esthetic.
Nowadays, as Mr. du Maurier has publicly declared, everything must be
drawn straight from Nature, without trusting to memory or observation
alone. "Men and women, horses, dogs, seascapes, landscapes, everything
one can make little pictures out of, must be studied from life.... Even
centaurs, dragons, and cherubs must be closely imitated from Nature--or
at least as much as can be got from the living model!" It is, therefore,
more than likely that Leech would have been told that he must really be
more careful in his work before _Punch_ could publish it; and his first
contribution of "Foreign Affairs" would have been rejected as being
altogether too rough and with far too little point for its size. All
_Punch's_ pictures at this day, no doubt, cannot be said to surpass the
artistic achievement of some of the earliest cuts, but there is almost
invariably an artistic intention, technically speaking, which excuses
even the poorer work--a suggestion of the drawing-school rather than, to
use a modern expression, mere "dancing upon paper."

Although from the beginning to the present day the artistic Staff which
has sat at _Punch's_ Table has numbered less than a score, and the
outside Staff, unattached (such as Captain Howard, Mr. Sands, Mr.
Pritchett, Mr. Fairfield, Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Ralston, and Mr. Corbould),
but very few more--the total number of draughtsmen whose pencils have
been seen in _Punch's_ pages amount to about one hundred and seventy. In
some cases sketches have been sent in anonymously; a few others I have
been unable to trace; but these, it must be admitted, are hardly worth
the trouble expended on them.

[Illustration: A. S. HENNING.
(_From a Water-Colour by his son, Mr. Walton Henning._)]

The earliest recruit was Archibald S. Henning, the first in importance,
as he was to be cartoonist, and first to appear before the public,
inasmuch as the wrapper was from his hand. He was the third son of John
Henning, friend of Scott and Dr. Chalmers, on the strength of his famous
miniature restoration of the Parthenon frieze, of which he engraved the
figures on slate in intaglio; and he was well known besides not only for
these copies of the Elgin marbles, but for his portrait-busts and
medallions. Precision in all things was one of his characteristics, and
even showed itself in the inscriptions in his family Bible, wherein he
set on record that his son Archibald was "born at Edinburgh, on the 18th
of Februar