fact that he was enormously popular was
nothing, for many men are popular with not a tithe of the gifts or power
which distinguished Robson. The favour of the "general," except in a
sordid sense, is not worth much in these days. A proof of this is to be
found in the fact that the name of Robson--after the lapse of twenty
years--is scarcely known to the ordinary playgoer; but his genius, while
he lived, was recognised by those whose applause is not easily earned,
and was therefore worth the earning.

Within a week or ten days after his return from the Continent, Leech
went with his family to Whitby, in the hope that the fresh Yorkshire sea
air would invigorate and brace up his shattered system. Some friends
were staying there at the time, and among them a young artist then
comparatively new to _Punch_, but who has been for years past one of its
leading pictorial supporters[164]--Mr. Du Maurier. During his sojourn
here, I find him writing to his friends the Brookses, that if they would
join him, it would induce him to prolong his stay. They went
accordingly, and remained at Whitby until the artist returned to town on
the 3rd of October. "Leech, when we could induce him to leave the
painting in oil, to which he devoted too many hours, enjoyed the drives
into the wild moors, and up and down the terrible but picturesque
roads; and he was still more delighted with the rich woods, deep glades,
and glorious views about Mulgrave Castle. I hoped," continues Shirley
Brooks, in the touching memorial which he contributed to the
_Illustrated London News_ only a few weeks afterwards, "I hoped that
good was being done; but it was very hard to stir him from his pictures,
of which he declared that he must finish a great number by Christmas. It
was not for want of earnest and affectionate remonstrance of those close
by his side, nor lack of such remonstrance being seconded by myself and
others, that he persevered in overlabour at these paintings, which he
had undertaken with his usual generosity, in order to enable himself to
provide a very large sum of money for the benefit of his relatives, not
of his own household. It need hardly be said that he was never pressed
for work by his old friend the editor of _Punch_." For a long time past
his contribution to that periodical had not exceeded one half-page
engraving each week; but at Whitby he elaborated a large sketch,
originally taken at Schwalbach, which is worthy of mention as being the
l