n one direction alone did he fail, or choose to fail--in the portrayal
of facial beauty, elegance, and respectability. A pretty woman lurked
but rarely about the point of his pencil, as she does so delightfully
about those of his principal collaborators on _Punch_; and an elegant
woman--save by accident--never. You may point to the Brittany peasant in
the number for September 20th, 1856; to the very Leechy young lady on p.
188, Vol. XXXVI. (May 7th, 1859), who, it must be admitted, really is a
"lady;" and to one or two more. But these pretty women serve rather to
accentuate the ugliness of all his other women, when they should have
been most beautiful; while elegance is with him a virtue that very
rarely saves. Keene, indeed, misrepresented his countrywomen as much as
M. Forain libels his. Keene's "swells," and even his gentlemen, are
snobs; his aristocracy and his clerks are cast in the same mould; his
city young men are like artizans; and his brides are forbidding--models
of virtue, no doubt, but lacking every outward feminine charm. These
shortcomings, of course, are to a certain extent to be accounted for by
his own nature. Living in the strictest economy and temperateness, he
hated anything like ostentation. He despised "Society" and the whole
fabric of fashion, and held the world of Burke and Debrett in
good-natured abhorrence. Like Leech and Dickens, he had given his heart
to the middle and lower-middle classes, and among them he found his best
models and most admirable _motifs_.

No _Punch_ artist was ever so dependent upon his friends for "subjects"
as he, and none received such continuous and delightful support. From
Messrs. Joseph Crawhall, Andrew Tuer, Walker, Clayton, Birket Foster,
Sands, Pritchett, Savile Clark, Ashby-Sterry, Chasemore, and others, he
was under constant friendly, and fully-acknowledged, obligation. Not but
that he made constant effort to secure "jokes" of his own. He was ever
on the look-out, and often very hard-pressed, for them. One day he told
Mr. Pritchett that he had determined to join a riding class at Allen's
Riding-school, and seek inspiration there. His friend amiably suggested
that he (Mr. Pritchett) should attend as observer and reporter, and tell
Keene all the ridiculous things he did on horseback and the amusing
appearances he cut. But the idea did not seem to commend itself to
Keene, who merely replied that he thought he should choose a
hearse-horse to ride, as being at once