“Leech and Albert Smith worked together very harmoniously as illustrator and writer in several books—‘Ledbury,’ ‘Brinvilliers,’ and many others—and one day when they were leaving Smith’s house together, a street-boy stepped up to them, and scoffing at the inscription on Smith’s large brass door-plate, cried:
“‘Oh yes! Mr. Albert Smith, M.R.C.S., Surgeon-Dentist.’
“‘Good boy!’ said Leech, putting a penny into the boy’s hand; ‘now go and insult somebody else.’”
CHAPTER IV.
MEETING OF MULREADY AND LEECH.
Mr. Mulready, R.A., was commissioned by the authorities to design a postal envelope for general use, a penny stamp affixed insuring free delivery of letters all over England. The design, which should have been of a simple character, was far too ornate and elaborate. At the top Britannia was represented in the act of despatching winged messengers with letters to all parts of the world, and down the sides of the envelope were the recipients of letters which had conveyed heart-breaking news to one side, and good tidings to the other. As a work of art the Mulready envelope has, in my opinion, great merit, but it was ludicrously inappropriate to the purposes for which it was intended. Leech saw and seized the opportunity, with the result appended.
The signature of the bottled leech, so familiar afterwards, is used here as Mulready’s signature, and “thereby hangs a tale,” which, though the burden of it deals with a future time, I venture to introduce in this place.