ly; "but--if I were a cobbler I should still have the cure
of soles."

[Illustration: F. C. BURNAND.
(_From a Photograph by F. T. Palmer, Ramsgate._)]

An unsuccessful trial of the stage at Edinburgh, and a call to the Bar
in 1862, indirectly shaped Mr. Burnand's career, and, throwing him into
playwriting and humorous journalism, led him quickly into a talented
circle. With Mr. W. S. Gilbert, H. J. Byron, Matt Morgan, Jeff Prowse,
and others, Mr. Burnand helped to strengthen Tom Hood's additional staff
of "Fun," then newly established, under the proprietorship of a
looking-glass maker, named Maclean--whom, by reason of his expansive
smile and shining teeth, Byron used to call "Maclean teeth." Mr.
Burnand's fresh and bright productions sparkled on the pages and caught
the eye of Mark Lemon; but it was an unusually happy and original idea
that was to bring the two men closely together. Mr. Burnand had
conceived a series of burlesque stories, satirising the sensational
style of the day, to be accompanied by an equally burlesque imitation of
the illustrations that were to be seen in publications such as the
"London Journal." To his own daughter, as "one of his oldest friends,"
Mr. Burnand once confided the following facts and circumstances for
publication:--

"The astute proprietor of 'Fun,' in which I had achieved some
success, observed that 'Mokeanna' wouldn't do. I am not sure but
that he was right; but if he had been a literary editor he would
have seen the idea in a rough copy, and would have suggested
improvement. This good he did me, however--I read it to a friend,
who thought some of it good and most of it the contrary, and so, in
a temper, I burnt the entire manuscript, and, being quite sure of
the humour of the idea, commenced rewriting it. Then I communicated
with Mark Lemon; he jumped at the idea--determined to say nothing
to anybody, except those who had to illustrate it, and the first
number of 'Mokeanna' appeared on February 21st, 1863, with an
illustration by Sir John Gilbert, burlesquing his own style, whilst
the page in _Punch_ was, in arrangement, a facsimile of the 'London
Journal.' The proprietors rushed down to the office, terrified with
the thought that, by accident, the 'London Journal' had been sewn
up with _Punch_, and it took a lot of explanation in Mark Lemon's
best manner to make them see the joke in its righ