is sitting on a
fence-rail shouting, and the hunt comes up. "Seen the fox, my boy?" asks
the huntsman. "No, I ain't!" replies the lad. "Then what are you
hollarin' for?" "Because," answers the scarecrow, "because I'm paid for
it." This picture was a valuable introduction, procured through a friend
who forwarded his drawing, for it brought him an invitation to
illustrate "Romford's Hounds" and "Hawbuck Grange," as well as an
established, though intermittent, connection with _Punch_. With few
exceptions, Mr. Maud's jokes are the result of personal experience, for
he looks to _contretemps_ in the field for his humorous subjects.
Through falling with his horse into a big drain in the Belvoir
country--a precious accident for him--he collected sufficient matter to
produce three jokes which duly saw the light. But the collection of such
material is "damned hard riding," and each hunting season has only
brought forth about ten such productions. Since that time Mr. Maud has
turned his attention to sources of humour other than the hunting-field;
and as in 1893 he carried off the Landseer scholarship and two silver
medals for painting from the life, it is possible that he may in the
near future be tempted far from the joyous art of comic black-and-white.

[Illustration: J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE.

(_Drawn by Himself._)]

Mr. Bernard Partridge made his first drawing for _Punch_ in 1891,
through the instrumentality of Mr. du Maurier, one of his greatest
admirers. It was a drawing of a bishop in a distressing and undignified
pose, and, though small in size, it proved at once to readers of _Punch_
the justice of the extraordinary reputation the young artist had gained
elsewhere. It was not only that his drawing and proportion are always
entirely right--that, perhaps, is to be expected in the son of the late
teacher of anatomy at the Royal Academy Schools--but that his handling
is so graceful and dainty, his effects of light and shade so masterly,
his portraiture so true, and his power of representing expression, as
shown both in face and figure, so absolute. Mr. du Maurier saw in him
his own successor for the time when he may be called upon to lay the
pencil down; and the public recognised in him an appreciator of beauty
to a degree hardly excelled by Mr. du Maurier himself. Being, moreover,
as familiar with the expression of the foreigner as with that of the
East-Ender, or the resident of "Buckley Square," he was a recruit after
Mr. P