Forty years of 'Spy'

by Sir Leslie Ward

CHAPTER XI

IN THE LOBBY

In the House.—Distinguished soldiers.—The main Lobby.—The Irish Party.—Isaac Butt.—Mr. Mitchell Henry.—Parnell and Dillon.—Gladstone and Disraeli.—Lord Arthur Hill.—Lord Alexander Paget.—Viscount Midleton.—Mr. Seely.—Lord Alington's cartoon.—Chaplains of the "House"—Rev. F. E. C. Byng.—Archdeacon Wilberforce.—The "Fourth Party."—Lord Northbrook and Col. Napier Sturt.—Lord Lytton.—The method of Millais.—Lord Londonderry.

Although from the year 1873, I had drawn all the cartoons in Vanity Fair, and Mr. Gibson Bowles had procured a privileged pass for me in the inner lobby of the House of Commons for the purpose of studying the characteristics of my parliamentary subjects, the same facilities were accorded me through Mr. Palgrave (Clerk of the Desk), where for the two following years I was making drawings and portraits for the Graphic.

In 1876 I returned to Vanity Fair, permanently and exclusively to work for that publication, when Pellegrini and I shared our labours pretty equally until his health gave way and he became a chronic invalid, so that for some years before his death I was responsible for most of the cartoons in the paper. Of course, actual sketching or the use of the pencil in both assemblies was prohibited (for the privilege of a pass was also accorded me in the House of Lords through the courtesy of the Black Rod) but after careful observation I was always able to go home and express on paper the result.

I must not forget that in 1903, after the bomb explosion in Westminster Hall, that the number of people admitted to the inner lobby was considerably reduced, in fact, from that time to the present the strangers are few and far between, but although my permit was limited to two days a week my name remained in the lobby-list until I retired from the paper in the latter part of 1909.

In "the House" I found that generally speaking members were very much occupied with the affairs of the moment, and usually quite unconscious of one's observance; but when it came to the point of special study of a subject for the purpose of caricature, it was by no means easy to find him or to watch him under such circumstances as enabled me to arrive at the knowledge necessary for my purpose and still leave him unaware. However, I found more than one "kind friend at court" do me good service. Amongst these Sir A. W. Clifford, Black Rod, was most courteous and helpful in the House of Lords, and always ready to find me a place—usually under the gallery. I came to know his face really well, and caricatured him with faithful directness and in full uniform. By great good fortune, Mr. Gibson Bowles was my editor, and he would occasionally inveigle a subject of rare promise to my lair. The Sergeant-at-Arms is always the man in power in the House of Commons. I have a most grateful remembrance of much courtesy received from the present occupant of that post of honour, Captain Erskine, but in the days of which I now write, Mr. Gosset—always depicted by Harry Furniss as a beetle—was in authority, and most kind in trying to place me at the best point for observation, usually under the Speaker's gallery. But quite the most desirable hunting-ground in the House just then was his own room. There he held quite a court, and among his intimates were many distinguished men whom nature and the circumstance of dress had designed for the caricaturist's art.

Among them was Isaac Butt, M.P. for Limerick, a pioneer of the Home Rule movement, and a most popular man, endowed with a charm of frankness and simple good fellowship which endeared him to all who knew him. He told most amusing stories, and as an advocate he defended O'Brien and almost every Irish political prisoner of note. He was described by "Jehu Junior" as the man who "invented Home Rule" ... an attempt to dismember the Empire, and to found in Ireland a Commune of Paris on a larger scale. When I observed him first I was struck by the unusual formation of his ears which bulged in an extraordinary manner, and also by his habit of fidgeting with an open penknife which he always carried in his hand, and continuously opened and shut in the same absent-minded manner in which some people fidget with a watch-chain; the habit found its place in my caricature, and proved a great surprise to the subject.

Among the Irish members I caricatured Mr. Mitchell Henry who led the Home Rule Party in '79, but afterwards "ratted." He gave me three sittings, but was afterwards heard to say that he did not know "where the devil that fellow got hold of him!" I got to know him after extremely well, and accepted his hospitality on more than one occasion. He was very wealthy at one time, and up to the last collected every relic of Dr. Johnson he could lay hands on. My father had also taken a very great interest in anything connected with the great man and had painted several events in his life, of which I suppose the best known is "Dr. Johnson in the Anti-chamber of the Earl of Chesterfield," now in the Tate Gallery. At his death I sold to him a very interesting study from one of these pictures.