. The style of these tentative efforts may be judged by the
work which first brought him into notice, a poor caricature of
Mulready's envelope in commemoration of the establishment of Sir Rowland
Hill's cheap postage system, a reproduction of which will be found in a
late "Biographical Sketch" by Mr. Kitton.[128] Although the pecuniary
reward of this early effort was small, people began to ask by whom it
was executed; thus it was that his subsequently well-known mark, the
leech-bottle, first came into public notice.

Specimens of these tentative efforts are of course scarce, but
occasionally the reader may fall in with odd numbers of the
"Comicalities," issued some half century ago by the proprietors of
"Bell's Life," in which may be found specimens of his early work among
impressions from the designs on wood of Kenny Meadows, "Phiz," and even
Robert Seymour.[129] Among these early efforts may also be named "The
Boys' Own Series"; "Studies from Nature"; "Amateur Originals"; the "Ups
and Downs of Life, or the Vicissitudes of a Swell"; and other etcetera.

When poor Seymour shot himself in 1836, the artist who was at first
selected to fill his place as illustrator of "Pickwick" was Robert
William Buss, who, failing however to supply the requirements of Charles
Dickens, was (as we shall afterwards see) quickly discarded. Others,
however, had applied to supply the place of the deceased artist, and
among them were Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), W. M. Thackeray, and John
Leech; although the latter failed to secure the appointment, he appears
to us of all others the one best fitted to pictorially interpret the
author's creations. Thackeray was so little conscious of the bent of his
own genius that he seems at this time to have had some thoughts of
following the profession of an artist, but happily failed so completely
that he was induced to follow up his alternative art of authorship, by
which he achieved his fame and reputation. Notwithstanding his failure,
his implicit faith in his own artistic powers remained unshaken to the
end, in which belief he has been followed by one or two writers who
might have known better.

It is not until 1840 that we find Leech had matured the style and manner
which afterwards made him famous; and accordingly, in this year we find
designs which are thoroughly worthy of his reputation. Among these may
be named "The Children of the Mobility," seven lithographs (reproduced
in 1875) dealing with t