ine-engraving, however, did not find much favour with the future
"Phiz," the process being too tedious; for FINDEN would probably occupy
some weeks to produce a small plate, which by the quicker process of
etching, could have been executed in as many hours. He accordingly
suspended operations in that quarter, and, in conjunction with a young
kindred spirit, hired a small attic, and employed his time in the more
fascinating pursuit of water-colour drawing, which he continued to
follow with remarkable assiduity until a few days before his death.

These juvenile disciples of the brush then worked hard at drawing in
colour. BROWNE paid his share of the rent in drawings, which he produced
rapidly; indeed, there was a solemn compact between the co-workers to
"do three a day"--they subsisting, meanwhile, on the simplest fare. At
this time he attended the evening class at the "Life" School in St.
Martin's Lane, and was a fellow-pupil with ETTY, the famous painter of
the "nude." It was BROWNE'S great delight to watch this talented student
at work, and he considerably neglected his own studies in consequence.

At the age of seventeen, or thereabouts, he succeeded in gaining a medal
offered for competition by the Society of Arts for the best
representation of an historical subject; and was again fortunate in
obtaining a prize, from the same Society, for a large etching of "John
Gilpin." Mr. GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA, himself an artist of no small
ability, remembers to have seen, in a shop-window in Wardour Street, a
certain print by a young man named HABLOT BROWNE, representing the
involuntary flight of John Gilpin, scattering the pigs and poultry in
his never-to-be-forgotten ride.

[Illustration]

By the time he had attained his twentieth year he had acquired
considerable facility with the pencil. CHARLES DICKENS, but three years
his senior, and with whom the name of "Phiz" is inseparably connected,
had just then made a wonderful reputation by his "Sketches," which first
appeared, at intervals, during 1834-5, and were afterwards published in
book form, illustrated by the renowned GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

In 1836, there appeared in print a pamphlet of some forty or fifty
pages, entitled _Sunday under Three Heads--As it is; as Sabbath Bills
would make it; as it might be made_; "By Timothy Sparks; illustrated by
H. K. B.;" and dedicated to the Bishop of London. The author was CHARLES
DICKENS, whose satire was levelled at Sir Andrew Agnew