literary Talk ' you think fit 
 
160 Tfiackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 to publish an incorrect account of my private dealings 
 ■with my publishers. 
 
 " In this week's number appears a so-called 'Sketch' 
 containing a description of my manners, person, and 
 conversation, and an account of my literary works, 
 which of course you are at liberty to praise or condemn 
 &3 a literary critic. 
 
 " But you state, with regard to my conversation, that 
 it is either ' frankly cynical or affectedly benevolent 
 and good-natured j' and of my works (Lectures), that 
 in some I showed 'an extravagant adulation of rank 
 ,and position,' which in other lectures (' as I know how 
 to cut my coat according to my cloth') became the 
 object of my bitterest attack. 
 
 " As I understand your phrases, you impute insin- 
 cerity to me when I speak good-naturedly in private | 
 .assign dishonourable motives to me for sentiments 
 which I have delivered in public, and charge me with 
 advancing statements which I have never delivered 
 &b all. 
 
 " Had your remarks been written by a person un- 
 known to me, I should have noticed them no more 
 than other calumnies ; but as we have shaken hands 
 more than once, and met hitherto on friendly terms 
 
 (you may ask one of your employers, Mr. , of , 
 
 whether I did not speak of you very lately in the most 
 friendly manner), I am obliged to take notice of articles 
 which I consider to be not offensive and unfriendly 
 merely, but slanderous and untrue, 
 
 " We meet at a Club, where, before you were born, 
 J believe, I and other gentlemen have been in the habit 
 
and the Man of Letters. 1 67 
 
 of talking without any idea that our conversation would 
 supply paragraphs for professional vendors of ' Literary . 
 Talk j' and I don't remember that out of that Club I 
 have ever exchanged six words with you. Allow me 
 to inform you that the talk which you have heard there 
 is not intended for newspaper remark ; and to beg — 
 as I have a right to do — that you will refrain from 
 printing comments upon my private conversations; 
 that you will forego discussions, however blundering 
 upon my private affairs ; and that yon will henceforth 
 please to consider any question of my personal truth 
 and sincerity as quite out of the province of your 
 criticism. I am, &c., 
 
 " W. M. Thackeray." 
 
 Subsequently Mr. Thackeray " rather (he said) 
 than have any further correspondence with the 
 writer of the character," determined to submit the 
 letters which had passed between them to the 
 Committee of the Club^ for that body to decide 
 whether the practice of publishing such articles 
 would not be " fatal to the comfort of the Club/' 
 and " intolerable in a society of gentlemen.^' 
 The Committee accordingly met, and decided that 
 the writer of the attack complained of was bound 
 to make an ample apology, or to retire from the 
 Club. The latter contested the right of the 
 Committee to interfere. Suits at law and pro- 
 
 M 
 
163 Thackeray; the Humourist 
 
 ceedings in Chancery against the committee were 
 threatened, when Mr. Dickens, who was also a 
 member of the Club, interfered with the following 
 letter : — 
 
 " Tavistock House, Tayistook-square, London, W.C. 
 "Wednesday, 24th Noyember, 1858. 
 
 " Mt deae Thackeray, — Without a word of pre- 
 lude, I wish this note to revert to a subject on which 
 I said six words to you at the Athenseum when I last 
 saw you. 
 
 " Coming home from my country work, I find Mr, 
 Edwin James's opinion taken on this painful question 
 of the Garrick and Mr. Edmund Yates. I find it 
 strong on the illegality of the Garrick proceeding. 
 Not to complicate this note or give it a formal appear- 
 ance, I forbear from copying the opinion ; but I have 
 asked to see it, and I have it, and I want to make no 
 secret from you of a word of it. 
 
 " I find Mr. Edwin James retained on the one side ; 
 I hear and read of the Attorney-General being retained 
 on the other. Let me, in this state of things, ask you a 
 plain question. 
 
 " Can any conference be held between me, as repre- 
 senting Mr. Yates, and an appointed friend of yours, 
 as representing you, with the hope and purpose of some 
 quiet accommodation of this deplorable matter, which 
 will satisfy the feelings of all concerned ? 
 
 " It is right that, in putting this to you, I should 
 tell you that Mr. Yates, when you first wrote to him. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 163 
 
 brought your letter to me. He had recently done me 
 a manly service I can never forget, in some private 
 distress of mine (generally within your knowledge), 
 and he naturally thought of me as his friend in an 
 emergency. I told him that his article was not to be 
 defended ; but I confirmed him in his opinion that it 
 was not reasonably possible for him to set right what 
 was amiss, on the receipt of a letter couched in the 
 very strong terms you had employed. When you 
 appealed to the Garrick Committee and they called 
 their General Meeting, I said at that meeting that you 
 and I had been on good terms for many years, and 
 that I was very sorry to find myself opposed to you ; 
 but that I was clear that the Committee had nothing 
 on earth to do with it, and that in the strength of my 
 conviction I should go against them. 
 
 " If this mediation that I have suggested can take 
 place, I shall be heartily glad to do my best in it — and 
 God knows in no hostile spirit towards any one, least 
 of all to you. If it cannot take place, the thing is at 
 least no worse than it was ; and you wUl burn this 
 letter, and I wUl burn your answer. 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " Chaeles Dickens. 
 
 "W. M. Thackeray, Esq." 
 
 To this Mr. Thackeray replied :-^ 
 
 " 36, Onalow-square, 26th November, 185S. 
 " Dear Dickens, — I grieve to gather from your 
 letter that you were Mr. Yates's adviser in the dispute 
 between me and him. His letter was the cause of my 
 
 M 3 
 
164 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 appeal to the Garrick Club for protection from insults 
 against which I had no other remedy, 
 
 " I placed my grievance before the Committee of 
 the Club as the only place ■where I have been accus- 
 tomed to meet Mr. Yates. They gave their opinion 
 of his conduct and of the reparation which lay in his 
 power. Not satisfied with their sentence, Mr. Yates 
 called for a General Meeting; and, the meeting which 
 he had called having declared against him, he declines 
 the jurisdiction which he had asked for, and says he 
 will have recourse to lawyers. 
 
 "You say that Mr. Edwin James is strongly of 
 opinion that the conduct of the Club is illegal. On 
 this point I can give no sort of judgment : nor can I 
 conceive that the Club will be frightened, by the 
 opinion of any lawyer, out of their own sense of the 
 justice and honour which ought to obtain among 
 gentlemen. 
 
 " Ever since I submitted my case to the Club, I 
 have had, and can have, no part in the dispute. It is 
 for them to judge if any reconcilement is possible with 
 your friend. I subjoin the copy of a letter which I 
 wrote to the Committee, and refer you to them for the 
 issue. 
 
 " Yours, &c., 
 
 "W. M. Thackeray. 
 
 " C. Dickens, Esq." 
 
 The enclosure referred to was as follows : — 
 
 " Onslow-square, Nov. 28, 1858. 
 " Gentlemen, — I have this day received a comma- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 165 
 
 nioation from Mr. Charles Dickens, relative to the 
 dispute which has been so long pending, in -which he 
 
 " ' Can any conference be held between me as repre- 
 senting Mr. Yates, and any appointed friend of yours, 
 as representing you, in the hope and purpose of some 
 quiet accommodation of this deplorable matter, which 
 will satisfy the feelings of all parties V 
 
 " I have written to Mr. Dickens to say, that since 
 the commencement of this business, T have placed 
 myself entirely in the hands of the Committee of the 
 Garrick, and am still as ever prepared to abide by any 
 decision at which they may arrive on the subject. T 
 conceive I cannot, if I would, make the dispute once 
 more personal, or remove it out of the court to which 
 I submitted it for arbitration. 
 
 " If you can devise any peaceful means for ending 
 it, no one will be better pleased than 
 
 " Your obliged faithful servant, 
 
 " W. M. Thackeray. 
 
 " The Committee of the Garrick Club." 
 
 It would be in vain to attempt to conceal that 
 this painful affair left a coolness between Mr. 
 Thackeray and his brother novelist. Mr. Thackeray, 
 smarting under the elaborate and unjust attack, 
 portions of which were copied and widely circu- 
 lated in other journals, could not but regard 
 the friend and adviser of his critic as in some 
 
166 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 degree associated with it ; and Mr. DickenSj on 
 the other hand, naturally hurt at finding his oflFer of 
 arbitration rejected, gave the letters to the original 
 author of the trouble for publication, with the 
 remark — " As the receiver of my letter did not 
 respect the confidence in which it addressed him, 
 there can be none left for you to violate. I send 
 you what I wrote to Mr. Thackeray, and what he 
 wrote to me, and you are at perfect liberty to print 
 the two." Thus, for awhile, ended this painful 
 afiFair. Readers of Disraeli's " Quarrels of Authors" 
 will miss in it those sterner features of the dissen- 
 sions between literary men as they were conducted 
 in the old times ; but none can contemplate this 
 difference between the two great masters of fiction 
 of our day with other than feelings of regret for 
 the causes which led to it. 
 
 It is pleasing, however, to learn that the dif- 
 ferences between them were ended before Mr. 
 Thackeray's death. Singularly enough, this happy 
 circumstance occurred only a few days before the 
 time when it would have been too late. The two 
 great authors met by accident in the lobby of a 
 Club. They suddenly turned and saw each other, 
 
and the Man of Letters. 167 
 
 and the unrestrained impulse of both was to hold 
 out the hand of forgiveness and fellowship. With 
 that hearty grasp the difference which estranged 
 them ceased for ever. This, says the narrator of 
 this circumstance, must have been a great conso- 
 lation to Mr. Dickens when he saw his great bro- 
 ther laid in the earth at Kensal Green ; and no 
 one who has read the beautiful and affecting article 
 on Thackeray, from the hand of Mr. Dickens, just 
 published in the "Cornhill Magazine," can doubt 
 that all trace of this painfal affair had vanished. 
 We believe that the writer of the article which 
 had created so much ill-will, when the angry feel- 
 ings excited by these differences had passed awa^, 
 was no less willing to admit that he had exceeded 
 the limits of fair criticism, and, acting upon false 
 impressions, had done an unintentional wrong. 
 
168 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT 01? THE " COEMHILL MAGAZINE " — UNSUC- 
 CESSFUL ATTEMPT AS A DEAMATIC WEITEE — THE WOLF 
 AND THE LAMB — THE MOUNTAIN SYLPH — THE ADTEN- 
 TUEES OF PHILIP — THE LECTUEES ON THE GEOE&ES — 
 EDITOEIAL TEOUBLES — ANECDOTES OF HIS COEEB- 
 SPONDENTS — WITHDEAWAL FEOM THE EDITOESHIP OF 
 THE " COENHILL " BUILDING OF HOUSE IN KEN- 
 SINGTON PALACE GAEDBNS — ME. HANNAT's ANECDOTES 
 — DEATH OF ME. THACKEEAT — CIECUMSTANCES OF HIS 
 ILLNESS— THE FUNEEAL — HIS UNFINISHED WOEK — ME. 
 THACKEEAY's MANUSCEIPT8 — HIS EABLT LIFE AT OTTEEY 
 ST. MAET TEESES ON CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION MEET- 
 ING — M. LOUIS BLANC's LECTUEES — ME. EOBEET BELL — 
 SCENE AT LECIUEE AT OXFOED — TAUIOUS ANECDOTES — 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The great event of the last few years of Mr. 
 Thackeray's life was the starting of the " Cornhill 
 Magazine," the first Number of which, with the 
 date of January, i860, appeared shortly before 
 Christmas in the previous year. The great success 
 that Mr. Dickens had met with in conducting his 
 weekly periodical, perhaps suggested to Messrs. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 169 
 
 Smithj Eldetj and Co. the project of their new 
 monthly magazine, with Mr. Thackeray for editor. 
 But few expected a design so bold and original, as 
 they found developed by the appearance of Num- 
 ber I. The contents were by contributors of first- 
 rate excellence; the quantity of matter in each 
 was equal to that given by the old-established 
 magazines, published at half-a-crown, while the 
 price of the " Comhill," as every one knows, was 
 only a shilling. The editor's ideas on the subject 
 of the new periodical were explained by him some 
 weeks before the commencement in a character- 
 istic letter to his friend, Mr. G. H. Lewes, which 
 was afterwards adopted as the vehicle of announcing 
 the design to the public. 
 
 " I am not mistaken," says this letter, " in supposing 
 that my readers give me credit for experience and obser- 
 vation, for having lived with educated people in many 
 countries, and seen the world in no small variety ; and, 
 having heard me soliloquize, with so much kindness and 
 favour, and say my own say about life, and men and 
 women, they will not be unwilling to try me as Con- 
 ductor of a Concert, in which I trust many skilful per- 
 formers will take part. We hope for a large number of 
 readers, and must seek in the first place to amuse and in- 
 terest them. Fortunately for some folks, novels are as 
 
170 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 daily bread to others ; and fiction[of course must form a 
 part, but only a part, of our entertainment. We want, on 
 the other hand, as much reality as possible — discussion 
 and narrative of events interesting to the public, personal 
 adventures and observation, familiar reports of scientific 
 discovery, description of Social Institutions — quicquid 
 agunt homines — a Great Eastern, a battle in China, a 
 Eace-Course, a popular Preacher — there is hardly any 
 subject we donH want to hear about, from lettered and 
 instructed men who are competent to speak on it." 
 
 The first number contained the commencement 
 of that series of " Roundabout Papers," in which 
 we get so many interesting glimpses of Mr. 
 Thackeray's personal history and feelings, and 
 also the opening chapters of his story of " Level 
 the Widower." The latter was originally written 
 in the form of a comedy, entitled " The Wolf 
 and the Lamb," which was intended to be per- 
 formed during the management of Mr. Wigan 
 at the Olympic Theatre, but which was finally 
 declined by the latter. Mr. Thackeray, we 
 believe, acquiesced in the unfavourable judg- 
 ment of the practical manager upon the acting 
 qualities of his comedy, and resolved to throw it into 
 narrative form in the story with which his readers 
 are now familiar. This was not the first instance 
 
and the Man of Letters. 171 
 
 of his writing for the stage. If we are not mis- 
 taken, the libretto of Mr. John Barnett's popular 
 opera of the " Mountain Sylph/' produced some 
 thirty years since, was from his pen. In the 
 " Cornhill" also appeared his story of " Philip 
 on his way through the World." The scenes in 
 this are said to have been founded in great part 
 upon his own experiences ; and there can be no 
 doubt that the adventures of Philip Pirmin re- 
 present, in many respects, those of the Charter- 
 house boy, who afterwards became known to the 
 world as the author of "Vanity Fair." But in 
 all such matters it is to be remembered that the 
 writer of fiction feels himself at liberty to deviate 
 from the facts of his life in any way which he 
 finds necessary for the development of his story. 
 Certainly the odious stepfather of Philip must 
 not be taken for Mr. Thackeray's portrait of his 
 own stepfather, towards whom he always enter- 
 tained feelings of respect and affection. We may 
 also remind our readers that the "Lectures on 
 the Pour Georges " first appeared in print in this 
 popular periodical. The sales reached by the 
 earlier numbers were enormous, and far beyond 
 
172 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 anything ever attained by a monthly magazine ; 
 even after the usual subsidence which follows the 
 flush of a great success, the circulation had, we 
 believe, settled at a point far exceeding the most 
 sanguine hopes of the projectors. 
 
 These fortunate results of the undertaking 
 were, however, not without serious drawbacks. 
 The editor soon discovered that his new position 
 was in many respects an unenviable one. Friends 
 and acquaintances, not to speak of constant 
 readers and " regular subscribers to your inter- 
 esting magazine," sent him bushels of manu- 
 scripts, of which it was rare indeed to find one 
 that could be accepted. Sensitive poets and 
 poetesses took umbrage at refusals however kindly 
 and delicately expressed. " How can I go into 
 society with comfort?" asked the editor of a 
 friend at this time. " I dined the other day at 
 
 ^'s, and at the table were four gentlemen, 
 
 whose masterpieces of literary art I had been 
 compelled to decline with thanks." Not six 
 months had elapsed before he began to complain 
 of " thorns" in the editorial cushion. One lady 
 wrote to entreat that her article might be in- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 173 
 
 serted on the ground that she had known better 
 days, and had a sick and widowed mother to 
 maintain — others began with fine phrases about 
 the merits and eminent genius of the person they 
 were addressing. Some found fault with articles, 
 and abused contributor and editor. An Irish- 
 man threatened punishment for an implied libel 
 in " Lovel the Widower " upon ballet-dancers, 
 whom he declared to be superior to the snarlings 
 of dyspeptic libellers, or the spiteful attacks and 
 brutum fulmen of ephemeral authors. This gen- 
 tleman also informed the editor that theatrical 
 managers were in the habit of speaking good 
 English — possibly better than ephemeral authors. 
 " Out of mere malignity," exclaims the unfortu- 
 nate editor, " I suppose there is no man who 
 would like to make enemies. But here, in this 
 editorial business, you can't do otherwise ; and a 
 queer, sad, strange, bitter thought it is that must 
 cross the mind of many a public man. Do what 
 I will, be innocent or spiteful, be generous or 
 cruel, there are A. and B. and C. and D. who 
 will hate me to the end of the chapter — to the 
 chapter's end — to the finis of the page — when 
 
174 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 hate and envy, and fortune and disappointment 
 shall be over."* 
 
 It was chiefly owing to these causes that Mr. 
 Thackeray finally determined to withdraw from the 
 editorship of the Magazine; though continuing 
 to contribute to it, and to take an interest in its 
 progress. In an amusing address to contributors 
 and correspondents, dated 18th March, 1862, he 
 announces this determination. " I believe," he 
 says, " my own special readers will agree that my 
 books will not suffer when their author is re- 
 leased from the daily task of reading, accepting, 
 refusing, losing and finding the works of other 
 people. To say ' No,' has often caused me a 
 morning's peace, and a day's work. Oh, those 
 hours of madness, spent in searching for Louisa's 
 lost lines to her dead ' Piping BuUfinch,' or ' Nhoj 
 Senoj's't mislaid Essay. I tell them for the last 
 time that the (late) Editor will not be responsible 
 for rejected communications, and herewith send 
 off the chair and the great ' Cornhill Magazine' 
 
 * "Eoundabout Papers," No. 5. 
 
 + The reader will discover the meaning of this by re- 
 versing the letters of Nhoj Senoj's name. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 175 
 
 tin box with its load of care." In the same 
 address he announced that while the tale of 
 " Philip" had been passing through the press, he 
 had been preparing another, on which he had 
 worked at intervals for many years past, and 
 which he hoped to introduce in the following year. 
 In a pecuniary sense, the " Cornhill Ma- 
 gazine" had undoubtedly proved a fortunate 
 venture for its editor. It was during his editor- 
 ship that he removed from his house. No. 36, 
 Onslow-square, in which he had resided for some 
 years, to the more congenial neighbourhood of 
 the Palace at Kensington, that " Old Court 
 Suburb," which Mr. Leigh Hunt has gossiped 
 about so pleasantly. Mr. Thackeray took upon 
 a long lease, a somewhat dilapidated mansion on 
 the west side of Kensington Palace-gardens. His 
 intention was to repair and improve it, but he 
 finally resolved to pull it down, and build another 
 in its stead. The new house, a handsome, solid 
 mansion of choice red brick with stone facings, 
 was built from a design drawn by himself; and 
 in this house he continued to reside till the time 
 of his death. " It was," says Mr. Hannay, " a 
 
1 76 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 dwelling worthy of one who really represented . 
 literature in the great world, and who, planting 
 himself on his books, yet sustained the character 
 of his profession with all the dignity of a gentle- 
 man. A friend who called on him there from 
 Edinburgh, in the summer of 1862, knowing of 
 old his love of the Venusian, playfully reminded 
 him what Horace says of those who, regardless of 
 their sepulchre, employ themselves ,in building 
 houses : — 
 
 " Sepulohri 
 Immemor struis domos." 
 
 " Nay," said he, " I am memor sepulchri, for this 
 house will always let for so many hundreds (men- 
 tioning the sum) a year." We may add, that 
 Mr. Thackeray was always of opinion, that not- 
 withstanding the somewhat costly proceeding of 
 pulling down and re-erecting, he had achieved the 
 rare result for a private gentleman, of building for 
 himself a house which, regarded as an investment of 
 a portion of his fortune, left no cause for regret. 
 
 Our brief narrative draws to a close. The 
 announcement of the death of Mr. Thackeray, 
 coming so suddenly upon us in the very 
 
and the Man of Letters, 177 
 
 midst of our great Christian festival of 1863, 
 caused a shock which will be long remembered. 
 His hand had been missed in the last two num- 
 bers of the " Comhill Magazine," but only be- 
 cause he had been engaged in laying the foun- 
 dation of another of those continuous works of 
 fiction which his readers so eagerly expected. In 
 the then current Number of the " Cornhill Maga- 
 zine/' the customary orange-coloured fly-leaf had 
 announced that ' a new serial story' by him would 
 be commenced early in the new year; but the 
 promise had scarcely gone abroad when we learnt 
 that the hand which had penned its opening chap- 
 ters, in the full prospect of a happy ending, could 
 never again add line or word to that long range of 
 writings which must always remain one of the best 
 evidences of the strength and beauty of our Eng- 
 lish speech. 
 
 On the Tuesday preceding he had followed to 
 the grave his relative. Lady Kodd, widow of Vice- 
 Admiral Sir John Tremayne Eodd, K.C.B., who 
 was the daughter of Major James Rennell, F.R.S., 
 Surveyor-General of Bengal, by the daughter of 
 the Rev. Dr. Thackeray, Head Master of Harrow 
 
178 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 School. Only the day before this, according to a 
 newspaper account, he had been congratulating 
 himself on having finished four numbers of a new- 
 novel ; he had the manuscript in his pocket, and 
 ■with a boyish frankness showed the last pages to 
 a friend, asking him to read them and see what he 
 could make of them. When he had completed 
 four numbers more he said he would subject him- 
 self to the skill of a very clever surgeon, and be 
 no more an invalid. Only two days before he had 
 been seen at his club in high spirits ; but with all 
 his high spirits, he did not seem well ; he com- 
 plained of illness ; but he vras often ill, and he 
 laughed off his present attack. He said that he 
 was about to undergo some treatment which would 
 work a perfect cure in his system, and so he made 
 light of his malady. He was suffering from two 
 distinct complaints, one of which had jiow wrought 
 his death. More than a dozen years before, while 
 he was writing " Pendennis," the publication of 
 that work was stopped by his serious illness. He 
 ■was brought to death's door, and he was saved 
 from death by Dr. Elliotson, to whom, in gratitude, 
 he dedicated the novel when he lived to finish it. 
 
and the Man of Letters. 179 
 
 But ever since tliat ailment he had been subject 
 every month or six weeks to attacks of sickness, 
 attended with violent retching. He was con- 
 gratulating himself, just before his death, on 
 the failure of his old enemy to return, and 
 then he checked himself, as if he ought not 
 to be too sure of a release from his plague. 
 On the morning of Wednesday, the 33rd of 
 December, the complaint returned, and he was 
 in great suffering all day.* He was no better 
 in the evening, and his valet, Charles Sargent, 
 left him at eleven o'clock on Wednesday night, 
 Mr. Thackeray wishing him " Good night" as 
 he went out of the room. At nine o'clock on 
 the following morning the valet entering his 
 master's chamber as usual, found him lying on 
 his back quite still, with his arms spread over 
 the coverlet, but he took no notice, as he was 
 accustomed to see his master thus after one of 
 his stomach attacks. He brought some coffee 
 and set it down beside the bed, and it was only 
 when he returned after an interval and found 
 that the cup had not been tasted, that a sudden 
 * lS,mes Newspaper, 25th Dec,, 1863. 
 
 N a 
 
180 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 alarm seized him, and he discovered that his 
 master was dead. About midnight Mr. Thack- 
 eray's mother, who slept overhead, had heard him" 
 get up and walk about his room ; but she was 
 not alarmed, as this was a habit of her son when 
 unwell. It is supposed that he had, in fact, been 
 seized at this time, and that the violence of the 
 attack had brought on the effusion on the brain 
 — which, as the post-mortem examination showed, 
 was the immediate cause of death. His medical 
 attendants attributed his death to effusion on the 
 brain, and added that he had a very large 
 brain, weighing no less than 58^ oz. He thus 
 died of the complaint which seemed to trouble 
 him least. 
 
 The shock occasioned by the news of his 
 death cannot be better described than in the 
 words of one whose generous testimony is the 
 more interesting from the fact of its author hav- 
 ing been the acknowledged writer of the unjust 
 and inconsiderate sketch of Mr. Thackeray's life 
 and character, which had led to the unhappy dis- 
 sensions in the Garrick Club. 
 
 " On Christmas-Eve," says Mr. Edmund Yates, the 
 
and the Man of Letters. 181 
 
 ■writer referred to, " in the twilight, at the time when 
 the clubs are filled with men who have dropped in on 
 their homeward way to hear the latest news, or tO' 
 exchange pleasant jests or seasonable greetings, a 
 rumour ran through London that Thackeray was dea,d, 
 I myself heard it on club steps from the friend who had 
 just returned from telegraphing the intelligence to an 
 Irish newspaper, and at first doubted, as all did, the 
 authenticity of the information. One had seen him 
 two days before, another had dined in his company but 
 two nights previously ; but it was true ! Thackeray 
 ■was dead ; and the purest English prose writer of the 
 nineteenth century, and the novelist with a greater 
 knowledge of the human heart as it really is than any 
 one — with the exception, perhaps, of Shakspeare and 
 Balzac — was suddenly struck down in the midst of uss 
 In the midst of us ! Ko long illness, no lingering 
 decay, no gradual suspension of power j almost pen in 
 hand, like Kempenfelt, he went down. Well said the 
 Exarnimer — ' Whatever little feuds may have gathered 
 about Mr. Thackeray's public life lay lightly on the 
 surface of the minds that chanced to be in contest 
 with him. They could be thrown off in a moment, 
 at the first shock of the news that he was dead.' It 
 seemed impossible to realize the fact. No other cele- 
 brity, be he writer, statesman, artist, actor, seemed so 
 thoroughly a portion of London. That 'good grey 
 head which all men knew ' was as easy of recognition 
 as his to whom the term applied, the Duke of Wel- 
 lington. Scarcely a day passed without his being seen 
 in the Pall-Mall districts; and a Londoner showing 
 
183 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 country coiisms the ■wonders of the metropolis, gene- 
 rally knew how to arrange for them to have a sight of 
 the great English writer. The Examiner was right. 
 God knows ! the shock had thrown off all but regretful 
 feelings, and an impossibility to comprehend the mag- 
 nitude of the sudden loss. We talked of him— rof how, 
 more than any other author, he had written about what 
 is said of men immediately after their death — of how 
 he had written of the death-chamber, ' They shall come 
 in here for the last time to you, my friend in motley.' 
 We read that marvellous sermon which the week-day 
 preacher delivered to entranced thousands over old 
 John Sedley's dead body, and ' sadly fell our Christmas- 
 Eve.' One would have thought that the Times could 
 have spared more space than a bare three-quarters of a 
 column for the record of such a man's life and death. 
 One would have thought that Westminster Abbey 
 might have opened her doors for the reception of the 
 earthly remains of one whose name will echo to the end 
 of time. And, as I write, the thought occurs to me 
 that the same man was, perhaps, the last to wish for 
 either of such distinctions." 
 
 The funeral took place on the 30th of Decem- 
 ber, the body being interred in Kensal Green 
 cemeterjr. The day was beautiful, and the atmo- 
 sphere as balmy as if it were June instead of 
 December. On the way to the cemetery there 
 could be seen not only the carriages of the aristo- 
 
and the Man of Letters. 183 
 
 cratic and wealthy, but also many persons of the 
 humbler classes ; and, indeed, there was much 
 evidence at the grave that the English people — 
 and not any particular class— felt their bereavement 
 in the great and genial author. It was remarkable 
 also what various departments of life and thought 
 were represented — the actor and the artist, the 
 editor and the novelist, the poet and the clergyman, 
 all were there to mourn over one whose mind and 
 heart were, says one writer, a hundred-gated city. 
 Amongst the 1500 persons present were noticed 
 Mr. Eobert Browning, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. 
 Anthony TroUope, Mr. Mark Lemon, Mr. G. H. 
 Lewes, Mr. Theodore Martin, Mr. Isaac Butt, 
 M.P., Mr. W. H. Russell, LL.D., Mr. Lawrence, 
 barrister; Mr. J. C. O'Dowd, barrister; Mr. 
 Higgins (Jacob Omnium), Mr. Robert Bell, Mr. 
 Howell Morgan, the High Sheriff of Merioneth- 
 shire ; Rev. Dr. Rudge, the Archdeacon of Lon- 
 don, Master of the Charterhouse, in which Mr. 
 Thackeray was educated; Mr. Millais, R.A. ; Mr. 
 George Cruickshank, an old friend of Mr. Thack- 
 eray, with whom in his early life the author 
 studied etching ; Mr. Leech, Mr. Shirley Brooks, 
 
184 Thackeray ; the Humourist , 
 
 Mr. Charles Mathews, Mr. Tom Taylor, Sir J. Car- 
 michael, Mr. John Hollingshead, Mr. Dallas, Mr. 
 O'Neile, Mr. Creswick, E.A. ; Mr. Moy Thomas, 
 M. Louis Blanc, Mr. George Smith, Mr. Samuel 
 Langley, Mr. F. M. Evans, Mr. Frederick Green- 
 wood, Mr. Thomas Walker, Mr. Edward Piggott, 
 Mr. M. D. Conway, and Miss Braddon. Mr. 
 Carlyle, between whom and Mr. Thackeray a 
 friendship of many years subsisted, was prevented 
 from attending by illness in his family. 
 
 The funeral procession, which, in accordance- 
 with the well-known tastes of the deceased, was 
 remarkably simple, arrived at the cemetery about 
 twelve o'clock. There was but one mourning 
 coach, in which were seated Mr. F. St. John 
 Thackeray and Mr. James Rodd, cousins of the 
 deceased. In the succeeding carriage (the private 
 carriage of Mr. Thackeray) were Captain Shaw, 
 his brother-in-law, and the Hon. E. Curzon. 
 The remaining coaches were those of Earl Gran- 
 ville, Mr. Martin Thackeray, General Low, Lord 
 Gardiner, Sir W. Frazer, Hon. E. Curzon, Mr. 
 Macaulay, Q.C., Sir James Colville, and Mr. 
 
and the Man of Letters, 185 
 
 Bradbury, of the eminent publishing firm of 
 Bradbury and Evans. 
 
 The funeral service was read/ by the chaplain 
 of the cemetery, Eev. Charles Stuart. Mr. 
 Thackeray's daughters were present in the chapel, 
 and also looked into the grave. A deep sympathy 
 was felt- by all in their profound grief at the loss of 
 one whose tenderness as a man was not less than 
 his strength as an author. 
 
 The coffin was quite plain and bore the inscrip- 
 tion : — 
 
 WILUAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, ESQ. 
 
 DIED 2iTB DECEMBER, 1863, 
 
 AGED 52 YEARS. 
 
 The scene was altogether deeply impressive. 
 Many eyes were fastened upon Mr. Dickens, as 
 he stood, side by side with Mr. Browning, look- 
 ing into the grave of one whose greatness none 
 could or did more appreciate. And after the 
 solemn words, " dust to dust," had fallen on the 
 sad hearts there gathered, and the ceremonies were 
 over, the company seemed loth to depart, and 
 lingered in quiet and hushed conversation round 
 the grave. 
 
186 Thackeray ; the Humourist 
 
 Just before his death, as has been already 
 stated, he had rejoiced over the completion of 
 the fourth monthly portion of his story, seeing in 
 it the promise of a work which would not be 
 found, when completed, to fall short even of his 
 fame. It was, like the Virginians, a story of 
 the times of George the First and George the 
 Second. Some months previously it had been 
 rumoured that the next work from his pen would 
 relate to an early period of English history — a 
 statement which a bold guesser subsequently en- 
 larged into the assertion that its scene would be 
 laid in the times of the Anglo-Saxons. Its 
 author was doubtless amused at the paragraph 
 which made the customary tour through the press 
 of London and the provinces, gravely informing 
 the world that the author of " Esmond," and the 
 " Essays on the Humourists," who had hitherto 
 delighted in the times of elaborate flowing wigs, 
 and swords, and coats with huge lapels, had sud- 
 denly betaken himself to those misty days of 
 savage manners and scanty clothing. The ru- 
 mour, in its unembellished form, was however 
 not without foundation. He had contemplated 
 
and the Man of Letters. 187 
 
 "vrriting a story of the days of Henry the 
 Eifth, in which period of our history some ac- 
 cidental bent of his reading had led him to take 
 a special interest. He had even thought of some 
 of its details, and had amused himself in imagi- 
 nation with a grotesque scene in one of the old 
 chroniclers of a famous royal lady, who rode into 
 a fair city of Normandy upon a cow. But the 
 notion was laid aside. His old passion for re- 
 creating the life and manners of the last century 
 was too powerful to be resisted, and he finally 
 found himself at home in a tale of English life 
 of the old period, in which the elaborate imitation 
 of the style of the "Augustan age " would not be 
 allowed, as in the " Adventures of Henry Esmond," 
 to interfere with the development of a story of a 
 good and heroic stamp, in the presence of which 
 the old complaints from adverse critics of cynicism 
 and coldness should be heard no more. 
 
188 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 ANECDOTES AND EEMINISCENCES. 
 
 QOME few detached anecdotes may here be 
 added. Mr. Thackeray was remarkable among 
 his fellow literary men no less for the clearness of 
 his handwriting than for the general neatness of 
 his manuscripts. Page after page of that small 
 round hand would be written by him absolutely — 
 for he rai'ely altered his first draughts in any way — 
 without interlineation, blot, or blemish of any kind. 
 Only a few weeks before he died he spent a morn- 
 ing in the reading-room of the British Museum, and 
 there by accident left upon a table a page of the 
 manuscript of his unpublished story. The paper 
 being found by the attendant, so well was this fact 
 known, that the extreme clearness of the writing at 
 once suggested its owner. An appeal to one of the 
 readers who was familiar with his autograph, de- 
 cided the matter, and Mr. Thackeray, to his great 
 surprise and gratification, was interrupted in his 
 fruitless search at home by the arrival of a letter 
 enclosing the missing page. 
 
 I 
 
 T having been said in an Exeter paper that 
 Mr. Thackeray, when a boy, went to school 
 
FAC-SIMILE OF M« THACKERAYS HAND-WRITING. 
 rrc ■\AJj<My\. djoUJy lifiXLj tvi vuuuv »rv WrvuKtvu . 
 
 Ci>XA4^M^X VMM. ((u, Aa/H fli-will^tULH. 1«- ilA/vrft^ * 
 
 lifAA^JLu, 
 
 Vc«L/»lc<A.^ 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 189 
 
 at Ottery St. Mary, in that county, the Rev. Dr. 
 Cornish, the vicar of that place, has recently 
 written to contradict the statement. It appears 
 from the Doctor's letter that the step-father of the 
 great novelist rented an estate near Ottery St. 
 Mary,' and that the latter, while stopping there, 
 used to visit at the vicarage and borrow books of 
 Dr. Cornish. The scenery of Clavering St. Mary and 
 Chatteris, in " Pendennis," corresponds, according 
 to the latter, in minute particulars with that of 
 Ottery St. Mary and Exeter. One of the little 
 marginal vignettes in that famous novel is a pic- 
 ture of the clock tower of Ottery church. Thack- 
 eray describes the youthful Pendennis as galloping 
 through " the Iliad and Odyssey, the tragic play- 
 writers, and the charming wicked Aristophanes, 
 whom he vowed to be the greatest poet of all." 
 When the author was about the age of his young 
 hero, he borrowed of Dr. Cornish Carey's trans- 
 lation of " The Birds of Aristophanes," which he 
 read, says the Doctor, with intense delight, and 
 returned it with three humorous illustrative draw- 
 ings. Mr. Thackeray says in "Pendennis" — 
 " It was at this period of his existence that Pen 
 broke out in the poet's comer of the county 
 
190 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 Chronicle with some verses with which he was 
 perfectly well satisfied." Dr. Cornish adds that 
 when the great Catholic emancipation meeting 
 took place on Penenden Heath, Thackeray hrought 
 him some verses, which were afterwards forwarded 
 to an Exeter paper for insertion, and dulyappeared. 
 These verses, given helow, the Doctor thinks, were 
 the first composition of the great humourist that 
 was ever published : — 
 
 IRISH JMELODY. 
 
 Air — " The Minstrel Boy." 
 Mister Shell into Kent has gone, 
 
 On Penenden Heath you'll find him ; 
 Nor think you that he came alone, 
 
 There's Doctor Doyle behind him. 
 " Men of Kent," said this little man, 
 
 " If you hate Emancipation, 
 You're a set of fools :" he then besran 
 
 A " cut and dry" oration. 
 
 He strove to speak, but the men of Kent 
 
 Began a grievous shouting. 
 When out of his waggon the little man went, 
 
 And put a stop to his spouting. 
 " What though these heretics heard me not," 
 
 Quoth he to his friend Canonical ; 
 " My speech is safe in the Times I wot, 
 
 And eke in the Morning Chronicle.'' 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 19 1 
 
 T OUIS BLANC, the historian of the French 
 -^ Eevolution, has recently related in a French 
 newspaper the following story : — "A few years ago 
 the London papers announced that a Frenchman, 
 whose name I need not give you [M. Louis Blanc 
 himself], was going to deliver in English what is 
 here called a lecture. Foremost among those who 
 were moved by a feeling of delicate kindness and 
 hospitable curiosity to encourage the lecturer with 
 their presence was Thackeray. When the lecture 
 was over, the manager of the literary institution 
 where it was delivered, for some reason or other, 
 recommended the company to take care of their 
 pockets in the crowd at the doors — a hint which was 
 not particularly to the taste of a highly respectable 
 and even distinguished audience. Some even pro- 
 tested, and none more warmly than an unknown 
 person, very well dressed, sitting next to Mr. Robert 
 Bell. Not content with speaking, this unknown 
 person gesticulated in a singularly animated manner. 
 ' Isn't such a suggestion indecent, sir — insulting ?' 
 said he to Mr. Bell. ' What does he take us for ?' 
 &c. &c. After giving vent to his indignation in 
 this way for some moments, the susceptible 
 
193 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 stranger disappeared, and when Mr. Robert Bell, 
 who wanted to know how long the lecture had 
 lasted, put his hand to his watch-pocket, behold ! 
 his watch had disappeared likewise. Thackeray, 
 to whom his excellent friend mentioned the mis- 
 hap, invited Robert Bell to dinner a day or two 
 .after. When the day came, Robert Bell took his 
 seat at his friend's table, round which a joyous 
 company of wits were gathered, and soon found 
 himself encircled by a rattling fire of banter about 
 an article of his which had just appeared in the 
 ' Cornhill Magazine,' then conducted by Thack- 
 -eray ; an article remarkable in all respects, and 
 which had attracted universal notice, as a faithful, 
 serious, and philosophical account of some effects of 
 Spiritualism which the author had witnessed at a 
 seance given by Mr. Home. Mr. Robert Bell is 
 an admirable causeur; his talk is a happy mixture 
 of an Englishman's good sense and an Irishman's 
 verve. So his questioners found their match in 
 brilliant fence. Next day a mysterious messenger 
 arrived at Mr. Robert Bell's, and handed to him, 
 without saying who had sent it, a box containing 
 a note, worded, as nearly as I recollect, as follows: 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 193 
 
 ' The Spirits present their complioieats to Mr. 
 Robert Bell, and as a mark of their gratitude to 
 hioij they have the honour to return him the 
 watch that was stolen from him.' And a watch 
 it really was that the box contained, but a watch 
 far finer and richer than the one which had disap- 
 peared. Mr. Robert Bell at once thought of 
 Thackeray, and wrote to him without further ex- 
 planation : — ' I don't know if it is to you, but it is 
 very like you.' Thackeray in reply sent a cari- 
 cature portrait of himself, drawn by his own hand, 
 and representing a winged spirit in a flowing robe,^ 
 and spectacles on nose. Thackeray had in early 
 life takea to painting, and perhaps if he had pur- 
 sued his first vocation, he might have come in 
 time to handle the brush as well as he afterwards 
 handled the pen. At any rate the drawing in 
 question, as I can bear witness, was one to bring 
 tears into your eyes for laughing. It was accom- 
 panied by a note as follows : — ' The Spirit Gabriel 
 presents his compliments to Mr. Robert Bell, and 
 takes the liberty to communicate to him the por- 
 trait of the person who stole the watch.' Now, 
 is not this bit of a story charming ? What grace } 
 
 o 
 
194 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 ■what delicacy ! what humour in this inspiration 
 of a friend who, to punish his friend for having 
 done the Spirits the honour to speak of them, 
 sends him with a smile a magnificent present. 
 Honourahle to Thackeray, this anecdote is equally 
 so to Robert Bell, who could inspire such feelings 
 in such a man. And this is why I feel a double 
 pleasure in relating it." 
 
 A N anonymous writer says : — " The first time 
 I heard Mr. Thackeray read in public, he paid 
 a tribute to ' Boz.' It was the night after the 
 Oxford election, in which Mr. Thackeray was an 
 unsuccessful candidate, and the kind-hearted author 
 hastened up to town to fulfil a promise to give 
 some readings on behalf of Mr. Angus Reach.* 
 I well remember the burst of laughter and applause 
 which greeted the opening words of his reading. 
 'Walking yesterday down the streets of an ancient 
 and well-known city, I,' — but here the allusion .to 
 Oxford was recognised, and he had to wait until 
 
 * The writer is here in error. The Lecture was not de- 
 livered on behalf of Mr. Eeach, but for the fund then 
 being raised to the memory of the late Douglas Jerrold. 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 195 
 
 the merriment it created had ceased. In alluding 
 to Charles Dickens, Mr. Thackeray, after speaking 
 with abhorrence of the impurity of the writings of 
 Sterne, went on to say : — ' The foul satyr's eyes 
 leer out of the leaves constantly ; the last words 
 the famous author wrote were bad and wicked — 
 the last lines the poor stricken wretch penned 
 were for pity and pardon. I think of these past 
 writers, and of one who lives amongst us now, and 
 am grateful for the innocent laughter and the 
 sweet and unsullied pages which the author of 
 ' David Copperfield' gives to my children.' The 
 author of ' David Copperfield ' was taken by sur- 
 prise, and looked immensely hard at the ceiling, as 
 if trying to persuade himself that he was unknown 
 to the audience. On the same night I heard 
 Thackeray read Hood's celebrated lines, ' One 
 more unfortunate,' &c." 
 
 rpHE same writer observes : — " Thackeray was 
 a member of the Reform, the Athenaeum, and 
 the Garrick Clubs — perhaps of others, but it was in 
 those I have named that his leisure was usually 
 spent. The afternoons of the last week of his 
 
 o 3 
 
196 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 life were almost entirely passed at the Eeform 
 Club, and never had he been more genial or in 
 such apparently happy moods. Many men sitting 
 in the libraries and the dining-rooms of these 
 Clubs have thought this week of one of the ten- 
 derest passages in his early sketches — ' Brown 
 the younger at a Club/ — in which the old uncle 
 is represented as telling his nephew, while show- 
 ing him the various rooms of the club, of those 
 who had dropped off — whose names had appeared 
 at the end of the Club list, under the dismal 
 category of ' members deceased,' in which (added 
 Thackeray) ' You and I shall rank some day.' " 
 
 It/TR. HANNAY says " his frankness and bou- 
 hommie made him delightful in a iete-a-tete, 
 and gave a pleasant human flavour to talk full of 
 sense, and wisdom, and experience, and lighted up 
 by the gaiety of the true London man of the world. 
 Though he said witty things now and then, he 
 was not a wit in the sense in which Jerrold was, 
 and he complained, sometimes, that his best 
 things occurred to him after the occasion had 
 gone by ! He shone most — as in his books — 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 197 
 
 in little subtle remarks on life, and little descrip- 
 tive sketches suggested by the talk. We re- 
 member, in particular, one evening, after a dinner- 
 party at his house, a fancy picture he drew of 
 Shakspeare during his last years at Stratford, 
 sitting out in the summer afternoon watching the 
 people, which all who heard it, brief as it was, 
 thought equal to the best things in his Lectures. 
 But it was not for this sort of talent, — rarely 
 exerted by him, — that people admired his con- 
 versation. They admired, above all, the broad 
 sagacity, sharp insight, large and tolerant libe- 
 rality, which marked him as one who was a sage 
 as well as a story-teller, and whose stories were 
 valuable because he was a sage. Another 
 point of likeness to him in Scott was that 
 he never over- valued story-telling, or forgot that 
 there were nobler things in literature than the 
 purest creation of which the object was amuse- 
 ment."* 
 
 * Mr. Hannay's interesting sketch, originally published 
 in the form of an article in the Bdinhwrgh Courant, has 
 since been reprinted in a pamphlet form by Messrs. Oliver 
 and Boyd, of Edinburgh. 
 
198 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 rpHACKEEAY and FIELDING.— Th&ckeraj, 
 many years since, came down into Somerset- 
 shire to visit some friends in the bright and sunny 
 days of Sydney Smith, and rejoiced in the society and 
 cordial hospitality of the witty Rector of Combe 
 Morey. Unfortunately, there is no Boswell to 
 record the good things uttered by these noble 
 humourists. Thackeray, at a later period of his 
 life, contemplated a pilgrimage to Sharpham Park, 
 near Glastonbury, the birth-place of Fielding, 
 whose character he has drawn with such genuine 
 sympathy and discernment in his " Lectures on 
 the English Humourists." He was gratified to 
 learn from a gentleman living in that part 
 of the country, that a place in the Gallery 
 of " West Country " Worthies, with the glorious 
 company of Blake and Locke, was reserved for 
 the author of " Tom Jones." The inscription 
 for the Fielding Memorial would have been the 
 work of Mr. Thackeray's hand if his life had been 
 spared a few months longer. He was fond of 
 repeating Gibbon's panegyric on Fielding. It is 
 as follows : — " Our immortal Fielding was of the 
 younger branch of the Earls of Denbigh, who 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 199 
 
 drew their origin from the Counts of Hapsburg. 
 The successors of Charles V. may disdain their 
 brethren of England, but the romance of ' Tom 
 Jones/ that exquisite picture of human manners, 
 will outlive the Palace of the Escurial, and the 
 Imperial Eagle of Austria."* 
 
 TN October, 1855, a dinner was given to Mr. 
 Thackeray at the London Tavern, of which 
 one who was present gave at the time the follow- 
 ing account : — " The Thackeray dinner was a 
 triumph. Covers, we are assured, were laid for 
 sixty ; and sixty and no more sat down precisely 
 at the minute named to do honour to the great 
 novelist. Sixty very hearty shakes of the hand 
 did Thackeray receive from sixty friends on that 
 occasion ; and hearty cheers- from sixty vociferous 
 and friendly tongues followed the chairman's, Mr. 
 Charles Dickens, proposal of his health, and of 
 wishes for his speedy and successful return among 
 us. Dickens — ^the best after-dinner speaker now 
 alive — was never happier. He spoke as if he was 
 
 * For this anecdote I am indebted to Mr. Einglake. — 
 T.T. 
 
200 Thackeray ; the Humourist, 
 
 fully conscious that it was a great occasion, and 
 that the absence of eveu one reporter was a matter 
 of congratulation, affording, ampler room to un- 
 bend. The table was in the shape of a horse- 
 shoe, having two vice-chairmen ; and this circum- 
 stance was wrought up and played with by Dickens 
 in the true Sam Weller and Charles Dickens 
 manner. Thackeray, who is far from what is 
 called a good speaker, outdid himself. There was 
 his usual hesitation; but this hesitation becomes 
 his manner of speaking and his matter, and is 
 never unpleasant to his hearers, though it is, we 
 are assured, most irksome to himself. This 
 speech was full of pathos, and humour, and oddity, 
 with bits of prepared parts imperfectly recollected, 
 but most happily made good by the felicities of 
 the passing moment. Like the ' Last Min- 
 strel,' 
 
 ' Each blank in faithless memory void 
 The poet's glowing thought supplied.' 
 
 It was a speech to remember for its earnestness 
 ■of purpose and its undoubted originality. Then 
 the chairman quitted, and many near and at 
 a distance, quitted with him. Thackeray was 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. SOI 
 
 on the move with the chairman, when, inspired 
 by the moment, Jerrold took the chair, and 
 Thackeray remained. Who is to chronicle what 
 now passed ? — what passages of wit — what neat and 
 pleasant sarcastic speeches in proposing healths — 
 what varied and pleasant, ay, and at times, sar- 
 castic acknowledgments ? Up to the time when 
 Dickens left, a good reporter might have .given 
 all, and with ease, to future ages : but there could 
 be no reporting what followed. There were words 
 too nimble and too full of flame for a dozen Gur- 
 neys, all ears, to catch and preserve. Few will 
 forget that night. There was an ' air of wit' 
 about the room for three days after. Enough 
 to make the two next companies, though down- 
 right fools, right witty." 
 
 ■jl/TR. SHIRLEY BROOKS has given au inte- 
 resting account of the last occasion on which 
 he saw Mr. Thackeray. It was at the Garrick 
 dub, on Wednesday the 16th of December. 
 Mr. Thackeray, who was dining, was, he tells us, 
 in his usual spirits, which were never boisterous 
 and always cheerful, and he had pleasant words 
 
203 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 for all present. " On that evening," adds Mr. 
 Brooks, " he enjoyed himself much, in his own 
 quiet -way, and contributed genially to the enjoy- 
 ment of those who were something less quiet; 
 and, a question arising about a subscription in aid 
 of a disabled artist, he instantly offered to increase, 
 if necessary, a sum he had previously promised. 
 The writer's very last recollection of the ' cynic,' 
 therefore, is in connexion with an unasked act. of 
 Christian kindness. On the following Monday 
 he attended the funeral of a lady who was in- 
 terred in Kensal Green Cemetery. On the 
 Tuesday evening he came to his favourite club — 
 the Garrick — and asked a seat at the table of 
 two friends, who, of course, welcomed him as all 
 welcomed Thackeray. It will not be deemed too 
 minute a record by any of the hundreds who per- 
 sonally loved him to note where he sat for the 
 last time in that club. There is in the dining- 
 room on the first floor a nook near the reading- 
 room. The principal picture hanging in that 
 nook, and fronting you as you approach it, is the 
 celebrated one from ' The Clandestine Marriage,' 
 with Lord Ogleby, Canton, and Brush. Opposite 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 203 
 
 r 
 
 to that Thackeray, took his seat and dined witfK- 
 his friends. He was afterwards in the smoking- 
 roonij a place in which he delighted. The Garrick 
 Club will remove in a few months, and all these 
 details will be nothing to its new members, but 
 much to many of its old ones. His place there 
 will know him and them no more. On the 
 Wednesday he was out several times, and was 
 seen in Palace Gardens ' reading a book.' Before 
 the dawn on Thursday he was where there is no 
 night." 
 
 rpO the information concerning Mr. Thack- 
 eray's family which we have already given, we 
 may add the following particulars. Dr. George 
 Thackeray, an uncle, we believe, of the deceased 
 author, was provost of King's from: 1814 till his 
 death in 1850, the very dignity which, as our 
 readers will remember, the good Dr. Thomas 
 Thackeray, the novelist's great-grandfather, had 
 unsuccessfully competed for. A cousin, Lieu- 
 tenant Edward Talbot Thackeray, of the Bengal 
 Engineers, obtained, in 1863, the Victoria Cross 
 in reward of his cool intrepidity and daring in 
 
204 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 extinguishing a fire in the Delhi magazine 
 inclosure on the 16th September, 1857', under a 
 heavy fire from the enemy, at the' imminent 
 risk of his life from an explosion. 
 
 To Mr. Thackeray's intimate friends, it must be 
 pleasing to find how much progress has been made, 
 even in the brief period which has elapsed since his 
 death, towards a right appreciation of his character. 
 The notion that the man, who with such delicate 
 irony and unsparing satire laid bare the folly and 
 wickedness of " Vanity Pair," must necessarily be 
 harsh and misanthropical, is already forgotten. 
 Men remember now the many eloquent and 
 tender passages in which he touches upon human 
 frailty, or depicts the brighter side of life, the 
 many noble appeals which he has made in favour 
 •of charity and forbearance. Nor is this entirely 
 due to our natural tenderness towards those who 
 have just passed through that dark and narrow gate- 
 way whither all human footsteps tend. Por some 
 time past, these truer ideas of his private character 
 had been gaining ground. It is said that of late, 
 and since the one great overshadowing affliction of 
 
Anecdotes and Reminiscences. 205' 
 
 his domestic life had been softened down, nothing 
 had caused him so much pain as his sense that 
 his satirical writings had led many to regard him 
 as a heartless cynic. It was natural that he should 
 strive to remove this impression ; but the proofs 
 of his goodheartedness are too numerous, and 
 many of too old a date, as in his kindness to 
 Maginn, to Louis Marvy and others, to be attri- 
 buted to this cause. One of the newspaper re- 
 porters, in describing the funeral, touchingly 
 remarks that some persons took a farewell sor- 
 rowful look into his grave, who were not recognised 
 there among the great assemblage of literary and 
 artistic celebrities, and whose bond of sympathy 
 or ground of gratitude towards the deceased were 
 known only to themselves. To those who knew 
 best his private life this will be most intelligiblcr 
 Time will assuredly do justice to his memory. 
 
206 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 IE, THACKEEAY'S PUBLIC SPEECHES: 
 
 A Selection from Notes taken on various 
 occasions. 
 
 The peculiar humour of Mr. Thackeray is no- 
 where more readily discernible than in his 
 speeches. These •were always unstudied, as the 
 occasions when they were uttered allowed that 
 freedom of fancy, and play of sudden thought, of 
 which the pen is not always willing to make use. 
 As such it is believed that these specimens of his 
 public speaking, hitherto uncollected, will be 
 welcome to his admirers. 
 
 LIXBRATtTRE VerSUS POLITICS. 
 
 1848. 
 "If the approbation which my profession receives 
 is such as Mr. Adolphus is pleased to say it has 
 been [this gentleman had just been speaking of the 
 importance of this branch of literature, naming Mr. 
 Thackeray as one of its most distinguished orna- 
 ments], I can only say that we are nearly as 
 happy in this country as our brother literary men 
 are in foreign countries ; and that we have all but 
 arrived at the state of dethroning you all. I don't 
 wish that this catastrophe should be brought about 
 for the sake of personal quiet ; for one, I am desi- 
 rous to read my books, write my articles, and get 
 my money. I don't wish that that should take 
 
His Public Speeches. 207 
 
 place J but if I survey mankind, not * from China 
 to Peru/ but over the map of Europe, with that 
 cursory glance which novel-writers can afford to 
 take, I see nothing but literary men who seem 
 to be superintending the affairs of the Continent, 
 and only our happy island which is exempt from 
 the literary despotism. Look to Italy, towards 
 the boot of which I turn my eyes, and iirst, I 
 find that a great number of novelists and literary 
 men are bouleversing the country from toe to 
 heel, turning about Naples, and kicking Rome 
 here and there, and causing a sudden onward 
 impetus of the monarchy of the great Carlo Alberto 
 himself. If I go to Prance, I find that men, 
 and more particularly men of my own profession 
 and Mr. James's profession, are governing the 
 country ; I find that writers of fiction and authors 
 in general are ruling over the destinies of the 
 empire ; that Pegasus is, as it were, the charger 
 of the first citizen of the Eepublic. But arriving 
 at my own country, I beseech you to remember 
 that there was a time, a little time ago, on the 
 * 10th of April last,' when a great novelist — a 
 great member of my own profession — was stand- 
 ing upon Kennington Common in the van of 
 liberty, prepared to assume any responsibility, to 
 take upon himself any direction of government, 
 to decorate himself with the tricolour sash, or the 
 Eobespierre waistcoat; and but for the timely, 
 and I may say 'special' interposition of many 
 
20S Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 who are here present, you might have been at 
 present commanded by a president of a literary 
 republic, instead of by our present sovereign. I 
 doubt whether any presidents of any literary 
 republics would contribute as much to the funds 
 of this society. I don't believe that the country 
 as yet requires so much of our literary men ; but 
 in the meanwhile I suppose it must be the task 
 and endeavour of all us light practitioners of lite- 
 rature to do our best, to say our little say in the 
 honestest way we can, to tell the truth as heartily 
 and as simply as we are able to tell it, to expose 
 the humbug, and to support the honest man." 
 
 THE KEALITY OF NOVELISTS' CREATIONS. 
 
 1849. 
 " I suppose, Mr. Chairman, years ago when you 
 had a duty to perform, you did not think much 
 about, or look to, what men of genius and men 
 of eloquence in England might say of you ; but 
 you went and you did your best with all your 
 power, and, what was the result? You determined 
 to do your best on the next occasion. I believe 
 that is the philosophy of what I have been doing 
 in the course of my life ; I don't know whether 
 it has tended to fame or to laughter, or to serious- 
 ness j but I have tried to say the truth, and as 
 far as I know, I have tried to describe what I 
 saw before me, as well as I best might, and to 
 like my neighbour as well as my neighbour would 
 
His Public Speeches. 209 
 
 let me like him. All the rest of the speech which 
 I had preparedj has fled into thin air ; the only 
 part of it which I remember was an apology for, 
 or rather, an encomium of, the profession of us 
 novelists, which, I am bound to say, for the 
 honour of our calling, ought to rank with the 
 very greatest literary occupations. Why should 
 historians take precedence of us? Our person- 
 ages are as real as theirs. For instance, I main- 
 tain that our friends Parson Adams and Dr. 
 Primrose, are characters as authentic as Dr. 
 Sacheverell, or Dr. Warburton, or any reverend 
 personage of their times. Gil Bias is quite as 
 real and as gpod a man as the Duke of Lerma, 
 and, I believe, a great deal more so.* I was 
 thinking, too, that Don Quixote was to my mind 
 as real a man as Don John or the Duke of Alva ; 
 and then I was turning to the history of a gen- 
 tleman of whom I am particularly fond — a school- 
 fellow of mine before Dr. Russell's time. I 
 was turning to the life and history of one with 
 whom we are all acquainted, and that is one 
 Mr. Joseph Addison, who, I remember, was 
 made Under-Secretary of State at one period of 
 his life, under another celebrated man. Sir 
 Charles Hedges, I think it was, but it is now so 
 long ago, I am not sure ; but I have no doubt 
 Mr. Addison was much more proud of his cou- 
 
 * The reader will remember similar ideas in one of 
 Mr. Thackeray's early essays quoted in this volume. 
 
210 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 nexion with Sir Charles Hedges, and his place in 
 Downing-street, and his red box, and his quarter's 
 salary, punctually and regularly paid ; I dare say 
 he was much more proud of these, than of any 
 literary honour which he received, such as being 
 the author of the ' Tour to Italy,' and the 
 ' Campaign.' But after all, though he was in- 
 dubitably connected with Sir Charles Hedges, 
 there was another knight with whom he was 
 much more connected, and that was a certain Sir 
 Roger de Coverley, whom we have always loved, 
 and believed in a thousand times better than a 
 thousand Sir Charles Hedges. And as I look 
 round at this my table, gentlemen, I cannot but 
 perceive that the materials for my favourite 
 romances are never likely to be wanting to future 
 authors. I don't know that anything I have 
 written has been generally romantic; but if I 
 were disposed to write a romance, I think I 
 should like to try an Indian tale, and I should 
 take for the heroes of it, or for some of the heroes 
 of it — I would take the noble lord whom I see 
 opposite to me [Lord Hardinge] with the Sutlej 
 flowing before him, and the enemy in his front> 
 and himself riding before the British army, with 
 his little son Arthur and his son Charles by his 
 side. I am sure, in all the regions of romance, 
 I could find nothing more noble and, affecting 
 than that story, and I hope some of these days, 
 some more able novelist will undertake it." 
 
His Public Speeches. 311 
 
 AUTHORS AND THEIR PATRONS. 
 1851. 
 
 " Literary men are not by any meanSj at this 
 present time, that most unfortunate and most 
 degraded set of people whom they are sometimes 
 represented to be. If foreign gentlemen should by 
 any chance go to see ' The Eivals' represented at 
 one of our theatres, they will see Captain Absolute 
 and Miss Lydia' Languish making love to one 
 another, and conversing, if not in the costume of 
 our present day, or such as gentlemen and ladies 
 are accustomed to use, at any rate in something 
 near it ; whereas, when the old father Sir Anthony 
 Absolute comes in, nothing will content the stage 
 but that he should appear with red heels, large 
 buckles, and an immense Ramilies wig. This is 
 the stage tradition : they won^t believe in an old 
 man, unless he appears in this dress, and with 
 this wig ; nor in an old lady, unless she comes 
 forward in a quilted petticoat and high-heeled 
 shoes; nor in Hamlet's gravedigger, unless he 
 wears some four-and-twenty waistcoats; and so 
 on. In my trade, in my especial branch of lite- 
 rature, the same tradition exists ; and certain 
 persons are constantly apt to bring forward, or to 
 believe in the existence at this moment, of the 
 miserable old literary hack of the time of George 
 the Second, and bring him before us as the lite- 
 rary man of this day. I say that that disreputable 
 
 p2 
 
2] 3 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 old phantom ought to be hissed out of society. 
 I don^t believe in tlie literary man being obliged 
 to resort to ignoble artifices and mean flatteries, 
 to get places at the tables of the great, and to 
 enter into society upon sufferance. I don't be- 
 lieve in the patrons of this present day, except 
 such patrons as I am happy to have in you, and 
 as any honest man might be proud to have, and 
 shake by the hand, and be shaken by the hand 
 by. Therefore I propose from this day forward, 
 that the oppressed literary man should disappear 
 from among us. The times are altered ; the people 
 don't exist ; " the patron and the jail," praise God, 
 are vanished from out our institutions. It may 
 be possible that the eminent Mr. Edmund Curl 
 stood in the pillory in the time of Queen Anne, 
 who, thank God, is dead ; it may be, that in the 
 reign of another celebrated monarch of these 
 realms. Queen Elizabeth, authors who abused the 
 persons of honour, would have their arms cut off 
 on the first offence, and be hanged on the second. 
 Gentlemen, what would be the position of my 
 august friend and patron, Mr. Punch, if that 
 ■were now the case ? Where would be his hands, 
 and his neck, and his ears, and his bowels? He 
 would be disembowelled and his members cast 
 about the land. We don't want patrons, we want 
 friends ; and I thank God, we have them. And 
 as for any idea that our calling is despised by the 
 world, I do for my part protest against and deny 
 
His Public Speeches. 213 
 
 ,the whole statement. I have been in all sorts of 
 society in this world, and I never have been des- 
 pised that I know of. I don't believe there has 
 been a literary man of the slightest merit, or of 
 the slightest mark, who did not greatly advance 
 himself by his literary labours. I see along this 
 august table gentlemen whom I have had the 
 honour of shaking by the hand and gentlemen 
 whom I never should have called my friends, but 
 for the humble literary labours I have been en- 
 gaged in. And therefore, I say, don't let us be 
 pitied any more. As for pity being employed 
 upon authors, especially in my branch of the pro- 
 fession, if you will but look at the novelists of the 
 present day, I think you will see it is altogether 
 out of the question to pity them. We will take 
 in the first place, if you please, a great novelist 
 who is the great head of a great party in a great 
 assembly in this country. When this celebrated 
 man went into his county to be proposed to repre- 
 sent it, and he was asked on what interest he 
 stood ? he nobly said, " he stood on his head." 
 And who can question the gallantry and brilliaucy 
 of that eminent crest of his, and what man will 
 deny the great merit of Mr. Disraeli ? Take next 
 another novelist, who writes from his ancestral 
 hall, and addresses John Bull in letters on mat- 
 ters of politics, and John Bull buys eight editions 
 of those letters. Is not this a prospect for a 
 novelist ? There is a third, who is employed upon 
 
214 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 this very evening, heart and hand, heart and voicej 
 I may say, on a work of charity. And what is the 
 consequence? The Queen of the realm, the 
 greatest nobles of the empire, all the great of the 
 world, will assemble to see him and to do him 
 honour. I say, therefore, don't let us have pity. 
 I don't want it till I reaUy do want it. Of course 
 it is impossible for us to settle the mere prices 
 by which the works of those who amuse the public 
 are to be paid. I am perfectly aware that Signor 
 Twankeydillo, of the Italian Opera, and Made- 
 moiselle Petitpas, of the Haymarket, will get a 
 great deal more money in a week, for the skilful 
 exercise of their chest and toes, than I, or you, or 
 any gentleman, shall be able to get by our brains 
 and by weeks of hard labour. We cannot help 
 these differences in payment, we know there must 
 be high and low payments in our trade as in all 
 trades ; that there must be gluts of the market, 
 and over production ; that there must be suc- 
 cessful machinery, and rivals, and brilliant importa- 
 tions, from foreign countries ; that there must be 
 hands out of employ, and tribulation of workmen. 
 But these ill winds which afflict us blow fortunes 
 to our successors. These are natural evils. It is 
 the progress of the world, rather than any evil 
 which we can remedy, and that is why I say this 
 society* acts most wisely and justly in endeavouring 
 to remedy, not the chronic distress, but the tempo- 
 * Eoyal Literary Fund. 
 
His Public Speeches. 215 
 
 rary evil ; that it finds a man at the moment of 
 the pinch of necessity, helps him a little, and gives 
 him a ' God speed,' and sends him on his way. 
 For my own part I have felt that necessity, and 
 bent under that calamity ; and it is because I have 
 found friends who have nobly, with God's blessing, 
 helped me at that moment of distress, that I feel 
 deeply interested in the ends of a Society, which 
 has for its object to help my brethren in similar 
 need.'^ 
 
 THE novelist's FUTUKE LABOUKS. 
 
 1853. 
 " We, from this end of the table [on occasion 
 of the Koyal Literary Fund, dinner], speak humbly 
 and from afar off. We are the usefuls of the 
 company, who over and over again : perform oui 
 little part, deliver our little messages, and then 
 sit down ; whereas you, yonder, are-the great stars 
 of the evening; — you are collected with much 
 care, and skill, and ingenuity, by the manager of 
 this benefit performance; you perform Macbeth 
 and Hamlet, we are the Rozencrantzes and Guil- 
 densterns; we are the Banqnos, — as I know a 
 Banquo who has shaken his gory old wig at Drury 
 Lane at a dozen Macbeths. We resemble the 
 individual in plush, whom gentlemen may have 
 seen at the Opera, who comes forward and de- 
 murely waters the stage, to the applause of the 
 audience — never mind who is the great Taglioni, 
 or the Lind, or the Wagner, who is to receive all 
 
316 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 the glory. For my part, I am happy to fulfil that 
 humble oflScCj and to make my little spurt, and 
 to retire, and leave the place' for a greater and 
 more able performer. How like British charity 
 is to British valour ! It always must be well fed 
 before it comes into action ! We see before us a 
 ceremony of this sort, which Britons always un- 
 dergo with pleasure. There is no tax which the 
 Briton pays so cheerfully as the dinner-tax. Every 
 man here, I have no doubt, who is a little ac- 
 quainted with the world, must have received, in 
 the course of the last month, a basketful of tickets, 
 inviting him to meet in this place, for some pur- 
 pose or other. We have all rapped upon this 
 table, either admiring the speaker for his elo- 
 quence, or, at any rate, applauding him when he 
 sits down. We all of us know — we have had it 
 a hundred times — the celebrated flavour of the 
 old Freemasons' mock-turtle, and the celebrated 
 Freemasons' sherry j and if I seem to laugh at the 
 usage, the honest, good old English usage, of 
 eating and drinking, which bring us all together 
 for all sorts of good purposes — do not suppose that 
 I laugh at it any more than I would at good old 
 honest John Bull, who has under his good, huge, 
 boisterous exterior, a great deal of kindness and 
 goodness at the heart of him. Our festival may 
 be compared with such a person ; men meet here 
 and shake hands, kind hearts grow kinder over 
 the table, and a silent almoner issues forth 
 
His Public Speeches. 217 
 
 from it, the festival over, and gratifies poor 
 people, and relieves the suffering of the poor, 
 ■which would never he relieved hut for your kind- 
 ness. So that there is a grace that follows after 
 your meat and sanctifies it. We have heard the 
 historians and their calling worthily exalted just 
 now; but it seems to me that my calling will be 
 the very longest and the last of those of 
 all the literary gentlemen I see before me. Long 
 after the present generation is dead — of readers- 
 and of authors of books — there must be kindness 
 and generosity, and folly and fidelity, and love and 
 heroism, and humbug in the world ; and, as long 
 as they last, my successors, or the successors of 
 the novelists who come long after us, will have 
 plenty to do, and plenty of subjects to write upon. 
 There may chance to be a time when wars will be 
 over, and the ' decisive battles ' of the world will 
 not need ia historian. There may arrive a time 
 when the Court of Chancery itself will be extin- 
 guished; and, as perhaps you are all aware, 
 there is a certain author of a certain work called 
 ' Bleak House,' who, for the past three months, 
 has been assaulting the Court of Chancery in a 
 manner that I cannot conceive that ancient insti- 
 tution will survive. There may be a time when 
 the Court of Chancery will cease to exist, and 
 when the historian of the ' Lives of the Lord 
 Chancellors' will have no calling. I have often 
 speculated upon what the successors of th& 
 
218 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 Novelists in future ages may have to do ; and I 
 have fancied them occupied with the times and 
 people of our own age. If I could fancy a man 
 so occupied hereafter, and busied we will say with 
 a heroic story, I would take the story which I 
 heard hinted at the other night by the honoured, 
 the oldest, the bravest and greatest man in this 
 country — I would take the great and glorious 
 action of Cape Danger, when, striking to the 
 powers above alone, the Birkenhead went down — 
 when, with heroic courage and endurance, the 
 men remained on the decks, and the women and 
 children were allowed to go away safe, as the 
 people cheered them, and died doing their duty ! 
 I know of no victory so sublime in any annals of 
 the feats of English valour — I know of no story 
 that could inspire a great author or novelist better 
 than that. Or, suppose we should take the story 
 of an individual of the present day, whose name 
 has been already mentioned; we might have a 
 literary hero, not less literary than Mr. David 
 Copperfield, or Mr. Arthur Pendennis, who is 
 defunct : we might have a literary hero who, at 
 twenty years of age, astonished the world with 
 his brilliant story of ' Vivian Grey ;' who, in a 
 little time afterwards, and still in the youthful 
 period of his life, amazed and delighted the public 
 with ' The Wondrous Tale of Alroy ;' who, pre- 
 sently following up the course of his career, and 
 the development of his philosophical culture, ex^ 
 
His Public Speeches. 219 
 
 plained to a breathless and listening world the 
 great Caucasian mystery ; •who, quitting literature, 
 then went into politics ; met, faced, and fought, 
 and conquered the great political giant, and great 
 orator of those days ; who subsequently led thanes 
 and earls to battle, and caused reluctant squires 
 to carry his lance ; and who, but the other day, 
 went in a gold coat to kiss the hand of his Sove- 
 reign, as Leader of the House of Commons and 
 Chancellor of Her Majesty's Exchequer. What 
 a hero that will be for some future novelist, and 
 what a magnificent climax for the third volume of 
 his story \" 
 
 COMMERCE AND LITERATURE. 
 
 1857.* 
 " I feel it needful for me to be particularly 
 cautious whenever I come to any meeting in the 
 city which has to deal with money and monetary 
 affairs. It is seldom that I appear at all in these 
 regions, unless, indeed, it be occasionally to pay 
 a pleasing visit to Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, 
 in Bouverie Street, or to Messrs. Smith and Co., 
 of Cornhill. But I read my paper like every 
 good Briton, and from that I gather a lesson of 
 profound caution in speaking to mercantile men 
 on subjects of this kind. Supposing, for instance, 
 that I have shares in the Bundelcund Banking 
 
 * The Commercial Travellers' Dinner, in 1857. Mr. 
 Thackeray was in the chair; 
 
220 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 Company, or in the Royal British Diddlesex 
 Bank : I come down to a meeting of the share- 
 holders, and hear an honoured treasurer and an 
 admirable president make the most flourishing 
 reports of the state of our concern, showing to 
 us enormous dividends accompanied with the 
 most elegant bonuses ; and proving to us that 
 our funds are invested in the most secure way at 
 Bogleywallak, Bundelcund, and Branksea Castle. 
 I go away delighted at the happy prospect before 
 my wife and family, feeling perfect confidence 
 that those innocent beings will be comfortable 
 for the rest of their lives. What, then, is my 
 horror when in one brief fortnight after, instead 
 of those enormous dividends and elegant bonuses, 
 I am served with a notice to pay up a most pro- 
 digious sum; when I find that our estates at 
 Bundelcund and Bogleywallak have been ravaged 
 by the Bengal tiger j that the island of Branksea 
 is under water ; that our respected president is 
 obliged to go to Spain for the benefit of his 
 health, and our eloquent treasurer cannot abide 
 the London fog. You see I must be a little 
 careful. But, granted that the accounts we 
 have here have not, like our dinner, been sub- 
 jected to an ingenious culinary process ; granted 
 that you have spent, as I read in your report, 
 25,000Z. in raising a noble school and grounds ; 
 that you have collected around you the happy 
 juvenile faces which I see smiling on yonder 
 
His Public Speeches, 231 
 
 benches, to be the objects of your Christian kind- 
 ness ; granting all this to be true, then, gentle- 
 men, I am your, most humble servant, and no 
 words that I can find can express my enthusiastic 
 admiration for what you have done. I sincerely 
 wish, on behalf of my own class, the literary pro- 
 fession, that we could boast of anything as good. 
 I wish that we had an institution to which we 
 could confide our children, instead of having to 
 send them about to schools as we do, at an awful 
 cost. When the respected Mr. Squeers of Do- 
 the-boys Hall, announces that he proposes to take 
 a limited number of pupils — I should rather say 
 a number of very limited pupils^t is not because 
 he is in love with the little darlings that he does 
 it, but because he designs to extract a profit out 
 of them. It always pains me to think of the 
 profits to be screwed out of the bellies of the 
 poor little innocents. Why have we not, as men 
 of letters, some such association as that which you 
 have got up ? I appeal to my literary brethren, 
 if any of them are present, whether we, the men 
 of the line, cannot emulate the men of the road? 
 A week ago, a friend engaged in my own profes- 
 sion, making his 1000/. a year, showed me his 
 half-yearly account of his two little boys at 
 school. These little heroes of six and seven, 
 who are at a very excellent school, where 
 they are well provided for, came home with 
 a little bill in their pocket which amounted to 
 
222 Thackeray ; the Humourist. 
 
 the sum of 75Z. for the half-year. Now think 
 of this poor Paterfamilias earning his mo- 
 derate 1000/. a year, out of jrhich he has his 
 life assurance, his income-tax, and his house- 
 rent to pay, . with three or four poor relations 
 to support — for doubtless we are all blessed with 
 those appendages — with the heavy bills of his wife 
 and daughters for millinery and mantua-making 
 to meet, especially at their present enormous rates 
 and sizes. Think of this overburdened man 
 having to pay 751. for one half-year's schooling 
 of his little boys ! Let the gentlemen of the press, 
 then, try to devise some scheme which shall 
 benefit them, as you have undoubtedly benefited 
 by what you have accomplished for yourselves. 
 We are all travellers and voyagers who must em- 
 bark on life's ocean ; and before you send your 
 boys to sea you teach them to swim, to navigate 
 the ship, and guide her into port. The last time 
 I visited America, two years ago, I sailed on 
 board the Africa, Captain Harrison, As she was 
 steaming out of Liverpool one fine blowy October 
 day, and was hardly over the bar, when, animated 
 by those peculiar sensations not uncommon to 
 landsmen at the commencement of a sea voyage, 
 I was holding on amidships (a laugh), up comes 
 a quick-eyed shrewd-looking little man, who holds 
 on to the next rope to me, and says, "Mr. 
 Thackeray, I am the representative of the house 
 of Appleton and Co., of Broadway, New York — a 
 
His Public Speeches. 223 
 
 most liberal and enterprising publishing firm, who 
 will be most happy to do business with you." I 
 don't know that we then did any business in the line 
 thus delicately hinted at, because at that particular 
 juncture we were both of us calledj by a heavy 
 lurch of the ship, to a casting-up of accounts of a 
 far less agreeable character." 
 
 THE END. 
 
NEW LIST 
 
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FAMILY FAIRY TALES. 
 
 7a.at/a^ -J' 
 
Very Recently Published. 
 
 AN ENTIRELY NEW BOOK OF DELIGHTEUIj EAIET TALES. 
 Now ready, square 12mo, handsomely printed, on toned paper, in cloth 
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 FAMILY FAIRY TALES; 
 
 OB, 
 
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 CONTENTS: 
 
 My Lord Lion. 
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 The Great Forest. 
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 A Fable with a Moral. 
 
 * * 
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 This charming volume of Original Tales has been 
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 London Review. 
 
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 See Specimen Illustration on opposite page. 
 
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USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIO. BOOKS. 
 
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 See opposite page for description and price. 
 
 Specimen Illustrations. 
 
 Ko. 17. Senrde's Machine for Passing 
 Polps of Praits. 
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 „ 25. Bomba lee Mould. 
 „ 26. Flower Modelling. 
 
BOORS READY AND IN PREPARATION. 
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 London residents." — Athemsum. 
 
 " It is a long time since such a valuable antiquarian volume has been republished." 
 — City Frees (in an article of three columns). 
 
 EVEEY HOUSEKEEPBE SHOULD POSSESS A COPT. 
 Now ready, in cloth, price 2b. 6d., by post 2s. 8d., The 
 
 Housekeeper's Assistant : a Collection of the most 
 
 valuable Eeeipes, carefully written down for future use, by Mrs. B , during 
 
 her forty years' active service. 
 *J* As much as two guineas has been paid for a copy of this invaluable little work. 
 
 '* Truly a ' Housekeeper's Assistant.* We should think the Kttle book would very 
 Quickly find a place in all the housekeepers' rooms in the country. No instructions 
 appear to be given but those which are of the greatest service to persons in the 
 charge of fauuly arrangements." — Illustrated News. 
 
 John Camden Sottetif 151, PiccadUly, W. 
 
HISTORY OF PLAYING CARDS, 
 
 AND THE VARIOUS GAMES CONNECTED WITH THEM j 
 
 With Some Account of Card Conjuring 
 
 AND 
 
 [ OXiD-r-A-SHIONED TEIOKS. 
 
 ' Specimen ninstratlou. 
 
 WITH BIXIT OTHER OUBIOUS ENOBAVINOS. 
 
 See opposite page for description. 
 
 John Camden Sotim, 161, Fkeaiilly, W. 
 
LIFE AND ANECDOTES OF THACKERAY. 
 
 Now Ready, in Post 8vo, hea/uAifully printed, price 7s. 6d., 
 
 THACKERAY : 
 
 THE HUMOUEIST AND THE MAN OF 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 th:e stoey 
 
 OP 
 
 HIS LIFE AND LITERARY LABOURS. 
 
 WITH 
 
 SOME FABTICVLABS OF HIS EAELT CABEEB 
 NEVEE BEFOBE MADE FUBLIG. 
 
 By Theodore Tatlob, Esq., 
 Menibre de la Society des Oena de Zettres. 
 
 Illustrated with a Photogbaphic Pobteait {one of the most 
 OHABACTEBiBTic Tcnown to have been taJeen)hj Ebnesi Bdwabds, B.A.; 
 view of Me. Thackeeat's house, built after a favourite design of the 
 great Novelist's ; FAOBruiLE op his HANSWBlTiNa, long noted in Lon- 
 don literaiy circles for its exquisite neatness ; and a curious little sketcb 
 of his COAT OT ABMS, a pen and pencil humourously introduced as the crest, 
 the motto " Nobilitas est sola yiETUS " (virtue is the sole nobility). 
 
 Includes anecdotes of the London Literati during the past thirty 
 years ; account of the Thackeeat pamilt, showing the origin of their 
 connexion with India i Thackbeat's school- days at the Charterhouse ; 
 his career at Cambbidgb ; residence in Gbemant, and Aet-stddubs in 
 Pabis ; literary apprenticeship in London ; his connexion with " Fraser " 
 and Maginn's staff; his marriage ; partiality to Kensington as a place 
 of residence ; his publication of " Vanity Faie," and the establish- 
 ment of his fame ; with many other interesting matters connected with 
 his literary career. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 
 
 Manchbstbe: JOHN HEYWOOD; 
 
 Edinbubgh: W. p. NIMMO; Dublin: W. ROBERTSON; 
 
 LiVEBPOOL: W. GILLING. 
 
Now ready, fcap. 8vo, cloth, price Ss. 6d., beautifully pnnted, 
 
 GOG AND MAGOG; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE HISTOET OF THE GUILDHALL GIANTS. 
 
 With Some Account of the Giants which Guard English 
 
 and Continental Cities. 
 
 By p. W. EAIEHOLT, F.S.A. 
 
 With lUiMtrations on Wood by the Author, cdowed andplcm,. 
 
 THE TAILORS' GIANT, 
 
 Salisbury. 
 Specimen Illustratiori. 
 
 Johm Camden Sotten, 161, FiccadiUj/, W. 
 
BOOKS READY AND IN PREPARATION. 
 
 Now ready, with nearly 300 Drawings from Nature, 2a. 6d. plain, — te. coloured by 
 liand, The 
 
 Young Botanist : a Popular Guide to Elementary 
 
 Botany. By T. S, RALPH, of the Linnean Society. 
 *«* An excellent book for the yonng be^ginner. ** The plan which has been 
 adopted is aa simple as the author has found it to be in his power to follow out. As 
 few nard names as possible have been employed, and when so used will geaeraSlj 
 be found accompanied with some familiar expression which can be adopted as a 
 sabstitnte. The objects , selected as illustrations are either easy of access aa speci- 
 mens of wild plants, or are common in gardens." 
 
 Now ready, 8to, price Is., 
 
 Comparative List of British Plants. Compiled and 
 
 arranged by ALEX. MORE, T.L.S. 
 This Idet of British PlcmtB was drawn np for the use of the country botanist, to 
 show the differences in opinion which exist between different authors as to the number 
 of species which ought to oe reckoned within the compass of the Flora of Great Britain. 
 
 Now ready, 8vo, price Is., 
 
 Traditionary Anecdotes of Shakespeare, collected in 
 
 Warwickshire in the year 1693, from the original MS. Edited by J. F. COLLIEB. 
 Now ready, small 8to, price Is., 
 
 Existing Bemains of the Ancient Britons, in a 
 
 District between Lincoln and Sleaford, By the Bev. G. OLIYEB, D.D. 
 
 The foUowing Books in the Press, 
 PREPARING FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLIGATION. 
 
 Persons wishing to sectM^e copies of <my of the foUowing Books will confer 
 
 a favovjt hy coimvimicati/ng at once with the Publisher, 
 
 la 1 vol. post 8to, with numerous Illustrations, 
 
 School Life at Winchester College ; or, The Eemi- 
 
 niscences of a Winchester Junior. By the author of " The Log of the Water 
 Ja^j" and " The Water IMy on the Danube,** 
 
 This book will do for Winchester what " Tom Brown's School Days" did for Ox- 
 ford — explEun the everyday life, peculiar customs, fagging, troubles, pleasures, &c. 
 &c. of lads in their college career at William of Wykeham's great pubhc school: At' 
 the end there will be an extensive Qtoeaa/ry of the peculiar Worda, Phrases^ Cusiomaf 
 4rc. peculiar to the College. 
 
 In 1 vol., with Coloured Illustrations, 
 
 Diamonds and Precious Stones: their History, 
 
 Value, and Properties: with simple tests for ascertaining their reality. By 
 HARKY EMANUEL, F.G.S. 
 
 L ■ , ■ 
 
 John Camden Sotten, 151, Ficcadilly, W. 
 
BOOKS READY AND IN PREPARATION. 
 In 1 vol., exquisitely printed from Bilver type, 
 
 Shakespeare^s Jest-book? the Volume of Merry 
 
 Tales and Jests which the great Dramatist quotes in Much Ado about Noihmg, 
 This is the little book from which Uenedick accuses Beatrice of stealing ^ her 
 " good wit." 
 
 In 1 vol., exquisitely printed from silver type, 
 
 Shakespeare^s Poems ; including the Sonnets. 
 
 Printed entire from the rare original editions. 
 
 In 1 vol., with nearly 100 lUustrationB,' The 
 
 History of Sign-boards, from the days of Hercu- 
 
 laneum and Pompeii to the present time ; with Aitecdotes of Famous Tatbbns, 
 BEMABKABitB Chabactbbs, ancieut Mabts of Bttsxnbss, Coffee and other Old 
 Houses in the large and small Towns np and down the Couutry. By JACOB 
 LAKWOOD, formerly of the Kensington Museum. 
 
 In 1 vol., small 8to, 
 
 A Pedlar's Wallet. By Dudley Costello. 
 
 In 1 vol., exquisitely printed from silver-faced type, price 4s. 6d., The 
 
 Choicest Jests of English Wits; from the Rude 
 
 Jokes of Ancient Jesters to the refined and impromptu Witticisms of Theodora 
 Hook and Douglas Jerrold ; including the cream oi Joe Miller : comprisiDg the 
 best Sayings, Facetious and Merry, which have contributed to give to our country 
 the nune of M!erry England. 
 
 *,* Noie. — This volume was advertised and has been in preparation since 1858. 
 More than 500 Jest-books have been examined, and the '* curious " literature of our 
 
 Sublic libraries has been thoroughly looked into with a view to render the " Choicesx 
 £STS '* the best book of the kind ever compiled. 
 
 XTniform with the above, exquisitely printed, The 
 
 Choicest Epigrams in the English Language. 
 
 Uniform with the above, exquisitely printed, The 
 
 Choicest Humourous Poetry in the English 
 
 Language. 
 
 Uniform with the above, exquisitely printed. 
 
 Choicest Humourous Anecdotes and Short Stories 
 
 in the English Jjangnage. 
 
 John Camden Sotteuj 151, JHceadill^f, W, 
 
BOOKS READY AND IN PREPARATION. 
 
 In 1 vol., haiK^omely printed on toned paper, The 
 
 Street Words 5 Words used by Members of Par- 
 liament,— at Oxford and Cambridge, — ^in the Dens of St. Giles's, — ^in the Palaces 
 of St. James's ; Words and Phrases that make people langh in the Theatres, — 
 when they read Novels, — when they walk through the Streets, — when Cabmen and 
 others dispute with them : — A Digtionabt of ali. ihbsb. 
 
 •»* This book, in reaJity,-ia the Thibs Editioit of my well-known " Slang Dic- 
 tionary ;" but there are people who do not like eaUing a s^ade ** a spade," so I have 
 set forth what it is all about in the above terms. Sfotlung improper (morally) is 
 admitted into the work. 
 
 This Edition witi. cotttais 3000 additioitai. "WoitDS aitd IXiLVbtbatiohs, and 
 will foe a great improvement upon preceding issues. 
 
 In 1 vol. 4to, handsomely printed, The 
 
 History of the Edgar Family. By J, H. Lawrence 
 
 ARCHEE, author of " The Sistory qfthe Archer Family" 
 
 Comprising Extracts from Parish Kegisters, Trials, Lawsuits, &o. ; Fbdigbebs ; 
 Origin^ Letters of Edgar, Secretary to flie Chevalier St. George, &c. 
 
 BY PERMISSION OE H.I.H. PRINCE LUCIEN BONAPARTE. 
 In 1 small vol. square 21mo, exquisitely printed, The 
 
 Song of Solomon, in the North-Derbyshire Dialect. 
 
 Edited, with Notes, &c., by THOMAS HALLAM, Esq. 
 
 \* Uniform with the other small books in Dialect issued by H.I.H. the Prince 
 Lucien Bonaparte. This is the first time the Nobth-Debbtshibe Dialect has been 
 specially treated of. 
 
 BY PERMISSION OF H.I.H. PRINCE LUCIEN BONAPARTE. 
 In 1 small vol. square 12mo, exquisitely printed. The 
 
 Gipsy Vocabulary; or, List of Words taken down 
 
 irom the mouths of Oipsies in Somersetshire, by a Clergyman resident there in 
 1780. Edited, with Notes, Introduction, Ac, by W. PINKERTON, Esq. 
 
 •*♦ Uniform with the other small books on Language issued by H.I.H. Prince 
 Lucien Bonaparte. The value of this Yocabulary consists in the fact that the words 
 were written down on occasions of actual Costebsatioits with Gf-iPSiES, and that 
 it was not compiled from Grellman or any of the Continental works. 
 
 In a few days, neatly printed, price Is. 6d., 
 
 Health and Excitement j or. The Influence of 
 
 Mental Cultivation upon Health. By Dr. BRIOHAM. Edited, with additional 
 Notes, by Dr. ARTHUR LEARED. 
 
 This is a highly important little book, showing how far we may educate the mind 
 without injurmg the body. A chapter, full of mterest, is given on the education of 
 scientific and literary men, the excitement they live in, their health, and the age they 
 generally attain. 
 
 JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 
 151, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. 
 
Popular and Interesting Books, 
 
 PUBLISHED OR SOLD 
 
 By JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 
 
 151, PICCADILLY. LONDON, W. 
 
 ®S" Those Books offered at one-fourth of thei/r published prices^ are 
 
 warranted to he as clean and as perfect as when sold at the full 
 
 prices. 
 Direct Application may he made to the Publisher, if any of the 
 Works cannot he obtained through Agents. Post Office Orders 
 
 payable at 57, Piccadilly. Pa/rcels to the value of 21. sent carriage 
 
 paid to any reasonable distance. 
 
 Now ready, 12mo, in binding after a pattern of the period, very choicely printed, 
 by Whittinghaiji and Wilkins, price 68. 6d. 
 
 THE EARLIEST KNOWN LONDON DIEEOTORT. 
 
 A Collection of the Names of the Merchants Living 
 
 IN AND ABOUT THE CITY OF LONDON; very usefull and necessary. 
 
 Carefully Collected for the Benefit of all Dealers that shail have occasion with 
 
 any of them ; directing them at the first sight of iheir name to the place of their 
 
 abode.— London : Printed for Sam Lhe, lti77. 
 This curious little volume has been reprinted verbatim from one of the only two 
 copies known to be in existence. It contains a short Introduction pointing out some 
 of the principal persons mentioned in the list. For historical and genealogical pur- 
 poses the little book is of the greatest value. This is what the London Seoiew said 
 of itj when announcing the intended republication ; — " Of the only two known copies, 
 one is preserved in the Free Library at Manchester, and the other, imperfect, was 
 sold a short time since at the sale of the late Rev. Joseph Hunter's Library, at 
 Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson's ; it produced 9Z., and was purchased, we bieueve, 
 for the British Museum. The little book is curious, among other things, as contain- 
 ing the name of Alexander Pope, the father of the poet, among the merchants 
 residing in Broad Street. It was in this thoroughfare that the poet, in aU proba- 
 bility, was born. The crooked-backed lij^tle genius— like most human diminutives — 
 was a vain man. When people at Twickenham, or at Button's Coffee-house in 
 Covent Garden, talked to him about his father, he generally spoke of their old city 
 house as somewhere down in Lombard Street, amongst the baronets and aldermen 
 who kept banks and offices of exchange about there Fope liked the idea of his 
 father keeping such excellent and lofty company, and probably, for this reason, never 
 mentioned Broad Street, The httle old-fashioned * Directory,' however, has told 
 the true tale. The names of the Messrs. Hoare, the eminent bankers of Fleet 
 Street, at the sign of the * Leathern Bottte' — the house, by the way, where Oliver 
 Cromwell kept his money — occurs in the Directory, as do also those of the Messrs. 
 Child, the well-known bankers of Temple Bar." Osi-y a veet pew copies havb 
 
 BESK EEPEINTED OX PAPEE MADE TO EESEMBLB THE OEIGINAL. 
 
 ANECDOTES OF THE "LONG PARLIAMENT" OF 1645. 
 
 Now ready, in small 4to, half morocco, very choicely printed by Whittingham, 
 
 with floreated capitals, price 78. 6d. 
 
 The Mystery of the Good Old Cause : Sarcastic 
 
 Notices of those Members of the Loif a Paeliameitt that held Places, both CivU 
 and Military, contrary to the Self-denying Ordinance of April 3, 1645 j with the 
 Sums of Money and Lands they divided amongthemselves. 
 Gives many curious particulars about the famous Assembly not mentioned by his- 
 torians orbiographerp. It has just been very carefully reprinted from the excessively 
 rare original. The history of almost every county in England receives some illustra- 
 tion from it, ^ Genealogists and antiquaries will find in it much interesting matter. 
 
 JoJm Camden Sotten, 151, Ficcadillyf W. 
 
CBEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Kow ready, New and Populae Edition, neatly printed, fcap. 8vo, pp. 336,' 
 price 28. 6d., 
 
 Anecdotes of the Green Room and Stage; or, 
 
 Leaves from an Actor's Note-Book, at Home and Abroad, By GEOBG-E 
 
 VANDENHOFF. 
 Mr. VandenhofiF, who earned for himself, both in the Old and New Worlds, the 
 title of The Classic Agtob, has retired from the Stage. Hia Beminiacences are 
 extremely interesting, and include Original Anecdotes of the Keans (father and son), 
 the two Kembles, Macreaciy, Cooke, Liston, Farren, Elliaton Braham and his Sons, 
 Phelps, Buckstone, Webster, Chas. Mathews ; Siddona, Yestris, Helen Faueit, Mrs. 
 Nisbett, Miss Cuahman, Miss O'Neil, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Chas. Kean, Bachel, 
 Eistori, and many other dramatic celebrities. 
 
 AN INTERESTING VOLUME TO GENEALOGISTS AND ANTIQUARIES, 
 
 Now ready, half Morocco, handsomely printed by Whittingham and Wilkins, 
 
 price 73. 6d. 
 
 Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers in 
 
 the Civil War : Giving the Names of all the Officers is the Botal 
 AND Pabliamentaet Aemies oi 16-12, now first reprinted from the compara- 
 tively unknown originals, and Edited, with Notes, by EDWABD PEACOCE, 
 F.S.A. In 4to., with elaborate fioreated capitals. 
 These most curious Lists show on which side the gentlemen of England were to 
 be found during the great conflict between the Eing and the Parliament. As illus- 
 trations of County History they are exeeedingly interesting. The literary antiquary 
 and the genealogist vrili find much new and out-of-the-way matter in them ; and 
 there are but few families in England who cannot claim a relationship to one or other 
 of the names mentioned in the BoyaUst or Soundhead lists. Only a terx few 
 COPIES HATE BEEN MOST CABEFULLY BEPRiNTEi) 071 paper that wUl gladden the 
 heart qfthe lover of Choice Soolcs, 
 
 Baron Munchausen, Aventures de. Illustrated 
 
 WITH 220 Fantastic and Exteaokdinaby Wood Engbavings by Gubtavb 
 DoBE. 4to, cloth elegant, 19b. With a Portrait of the renowned Baron, and 
 his Motto, " Mendace Veritas." 
 Nothing can exceed the deollebt and httmoue of these wondbeful and 
 
 XNIMitTABLE ILLTJSTBATIONS. 
 
 British and Foreign Review; or, Euro-pean Quar- 
 terly Journal. 8vo. Written by Thos. Cablyle, 8ib Archibald Alison, 
 LoBD Maoatjlay, Geo. Bancboft, Sib Cobke wall Lewis, Guizot, Talfoubd, 
 Landoe, Tytlee, Bicaedo, Gladstone. 
 The thirty-five vols, complete from 1835 to 1844 (published at £10 10s.) only Ss. 6d.. 
 The peice op waste paper. Amongst the many interesting articles those on the 
 Thugs— .EK.^Zawrf in the reign of Mary — Aebican Slave Tbade — Art and Artists m 
 ^England — Fjiesco Painting — International Law — Histoky of Eubsia — Coleridge 
 and his Times— India and its History — The Pentambbone — Literature of Europe in 
 the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries — Chartism — Ireland — Cape of Good Hope 
 — History of Painting— Shelley's Poems— Jack Sheppabd — Histobt of Cotton 
 —Democracy in America^GiPSiES and their Language — Feench Bomances— .> 
 Hindu Fiction — Italian Bomanges— English Cathedral Music- History oh 
 Printing — Beynaed the Fox^ Coronations andEegalBecords, may bemei;itioned. 
 
 Burke's (Edmund) and Lord John Russell's 
 
 Opinions and Bemarks upon Party (political opposition), edited by Charles 
 Purton Cooper. 8to (sells at '4s.) , Is. 1850. 
 
 John Camden Sotten^ 151, Fiecadilly, W, 
 
OEEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Cafes et Cabarets de Paris, Histoire Anecdotique 
 
 dea, par Alfred Delvan (am. 8to), with exquisite: little EuGEAViifGS o» OM) 
 CorsEE Houses, Tatbeit isteeiobb, &o. Half morocco, 6s. 6d. 
 A charming little Tolume, 
 
 Cambridge Slang Phrases — Gradus ad Canta- 
 
 brigiam ; or, Guide to the Academical Customs and Colloquialt or Cant TermSf 
 peculiar to the University of Cambridge, 8vo, with ooloubed humourous 
 
 ENQBATIIfGS. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Without the Ulustrations the book is oonunon enough, 
 
 Cheke's (Sir J.), Gospel according to St. Matthew, 
 
 and part of St. Mark's Gospel, translated into English, with Notes, and seven 
 Original Letters, 8vo, new cloth, with facsimile plates, 23. ed. 
 Sir J.Cheke was Tutor and Secretary of State to T^in g Edward VI,, and, towards the 
 close of his life, embraced the Catholic Faith. The very peculiar nature of this old 
 Translation is explained in a prefixed account, by J, GOODWIN. A veex valu- 
 able SPECIMES* OP XHE ENGLISH LAIfGUAQB in 1550, 
 
 A GARLANB OF 
 
 Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern ; including 
 
 several never before given in any collection. Beautifully printed by Whit- 
 tingbam, fcap, 8vo, price 4s. 6d. 
 *^,* This Garland 'comprises those delightful Carols that for generations have 
 charmed the good people of our country at the festive season. They have been col- 
 lected from every source that would afford materials, including rare old broadsides, 
 ballad-sheets, chap-books, and the various other kinds of street literature. None 
 ■ have been included but what were genuine, and no modern adaptations or imitations 
 are given. Several of the Legendary Carols possess all the delightful characteristics 
 of our most admired old ballads. 
 
 Cicero de OfBciis, &c. &c. 48mo. The exquisite 
 
 Diamond Ttpb Ediiioit (sells at 6s.), only Is. 6d. 
 
 Cleaning and Eestoring Old Books. Essai sur 
 
 I'Art de Bestaurer lea Seatampaes et les Livees, ou traits sur les Malleurs Pre- 
 cedes pour manshir, Detacher, Beparer, &c., par A. Bonnardot, sm. Syo., teet 
 beautieullx peiwted, half crimson morocco, 8s. 6d. 1858. 
 
 Only a. small nwmher of copies were printed. 
 
 Now ready, sqr. Svo., exquisitely printed on tinted paper, price 10s. 6d. only. 
 
 Common JPrayer. Illustrated by Holbein and 
 
 Albert Dnrer. Faosimile of the Prajrer Book of Queen Elizabeth, adapted to 
 
 the present Eeign, with wood-engrarings of Aleest Ditbee's " Life of Christ," 
 
 Hch woodcut Border on every page of Ifndt and Mowers j also the DiiroE op 
 
 Death, a mwulwrly curious series after HoLBEIir, with Scriptural Quotations 
 
 and JProverba'm the Margin. 
 
 This edition has been prepared expressh/forMr. Soften. All the latest alterations 
 
 in the Common Prayer Book of our Established Church are given. Several new and 
 
 most curiously engraved woodcut borders have been added. It is only necessary to 
 
 remark that the old edition, without these improvements, sold for One Guinea per 
 
 copy. 
 
 John Camden Sotten, 161, FiccadiVn, W. 
 
CEEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Costume. Picturesque Representations of the 
 
 Dress and Manners of the English, Eoyal 8vo, with rraiT colotteed bk- 
 GEAVINGS of the various classes of English Societifjifiif years agOf half crimson 
 morocco, Boxburghe style, teet sgascb, lis. 6d. 
 
 Crests, Orders, Mitres, Crowns, Flags of all 
 
 Nationa, Choice Mokogbams. FAIEBAIEN'S CEESTS of the EamilieB of 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols,, large 8vo, Jlne impreBsions on India pap&r of 
 
 the 2100 Engraved Chests, cloth giUi{^e^s at £3 ISsJ), 358- only. 1860. 
 
 A booli: invaluable to the Heraldic Student and the G-enealogist, with an Appendix 
 
 of all the MOTTOES used by the Nobility, translated, &c. 
 
 2 vols. 4to, an extra large paper 
 
 OOFY, half morocco, top edge gilt (sells at £8 8s.), £3 18s. 1860. 
 
 Cynosure, The, a Literary Album, by the Editor 
 
 of the " Carcanet," 18mo, cloth, very neat (aellB at 5s.), 2s, PickeriTig, 1837 
 
 " A pretty little volume, with a multitude of tasteful selections from some two 
 hundred authors.* — lAterary Gazette, 
 
 Dante Divina Gomedia. 2 vols. 48mo. The 
 
 EXQUISITE DIAMOND TTPB EDITIOIT. (SeUs at lOs.) OUly 28. 6d, 
 
 THE FAMILY HISTOBY OF THE ElfGLISH COtTNTIES. 
 Now ready, in 8vo, on tinted paper, nearly 350 pages, very neat, price Ss., a 
 
 Descriptive Account of Twenty Thousand most 
 
 CUEIOUS AND BARE BOOKS, Old Tbactb, Ancient Mantisceipts, 
 
 EwGEATiirGS, and Peitately Printed Family Pafebs, relating to the History 
 
 of almost every Landed Estate aad Old Eng-lish Family in the Country; 
 
 interspersed with nearly Two Thousand Original Anecdotes, Topographical and 
 
 Antiquarian Notes, by JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN. 
 By fae the largest Collectioh" op English and Welsh, Topoghaphy and 
 Family Histoby evbb Fosmed. Each article has a small price affixed for the 
 convenience of those who may desire to possess any book or tract that interests 
 them. 
 (O FIFTY COPIES only have been pbinted on THICK PAPER; these 
 
 areinterleaved with writing paper for MS. additions, and bound in half-mordcoo, 
 
 price 12s. 6d. 
 
 Now ready, only a few copies for Bfde, original price 5s., now offered at 28. 6d., a 
 
 Dictionary of the Oldest Words in the English- 
 
 LANGUAGE, from the Semi-Saxon Period of a.d. 1250 to 1300; consisting of 
 an Alphabetical Inventory of EvEfiY "WobD pound in the pbinted English 
 Liteeatube op the 13th Centuby, by the late HEEBEET COLERIDGE, 
 Secretary to the Philological Society, 8vo. neat. 
 An invaluable work to historical students and those interested in linguistic pnr- 
 suits. " The present publication may be considered as the foundation-stone oi the 
 Historical and Literary Portion" of;the great English Dictionaey now in prepa- 
 ration by the Philological Society. " Explanatory and etymological matter has been 
 added, which, itis hoped, may render the work more generally interesting and useful 
 than could otherwise have been the case." 
 
 John Camden Kotten, 151, JPieeadilly^ W, ' 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 HEEALDET OF "WALES. 
 Ouly GO oopiea, in marvellous facBimile, 4to, on old Welsh paper, half morooco, 
 ■ . 128. 6d. 
 
 Display of Herauldry of the particular Coat 
 
 Armours now in Uae in the Six Countiea of I^orth Wales, and several others 
 
 Elsewhere; with the Names of the Families, iwhereby any Man knowing froa. 
 
 what Family he is dea.cended may know his particular Arms. By JOHI* 
 
 KEYNOLDS, of Oswestry, Antiquarian j with nearly onb huxtdbed Coat 
 
 Abmouhs blazoxed in the old sttle. Chester, printed 1739. 
 
 From a Unique Copy, of prioeless value to the lover of Heraldry and Genealogy. 
 
 The work on Welsh Family Mi&tory issued privately by this author m the same year, 
 
 is comparatively common, jet copies of this have realized tvjeniy guineas. A few 
 
 copies nave been taken off in marvellous facsimile, on old Welsh paper. They have 
 
 cost more than the price asked. Thb owNsa challenoes ant i-acsimilb- 
 
 BXPEET OB ABTIST IN THIS COTTNTBT OB BLSEWHEBE, TO PBODUCB ANTTHINO MOBB 
 
 LTE& TTNTO A VERITABLE OLD BOOK: THAN THIS, Fhotozincograpby is a shallow 
 pretence when compared with it. 
 
 Fair Isabel of Cotehele, a Cornish Eomance, 
 
 • ^ ^ thick sm^l 8vo. pp. 371, edges uncut, 28. 6d. 1815. 
 
 This interesting old Metrical Romance is ibunded on a family incident in the reign 
 of Queen Mary. The scene of the poem is chiefly laid at Cotehele, the ancient re- 
 sidence of the Edgcumbes, on the west bank of the Tamar ; in the 6tb Canto, it shifts 
 to Mov/nt JSctgcumbe. The historical notes at the end are full of interest, and give 
 numerous particulars about Old Cornish Families, Ancient Mansions, Cornish 
 Legends, etc. It is, perhaps, the most pleasing of all Polwbele's works. 
 
 Flower's Heraldic Visitation of y® CountyePalatyne 
 
 of Durham, in the Teare 1576, edited by N, J. PHILIPSOIf, folio, labgb 
 
 TAPEB, clean, uncut copy, ^^b.'s, frontispiece on India Papee, the numebous 
 
 PINE Hebaldic Illustbations by Bewick, 38s, Frioately printed^ 1820. 
 
 Only THIRTY copies OF this choice booh webe pbinted. It is printed in the 
 
 Btyle of, and ranges with, Ormerod'a Cheshire. The Hebaldic En&ravin&s are, 
 
 perhaps, the moat perfect and beautiful ever produced, Bewick did not often turn 
 
 his band to (?oat Armoure, but when he did, nis designs cast into the shade all the 
 
 efforts of his competitors. 
 
 Forster and Foster Family. • Some Account of the 
 
 PEDIGtBEE of the FORSTERS of Cold Sesledon, in the County Palatine of 
 Durham. Also, the Fosters of other parts of England. By JOSEPH 
 FOSTER. 4to, exquisitely printed on fine tinted papery with Emblazoned Coat 
 Armour of the Family of Fobsteb, or Fostbb. 12b. 6d. Sunderland, printed 
 
 Privately Printed pob the Family, and only a very feu? copies. The informa- 
 tion supplied Is of the most reliable character, and just the kind that one desires 
 to know respecting departed worthies. A capital Index concludes the volume. 
 
 Gray's Poems, square 12mo, the Classical Edition, 
 
 VEBY BXQiriBiTELY ILLUSTRATED wHk views by Svrhet Foster, and delightful 
 little vignettes by Sarry Rogers, (sells at 5b.) 3a. 6d. only. 
 A PERFECT GEM. It Is, pcrhaps, the moat elegant little volume produced jn the 
 present century. 
 
 John Camden Sottent 151 FiccadiUy, W» 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Now ready, foap. 8to., cloth, price 3s. 6d., beautifully printed. 
 
 Gog and Magog ; or, the History of the Guildhall 
 
 Giants. With some Account of the Giants which Guard English and Continental 
 Cities. By F. W. FAIEHOLT, P.S.A. 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY THE AITTHOE, COLOUBED 
 
 AND PLAIN. 
 •.* The critiques which have appeared upon this amusing Utile work have been 
 uniformly favourable. The AthencEum pronounces it a perfect model of successful 
 antiquarian exposition, readable from tne first line to the last. The Art Journal 
 devotes a considerable space to the little work, and congratulates the author upoii 
 his success. The Leader contributes two full columns^ of eulogy. The BuUder 
 directs its readers to purchase it. The Oritic .says, in a long article, that it 
 thoroughly explains who these old Giants were, the position they occupied in 
 popular mythology, the origin of their names, and a score of other matters, all of 
 much interest in throwing a light upon fabulous portions of our history. 
 
 Gustave Dore. La Legende de Croque-Mitaine 
 
 Recueillie par Ernest L'Epine. 4fco. Ilj.T7Steated with nearxt 200 MakteIc 
 
 LOirs, ExTEATAGANT, AWD Fautastic Woodcuts. By GUSTAVE DORE, 198. €d. 
 
 In this mad volume Dor6 haa Burpaased all his former eflbrts. The illubtratioits 
 
 ABB, WITHOTTT EXCEPTIOW, THE MOST WOM'DBai'UL EVEE PUT IMTO A BOOK. 
 
 GUNTEE'S CONEEOTIONERT. 
 "Soyr Beady, handsomely printed, post 8to, with numerous Dlnstrationa, price 6s. 6d. 
 
 The Modern Confectioner: a Practical Guide to the 
 
 latest and most improved methods for making the variouB kinds of Confectionery; 
 
 with the manner of Preparing and Laying out Besaerls ; adajjted for Private 
 
 Families or Large Establishments. By WILLIAM JEANES, Chief Confectioner 
 
 at Messrs. Gunter's (Coniectioners to Her Majesty), Berkeley-square. 
 
 ♦,* A new and reliable work on the making of Confectionery and the Laying out 
 
 Af Besserts has long been wanted. TSo pains liave been spared to make the present 
 
 book a useful and safe guide to all Cooks and Housekeepers in private families or 
 
 large establishments. The I^ame of the Chief Confectioner at the justly celebrated 
 
 house of Gunter & Co., in Berkeley-square, is a sufQcient guarantee of the useMness 
 
 of the book. 
 
 HalliweH's (J. 0., F.R.S.) Notes of Family 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN NORTH WALES, taken from Rhyl, Abergele, Llandudno, 
 and Bangor, small 4to, pp. 231, very choicely printed, 38. 6d. Cl^wich Frets, 
 1860. 
 Only a very limited number of copies have been privately printed by the accom- 
 plished author, A better man could not have been selected to visit the Northern 
 part of the ancient Principalitj for the purpose of writing a readable book, descriptive 
 of its glorions scenery. Traditions^ Folh-loret and Natural Antiquities, Alt the 
 Ancient Wells, Castles^ Old Souaegy SilU, Waterfalls, Caves, OromlechSt and 
 Druidical jRemadna, are described. We have, also, some curious particulars aboi^t 
 ttioae venerable countrymen of ours, the oldJBritish Giants. Ancient Legends 
 and Eaiey Tales are also given, together with interesting particulars of the various 
 ascents of Snowden. It is an interesting book, and should be offered at lOs. 6d. 
 instead of the 3s. 6d. now asked. Only a few copies remain. 
 
 Hampshire. Mudie's (R.) History of Hampshire, 
 
 the Isle of Wight, and the Channel Islands. 3 vols. Royal Svo, numerous Jine 
 ENQBATiNas, Ma^s, &o. (sells at £2 4b.), 19s. 6d. 
 
 3 vols. Royal 8vo, Large Paper, 
 
 fine impressions of the Engraving (sells at £4 4s.), 38s. 
 
 John Camden SoUen^ 151, Piccadilly, W, 
 
CffEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Hazlitt's (Wm., the great Critic and Essayist) Criti- 
 
 oiam and Dramatic Essays on the Engliah Stage. l2mo, new Sloth (sella at 
 4s. 8d.) 2s. 6d. 1861. 6 6. i 
 
 . 4,°*°.". ™'^ Acting— Modern Comedy— Old Actors— Strolling Players— Vulgarity 
 in Criticism — Elhston's Gasconades — Kean — Siddons — Macready, &c. 
 
 Heawood's (William^ Gentleman, of Manchester, 
 
 1661) The Manner and Solemnitie of the Coronation of hia most Oraoious 
 Majeetie King Charles the Second, at Maitchesteb, in the C<iuntie Palatine of 
 Lancaster, on 23rd April, 1661.— Also the Celebration of the Coronation of 
 George III. and Queen Charlotte (from Sarrop'a Manchester Mercury/) at Man- 
 CHESTEE, 4to, half morocco, only poett copies petnted on this iine papee, 
 5s. 6d. ^For Private Circulation only, 1861. 
 
 , a copy on large and thick drawing 
 
 . paper, one of a few as curioaitiea. 4to, 93. 6d. 1661—1761—1861. 
 
 An exoeedingly interesting and very beautifully reprinted Lancashire Tract, with 
 valuable biographical notices of the principal persons taking part in each celebration. 
 
 As THE NtTMBBa EBPEIITTED IS EXCBEDINGLT SMALL, COPIES WILL SOOIT BE BARE. 
 
 The historical notes relate mostly to the old families of Lancashire, resident in 
 every part of the county, who flourished or suffered iu the time of the Common- 
 wealtlu 
 
 THE BEST GUIDE TO HEKALDEY. 
 
 Heraldry, Historical and Popular. By Charles 
 
 BOUTELL, M.A. Demy Svo, with 750 Illustrations, price 9s. 6d. 
 
 " AU the devices blazoned on the shield 
 In their own tinsel." — Ibslls of the King. 
 
 It is the aim of this Manttal to inquire into the true character and ri^ht office of 
 Heraldry, and to describe and illustrate both its action in past times m England, 
 and its present condition as it is in use amongst ourselves. 
 
 In the great and general Art- Revival of our own times. Heraldry now appears to 
 be in the act of vindicating its title to honourable recognition as an Art-Science, that 
 may be agreeably as well as advantageously studied, and very happily adapted in its 
 practical application to the existing condition of things. 
 
 Higgins' (Godfrey) Celtic Druids ; or, an attempt 
 
 to show that the Druids were the Priests of Oriental Colonies, who ^migrated 
 &om India, and were the Introducers of the first or Cadmean System of Letters, 
 and tho-. Builders of Stonehenge, of Caraac, and other Cyclopean "Works in Asia 
 and Europe. 4to., LAsaB papee, map and numerous Utkogra^hio plates qf 
 Druidical Monuments, bds. baee, 28s. 1829. 
 
 The most philosophical digest of the existing information upon the origin of 
 Dmidical Worship. The author traces all ancient systems of religion, back to their 
 prim^ source; demonstrating that the extraordinary race of Upper India who 
 niunded Buddhism, were also the founders of the Chaldean, Fbcenician, Etruscan, 
 Guebre, Cabiri, Druidical, and Brahminical Mythologies. Much also that pertains 
 to Mosaic and Christian doctrine is shown to have bad a similar origin. It is needless 
 to pay that the work is not orthodox ; reh^on has been surrounded with an infinite 
 number of forms and symbok, arid veiled m so many superstitious ceremonials, that 
 every tendency to restore its primitive simplicity is pronounced pernicious and here- 
 tical! Higgins, therefore, like other great and philosophical minds, will be looked 
 upon as an mfidel, a dangerous innovator, by devout religionists of whatever sect. 
 One of his chapters is devoted to prove that the Pentateuch was never meant to teach 
 Chronology. 
 
 Joh^n Camden Sotten, 151, Ficcadilli/t W. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Now ready, pp. 336, handsomely printed, cloth extra, price 3b. Bd. 
 
 Holidays with Hobgoblins ; or, Talk of Strange 
 
 Things. By DUDLEY COSTELLO. With Hfmobous EwaEATiiraB bt 
 GsoBa£ Cbuieshane:, 
 Amount the chapters may be enumerated : — 
 
 Shaving a G-hoat. 
 
 Superstitions and Traditions. 
 
 Monsters. 
 
 TheO-hostofPitPond. 
 
 The Watcher of the Dead. 
 
 The Haunted House near Hampstead. 
 
 Dragons, G-riffins, and Salamanders. 
 
 Alchemy and Gunpowder. 
 
 Mother Shipton. 
 
 Bird History. 
 
 Witchcraft and Old Bogaey. 
 
 Craba. 
 
 DobsterB. 
 
 The Apparition of Monsieur Bodry, 
 
 Homeri Ilias et Odyssea. 2 vols. 48nio. The 
 
 ExQVisiTB Diamond Ttpb Edimow .(sells at 138.), only 28. 6d. 
 
 Hone's Every-Day Book and Table Book; or, 
 
 Everlasting Calendar of Popular Anuaements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, 
 Mannersi Oastoms, and Events, incident to each of the 365 Da^s in Past and 
 Present Times ; — Ybae Book of Daily Eeereation and Information, forming a 
 complete History of the Tear, and a perpetual Key to the Almanack, together 
 four very thick vola, 8vo, vrith setbw huhtdbbd a«i> thibit wooDCirTS, new 
 cloth, good paper (sella at 34s.), only 243. 
 
 Horace, 48mo. The Exquisite Diamond Type 
 
 Editiozt, Dedicated to Lord Spencer (sells at 6s.), only la. 6d. 
 
 Horatii Opera, ed. Joannis Bond. 24mo. Didot's 
 
 exquisite edition, in small but very legible iype^ with numebous most BBATTTinjli 
 
 Photogbaphs pbom Paintings hy M. Barrias, with Views op Hobace's 
 
 Villa, and the vabiotts spots immobtalizbd in his Poems. 30s. 
 
 The archffiological part is from an actual survey of the localities by Benouville, 
 
 This little Volume is the most bbautxpul edition or Hobace bteb publishes. 
 
 How to See Scotland; or, a Fortnight in the High- 
 lands for £6. Price Is. 
 
 A plain and practical guide. 
 
 Illumination. The Church's Floral Kalendar. Com- 
 piled by EMILT CU YLEE. The work is beavtijiilly printed vn gold and colottb, 
 each page surrounded by an a^ropriate sentence from Holy Scripture in Old 
 English chabactbbs between red lines, illuminated with initial lbttkbs 
 and suitable plobal devices i the sti/le of the illuminaiionavxmrimg'hetweeii the 
 14th and 16th centuries. 38 elegantly illummated 4to. pages, with characteristic 
 and attractive binding. (Price £1 11a. 6d.), only 16b. ed. 
 
 •^* The holidays of the Church duly set forth in appointed order, each dedicated 
 flower has been chosen on the authority of ancient tradition, uniting it with the day, 
 or irom the circumstance that it usually blooms about the time determined on for 
 observance of the associated feast. 
 
 John Camden Sotten,l&\f Ficcadill^t W. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 THE BEST WORK ON THE ART OF ILLUMINATING. 
 
 Illuminating (The Art of), as Practised in Europe 
 
 from the Earliest Times, illustrated by borders, initial letters, alphabets, &c., 
 selected from the British Museum, South Kensington Museum, and other valu- 
 able collections, by W. B. TYMMS ; with an Essay on the Art, and instructiona 
 aa to its practice in the present day, by M. Digbt Wyatt. dfto, moat splendidly 
 bound, antique bevelled hds. (pub. at £3 lOs.), only 32b. 1860. 
 This magnificent and eminently serviceable work contains 1(@ plates, all fnlb' iUu- 
 Ininated, and printed in colours and gold on vellum paper, with 104 pages oi text, 
 surrounded by borders in colours. Counting the various specimens of letters and 
 borders given on the 102 pages, there will be found 1008 illuminated figures. Thb 
 
 HOST USEFUL AT XHE SAME TIME THAI IK IS THE FIUfEST BODE OS' KHB EIIfD ETBB 
 PBODUCEB, 
 
 THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF JOE MILLER'S JESTS. 
 
 Joe Miller's Jests; or, the Wit's Vade Mecum, 
 
 being a Collection of the moat Brilliant Jests, the Politest Repartees, the moat 
 Elegfant Bona Mots, and most pleasant short Stories in the English Language. 
 An interesting specimen of remarkable fac-simile, 8vo, half morocco, old Dutch 
 paper aides, price 98. 6d. London : printed hy T. Beadf 1739. 
 
 The book ia well known, or rather the Jests are, for the veritable JJrgi edition of 
 Joe MUler ia one of the rareat books in the Engliah language. With regard to the 
 contents of Joe Miller's t7e«^s, the plain-spoken words used are neither better nor 
 worse than those in any other similar collection of the period. It ia to be regretted 
 that the author did not employ expressions a little less coarse than he has done ; his 
 wit and pungency, however, it is impossible to deny. Only a very few copies of this 
 humorous book have been reproduced. 
 
 Jones's (Owen) Grammar of Ornament; being a 
 
 Seriea of 3000 Examples from various StyleSj exhibiting, the Fnndamental Prin- 
 ciples which appear, to reign in the Composition of Ornament of every period. 
 Imp. folio, 101 larffe plates in cotouBS and gold, with richly iUiiatratea Text, 
 elegantly JialfhtmTid in morocco (pub. at £19 12s.), only £7 18s. 
 
 Now ready, fcap. 8vo, beautifully printed by Whittingham, price 2s. 
 
 Letters of the Marchioness Broglio Solari, one of 
 
 the Maids of Honour to the Princess Lamballe, &o. ; with a Sketch of her Life, 
 and EecoUections of Celebrated Characters. (Intended to have been sold at 6b.) 
 
 The Marchioness Broglio Solari was the natural grand-daughter of Lord Hyde 
 Clarendon, and consequently one of the collateral branches of tne Queens Mary and 
 Ann, and their grandiather, the great Chancellor of England. She played an im- 
 portant part in the French Kevolution ; was the friend of Emperors and Princes ; 
 was intimately acquainted with George the Fourth, Burke, Sheridan, Madame de 
 Stael, the Duke of^ Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Sir H. Davy, Paganini, &e., of most 
 of whom she gives characteristic anecdotes. The Marchioness endured many troubles, 
 was robbed of her fortune, and for some time obtained her living as an actress at 
 the theatres of London and Dublin. This work was published by an intimate friend, 
 and the entire impression (with the exception of a few copies) passed into the hands 
 of the family. It is believed that only 150 copies were printed. The book (by those 
 who know of its existence) has always been considered as a mppressed work. 
 
 John Camden Sotten, 161, Fiocadilln, W, 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Second Edition, fcap, 8to, neatly printed (price l3.)> only 9d. 
 
 Mac,aulay ; the Historian, Statesman, and Essay- 
 
 ist : Anecdotes of bis Life and Literary Labours, with some Account of his Early 
 and Unknown Writings. 
 The fine paper Edition, cloth, neat, with a Photoq-haphio Poetrait {the onhf 
 ene knoum to have been taken) by Maull and FoIiYBLANK (price 2s. 6d,), a I'ew 
 
 COPIES ONLY AT IS. 6d. 
 
 a:^ Includes Anecdotes of Stditet Smith, Mooee, Eog-ees, and Loed Jeffeet ; 
 and gives numerous examples of Lord Macaulay's extraordinary memory and great 
 powers of conversation. 
 
 "Now ready, price 5h. ; by post, on roller, 5b. 4d, . - 
 
 Magna Charta. An Exact Facsimile of the 
 
 Original Document, ' preserved in the British Museum, very carefully drawn, 
 and printed on fine plate paper, nearly 3 feet long by 2 wide, with the Aemb 
 AND Seals of the Bason's elaborately emblazoned ts G-old and 
 
 COLOUBS. A.D. 1215. 
 
 Copied by express permission, and the only correct drawing of the Great 
 Charter ever taken. This important memorial of the liberties and rights of JEnghsh- 
 men is admirably adapted for framing, and woxild hang vrith propriety from the 
 walls of every house in the country. It was executed by Mr. Harrison, under whose 
 auspices the splendid work on the Knights of the Garter was' produced some years 
 ago. Handsomely" framed and glazed, in caeved oak, op as" antique 
 pattern, 228. 6d. It is uniform with the " RoU of Battle Abbey" 
 
 A Full Translation, with Notes, has ^ust been prepared, price 6d. It has been 
 very beautifully printed on alarge sheet ot tinted paper by Messrs, Whittingham and 
 Willdbis. It may be framed and hung beside the original, or can be pasted at the 
 back, according to the taste of the purchaser. 
 
 How ready, uniform with "Magna Oharti^" price 6s. ; by post, on roller, Ss. 4d. 
 
 Eoll of Battle Abbey ; or, a List of the Principal 
 
 Wareioes who came over feom Normandy vrith "William the Conquebor, and 
 settled in this Country, A.D. 1066-7, from Authentic Documents, very carefully 
 drawn, and printed on fine plate paper, nearly three feet long by two feet wide, 
 vrith the Aems of the principal Babons elaborately emblazoned in gold 
 
 AND COLOURS. 
 
 A MOST CURIOUS document, and of the greatest interest, as the descendants ot 
 nearly all these Norman Conquerors are at this moment living amongst us, bearing the 
 old Anglo-Norman names, slightly altered, but little dreaming of the relationship 
 betwixt them and the bold warriors who fought and won at Hastings nearly a thousand 
 years ago. The writing, of the period, is very legible. No names are believed to be 
 in thig "Battel Roll" which aire not fully entitled to the distinction. Handsomely 
 
 FRAMED AND &LAZED, IN CARVED OAK, OF AN ANTIQUE PATTEEN, piice 22b. 6d, 
 
 Mediaeval Architecture, Specimens of, chiefly 
 
 selected from Examples of the 12th and 13tb centuries in France and Italy. By 
 W. E. NESFIELD, folio, 100 magnificent Plates, half crimson morocco, fall 
 giltf (sells at 4il,) a fine copy; now offered at II. 18b. 1862. 
 
 Miniatures from Manuscripts of the 14th and 
 
 15th Centuries, two different Collections, each containing ten of the finest and 
 most exquisite Illuminated Miniature Paintings known to exist, in 
 bright and delicate Colours heightened in G-old and Silver. 7s. 6d. each. 
 Perfect Gems. The faces are equal to the finest miniatures on ivory. The cos- 
 tumes are resplendent in colour and gold. Of very great use to those who occa- 
 eionaP.y illuminate, as showing the very highest perfection of the ancient 
 
 ART. 
 
 Joh/n Camden Sotten, 161, FiccadMly, W, 
 
CBSAP AND CURIOVS BOOKS. 
 
 Mediaeval Writers of English History, Gibson 
 
 (Wm. Sidney, author of the Bistortj ((f Tynemouth), Remarks on the. A popvdar 
 
 Sketch of the Adyantsgea and Pleasures deriTablefrom Moitastio Litebatcbb. 
 
 8vo, la. ea. Pickering, 1848. 
 
 An interesting survey of the famous old English Manaatia Writers, to whose pens 
 
 we are solely indebted for the History of England from the Invasion to the reim of 
 
 Henry Till. j s b 
 
 Montagij's Guide to the Study of Heraldry. 
 
 4tb, with the plate tmcoloured, cloth, neat, 4a. 6d. Jficfcervng, 
 
 This ia pronounced by those proficient in Heraldry to be one of the best " Cruidea" 
 ever published. 
 
 Musee Secrete de Naples.— A most curious work 
 
 PBtVATELTPBiKTEDurPABis, representing 8ome of the most rema/rkable " FeiH' 
 tures. Bronzes, Moaaiques," &c., depictvng the Ceeemowibs obseeved at 
 
 a?HB EABLIEST KNOWH FOEM OP WOESHIP. JPartB, MD.OCC.XL, 
 
 The " Secret Museum" at Naples, from the extraordinary nature of its contents, 
 has always excited the liveliest curiosity amongst antiquaries and students. 
 
 Nell Gwyn, the Story of, and the Sayings of 
 
 Charles the Second, related and collected by PETEE CUKNINGHAM, F.S.A., 
 
 small 8vo, beautifully prmiedf toith numerous woodcuts relating to Nell Gwysitb, 
 
 cloth gilt (sells at 65.) 2s, 6d. 
 
 A curious Biography. We are presented with anecdotes of " Nelly" from the 
 
 time she was an orange-girl at the theatre, and pushed her way through the crowd 
 
 with her fruit, to the day when she had a fine house in Pall MaU, and was something 
 
 more than the friend of the gay king. We have also anecdotes ot Pepys, Betterton, 
 
 Moll Davis, Mrs. Davenport, and other actors and actresses of the Duke's Theatre, 
 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth, and Dr. Tenison, the friend and minister of Nelly, and 
 
 the founder of that quaint old library (whiohnobody ever visits now) in St. Martin's- 
 
 in-the-Fields. 
 
 North Lancashire. The History of the Hundred 
 
 OF IJOITSDALB, North if the Sands, from the History of Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland, by THOS. WEIUHT, F.S.A., &c., edited by W. WHELLAW, 
 4to, one of otshy teit Copies sep^bately fbikted, half morocco, 7s. 6d. 
 
 Mancheaterj 1860. 
 
 Novum Testamentum Grsecum. The exquisite 
 
 Diamond type editioh", with a beauiifiil Frontispieoe of Da Vinci's Last 
 Supper, engraved bif Worthmgton, 48mo. (sells at 10s. 6d.), only 2b. 
 
 Ornamental Art : Bedford and Robinson, the 
 
 TEEAsrEY of ORNAMENTAL AET, illustrative of Objects of Art and Vertu, 
 photographed from the originals in the Museum of Ornamental Art, and drawn 
 on stone by F. Bedford, with descriptive notices by J, C. Eobinson, F.S.A., imp. 
 8vo, 71 plates, richly illuminated in eolov/rs a/nd gold (pub. at £3 13s, 6d.), 
 elegantly bound in cloth extra, gilt edges, new, £1 7s. 
 The prejudice is gradually decaying which assigned an inferior status in Art to 
 eveiT production not a picture or a statue ; and in this book, a choice selection of 
 the finest specimens of vertil is made to combat those narrow ideas of the subject 
 which are still popular. The {esthetic value and practical utility of such art is proved 
 thus in a most attractive and magnificent way. Thb above is one of the most 
 magnificekt volumes of Oenamewtal Aet (Ancient Jewelleby, Carvings 
 IN Wood and Ivoey, Cashmeee Shawls, AncienT'Metal Woek, Sculptube, 
 Glass-Woek, &e. &c,) evee peoduced in any oountey. 
 *,* The stones have ieen destroyed, and Mr. JSotten has the few remami/ng copies. 
 
 John Camden Sotten, 161, Ficeadillif, W. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Petrarca. 48mo. The exquisite Diamond type 
 
 BsiTioN (sella at Qq.), only Is. 6d. 
 
 Philobiblion. Excellent Traite sur 1' Amour des 
 
 Livres, par Bichard de Buiy. Sm. 8vo, half morocco, verjj neatj EiftUisiTELY 
 
 PEINTBD ON BIBBED FAPBB, 12b. 6d, 1856, 
 
 Only a small number of copies were printed. This edition contains nnmeroos 
 notes on the ancient manuscript copies existing in the old Cathedral Libraries. 
 
 Thb hithbeto TJs'KNOWEr Poem, weitten by Johk Bubttam", whilst confined in 
 Bedford Jail, for the Support of his Family, entitled. 
 
 Profitable Meditations, Fitted to Man's Different 
 
 CONDITIOM": in a Conference between Christ and a Sinner. By JOHN 
 BtJNTAN, Servant to the Lord Jeaus Christ, amall 4sto, half morocco ^ very 
 neat, price 7«. 6d. The ebw rbmaiking copies wow ofeeeed at 4s. 6d. 
 This verv interesting literary memorial of the Author of the celebrated Pilgrim's 
 Progress, nas been choicely reprinted by Whittingham, from the only known copy 
 lately discovered by the publisher. It has been edited, with an introduction, t^ 
 George Offor, Esq. The impression is limited, 
 "A highly interesting memorial of the great sXie^nst," —Aihen^um. 
 
 THE NEW BOOK OF HUMOROUS "VERSE. 
 
 Kow ready, in square 8to, handsomely printed by Ci^ay, cloth extra, fall gilt, (price 
 
 78. 6d.), a few copies at 3s. 6d. each. 
 
 Fuck on Fegasus. By H. Gholmondeley Fennell. 
 
 With Numeeotjs iLLUSTRATioifS by JoHK Leech, George Gevjeshaztk, 
 Tbnnibl, " Phiz" (Habloi K.,Beownb), and Juliabt Pobtch. 
 "Humorous Poetry of the genuine Ingoldsby or Bon G-aultier tind, with Pictures 
 by the right Artists, is f^way's welcomed by the reading Public. The illustrations ol 
 * Fuck on Pegasus* are by John Leech, George Cruikshank, Tenniel, Phiz (Hablot 
 £. Browne), and Julian Portch, names redolent of mirth and humour." — London 
 Meview, 
 
 Recitations, Humorous, Serious, and Satirical, in 
 
 Verse, Original Pieces, &c., by JA8. RONDEAU, Sm. 8vo, Engraving, Is. 6d. 
 
 Roberts* (David) Sketches of the Holy Land, Syria, 
 
 Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia, with two hundred and fifty splendid litho' 
 
 ?raphic plateSf from those of Loms Saghe, and Historical ana Descriptive 
 Fotices oy Rev. G, CROLT, LL.D. lAbrcvry edition, 6 vols., 4to, bound in i, 
 CBiMSOir MOROCCO fiiLi, giU edgea (seUs at £12 12a.; only £4 18b, 
 
 lb. 6 VOLS. Half morocco, vbet neat, £4 4s. 
 lb. 6 VOLS. In cloth, elegant, ^3 ISs. 
 
 .John Camden Sotten^ 151, Fiocadilly, W, 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Rodd's Collection of Scarce and Curious PortraitSj 
 
 to illustrate Grainger's History of England, forminff a Supplement to Richwi'd- 
 aon's well-known collection, above 50 plates, faithfully copied from Barb 
 Originals, 2 vols, in 1, 4to, half bound, neat, edges uncut, iaegb fapbr* 
 12a. ed. only. 
 A very interesting collection. Many of the portraits are itpm unique copies. 
 
 Now ready, in 4to, very handsomely printed, with curious woodcut initial letters, by 
 Whittinghamand Wilkins, very neat, 128, 6d. 
 
 Roll of Carlaverlock ; with the Arms of the Earls, 
 
 BABOifs, AND Knights, who werb present at the Siegb op this Castlb in 
 
 Scotland, 28 Edward I., a.d. 1300 ; including the Original Anglo-Norman 
 
 Poem, and an JEnglisk Tranalation of the MS . in the British Museum ; the whole 
 
 newly edited by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S A. 
 
 A very handsome volume, and a delightful one to lovers of Heraldry, as it is. the 
 
 earliest blazon of arniB known to exist. "It contains the accurate blazon of above 
 
 one hundred Knights or Bannerets of the reign of Edward I., among whom were the 
 
 King, the Prince of Wales, and a greater part of the Peers of the realm ;*' thua 
 
 affording evidence of the perfect state of the Science of Heraldry at that early 
 
 period. The arms abr exquisitely bmblazonbd in gold and colours. 
 
 Shakspeare*s Dramatic Works. 10 vols., post 8vo. 
 
 One OP A PEW COPIES ON A PiNB AND BEAUTIPUL PAPER, the printing hy 
 Whittingham of Chiswiek, the illustrations bt Stothard, with charming 
 Uttle ornamental head-pieces, half morocco, very neat, top edge crimsoned, con- 
 tents lettered (sells at £6 15s.), 58s. only. Whittingham, 1856. 
 The only really handsome and readable edition of Shakspeare, convenient in size 
 and accurate in text, ever printed. A choicely printed edition has long been a posi- 
 tive want. I can recommend the above in the atrongest terms. But a limited 
 
 NUMBER V7ERH PRINTED ON THIS BEAOTIPUL PAPER, WITH GLORIOUS MAEGINS. 
 
 Shaw's (Eich. Norman) Architectural Sketches 
 
 PROM THE Continent; a Series of 100 Magn^cent Flates of the most interesting 
 Architectural Remains in France, Italy, and Germany, Fol. (sells at £448.), 
 half morocco, gilt edges, a copy offered at 38s. 1862. 
 
 EAELY BRITISH, BRUIDIC, AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES IN WILTSHIRE. 
 
 SilburyHill. Diary of a Dean; being an Account 
 
 of the Examination of Silburt Hill, and of various Barrows, and other Earth- 
 work:s on the Downs of North Wilts. By the late Dr. MERE WEATHER, of 
 ilereford. 8vo, nearly 100 Engravings of Koman Pottert, Ancient Graves, 
 Eabthworks, Cartings, Jewellery, &c., (sells at 7s. 6d.) only 2s. 6d. 1851. 
 A most interesting book otEwrly British and Soma/n Antiquities, 
 
 Stokes (H. Sewell of Truro) the Vale of Lanherne, 
 
 and other Poems, 8vo, beat edition^ with nwmerous tinted Illustkatiows 
 
 DEPIOTIIf& THE lOTEIT SoElTEKT OB THE NeISHBOUEHOOD (sells at 128. 6d.), 
 
 perfectly new amd fresh, in cloth, elegant, for 3s. 6d. Longman, 1853. 
 
 It was quite by accident that the publisher fell in with a few copies of this 
 
 deliehtfol volume at an exceedingly low price. In the old book market copies have 
 
 been scarce for some time paat. Amongst the Illusteatiohs may be enumerated 
 
 the VaIE op LAlfHEEKE — NlIlfH-EET OF Lauheeue akd Chueoh or St. Mawsan 
 
 AwciENT Cross in Mawgan Chuechtaed — Thegubeioit Bat — The Nob- 
 
 WEGiAK's KocK, and the Etet. 
 
 John Camden Satten, 161, FiccadiUs W. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Tasso, la Gerusalemme Liberata. 2 vols. 48mo. 
 
 THE EXQUisiTB DiAMoiTJ) TzpE Editioit (sells at 10fl.)» only 2s. 
 Now ready, royal 8to, price 48. 6d. 
 
 Telegraphy and Secret Intelligence.— Grammaire 
 
 du T61^graphe— Histoire et Loia du Langage ; Hv^othSse d*une Langue Anal^- 
 tique et M6thodique ; Grammaire Ajialytique Umverselle dea Signaux— Pans, 
 August, 1862, 8vo, 40 pages). Is a philosophical iuTestigation of the subject, 
 examined from a higher and more scieutific point of yiew, and contains the first 
 ideas of the system, by the COUNT D'ESCATBAO DE LAUTUEB. 
 
 Now ready, price 1b. 
 
 Telegraphy.— On Analytic Universal Telegraphy. 
 
 — (London, December, 1862, Bvo, 20 pages) . Is of a more practical character : it 
 
 fives an idea of the Analytic Universal Tables, if the four Elementary Bavarian 
 ignals or the twenty-six Hughes' Signals were used. By the COUNT D'ES- 
 CAYEAO DE LAUTUEE. 
 
 Now ready, in 4to, with Telegraphic Illustrations, price 4s. 6d. 
 
 Telegraphy.— On the Telegraphic Transcription 
 
 of Chinese Characters : a Table with Four Elementary Signals, and another ac- 
 cording to Morse's Signals— (Paris, 1862 and 1863). With these Tables of one 
 square foot, the 40 or 50,000 Characters and Worda of the Chinese are trans- 
 mitted by Telegraph with the utmost accuracy, and with one-third of the 
 Signals which the same message would require in any other language, or by any 
 other method. 
 
 Just published, with the Tables, price 3s. 6d, 
 
 Telegraphy, and the transmission of Secret In- 
 telligence. — First Sketch of the Analytic Universal NAtrriCAii Code of Sisals : 
 being an Application of the method to Nautical Tei-egrapht, consistmg of 
 only one Table of less than one square foot, available for all communicatioha 
 between Men of War or Merchant Vessels, and immediately intelligible to the 
 seamen of all nations provided with similar Tables in their own language, by 
 COUNT D'ESCAXEAC DE LAUTUEE. 
 
 Just published, with the Tables, price 6s,, 
 
 Telegraphy.—Sketch of Tables for Analytic Uni- 
 
 versal Telegraphy, composed on the supposition of Morse's instruments and 
 
 - signals being used : being a complete demonstration of the Analytic Univeraal 
 
 metJiod, and showing the application of it for uwitehsal teleghaphic, weit^ 
 
 TEN, and SFOKEIC INTEBCOTJBSE, as Well as for aUCBET COBBESP027DEITCE. by the 
 
 COUNT D'ESCATEAC DE LAUTUEE. 
 
 Terentius, 48mo, the exquisite Diamond Type 
 
 Editioit, (sells at 6s.) only Is. 6d. 
 
 John Camden MoUenj 151, Ficcadili^t Ww. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS. 
 
 Now ready, in cloth extra (only a few copies for sale), price 15s., 
 
 The Noble and Gentlemen of Englandj or Notes 
 
 touching the Arms and Descents of the Ancient Knightly and Gentle Souses qf 
 ^Emland, arranged in their respective Counties, attempted by EVELZN" 
 PHILIP SHIELBYj Esq., M.A., F.S.A., one of the Knights of the Shire for 
 the County of Warwick, 4to, hakksomely pbintbd, pp. 321, witk nvmerous 
 heraldic illustrations, 
 
 A very interesting work on the English Families now existing, that were regularly 
 established either as knightly or gentle houses before 1500. It notices also the an- 
 cient and present estates or Uiese county families. Thework possesBes considerable 
 value to those who are interested in genealogical and heraldic studies. 
 
 Second Edition, beautifully printed, 12mo, cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 THE CHOICEST HUMOROUS POETRY OF THE AGKE, 
 
 The Biglow Papers. By James Russell^ Lowell. 
 
 (Alluded to by John Bright in the House of Commons.) 
 "WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS BY &EORGE CRUIKSHANK. 
 
 %* This Edition lias been Edited with additional Notes ea^kmator^ qf the persons 
 a/nd subjects mentioned therein. 
 
 " The Rhymes are as startling and felicitous as any in • Hudibraa.* • Sam Slick' 
 is a mere pretender in comparison." — Slackwood's Magazine^ 
 
 ** The fiin of the * Biglow Papers' is quite equal to the fun of the • Ingoldsby 
 Legends.* This is the real doggerel, the Rabelaiesque of poetry." — Eraser. 
 
 Tobacco: its History, Cultivation, Manufacture, 
 
 and Adulterations. By ANDREW STBINMETZ. 13mo, 9d. 
 A curious httle Book of nearly 200 pages, relative to the often-repeated question 
 " IS SHOEING INJURIOUS TO HEALTH ?*' 
 The author, however, speaks somewhat in favour of the habit, 
 
 Virgilii Opera, ed. Joannis Bond. 24mo- Didot's 
 
 exquisite edition, in small but very legible type, with kumkeotjs most beautipttl 
 Photo&baphs, peom PAiKTiifGS by M. Barrios. 35b. 
 The most exquisite amd elassicly illustrated edition of Virgil ever published, 
 
 BEST PRENCH LESSON BOOK EVER PUBLISHED. 
 Ordinary price 6s., a few copies now offered at Ss. 6d, 
 
 Vocabulaire Symbolique. A Symbolic French and 
 
 English Vocabulary, for Students of everj^ age. By EAGONET. Illustrated by 
 many hundred Woodcuts, exhibiting familiar objects of every description, with 
 iPrench and English Explanations,— thus stamping the French terms and phrases 
 indelibly on the mind. 
 
 Walton & Cotton's Complete Angler. 48nio. The 
 
 BxQTJisiiE DiAMOHD Ttpe Bdixioit (sella at 6s.), only Is. ed. 
 
 Walton's Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert, 
 
 and Sanderson. 48mo. The Bxqcisite Diamohd Ttpe Bditioit. FortraMa, 
 (sells at 6s.), only Is. 6d. 
 
 Jolm Camden Sottm, 151, FiecadillAi, W. 
 
CHEAP AND CURIOUS BOOKS, 
 
 Now ready, price 28.; by post, on roller, 2b. 4»d, 
 
 Warrant to Execute Charles I. An Exact Fac- 
 
 Bimile of this Important Document in the House of Lords, with the Fiftt-itinb 
 
 SiGWATUBES of the Eefficides, and Cdrrraponding Seals, admirably executed on 
 
 paper made to imitate the Original Document, 22 in. by 14 in. 
 
 Copied by EiPSBaa fbbmission. — King^ Charles I., January 20th, 1648, was 
 
 brought from St. James's to Sir R; Cotton's house (iiow the Speaker's residence), 
 
 and was four days arraigned at the bar of the House of Commons by Bjadshaw, and 
 
 seventy-nine Judges Commissioners, named for his Trial The original document 
 
 was kept in the Old House of Peers' Library, and beiu^ saved from the Fire, was 
 
 ? reserved in the Poet's Tower, and is now under the librarian's care at the House of 
 (orda. Some of the Regicides died in America, while many of the children of those 
 executed at the Restoration betook themselves to that country, and laid the founda- 
 tions of many of the first families in Sew Enghmd. Hahdsomblt I'bambd ahd 
 
 GLAZED, IS CAEVED OAK, OP AN ANTIQUE PaTXEBN, 14s. 6d. 
 
 Now ready, safe on roller, 2s. ; by post, 29. 4d. 
 
 Warrant to Execute Mary Queen of Scots. The 
 
 Exact Facsimile of this ImportftM Document, including the Signature of Queen 
 Elizabeth and Facsimile of th^' Great Seal, on tinted paper, made to imitate tha 
 original MS, 
 *' I praise and thank my God, tliat it pleases Him to put an end by this to the 
 many miseries and calamities that they have compelled me to endure; for, since 
 nineteen years up to the present moment, I have oeen constituted a prisoner, and. 
 very evilly entreated by the Queenof England, my sister, without ever having injured, 
 as God 19 my principal witness." — Mojrr/'a Reply to my Lord Beale, who wa9 com- 
 missioned to vr^orm her of Elizabeth's Sentence of Dearth. Handsomely j'eamed 
 
 AND GLAZED, IN CAEVED OAK, OB AN ANTIQUE PATTEEN, 14f8. 6d. 
 
 TOEKSHIRB BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Now ready, 8vo, half morocco, very neat, price 5s, fid. 
 
 Bibliographical Account of nearly 1500 curious 
 
 and rare Books, Teacts, MSS. and En&eavinqs relating to the Histoby and 
 ToPOGBAPHY of ToBKSHiEE, coUected by Mr. Hottbn', with numerous Dbscbip- 
 TiTE Notes, LitebabyAnbcdotes, etc,, illustrated vHtk curious wood engravings f 
 from Blocks formerly in the possession of the eccentric John Cole of Scar- 
 borough, interleaved for MS. notes, additions, etc. 1863. 
 Only PiBTY Copies have been printed on thick papeb, for the use of Yorkshire 
 Antiquaries and Topographers. 
 
 WELSH BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Now ready, 8vo, hsdf morocco very neat, price 49. 6d.. 
 
 Bibliographical Account of nearly 1000 curious 
 
 and Rare Books, Tbactb, MSS., and Eng-batings, relating to the Histoet 
 and TopoQEAPHT of NORTH and SOUTH WALES, collected by Mr. Hottbn, 
 with numerous Dbsceiptivb Notes, Liteeaet Anecdotes, &c., interleaved for 
 MS. notes, additions, &c.fiUustrated with curious wood engraviugsfrom old Chap 
 JBooka and Ballads. 
 
 Only Fifty Copies have been printed on thick pafbb, for the use of Welsh 
 Antiquaries and Topographers. 
 
 1^ CATALOGUES OF CURIOUS BOOKS,— BOOKS relating to 
 FAMILY HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, HERALDRY, cfcc, 
 
 published every Month, 
 
 JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 
 ' 161, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W.