Hook was in the habit of sending pen-and-ink sketches of himself in his letters. I have one of especial interest, in which he represented himself down upon knees, with handkerchief to eyes. The meaning was to indicate his grief at being late with his promised article for the "New Monthly," and his begging pardon thereupon. He had great facility for taking off likenesses, and it is said was once suspected of being the "H. B." whose lithographic drawings of eminent or remarkable persons startled society a few years ago by their rare graphic power and their striking resemblance,—barely bordering on caricature.
Here is Hook's contribution to Mrs. Hall's album:—
"Having been requested to do that which I never did in my life before,—write two charades upon two given and by no means sublime words,—here are they. It is right to say that they are to be taken with reference to each other.
"My first is in triumphs most usually found;
Old houses and trees show my second;
My whole is long, spiral, red, tufted, and round,
And with beef is most excellent reckoned.
My first for age hath great repute;
My second is a tailor;
My whole is like the other root,—
Only a little paler.
"Theodore E. Hook.
"September 4, 1835.
"Do you give them up?
"Car-rot. Par-snip."
The reader will permit me here to introduce some memories of the immediate contemporaries and allies of Hook, whose names are, indeed, continually associated with his, and who, on the principle of "'birds of a feather," may be properly considered in association with this master-spirit of them all.