trations have been
executed by the artist from the author's _verbal description of what he
intended to write_." Cruikshank would certainly not have done this, and
we doubt whether John Leech would have consented to work under such
conditions. But as regards Browne, the case was entirely different. He
had no _genius_ or ideas of his own, and could only work from the
suggestions of others. The interest and anxiety which Dickens felt in
the character of the illustrations to his novels, is shown by reference
to the illustrations to "Dombey." "The points for illustration, and the
enormous care required, make me," he says, "excessively anxious! The man
for Dombey, if Browne could see him, the class of man to a T, is Sir
A---- E----, of D----s. Great pains will be necessary with Miss Tox. The
Toodle family should not be too much caricatured, because of Polly." As
the story unwinds itself, he proceeds, "Browne is certainly interesting
himself and taking pains;" and again, in another letter, "Browne seems
to be getting on well." Still "Browne," with all his pliability, found
it a hard matter to please him. He made a particular point of Paul, Mrs.
Pipchin, and the cat by the fire; and the result to himself was so
eminently unsatisfactory that it produced a characteristic protest. "I
am really distressed by the illustration of Mrs. Pipchin and Paul. It is
so frightfully and wildly wide of the mark. Good heaven! in the
commonest and most literal construction of the text, it is all wrong!
She is described as an old lady, and Paul's 'miniature arm-chair' is
mentioned more than once. He ought to be sitting in a little arm-chair
down in a corner of the fireplace, staring up at her. I can't say what
pain and vexation it is to be so utterly misrepresented. I would
cheerfully have given a hundred pounds to have left this illustration
out of the book. He never could have got that idea of Mrs. Pipchin if he
had attended to the text. Indeed, I think he does better without the
text; for then the notion is made easy to him, a _short description_,
and _he can't help taking it in_." This last sentence exactly describes
the man: a personal description with him did more than any amount of
letterpress, however lucid.

One may readily understand this almost nervous anxiety of Charles
Dickens with reference to the _character_ of his illustrations. He
worked, be it remembered, under conditions entirely different to the
novelist of a later date. The et