First Drawing in "Punch," 22nd June, 1872.
On the 28th June his diary records, "in the gallery of the House of Commons attending the debate on the Ballot Bill;" and again on the 8th July. On the 9th he is "engaged on chalk caricatures all day."
A letter dated 21st July, 1872, to one of his Manchester friends is worth having for the ludicrous sketch accompanying it. He writes:—
"London is of course the proper place for a young man, for seeing the manners and customs of society, and for getting a living in some of the less frequented grooves of human labour, but for a residence give me a rural or marine retreat. I sigh for some 'cool sequestered spot, the world forgetting, by the world forgot.'"
"A Cool Sequestered Spot."
About this time it was suggested to him to illustrate a book of summer travel, and on the 20th August 1872 he enters in his diary:—
"To Rotterdam, Harzburg, &c., to join Mr. and Mrs. B. in the Harz Mountains."