These two criticisms—both coming from friends of the artist, but from different points of view—are worth setting side by side in a memoir.
A correspondent, writing from Manchester, sends the following interesting letter respecting places sketched by Caldecott in Cheshire and Shropshire and afterwards used in the illustrations in his books.
"During occasional rambles in this and the neighbouring county of Chester, more especially in the neighbourhood of Whitchurch, I have been interested in the identification of some few of the original scenes pictured by Mr. Caldecott in his several published drawings. Thus:—
"Malpas Church, which occupies the summit of a gentle hill some six miles from Whitchurch, occurs frequently—as in a full page drawing in the Graphic newspaper for Christmas, 1883; in Babes in the Wood, p. 19; in Baby Bunting, p. 20; and in The Fox Jumps over the Parson's Gate, p. 5.
"The main street of Whitchurch is fairly pictured in the Great Panjandrum, p. 6, whilst the old porch of the Blue Bell portrayed on p. 28 of Old Christmas is identical with that of the Bell Inn at Lushingham, situated some two miles from Whitchurch on the way to Malpas.
"Besides these I recognise in the 'Old Stone-house, Lingborough Hall,' in Lob Lie-by-the-Fire, p. 5, an accurate line-for-line sketch of Barton Hall, an ancient moated mansion which until quite recently stood within the parish of Eccles, four miles from Manchester.
"Lastly, a comparison of the illustration on p. 95 of Old Christmas, with one in last year's volume of the English Illustrated Magazine, p. 466, shows that the picturesque nooks of Sussex, equally with those of Kent and Chester, yielded their quota to the busy pencil we know so well."
About the year 1879 Caldecott became acquainted with Mrs. Ewing, which led to his making many illustrations for her, such as the design for the cover of Aunt Judy's Magazine, and notably the illustrations to that "book of books" for boys, "Jackanapes," and to "Daddy Darwin's Dovecot," and others.
Miss Gatty, in her memoir of Mrs. Ewing, says:—
"My sister was in London in June, 1879, and then made the acquaintance of Mr. Caldecott, for whose illustrations she had unbounded admiration. This introduction led us to ask him (when Jackanapes was still simmering in Julie's brain) if he would supply a coloured illustration for it. But as the tale was only written a very short time before it appeared, and as the illustration was wanted early and colours take long to print, Julie could not send the story to be read, but asked Caldecott to draw her a picture to fit one of the scenes in it. The one she suggested was a fair-haired boy on a red-haired pony, thinking of one of her own nephews, a skilful seven-year-old rider who was accustomed to follow the hounds."