That George Cruikshank was by no means a prosperous man is perhaps explained by the fact that he never was highly remunerated for his work. "Time was," wrote Thackeray, "when for a picture with thirty heads in it he was paid three guineas—a poor week's pittance, truly, and a dire week's labour!" The late Mr. Sala declared that for an illustrative etching on a plate, octavo size, George never received more than twenty-five pounds, and had been paid as low as ten,—that he had often drawn "a charming little vignette on wood" for a guinea. On February 1, 1878, this remarkable designer and etcher—the most skilled book-illustrator of his day—passed painlessly away at his house in Hampstead Road, having attained the ripe old age of eighty-five. His remains were interred at Kensal Green, but were ultimately removed to the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, where a bust by Adams perpetuates his memory.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A set of the twenty-eight etchings, proofs before letters (First and Second Series), realised £30 at Sotheby's in 1889. Lithographic replicas of the plates in the Second Series were published in Calcutta in 1837.
[2] In a large water-colour replica of this subject, signed "George Cruikshank, Octr. 14th, 1873, in my 82nd year," the artist stated that the landscape represented the old Pentonville fields, north of London.
[3] The name of Sikes is frequently thus mis-spelt. It is odd that Dickens himself first wrote it "Sykes," as may be seen in the original manuscript of the story.
[4] This is, doubtless, a reference to an article by Dickens entitled "Whole Hogs," which appeared in Household Words, August 23, 1851, protesting against the extreme views of the Temperance party.
[5] In the original title on the plate, Ned Twigger's Christian name is incorrectly given as Tom.
[6] Cruikshank designed the illustrations for the "Memoirs of Grimaldi," 1838, but this work was merely edited by Dickens, and therefore does not come within the scope of the present volume.
Plate XV