nths |Average
-------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------
Douglas | | | | | | | |
Jerrold |20-1/4|17-1/4| 23-1/2|27[30]| 20-1/4| 31-1/2|139-3/4| 5-1/4
Gilbert | | | | | | | |
a Beckett |15-1/4|18 | 6-1/2|17-1/4| 17 | 19-3/4| 94-3/4| 3-1/2
Percival | | | | | | | |
Leigh | 4-1/2| 8-3/4| 9 | 5 | 5-1/2| 6-1/4| 39 | 1-1/2
Thackeray | 8 | 5-3/4| 6 | -- | -- | 4-3/4| 24-1/2| 1
Horace Mayhew| 2-1/2| 2-1/2| 3-1/2| 2 | 2-1/2| 3-3/4| 16-3/4| 1/2
T. Taylor | -- | -- | -- | -- | 3-1/4| 3 | 6-1/4| 1/4
Ferguson | 1[31]| -- | -- | 3/4| -- | 1 | 1-3/4| --
Editor[32] | 5 | 1-1/4| 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 20 | 3/4
Oxenford | -- | 1-1/2| -- | -- | -- | -- | 1-1/2| --
Laman | | | | | | | |
Blanchard | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1-3/4| -- | 1-3/4| --
H. Wills | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1/2| 1/2| 1 | --
-------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+------
Total of columns in volume 347
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A more comprehensive view may be had from a glance at the table on the
following page, which covers perhaps the most interesting period of
_Punch's_ early history.

From this table it will be seen that Douglas Jerrold contributed as much
as 139 columns to Vol. VII. and Gilbert a Beckett 122 to the next; and
that the Editor's section after Vol. VI. was to some extent split up
under the names of the individual contributors who composed it. In
addition to these names during the period covered by the table, there
may be added those of Tom Hood (3-3/4), T. J. Serle, Charles Lever,
Horace Smith, and Doyle.

Another source of trouble to the Editor was the holiday-time as it came
round, for the Staff would scatter itself and, though arrangements were
made of course beforehand, the paper was sometimes run in a
curiously undermanned condition. Thus, for example, on the week of
August 12, 1848 (No. 370), Jerrold was at Guernsey, Thackeray was at
Brussels, Horace Mayhew at Ramsgate, and Tom Taylor away on circuit. The
whole paper was in consequence written by three men--by G