When the new work was completed, the gentleman was invited to see it. He found, to his amazement, a picture 16 feet by 20 feet; subject, "The Raising of Lazarus."
The Lord of Toulouse. By Sir John Tenniel.
FROM THE "INGOLDSBY LEGENDS."
By permission of Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
George always thought his true forte was the Grand Historical, and with much cause, when we think of his wonderful illustrations to Harrison Ainsworth's "Tower of London," "Windsor Castle," and other romantic histories.
In the illustrated edition of the "Ingoldsby Legends," published by Messrs. R. Bentley & Son, we had the good fortune to engrave nearly all the drawings contributed by John Tenniel and George Cruikshank. During the progress of the work we saw much of the latter gentleman, who was an exceedingly entertaining companion, being always ready with some anecdotes or reminiscences of his experience. Amongst his many grievances (and George Cruikshank's stock was an assorted one) he complained bitterly of the treatment he had received at the hands of Charles Dickens, with reference to the authorship of "Oliver Twist." Cruikshank maintained "that he had not only suggested the subject to Dickens, but that he had also given him the entire plot, sketched the characters, arranged all the incidents, and, in fact, constructed the entire story; so much so, indeed, that the book was, to all intents and purposes, HIS; for all that Dickens had to do with it was TO WRITE IT OUT, and any man who could hold a pen might have done it better"; concluding with, "I am only sorry now I didn't do it myself." Those were the old man's identical words, as spoken to us.
On one of his visits he related the following interesting circumstances in connection with his famous publication of "The Bottle."[6] This was a series of pictures, the first showing a young, well-conditioned mechanic, sitting in his small, comfortably furnished room surrounded by his wife and three or four children; then followed in order how, in consequence of a constantly increasing habit of intemperance, they sink gradually down in the scale of life, until they go entirely to ruin; his sons to penal servitude, and his daughter to degradation, while both his wife and himself die in the greatest misery and want.