h, 1864, when the late Shirley Brooks met him at a party at Mr.
Ernest Hart's, 69, Wimpole Street. Some years afterwards, he adds in
a note, "Met him next at Whitby." I first meet with his name at a
_Punch_ council, 7th November, 1864: "Dumaurier first time."

[165] Mr. Yates in _Morning Star_.

[166] MS. Diary of Shirley Brooks: 29th October, 1864.

[167] _Illustrated London News_, 19th November, 1864.

[168] MS. Diary of Mr. Shirley Brooks.

[169] _Ibid._

[170] H. K. Browne ("Phiz"), T. Landseer, George Cruikshank, Marcus
Stone, Sir John Gilbert, and Mr. Philips, R.A., were also present.

[171] The Rev. J. Reynolds Hole, author of "A Little Tour in
Ireland," to which his friend, John Leech (who accompanied him),
contributed some of the most charming of his illustrations.

CHAPTER XVI.

_A BOOK ILLUSTRATOR: HABLOT KNIGHT BROWNE._

In a work dealing with comic artists and caricaturists, one is somewhat
puzzled to decide what place to assign to the distinguished draughtsman
who died a year and a half ago. _Ultimus Romanorum_, the last of the
great trio of designers, Cruikshank, Leech, and Browne, his career
offers to us a singular paradox; for although not born a comic artist
(as we shall endeavour presently to show), he executed a vast number of
comic illustrations; and while, so far as we know, never guilty of a
caricature in his life, the larger portion of his drawings are
caricatures pure and simple.

We might cite a hundred examples of this tendency to exaggeration, but
one shall suffice. In the etching wherein Miss Nickleby is introduced to
her uncle's objectionable friends, Miss Nickleby as well as the
"friends" are remarkable for the largeness of their heads and the
flimsiness of their bodies; while the men, if not exactly like those
described by Pliny, or quoted from him (without acknowledgment) by our
Sir John Mandeville, are at any rate too grotesque for human beings. If
humanity offers to our study in daily life a variety in form, face, and
feature, comprising eccentricities as well as excellencies, such
specimens, nevertheless, as poor Smike or Mr. Mantalini were never
designed in its _atelier_.

[Illustration:
PHIZ. "_Master Humphrey's Clock_," 1840-1.

THE DEPARTURE.

_Face p. 336._]

The artist's invincible tendency to exaggeration, that is _caricature_
(in the Johnsonian definition of the word), was observed by his friend
and ally,