By Kenny Meadows.
By permission of the Council of the Art Union of London.
We were so closely connected with him that when he was first asked to work for Punch, he stipulated that we should have all his drawings to engrave. This arrangement did not last long, for he was of a very uncertain nature, and changeable in his moods. His friendship was not of the kind that would stand much, if any, strain, and after he had "imbibed" a little, he not infrequently became "nasty." Once at a public dinner, on the name of Punch being mentioned, he started from his chair, saying, "Gentlemen, I am Punch!" which really was more than insulting to several Punch men who were present.
At one of the early Illustrated News dinners, Herbert Ingram, speaking of the great success of the journal, said, "And, gentlemen, we all share in the credit of producing this wonderful paper." Meadows was immediately on his legs, saying, "Yes, but have we all shared and shared alike in the recompense?" "Yes, Mr. Meadows," said Ingram, "we have all shared alike, according to what we put into the venture."
While Meadows worked for the Illustrated London News we engraved many of his drawings and saw much of Herbert Ingram and his partners, Nathaniel Cook and William Little. Ingram was the founder and principal proprietor of the paper; a man of strong character, self-willed, but both generous and just. We were in the habit of suggesting and procuring subjects for them.
We had induced Richard Doyle to make twelve drawings of the months for the Illustrated London Almanack. Nathaniel Cook disputed our charge, but we stood out. Ingram sat quiet whilst the talk went on. At last he said, "Have Messrs. Dalziel done the work well?" "Oh! there is no dispute about that; the work is well done." "Then," said Ingram, "pay the money and let there be no dispute about it."
That is a single, but a true, illustration of the sort of man Herbert Ingram was.
Meadows used to say that Nature put him out, and so it did. Looking at his raised hand with pointed finger, he would say, "I cannot see a hand as I would draw it."
The first time Meadows met John Leech after he began to draw on Punch, he raved about the drawings, said Leech was the greatest man who had ever drawn on wood, that he, Meadows, ought to retire from art altogether and seek some other occupation, that his light was out, and much more to the same purpose. But as the bottle went round, the feeling gradually changed, and it ended in Meadows praising his own work and telling Leech that he must alter his style altogether if he ever hoped to take a position as an artist—that his work was mere commonplace drivel, and that he must put imagination into his work "such as I do in mine, sir."