TOM HOOD would say,
when trying to recall the pseudonym that has since become so familiar by
means of the innumerable works of art to which it was appended. At the
time HABLOT[A] KNIGHT BROWNE first used this quaint _soubriquet_, it was
customary to look upon book-illustrators as second, or even third-rate
artists--mere hacks in fact; and for this reason they usually suppressed
their real names, in order to give themselves the opportunity of earning
the title of _artist_, when producing more ambitious results as
painters. Occasionally, whether by accident or design, the subject of
this memoir would affix his real name to his illustrations; and the
public were consequently under the impression that the two signatures
were those of different artists, and were even wont to remark that
"_Browne's work was better than that of 'Phiz!_'"

It is not, perhaps, generally known that the artist's first _nom de
crayon_ was "NEMO," which to some extent bears out the above statement
that a book-illustrator was considered a "nobody." Mr. BROWNE himself,
in referring to the _Pickwick Papers_, gave the following
explanation:--"I think I signed myself as 'NEMO' to my first etchings
(those of No. 4) before adopting 'Phiz' as my _soubriquet_, to
harmonize--I suppose--better with Dickens' 'Boz.'" It is only on the
earliest printed plates in some copies of the _Pickwick Papers_ that the
signature of "NEMO" can be faintly traced.

HABLOT KNIGHT BROWNE, son of William Loder Browne, a descendant from a
Norfolk family, was born on the 12th of July, 1815, at Kennington,
London. He was educated at a private school in Norfolk, and from an
early age evinced a taste for drawing, which, being recognized by his
relatives, induced them to apprentice him to FINDEN, the well-known
line-engraver. An anecdote is told of him during his apprenticeship
which will bear repetition. Finding BROWNE very painstaking and
conscientious, his master usually sent him with engraved plates to the
printer, in order that he might superintend the operation of
proof-taking. As printers usually take their own time over such matters,
the youth found that this waiting the pressman's pleasure tried his
patience too much. It therefore occurred to him that to spend the
interval in the British Museum, hard by, would be much more suited to
his tastes. On his returning with the proofs, FINDEN would praise the
boy's diligence, little thinking what trick had been practised on him.

L