notice the death of another author, whose almost
unrecorded name is, nevertheless, intimately associated with that of the
artist. This was Mr. R. W. Surtees, author of the sporting novels which
the genius of Leech has made for ever famous. Mr. Surtees for some years
practised as a London solicitor; but the death of an elder brother
improved his position, and enabled him to quit a profession which he
disliked, in favour of the more congenial employment of literature.
Those of his works best known (he published several others) are, of
course, "Handley Cross," "Sponge's Sporting Tour," "Plain or Ringlets,"
"Ask Mamma," and "Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds." Notwithstanding a
decidedly horsey and somewhat vulgar tone,--a tone which by the way
certainly did not characterize Mr. Surtees himself,--they possess a
certain original humour, which will render their perusal productive of
amusement. He died suddenly on the 16th of March, 1864, in his
sixty-second year.

It has been the habit of the contributors to _Punch_, almost from the
commencement of the periodical, to dine together every Wednesday. In the
winter months the dinner was usually held in the front room of the first
floor of the business premises of the proprietors, Messrs. Bradbury &
Evans, in Bouverie Street, Whitefriars. Sometimes these dinners were
held at the Bedford Hotel, Covent Garden. During the summer months it
was customary to hold ten or twelve dinners at Greenwich, Richmond,
Blackwall, and other places in the neighbourhood of London. On these
occasions the programme (if we may so term it) of the forthcoming number
was arranged and settled, papers were brought out, and the latest
intelligence discussed, so as to bring the "cartoon" down to the latest,
or rather one of the latest subjects of current interest. At the weekly
council dinner John Leech was a faithful attendant. These meetings,
indeed, "he thoroughly enjoyed, and his suggestions, not merely as to
pictorial matters, but generally, were among the most valuable that were
offered, as may be inferred from his large knowledge of the world, his
keen sense of the ludicrous, and his hatred of injustice and
cruelty."[162] One of the most regular attendants of the _Punch_
dinners--I think that in 1864, at least, he scarcely missed one--was the
most indefatigable of the literary staff, Mr. Shirley Brooks. One was
held at The Bedford on the 13th of April, 1864, just about the time when
Lord John Russell was sett