fun,
Coming fresh as June-breeze briary
With old memories of our youth,
Thrice immortal _Pips's Diary_!
Masterpiece of Mirth and Truth!"

In 1844 the versatile artist-dramatist, Watts Phillips, first declared
himself in _Punch_ with a few examples of his art, which George
Cruikshank had fostered. They lasted up to 1846, but amounted to very
little. He gave more attention to "Puck," of which Chatto was the
editor; and when, a few years afterwards, he joined "Diogenes" as its
cartoonist, he gave full rein to his undoubted talent.

In the same year Richard Doyle's brother Henry--better known as a
distinguished member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and best of all as
the grave and extremely able Director of the National Gallery of
Ireland--made a number of small cuts for _Punch_, which were published
in 1844 and the following years; but as I was informed, at the time of
his death, by his elder brother James, now also dead (the chronicler,
and the compiler of the "Official Baronage of England"): "The _Punch_
episode was the merest child's play to him. His line, chosen years
before, was sacred or poetic art; and his illustrations to Telemachus,
done before this time, remarkable for invention and colour, were greatly
admired by Prince Albert. That he drew for _Punch_ at one time is, of
course, true; but the mention of it gives a false impression of his
taste and principal work at that period." Yet the spirit of humour was
strong within him, for he was one of the "Great Gunners" in 1845; and
from 1867 to 1869, when he was appointed to Dublin, he was cartoonist
for "Fun," signing with a Hen, or "Fusbos."

Thomas Onwhyn, best known, nowadays, perhaps, by his "extra
illustrations" to "Pickwick" and "Nicholas Nickleby," and by his plates
to "Valentine Vox" and Cockton's other novels, began to contribute a few
blocks to _Punch_--a fact which has hitherto been denied. His first
drawing, published on p. 130, Vol. XIII. (1847), illustrates an article
by Gilbert a Beckett, entitled, "The Friends Reconciled." The next was a
"Social," on p. 230 of the same volume, representing a hatter's wiles
and their victim. But Onwhyn was better used to the etching-needle than
the pencil, and his drawing on wood was hard and unsympathetic, and his
figures were usually rather strained than funny. About this time he was
retiring from his position as a popular illustrator of books. Throne
Crick's "Sketches from the Diary of a Commercial