days' holiday by the
sea, he received the paper by post, and, tearing off its cover, was
horrified to find, not the cartoon they had agreed upon, but another,
execrable in taste and vile in execution, while undoubted libels and
other offences were sprinkled with hideous liberality about the pages.
Moreover, the cartoon was awry, the date was wrong, and a paragraph was
upside down. Lemon turned cold all down his spine, and gasping "This
comes from my being away!" he determined to return to town without the
loss of a moment. From this point historians differ. Some say that Mark
rushed to the station, quickly bought up every copy of the awful issue
that was for sale, and jumped into the railway-carriage with the bundle;
and that not before he was well on his way did he dare to open a copy to
gaze again on the hideous production; and when he did--he rubbed his
eyes, for everything was just as it should be! Then the light broke in
upon him that he had been egregiously "sold," and he realised that a
copy had been specially prepared for his pleasing edification! Other
commentators assert that before Uncle Mark had time to leave for the
station a telegram came, mercifully explaining a joke which, it was
felt, ought not to be carried too far. The reader will remember a
similar incident occurring in "Esmond;" and one wonders if the idea of
that dummy copy of the "Spectator" was not suggested by the hour's
torture lovingly inflicted upon the Editor of _Punch_ by his
affectionate and respectful Staff.

Mark Lemon died on May 23rd, 1870. He had been very ill on one or two
previous occasions; even as early as 1848 Jerrold had written to John
Forster that "Lemon has been at Death's door--but has kept on the
outside." For nine-and-twenty years he had been at the helm; and
although he may not have been as paramount on _Punch_ as some aver,
there can be no doubt that he entirely merited the compliment paid by
Mr. Gladstone to his memory when, awarding a pension of L100 from the
Civil List to Mrs. Lemon, he said that he had "raised the level of comic
journalism to its present standard." The proprietors, with generous
sympathy, recognising the immense services of their friend, at once set
about making a collection for the widow and unmarried daughters (for
Lemon had been unsuccessful in his investments and speculations) and,
with the ready help of the Staff, prosecuted it with so much energy and
goodwill that the sum of L1,500 was quickly