r
Majesty, and is a transcript (as it were) of Stothard's beautiful design
of _The Procession of the Flitch of Bacon_, the leading personages being
the young Queen and the late Prince Consort, whose portraits are
admirably executed. Towards the close of the series they show signs of
failing power, not unnatural in an artist who during a course of twenty
years had produced upwards of a thousand drawings. I have seen it
somewhere stated that this deterioration dates from the period when the
identity of HB was discovered; but inasmuch as this secret had been
practically revealed long before the decadence commences, there is no
just ground for any such assumption.

The reputation of the "Political Sketches" was, however, ephemeral, and
considering their popularity and the eagerness with which they were
bought up at the time, it is surprising how completely they have passed
into oblivion. The name of HB, or of John Doyle, is now not only
"caviare to the general," but it is amazing how little until lately he
was known even to men not altogether ignorant on the subject of
satirical art. A gentleman to whom I am indebted for some valuable
information, tells me that some three or four years since "a large
number of _original_ sketches (not the engravings) were catalogued and
announced for sale at Christies'. I went," he says, "possibly to buy
several, but (and it is curious as showing the decadent interest in the
pictures) no sale took place, because I was told there was no one to
buy. I think," my informant adds, "that I was the only person, or
nearly the only person, in the room." Distinguished people, however, had
been to look at the drawings, and among them the late Lord Beaconsfield.

The success of the artist produced, of course, a number of imitators.
Their productions were of various degrees of merit; but like most
imitations they generally accentuated the faults without reproducing the
excellencies of the model. Some of them are entitled "Political Hits,"
"Royal Ramblings," "The Belgian Trip," "Parisian Trip," and so on; some
are signed "Philo H. B.," "H. H.," "B. H.," while others have neither
initials or signature. They comprise some eighty or a hundred plates at
least, many of which were probably suppressed, whilst others no doubt
served the useful purposes of the greengrocer, the bookbinder, or the
trunk-maker; and if, as we are told--

"Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the