BEETON'S ANNUALS
These were of two sorts, a badly printed shilling annual, which appealed to children of all ages, and a six-shilling variety, which appealed to those of a smaller growth. In the higher-priced volumes for 1866 T. Morten, J. G. Thomson, and J. A. Pasquier appear. In the shilling issue, an independent publication, are more or less execrably engraved blocks, after C. H. Bennett, G. Cruikshank, Jun., and others who would probably dislike to have their misdeeds chronicled. These publications added to the gaiety of nations, but when they ceased no eclipse was reported. Yet a patient collation of their pages renewed a certain boyish, if faded, memory of their pristine charm, which the most cautious prophet may assert can never be imparted anew to any reader. Kingston's Annuals and Peter Parley's Annuals, also revisited, left impressions too sad to be expressed here. Nor need Routledge's Christmas Annuals be noticed in detail. Tom Hood's Comic Annuals, which contained much work typical of the seventies, although it began its long career in 1869, includes so little work by heroes of the 'sixties' that it need not be mentioned.
The mass of penny magazines for children do not repay a close search. Here and there you will find a design by a notable hand, but it is almost invariably ruined by poor engraving; so that it were kinder not to attempt to dispel the obscurity which envelops the juvenile 'goody-goody' literature of thirty years ago.
G. DU MAURIER
'PUNCH.' MARCH 3, 1866
A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, Part I
G. DU MAURIER
'PUNCH.' MARCH 10, 1866
A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, Part II
G. DU MAURIER
'PUNCH.' MARCH 17, 1866.
A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, Part III
G. DU MAURIER
'PUNCH.' MARCH 24, 1866
A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, Part IV
G. DU MAURIER
'PUNCH.' MARCH 31, 1866
A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, Part V
[CHAPTER VI: SOME ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY PAPERS IN THE SIXTIES]
PUNCH.—It is impossible to overlook the famous weekly that from its own pages could offer a fairly representative group of the work of any decade since it was established; a paper which, if it has not attracted every great illustrator, could nevertheless select a hundred drawings from its pages that might be fairly entered in competition with any other hundred outside them. But, at the same time, to give a summary of its record during the sixties, even as compressed as those of The Cornhill Magazine, Once a Week, etc., would occupy more pages than all the rest put together. Fortunately the labour has been accomplished quite recently. Mr. M. H. Spielmann's History of Punch supplies a full and admirably digested chronicle of its artistic achievements. So that here (excluding the staff-artists, Sir John Tenniel, Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Linley Sambourne, and the rest, and the greatest Punch artist, Charles Keene, who was never actually upon its staff) it will be sufficient to indicate where admirers of the men of the sixties may find examples of their work for Punch; Sir John Millais appears twice upon p. 115 of vol. xliv. (1863) with a design to Mokeanna, Mr. F. C. Burnand's laughable parody, and again with Mr. Vandyke Brown's sons thrashing the lay figure, in the Almanac for 1865, a drawing that faces, oddly enough, one of Fred Walker's two contributions, The New Bathing Company, Limited, Specimens of Costumes to be worn by the Shareholders. The other Fred Walker, Captain Jinks of the 'Selfish,' is on p. 74 of vol. lvii. 1869; George J. Pinwell is an infrequent contributor from 1863 to 1869; Walter Crane appears but once, p. 33 (vol. li. 1866); Frederick Shields's three initials, which appeared in 1870, were drawn in 1867; M. J. Lawless is represented by six drawings, which appeared between May 1860 and January 1861; F. W. Lawson has some initials and one vignette in the volume for 1867; Ernest Griset appears in the Almanac for 1867; J. G. Thomson, for twenty years cartoonist of Fun, is an occasional contributor between 1861 and 1864; H. S. Marks appears in 1861, and Paul Gray, also with a few initials and 'socials,' up to 1865; Charles Keene's first drawing for Punch is in 1852, he was 'called to the table' in 1860, and on a few occasions supplied the political cartoon. The mass of his work within the classic pages is too familiar to need more than passing reference. The first drawing by 'George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier' appears in 1860, the Legend of Camelot, with five drawings, which are already historic, in 1866. These delicious parodies (here reproduced) of the pre-Raphaelite manner are as fascinating to-day as when they first appeared.