The Tichborne Trial—"Breaking-up Day."
On the eighteenth birthday, the "coming of age," of the late Prince Imperial of France, Caldecott went to Chislehurst. The drawing of the crowd on the lawn of Camden House in a state of general congratulation, the ceremony of presentation of enormous bouquets of violets and the like; of Frenchmen and their wives, of diplomatists, and others, will be found in the Pictorial World for March 21st, 1874.
Here was a comparatively unknown artist at work, revealing talent which in after years would delight the world.
But fortunately for his health and peace of mind, and also for his future career, the young artist, who two years before had given up a clerkship in a Manchester bank (a "certainty" of more than £100 a year), was advised to refuse an engagement on the Pictorial World of £10 10s. a week, which, had it been carried out, would have done much to raise the fortunes of that newspaper.
But the rush and hurry of journalistic work was distasteful to him; he had many commissions at this time, work of a better kind, requiring quiet and study. He was willing, and wishing always, to aid his friends, and so for some time he kept up a connection with the paper and made sketches on special occasions.
