stration: "ARTEMUS WARD."
(_From a Photograph by S. A. Walker._)]

It is, indeed, curious how many of _Punch's_ most valued contributors
were working for the paper up to within a few hours, a few minutes, of
being called away--Jerrold, Thomas Hood, C. H. Bennett, John Leech,
Shirley Brooks, and Artemus Ward; and many a time have the public
laughed aloud at jokes and pictures wrought when the hand was stiffening
in death, when the brain that had imagined them had already ceased to
think.

[Illustration: H. SAVILE CLARKE
(_From a Photograph by the Woodburytype Company._)]

H. Savile Clarke, previously a "Fun" contributor, and a disciple of
James Hannay, made his _Punch_ debut with a set of verses in August,
1867; but he did not follow them up, except in a very small way, until
Mr. Burnand's editorship, in 1880, encouraged him to write regularly.
This he soon began to do, his main work being Society verse, mostly
bearing on medical and scientific subjects, for he was brought up as a
doctor. "Songs of the Sciences," "Lyrics in a Library" (verse on books),
verse on the minor picture exhibitions, clever trifles like the "Carmen
Culinarium" (December, 1891), and the important and strikingly able and
successful parody, "Modern Life in London, or Tom and Jerry Back Again,"
illustrated by Mr. Priestman Atkinson--these formed the staple of his
_Punch_ work. But he was not enthusiastic about writing for the paper,
as the chance of gaining reputation by unsigned contributions was very
small. "I feel strongly," he wrote to me years ago, "as many writers do
on the paper, as to the inequality of authors and artists. It keeps very
good men off it."

"Berkeley Square, 5 p.m." was a poem of five stanzas that formed
Frederick Locker-Lampson's sole contribution to _Punch_; it was
published at the same time as Savile Clarke's maiden effort (August,
1867), and was illustrated by Mr. du Maurier. It was Locker-Lampson, it
may here be mentioned, who sent in C. S. Calverley's ewe-lamb--a
charade--to _Punch's_ pages.

On the 25th of July, 1868, a lady-contributor made her debut in
_Punch's_ pages. This was Miss M. Betham-Edwards, who was already well
known as the authoress of "A Winter with the Swallows," and whose travel
"Through Spain to the Sahara," dealing with much the same scene, was
then expected from the press. In the earlier part of the year a friend
had shown to Mark Lemon a clever skit by the young lady, and the Editor
forthwit