Forty years of 'Spy'

by Sir Leslie Ward

Not long after I had caricatured Sir Albert Rollit he introduced me to his pretty daughter in the Lobby. "Oh, I'm so pleased to know you, Mr. Ward," she said. "You made that splendid caricature of my father."

"It is good of you to take it in the spirit which it is drawn," I answered; "because it is a caricature."

One of the stoutest men I ever drew was Sir Cunliffe Owen, director of the Kensington Museum, and head of the English Commission of the International Exhibition at Paris in '72. When I dined with him there I was astonished to see that he drank no wine—although his guests were plentifully supplied—but under his doctor's orders he was limited to one small tumbler of water. While in Paris I stayed with Sir Cunliffe in the company of the members of the English Commission in Paris as their guest. They gave me an amazingly good time, and I made a sketch of my host for Vanity Fair.

It was towards the end of 1880, that I was asked by Mr. Bowles to obtain a cartoon of the "Fourth Party" for Vanity Fair, and later on it was claimed that the cartoon was proof positive of the existence of the "Fourth Party." It is certain that Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr. Balfour, Sir John Gorst, and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff came to my studio, and that we had great difficulty in finding a seat suitable for the accommodation of Mr. Balfour's sprawl.

I have naturally met many most distinguished soldiers, among them Field Marshal Sir William Gomm, whom I met by the introduction of Mr. Gibson Bowles. He had attained the age of ninety, looked years younger, and was, in fact, astonishingly sprightly—a tiny little dot of a man.

"What is the secret of your longevity?" inquired Mr. Bowles. "No doubt you lived a careful life."

"Indeed, sir, nothing of the kind!" replied the old gentleman, who was very much afraid of being mistaken for a prig. There was more than a hint of the dandy about this vigorous nonogenarian. I was interested to observe that he wore patent leather shoes of a decidedly dainty shape, decorated with steel buckles holding enormous bows, and his trousers were the most wonderful in shape I have ever seen.

Another great soldier I depicted was Sir Hastings Doyle, a remarkable man in his day. He had the most charming manners, and is said to have known no fear. His sitting-room was like a fashionable woman's boudoir, and when the great general appeared I noticed his eyebrows and moustache were darkened with cosmetic, and his cheeks slightly touched with carmine as was frequently the custom then with many an old beau.

Sir Bartle Frere I caricatured in the attitude which he frequently adopted whilst lecturing at the Royal Geographical Society. He was a man of remarkably mild appearance, and I was astonished to hear him define the Zulu war as a celibate-man-slaying-machine.