ouse on Ludgate Hill. A late
commentator says he "was an Irishman, a man of fine culture, a profound
Shakespearian scholar, and [presumably by way of apology--as if any such
were needed] a thorough gentleman." Be this as it may, he was not
successful as a landlord, and as a matter of fact depended in a great
measure for his support upon the talents of his remarkably gifted son.

EARLY DAYS.

Leech was only seven years old when his father sent him to the
Charterhouse. His arm had been broken by a fall from a pony, and the
effects of this accident debarred him from taking an active part in the
athletic sports of cricket, hockey, or football; but his nature inclined
him nevertheless to manly exercises, and despite his excellence with the
pencil, which was manifested at a remarkably early age, he is said to
have preferred the lessons of Angelo the fencing, to those of Burgess
the drawing, master. He was not distinguished at school as a classical
scholar, and Latin verses in particular proved so serious a
stumbling-block that he always got a schoolfellow to do them for him.
His famous friend and fellow-pupil, Thackeray, carried an indelible
personal reminiscence of the Charterhouse about him in the shape of a
broken nose, a mark of distinction which was earned in a pugilistic
encounter with another schoolfellow.

A reminiscence of John Leech's schoolboy days will be found in one of
his illustrations to "Once a Week,"[126] which represents a schoolboy
perched in the topmost branches of a tree overlooking the walls of the
Carthusian playground. As the mail coaches bound to the north passed the
Charterhouse walls in the old coaching days, the boys not seeing any
just reason why they should be debarred from the exhilarating spectacle,
notched the trees and drove in spikes at ticklish points, which enabled
them to mount to the upper branches, whence they could watch the coaches
at their leisure. The illustration referred to is labelled, _A Coach
Tree_, but without this explanation the reader would scarcely suspect
(the letterpress being of course silent on the subject) that the
schoolboy represented in the illustration is the artist himself. Leech
always retained a pleasant recollection of his old Carthusian
school-days, and frequently attended the festivities of the
Charterhouse.

His early aptitude for the pencil was developed when he was only three
years of age. One of his early efforts attracted the attention of
Flax