t. Ingram was a good deal identified with the
_Punch_ circle, sometimes in a friendly and sometimes in a hostile way.
He was owner, before he sold it to William and Robert Brough, of "The
Man in the Moon," _Punch's_ arch-enemy, and in later years he started
the "Comic News," with Edmund Yates as editor, on purpose to oppose
him. Yet several of the _Punch_ men, notably Shirley Brooks, worked on
his "Illustrated London News," which was started in great measure to
push "Parr's Life Pills" (these were constantly mentioned and sometimes
attacked in _Punch_), and Douglas Jerrold found in him the capitalist
for the "Illuminated Magazine." Mark Lemon it was who took several of
his Staff down to Boston to speak for Ingram during his candidature, an
expedition that was a greater electoral than oratorical success; and he
again it was, so it is said, who persuaded Mr. Ingram to drop the "Comic
News," so that _Punch_ might be rid of what was already a troublesome,
and might have become a very damaging, rival.

With equal zeal and skill and genial friendliness to recommend him,
Lemon became a great favourite in his own circle, for "Uncle Mark" was
always ready to do his friends a good turn. In 1845 the Staff combined
to present him with a silver inkstand--an interesting relic now in
possession of Mrs. F. W. W. Topham, his daughter--a reproduction of the
lid of which is here given; while the locket which, with a more
substantial gift, was presented in 1866 to celebrate the Jubilee of
_Punch_ (_i.e._ his fiftieth volume) and to mark the withdrawal of the
Heads of the firm, was inscribed as follows: "To Mark Lemon from his old
friends W. Bradbury and F. M. Evans, on their retirement, given at a
dinner at Maidenhead, June 27th, 1866. Present--W. H. Bradbury, Shirley
Brooks, Wm. Agnew, G. du Maurier, F. C. Burnand, J. H. Agnew, C. H.
Bennett, John Tenniel, Horace Mayhew, F. M. Evans (Jim.), Henry Silver,
T. Agnew (Jim.), Percival Leigh, Chas. Keene, Mark Lemon, Wm. Bradbury,
F. M. Evans." There is no doubt that, as time went on, Lemon became more
and more popular with his Staff, and each fresh appearance in _Punch_ of
his jolly face under the low-crowned hat of John Bull, or the
snow-sprinkled peak of Father Christmas, identified him more closely
with the paper and endeared him to his workers. Yet they liked to "score
off" him when they could, in return for the jokes he played on them. The
story is told how, when he had run down for a few