ugh Taylor's intermediary did not appear. After the fourth number
Mr. a Beckett was put on the salaried Staff, and in August, 1875, was
invited to join the Table. Since Mr. Burnand's promotion to the
editorship Mr. a Beckett has acted as his _locum tenens_, just as
Shirley Brooks did to Lemon, and Percival Leigh to Brooks.

[Illustration: ARTHUR A BECKETT.
(_From a Photograph by A. Bassano, Limited._)]

Being called to the Bar in 1881, Mr. a Beckett was enabled to revive the
humours of his father's "Mr. Briefless," by the filial creation of the
happily-named "A. BRIEFLESS, Junior." The "Papers from Pump Handle
Court" from this self-sufficient, inflated, and utterly hopeless Junior,
have been a feature in _Punch_ for years past, and by them the author
has--so says an expert--"charmingly illuminated the legal profession by
his queer fancy." One of the best papers in the collection is an account
of a visit to the studio of a well-known firm of West-End photographers
in the character of a legal celebrity, which is wittily called "A Matter
in Camera." Up to December, 1894, he had contributed to a thousand and
eighty consecutive numbers, his work including many "series," besides
the usual topical subject-articles.

Mortimer Collins became an occasional, and by no means a prolific,
contributor of verse from the year 1874. The sonnet in _Punch_ on p.
237, Vol. XI. (December, 1846), has been ascribed to him, but there is
no ground for the statement (he would then have been only nineteen years
of age), nor did he contribute otherwise than from 1874 to 1876. His
light lyric touch may be traced in many a poem. In "Where shall we go?"
(p. 105, Vol. LXIX., September 11th, 1875) his dainty pen is to be
recognised; as in "Lady Psyche's Garden Party," and various other verses
of similar style and pleasant flavour. The attack on Mr. Whalley and
"Crede Byron" (July 20th, 1875) are his, and the verses on the Burnham
Beeches, and, in September, "Causidicus ad Canem." The charming "Sonnets
for the Sex" (June 17th, 1876) and, on July 8th, the humorous prose in
praise of goose-quill and sealing-wax, entitled "Mr. Oldfangle's
Opinion," were full of pleasing turns of thought--little presaging the
writer's death three weeks later. When he died, _Punch_ contained an
obituary notice of the writer (p. 57, Vol. LXXI., August 12th, 1876), in
which it is said, "He wrote the 'Secret of Long Life,' to teach men to
live a century, and himself died at fo