of a succession of golden
harvests, of which the primitive but thoroughly wide-awake peasantry
were by no means slow to profit. Dissimilar in many respects, Albert
Smith and John Leech had this bond of sympathy between them, that both
were old friends, and both had nominally studied for the medical
profession; and whilst Leech attained at St. Bartholomew's that
practical knowledge of anatomical drawing which did him such good
service in his artistic career, Albert Smith at Middlesex Hospital and
the _Hotel Dieu_ appears to have picked up that intimate acquaintance
with London and Parisian student life which he displays in the
"Adventures of Mr. Ledbury."

The "New Monthly" for 1844 contains two etchings by Leech to "The Lord
of Thoulouse" and "The Wedding Day," which seem to call for notice,
because they are not to be found in the collected edition of the
"Ingoldsby Legends." In the collected edition he shows us little Jack
Ingoldsby _before_ he entered the fatal cellar, while in the "New
Monthly" we see him lying dead at the feet of the weird buccaneer, who
points with grim irony at the little corpse by way of caveat to those
who would broach his wine. From the "New Monthly" etching George
Cruikshank borrowed the idea for his illustration of the same subject in
the 1864 edition. There is a difference, of course, but the fact will
become ridiculously patent to any one who has an opportunity of
comparing the two designs. This, by the way, is not the only instance in
the '64 edition in which Cruikshank borrowed his idea from John
Leech,[138] which at one time he would have scorned to do, a fact which
affords the strongest possible evidence of the decadence of George's
once unrivalled powers of invention, imagination, and fancy.

Leech it will be remembered obtained a footing on the staff of
"Bentley's Miscellany" at the time when George Cruikshank was leaving
it. Cruikshank, however, was an admirer of the genius of Leech, and when
they laid him in his untimely grave in Kensal Green Cemetery, on the 4th
November, 1864, the veteran artist was among the crowd of distinguished
men who looked sorrowfully on. The influence which George Cruikshank
exercised upon the genius of Leech will be apparent to any one who has
given attention to the early etchings of the latter. This influence will
be particularly discernible in the illustrations to "Richard Savage" and
"The Marchioness of Brinvilliers." Both were men of genius, but Leec