beard,--drawing his "roosty rapier,"
and swearing to "speet him like a pliver" unless he would relinquish the
bonnie lassie for ever--

"Wi' ghastly ee, poor tweedle-dee
Upon his hunkers bended,
An' pray'd for grace wi' ruefu' face,
An' so the quarrel ended."

Hark how the tinker apostrophizes the violinist, stating to the widow
at the same time the advantages which she might expect from an alliance
with himself:--

"Despise that shrimp, that withered imp,
Wi' a' his noise and caperin';
And take a share with those that bear
The budget and the apron!

"And by that stowp, my faith an' houpe,
An' by that dear Kilbaigie!
If e'er ye want, or meet wi' scant,
May I ne'er weet my craigie."

Cruikshank's caird is a noble creature; his face and figure show him to
be fully capable of doing and saying all that is above written of him.

In the second part, the old tale of "The Three Hunchbacked Fiddlers" is
illustrated with equal felicity. The famous classical dinners and
duel in "Peregrine Pickle" are also excellent in their way; and the
connoisseur of prints and etchings may see in the latter plate, and in
another in this volume, how great the artist's mechanical skill is as an
etcher. The distant view of the city in the duel, and of a market-place
in "The Quack Doctor," are delightful specimens of the artist's skill
in depicting buildings and backgrounds. They are touched with a grace,
truth, and dexterity of workmanship that leave nothing to desire. We
have before mentioned the man with the mouth, which appears in this
number emblematical of gout and indigestion, in which the artist has
shown all the fancy of Callot. Little demons, with long saws for noses,
are making dreadful incisions into the toes of the unhappy sufferer;
some are bringing pans of hot coals to keep the wounded member warm;
a huge, solemn nightmare sits on the invalid's chest, staring solemnly
into his eyes; a monster, with a pair of drumsticks, is banging a
devil's tattoo on his forehead; and a pair of imps are nailing great
tenpenny nails into his hands to make his happiness complete.

The late Mr. Clark's excellent work, "Three Courses and a Dessert," was
published at a time when the rage for comic stories was not so great
as it since has been, and Messrs. Clark and Cruikshank only sold their
hundreds where Messrs. Dic