We follow the artist's quaint vein of humour and realism from the little sketches of chivalry—the heroes of knight-errantry, Crusaders, Saracens, and the more romantic personages—which amused him in his boyhood, to his spirited studies illustrative of the days when Dick Steele's 'Tatler' was beginning to be talked about as a paper which contained a very unusual amount of entertainment, from its whimsical combination of sterling wit and truth to nature. Thackeray was peculiarly at home in the times of Queen Anne. We find his pencil busy reproducing the figures of personages who moved in the world under the early Georges; and the reign of the third George was as intimately familiar to him, in all details of value, as if he had lived through the triumphs, struggles, and disasters in which his own writings revive a stronger interest. We enjoy his researches through the great eras of England's history, when Washington led the revolted colonies to independence, when Pitt and Toryism waged war in the Senate with Fox and the friends of liberty, when the fever of Revolution arose in France, and threatened to infect our own land, and when the 'Corsican' was driven down to the death.
Waterloo had a strong claim on Thackeray's interest; he is partial to alluding to the critical point of our history, as all the reading world well knows.
It must be conceded that the chief incident of 'Vanity Fair' leads up to the great battle. References to the famous field occur in many portions of his gossip or travels, while figures are borrowed from this event to carry out the arguments of his novels and lesser essays under all sorts of circumstances.
Even in 'Philip,' which deals with a later period, we are carried back to that stirring epoch. For instance, there is that disreputable old Gann, the tipsy father of Mrs. Brandon, whose acquaintance we made originally in the 'Shabby Genteel Story.' It was always a matter of doubt how this worthy came by his rank of Captain, which was supposed to have had its rise somehow in connection with the Spanish Legion; but, at all events, he had borne the distinction so long, that none of his friends dreamt of investigating the title.
The costume affected by 'bucks,' when Thackeray was a young man of fashion, comes down to us as preserved in his sketches as something very modish and singular, in which the taste and style seem nearly as quaint and distant as the knee breeches and square skirts of the last century.
'Titmarsh,' who had the courage to dedicate the 'Paris Sketch-Book' to a generous French tailor, was himself an authority on dress; and, although above all pretensions to 'faddery and foppery,' was accustomed to scrutinise closely not only men, but the habits they wore.