he commencement, the
following touching notice from the pen of his friend, the late Shirley
Brooks:--

JOHN LEECH,
OBIIT OCTOBER XXIX, MDCCCLXIV,
_AEtat 46._

"The simplest words are best where all words are vain. Ten days ago a
great artist, in the noon of life, and with his glorious mental
faculties in full power, but with the shade of physical infirmity
darkening upon him, took his accustomed place among friends who have
this day held his pall. Some of them had been fellow-workers with him
for a quarter of a century, others for fewer years; but to know him well
was to love him dearly, and all in whose name these lines are written
mourn as for a brother. His monument is in the volumes of which this is
one sad leaf, and in a hundred works which at this hour few will
remember more easily than those who have just left his grave. While
society, whose every phase he has illustrated with a truth, a grace,
and a tenderness heretofore unknown to satiric art, gladly and proudly
takes charge of his fame, they, whose pride in the genius of a great
associate was equalled by their affection for an attached friend, would
leave on record that they have known no kindlier, more refined, or more
generous nature than that of him who has been thus early called to his
rest.

NOVEMBER THE FOURTH."

FOOTNOTES:

[156] I estimate the number of his cartoons as nearly as possible as
follows:--

1842 3 1850 37 1858 30
1843 11 1851 42 1859 21
1844 42 1852 35 1860 15
1845 43 1853 32 1861 10
1846 35 1854 34 1862 4
1847 35 1855 41 1863 3
1848 38 1856 33 1864 4
1849 37 1857 33

[157] Shirley Brooks in _Illustrated London News_ of 19th November,
1864.

[158] Charles Mackay's "Forty Years' Recollections."

[159] "Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters," p. 12.

[160] MS. Diary of the late Shirley Brooks, 1st January, 1864.

[161] Died on the 18th of December, 1864, exactly within a year from
the date of her son's death.

[162] Shirley Brooks in _Illustrated London News_ of 19th November,
1864.

[163] "I suggested the cut, Moses being dressed for the Fair, Johnny
Russell for the Conference." MS. Diary of the late Shirley Brooks.

[164] The first time I find mention of his name is on the 22nd of
Marc