The Arrival at Cologne. "The Passengers Passing their Examination."
FROM "BROWN, JONES AND ROBINSON," BY RICHARD DOYLE.
By permission of Messrs. Bradbury & Agnew.
Among these may be mentioned many of the illustrations he did for Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories, as well as those he made for Ruskin's charming fairy tale, "The King of the Golden River," Leigh Hunt's "A Jar of Honey from Mount Hylba," and the entire set for "Bird's-Eye Views of Society," published in the Cornhill Magazine. We also engraved a large number of his "Brown, Jones and Robinson" pictures. He proposed to us a scheme for doing a companion volume: "Brown, Jones and Robinson in the Highlands of Scotland," but through his dilatory disposition, and the many and varied engagements we had at that time on our hands, the project was not carried out.
Although we had been accustomed for several years, through our connection with Ebenezer Landells and the Illustrated London News, to work upon Sir John Gilbert's drawings—perhaps among the very first was a small drawing of "Cupid Delivering a Love Letter," published in an early number of Punch—it was not until 1851 that we came into active communication with him. Our first personal interview was to ask him to make two drawings, a title page and frontispiece to "Praise and Principle." He took a small foot rule out of his pocket, measured the size of the two wood blocks, and said, "The price will be thirty-five shillings each, but I could not possibly give them to you tomorrow; but the next morning you may rely on having them." The drawings were duly sent, and with them an account for the sum named; also a letter to say he had made a mistake in the price, and that all future drawings of the same size and character would be two guineas each. This promptitude, it is worthy of remark, was a striking characteristic of the man, for during the many years that we were in constant intercourse with him, and engraved many hundreds of his drawings, we have no remembrance of him ever being a day behind the time he promised to send in his work.
Evening on the Lago-Maggiore.