a pocket handkerchief; the sky is "machine ruled;" the pillars and
tracery of the ruined chapel are architectural impossibilities; while at
the very first snort, the slumbering figure of Guy Fawkes must roll
inevitably into the well towards the brink of which he lies in dangerous
propinquity. These illustrations provoked the ire of the publisher and
the remonstrances of the author, both of which were disregarded with
strict impartiality. In 1842, Harrison Ainsworth retired from the
conduct of the "Miscellany," and set up a rival magazine of somewhat
similar plan and conception, which he christened after his own surname.
This opposition venture appears to have been the result of a
misunderstanding between the editor and publisher, the most serious
outcome of which was, that when Ainsworth left he carried with him
George Cruikshank.

The secession of George caused Mr. Bentley the greatest possible
inconvenience. The straits to which he was reduced may be imagined by
the fact that A. Hervieu (an artist of considerable ability), and the
clever, well-known amateur, Alfred Crowquill (Alfred Henry Forrester),
had to be pressed into the service, and contributed leading etchings.
Meanwhile, the cover of the "Miscellany" showed that George Cruikshank
was nominally retained on the pictorial staff; and before the quality of
his illustrations became so villainously bad that the object he had in
view--that of _forcing_ Bentley to cancel his engagement--had been
attained, a draughtsman of unusual graphic power and versatility had
come to the assistance of the magazine. This was a young man who had
already executed many comic designs of a somewhat novel and original
character, and was already forcing his way to the front: his
name--familiar afterwards "in our mouths as household words"--was John
Leech.

The "Guy Fawkes" illustrations were the outcome of the first campaign
between Bentley and Cruikshank; and as the history of the quarrel
between the publisher and his unmanageable artist is a somewhat amusing
one, we may be pardoned for describing it at length. The engagement from
which he sought to free himself, and which he stigmatized as "a
one-sided one," obliged Cruikshank to supply Mr. Bentley with at least
one etching every month; and as Bentley continued to advertise him as
the illustrator of the "Miscellany," George commenced the second
campaign by issuing in the opening pages of the opposition venture the
following character