"Here you are! the finest natives! best of appetite-creatives.
Come and buy! Taste and try!"
By Ernest Griset. From Fun.
There was a distinct cleverness about the quaint grotesque drawings of Ernest Griset, a young Frenchman, who made his appearance in London now many years ago. His drawings were at first exhibited in the window of a book shop close to Leicester Square, where they attracted considerable attention. Tom Hood had a great opinion of the artist's ability. They were generally in pen and ink, lightly tinted with delicate colour. We thought very highly of Griset's drawings, and soon enlisted his services, not only on Fun and "Hoods Annual," but upon many other publications—for which we bought hundreds of his drawings, and from them made selections. Tom Hood wrote clever verses to some of these, and we published them in book form through Messrs. Routledge as "Griset's Grotesques." We also got together several of his drawings which had appeared in Fun and published them as shilling books from the Fun Office.
Griset was, and is, a hard and rapid worker. He has been engaged in many other ways as an illustrator; much on "Prehistoric Man." Also as a decorator of public halls, he has done good things.
Àpropos to a Proposal. By Hal Ludlow. From Fun.
Frank (just accepted).—"Love thee, dearest? Ay, and when time shall have furrowed these youthful cheeks and dimmed the lustre of your eyes, when age shall have threaded silver amidst these glossy locks and bowed the figure erstwhile straight——"
Laura (hastily).—"Oh, Frank, I hope not! Think how old you will be!"