The sheen of sunlit dew.
And of the fellowship of that great Age
For whose return our eyes have waited long,
None left so rich a twofold heritage
Of high romance and song.
"Eminent Victorians"
Nor did Punch allow the minor Victorian poets and authors to pass without homage, witness his tributes to Coventry Patmore, the "poet of Home and High Faith," and Jean Ingelow, whose High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire is one of the finest of modern ballads, besides touching the high-water mark of her achievement. Professor Henry Morley, who died in 1894, elicited the well-earned tribute, "He made good letters cheap"; while the heroic industry and distinguished talent of Mrs. Oliphant—for The Beleaguered City comes very near to greatness—are fittingly acknowledged in Punch's "Vale!" in 1897. Sir Theodore Martin, as the joint author of the immortal Bon Gaultier Ballads, had a special claim to grateful remembrance from one who, like him, had known Astley's Circus in the palmy days of Widdecomb and Gomersal:—
Comrade of our "roaring 'forties," in your pages still
From the midmost fount of laughter may we drink our fill;
Watch you, Rabelais' disciple, sunshine in your eyes,