him
to say, some years afterwards, in a letter to one of his sons, "O! I'm
a' weary, I'm a' weary of this illustrating business."

Artists frequently experience great difficulty in realizing, to the
author's satisfaction, the description of scenes and characters. An
illustration is here given showing BROWNE'S various "fancies for Mr.
Dombey," all of which failed to please DICKENS, who also expressed his
disapprobation of this artist's treatment of another subject in _Dombey
and Son_. "I am really distressed," writes he, "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 the corner of the fire-place, 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
kept 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 in
short description, and he can't help taking it in."

As the tale proceeded, the artist more than compensated for his
unsuccessful rendering of this incident; and with "Micawber," in _David
Copperfield_, he obtained the author's entire approbation, who says,
"Browne has sketched an uncommonly characteristic and capital Mr.
Micawber for the next number." Again, with reference to an illustration
in _Bleak House_, "Browne has done Skimpole, and helped to make him
singularly unlike the great original."[D]

Of the private life of "Phiz" little is known. His extreme nervousness
and dislike to publicity was often misconstrued as pride; and DICKENS
even had considerable difficulty in occasionally persuading him to meet
a few friends and spend a pleasant evening. When he did accept such
invitations, he invariably tried to seclude himself in a corner of the
room, or behind a curtain. His desire for a quiet, unobtrusive life,
induced him to pass most of his time in country retirement, all business
matters in town being transacted by an intimate friend.[E] Authors or
publishers wishing to have a personal interview with "Phiz" were
compelled to visit him at his residence, a few miles from town, and many