ng the long years
that they worked together the two men were admirable foils to one
another. Leech sketched and Tenniel drew; Leech gave us farce and drama,
and Tenniel, high comedy and tragedy; and the freedom of the one
heightened the severer beauties of the other. And when Leech died, his
friend continued the labour alone. Except in 1864, 1868, and 1875-6-7-8,
in which last-named year he took his first holiday from _Punch_ work and
went with Mr. Silver to Venice--(during his illness or absence Charles
Keene contributed thirteen cartoons[54])--and again in 1884 and 1894
(when Mr. Sambourne twice took over the duty), he has never, from that
day to this present time of writing, missed a single week. Nearly two
thousand cartoons, initials innumerable, "socials," double-page cartoons
for the Almanac and other special numbers, and two hundred and fifty
designs for the Pocket-books--such is the record of the great satirist's
career; and the only change has been in the direction of freedom of
pencil and breadth of artistic view.

[Illustration: "HUMPTY-DUMPTY!"

(_From Sir John Tenniel's First Rough Sketch for the Cartoon in "Punch"
20th July, 1875--p. 18, Vol. LXXV._)]

Of his work little need be said here, for in its main bearings it has
already been fully considered. But acknowledgment must at least be made
of how, with all his sense of fun and humour, Sir John Tenniel has
dignified the political cartoon into a classic composition, and has
raised the art of politico-humorous draughtsmanship from the relative
position of the lampoon to that of polished satire--swaying parties and
peoples, too, and challenging comparison with the higher (at times it
might almost be said the highest) efforts of literature in that
direction. The beauty and statuesque qualities of his allegorical
figures, the dignity of his beasts, and the earnestness and directness
of his designs, apart from the exquisite simplicity of his work at its
best, are things previously unknown in the art of which he is the most
accomplished master, standing alone and far ahead of any of his
imitators. The Teutonic character and the academic quality of his work,
modified by the influence of Flaxman and the Greeks, are no blemishes;
one does not even feel that he draws entirely from memory. Indeed, the
things are completely satisfying as the work of a true artist, and--a
quality almost as grateful and charming as it was previously rare--of a
gentleman.

Yet this