e band of wits and youthful geniuses of whom Hannay was the
wittiest of all, writes to me of him as "a contributor of great power
who might with self-control have gained a great position--a friend who
used to come on our nocturnal boating expeditions up the river. He was
one of the dear crew who in different capacities and with varied powers
once manned life's larger boat with me."

Sir John Tenniel contributed a few pieces in 1851 (p. 56, Vol. XX.) and
later, but they were of little importance. Cuthbert Bede was as much a
writer as a draughtsman, as he showed by his parody of the "High-mettled
Racer." Then came another of _Punch's_ stars of the first magnitude,
Shirley Brooks.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Mark Lemon.

[43] The author here quotes in a footnote a few lines from the poem,
beginning

"O, darling room, my heart's delight"----

and then observes: "The whole of this _Poem_ (!!!) is worth reading, in
order to see to what depths of silliness the human intellect can
descend."

CHAPTER XVI.

_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1852-78.

Shirley Brooks--His Wit and Humour--Training--Lays Siege to
_Punch_--And Carries him by Assault--"Essence of
Parliament"--William Brough--Mr. Beatty Kingston--F. I.
Scudamore--M. J. Barry--Dean Hole--Mr. Charles L. Eastlake--Mr.
Francis Cowley Burnand--His Little Joke with Cardinal
Manning--"Fun"--"Mokeanna"--Its Success--Thackeray's
Congratulations to _Punch_--"Happy Thoughts"--And Other Happy
Thoughts--Mr. Burnand _as_ a Ground-Swell--Promoted to the
Editorship--The Apotheosis of the Pun--Mr. J. Priestman
Atkinson--Mr. John Hollingshead--Mr. R. F. Sketchley--"Artemus
Ward"--A Death-bed Ambition--H. Savile Clarke--Locker-Lampson
and C. S. Calverley--Miss Betham-Edwards--Mr. du Manner's "Vers
Nonsensiques"--Mr. A. P. Graves--Rev. Stainton Moses--Mr. Arthur
W. a Beckett--"A. Briefless, Junior"--Mortimer Collins--Mr. E.
J. Milliken--"The 'Arry Papers"--Gilbert a Beckett--"How we
Advertise Now"--Mr. H. F. Lester--Mr. Burnand and the Corporal.

[Illustration: SHIRLEY BROOKS.
(_From a Photograph by Lombardi and Co._)]

Shirley Brooks--he dropped his first names of Charles William--was
perhaps the most brilliant and useful all-round man who ever wrote for
_Punch_. His rapidity was extraordinary. The clergyman who boasted that
he could write a sermon in an hour "and think nothing of it" courted the
reply that pr