h commissioned her to write a series of papers to be called
"Mrs. Punch's Letters to her Daughter"--a sort of belated sequel to
Jerrold's "Punch's Letters to his Son." These letters, which ran through
six numbers--the last in November 7th of the same year--are
contributions of the worldly-wise order, cynical, satirical, and shrewd.
Two years later Mark Lemon died, and Miss Betham-Edwards dropped out of
the outside Staff position which she was by courtesy supposed to occupy.
Certain contributions she sent in were returned; she took the hint, and
the connection was severed.

It was about this time that Mr. du Maurier wrote his admirable "Vers
Nonsensiques," and proved the literary talent which he afterwards
displayed in so striking a manner in his lecture on "Social Satire" and
in his novels. But, as has already been pointed out in several other
cases, he is not by any means alone in having used both pen and pencil
in the paper. Thackeray is the principal example of the twin-talent; but
others, in very various degrees, are Cuthbert Bede, Watts Phillips,
Thomas Hood (a single cut, and a wonderful one, too), Richard Doyle (a
single contribution), John MacGregor, with Sir John Tenniel, and Messrs.
Alfred Thompson, Ashby-Sterry, W. S. Gilbert, W. Ralston (one literary
effort), J. Priestman Atkinson, J. H. Roberts (one poem), Harry Furniss
(a dramatic criticism), and Arthur A. Sykes. As a rule, however, artist
and author has kept strictly within his own field, although a bold
experiment of a curious kind was once proposed. On that occasion the
literary Staff had been complaining, with malicious frankness,
that the drawings in a certain issue--(it is not necessary to
particularise)--were not up to the mark. They were at once challenged by
the artists, who declared that they would strike--that _they_ would do
the text, and allow the literary men to do the pictures. The idea was
seized upon; the result, they thought, would be screamingly funny. But
the Editor would not hear of it; he imagined, not without reason, that
the public, who would be called upon (but would probably decline) to
pay, would not see the point of the joke. Years after a similar
discussion arose; and those who heard it are not likely to forget the
mock-philosophic-gastronomic blank verse composed by Mr. Sambourne on
the spur of the moment just to illustrate how very easy clever
verse-writing really is.

Whilst _Punch_ has been greatly indebted for much of its