e pages of "Bentley's Miscellany." The story of course
had been written in anticipation of the magazine; and according to Mr.
Forster, Cruikshank's designs for the portion which forms the third
volume "having to be executed 'in a lump,' were necessarily done
somewhat hastily." How far this statement is correct, the reader will be
enabled to judge when we tell him that these so-called "hastily"
prepared illustrations include the famous designs of _Sikes and his Dog_
and _Fagin in the Condemned Cell_. "None of these illustrations," Mr.
Forster goes on to tell us, "Dickens had seen until he saw them in the
book on the eve of its publication [we assume in the three-volume form],
when he so strongly objected to one of them that it had to be
cancelled." "My dear Cruikshank," he at once wrote off to the artist, "I
returned suddenly to town yesterday afternoon [October, 1838] to look at
the latter pages of 'Oliver Twist' before it was delivered to the
booksellers, when I saw the majority of the plates for the first time.
With reference to the last one, _Rose Maylie and Oliver_, without
entering into the question of great haste or any other cause which may
have led to its being what it is, I am quite sure there can be little
difference of opinion between us with respect to the result. May I ask
you whether you will object to designing this plate afresh, and doing so
_at once_, in order that as few impressions as possible of the present
one may go forth. I feel confident you know me too well to feel hurt by
this inquiry, and with equal confidence in you, I have lost no time in
preferring it." At this point Mr. Forster leaves the story.

THE QUARREL WITH DICKENS.

Probably very few of our readers have seen this despised and rejected
plate of _Rose Maylie and Oliver_, for it is not the one which bears
that title among the ordinary illustrations to the novel of "Oliver
Twist." It is very rare, and we wish we could reproduce it here. If not
one of the very best of the series, it is entirely in keeping with the
rest; and so far from displaying "great haste," is in every respect a
carefully finished book etching. Four figures are represented in it as
sitting round the fire, among them the well known form of Oliver, with
his turn-down collar and elaborately brushed hair. On the mantle-shelf,
with other ornaments, are two hyacinths in glasses, thus fixing January
as the date of the scene depicted. It would have been better for the
b