nch_" (p. 47): "It may seem a little strange that Keene at first
showed some reluctance to let his name be known where it was finally so
famous. Still, it is the fact that while his earliest _Punch_ drawings
were of my devising, he steadily declined to own himself the doer of
them. I was writing then for _Punch_ as an outsider, but my ambition was
to draw, and for this I had no talent. As for working on the wood, I
soon 'cut' it in despair, and, like a baffled tyrant, I knew not how to
bring my subjects to the block. Keene very kindly undertook the labour
for me, and the first design he executed was 'A Sketch of the New Paris
Street-sweeping Machines'--a couple of cannon, namely--which was
published in December, 1851, immediately after the bloody _coup
d'etat_."

This was the barest sketch, childish and shaky in execution, which,
however, is explained in the legend as being due to the "Special Artist"
being in the line of fire. Mr. Layard asserts that when Keene made the
drawing he thought the joke "a mighty poor one;" and he might have
added, as is made clear in the chapter dealing with "Plagiarism," not
even a new one, for _Punch_ himself had used the idea before (p. 166,
Vol. XV.), and was then accused of theft by the "Man in the Moon." Mr.
Silver proceeds:--

"His next two drawings illustrate an article of mine, and appear on the
second page of the next volume. His fourth, a far more finished drawing,
like these, saw the light in 1852, and may be found in Vol. XXIII., p.
257. It shows a gentleman engaged in fishing in his kitchen, and is
entitled 'The Advantage of an Inundation,' the autumn of that year being
very wet. Mark Lemon wrote to me commending it, and asking me to try and
draw a little more for him. I showed Charles the letter, and said that
now, of course, his name must be divulged, for I clearly was obtaining
_kudos_ under false pretences. However, he deferred the disclosure for a
while, and it was not until the spring of 1854 that his 'C. K.' first
appeared (_vide_ initial 'G,' Vol. XXVI., p. 128)--a modest little
monogram, quite unlike his later and so well-known signature. In the
interim he marked his drawings with a mask, which was a device of mine
for hiding his identity."

For nine years Keene worked steadily on _Punch_, improving artistically
in an amazing manner, and in 1860 he was called to the Table--they
served long terms of probation then--and ate his first Dinner on
February 20th. It was a