s version of the ingredients and constitution of _Punch_,
which was worked up and contributed by Horace Mayhew to the next volume,
but, of course, without the names attached, as here given:--

The Spirit is "The Comic Blackstone" (Gilbert a Beckett).

The Acid is "The Story of a Feather" (Douglas Jerrold).

The Sweet is The Great "Saxon Suggestor" (W. M. Thackeray).

The Spice is "The Sub" (Horace Mayhew).

The Water is The "Professor" (Percival Leigh).

And the Spoon is The "Editor" (Mark Lemon).

Where, then, was the art?

[Illustration: R. J. HAMERTON.

(_From a Photograph by E. Higgins, Stamford._)]

Mr. Hamerton was one of the few Irishmen who have worked on the paper.
He had begun to teach drawing at a school in Co. Longford when he was
but fourteen, and came to London to draw upon stone under the eye of
Charles Hullmandel, the father of the lithographic art in England. With
the exception of occasional incursions into oil and water colour--he was
a popular member of the British Artists half-a-century ago--and a few
years' book-illustration for the London publishers, "it was stone,
stone, stone, till 1891, when the drawing on the huge stones became too
much for my old back." Like his life-long friend and contemporary, Hine,
he was not of _Punch_ Punchy--at least, in respect to conviviality; and
after a record of Staff service extending to 1844, with fitful
contributions up to 1848, he deserted the precincts of Whitefriars, and
soon after renounced wood-drawing in favour of his more lucrative
employment. He had, however, already contributed ten cartoons--striking
for their handling, if not at first for their finish. The majority of
his subjects were Irish--such as the "Irish Ogre Fattening on the
'Finest Pisintry,'" "The Shadow Dance," "King O'Connell at Tara,"
"Bagging the Wild Irish Goose," and so forth--and terribly severe he
was, as only an Irishman could be, on Daniel O'Connell and Lord
Brougham. He illustrated a Beckett's "Comic Blackstone;" but his
masterpiece in wood-draughtsmanship was his illustration of John
Forster's "Life of Goldsmith" for Bradbury and Evans. Then after a
couple of contributions from "W. B."--W. Brown, whose "Comic Album" was
deservedly popular in its day, and whose "Statue to Jenkins" pleased
_Punch's_ readers greatly--and the cut signed "B," attributed to Thomas
Hood, and another anonymous contribution by "S,