my figures
from for the 'History of Punch and Judy' was an old Italian long since
deceased. His performance and figures were first-rate--far superior to
anything of the present day, and it is quite evident that poor Leech and
others copied _my_ Punch, for _Punch_ and other works, from the Punch
that I copied from this Italian Punch.

"Speaking of Punch, you are, I presume, aware that although the idea of
'Punch' was taken from my 'Omnibus,' that I never had anything to do
with that work of 'Punch,' and also that for many years (20!!!) I have
not taken anything in the way of _Punch_.

"However, I will say no more about Punch at present, as I fear you will
feel as if you could 'punch' the head of

"Yours truly.

"GEORGE CRUIKSHANK."

[Illustration: T. HARRINGTON WILSON

(_Drawn by T. W. Wilson, R.I._)]

His grievance was that _Punch's_ figure was stolen from his book (to
which Payne Collier had written the text), and that the paper itself was
but an imitation of his own short-lived monthly magazine. With greater
reason could he complain that the _Punch_ Pocket-books were copied from
his "Comic Annuals," as they were, and that the imitations killed the
originals after a contest of a dozen years; but the idea of _Punch_
being copied from the "Omnibus," with which it had hardly a single point
in common, save humour and illustration, has probably about as much
foundation as Cruikshank's claim against Dickens and "Oliver Twist," or
against Harrison Ainsworth and "The Miser's Daughter" and "The Tower of
London." Yet _Punch_ rendered ample tribute to his genius, not so much
in the adaptation of many of his best-known drawings to cartoons,
including "Jack Sheppard" (1841), "Oliver asking for More" (1844), "The
Fix" [Points of Humour] (1844), "The Juggernaut" (1845), "Oliver Twist
and the Artful Dodger" (1846), "The Deaf Postilion" (1846), and "Fagin
in the Cell" (1848), "The Election" [Sketches by Boz] down to "Harcourt
the Headsman" (June 8th, 1895); but also by deliberate statement and
amiability prepense. That, however, did not prevent _Punch_ from
chaffing "the Great George" upon occasion, as when he was preparing his
"Life of Falstaff" the journal gravely assumed that he would reform that
incorrigible tippler into a "teetotal Falstaff," and protested against
the enthusiast mixing water so copiously with the milk of his human
kindness. So Cruikshank se