ir behaviour of the previous
night. "What behaviour?" asked Mr. Hine, unconscious of any possible
cause of offence. "What! didn't you hear us? Where do you sleep?" "In
front. Why?" "Why? Because before breaking up at three this morning we
said, 'Let's give Hine three cheers to finish up with;' which we did,
with an unearthly noise, and danced a solemn dance on the pavement, and
sang you songs _fortissimo_, and altogether made a diabolical uproar."
"Never heard a sound," said Hine. Meadows turned sorrowfully on his heel
without a word, and for some days could not get over his disappointment
that, in spite of all their best endeavours, his young friend's rest had
been unbroken.

When his first two drawings appeared in "Punch's Valentines"--"Young
Loves to Sell" and "The Speculative Mamma"--Meadows was already
fifty-one years old, with thirty-four more of conviviality before him;
he was, therefore, the Nestor of _Punch's_ Staff, as well as its most
distinguished member. "Meadows was essentially valuable to _Punch_,"
says George Hodder, who by marriage had become his nephew, "for the
thoughtfulness of his designs, which were intended to portray something
more than a burlesque view of a current event or a popular abuse." His
delight when he made a hit was like that of a prize-winning boy; and he
used to pride himself that his drawing of a butterfly at the mouth of a
cannon, typifying peace--published in _Punch_ in February,
1844--inspired Landseer with his celebrated picture entitled "Peace," in
which, however, the butterfly was superseded by a lamb.

Although he was excellent as a "general utility" man, who took as
naturally to tragedy as he did to farce, to subjects of squalor as to
grace of beauty, to Shakespeare as to _Punch_, he is not to be credited
with any great sense of humour, his _vis comica_ running rather to
grotesqueness than to real fun or wit. His intention was usually more
admired than his achievement--in his press work, at least; and the
symbolic treatment of his subjects in certain of the cartoons which he
executed in 1842-3-4, such as his "Temperance Guy Fawkes," his
Cruikshankian "Gin Drop" and "Water Drop," "The Irish Frankenstein," and
"The Bull Frog," are to be included among _Punch's_ early successes. But
better than this sort of design he enjoyed work of a more decorative
type, in which grace and humour, as he understood them, might be
introduced. Of this class is his wrapper used throughout the fi