LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
Portrait of John LeechFrontispiece
Hercules returning from a Fancy BallTo face p. [3]
Physician and General Practitioner[27]
“Where ’ave we bin? Why, to see the Cove ’ung, to be sure!”[29]
An Eye to Business[31]
But Augustus’s Heart was too full to speak[33]
“Sir! Please, Mr.! Sir! you’ve forgot the Door-key!”[38]
Eton Boy (loq.): “Come, governor! just one toast—‘The Ladies’!”[39]
The Return from the Derby[43]
The Derby Epidemic[44]
Something like a Holiday[46]
Alarming Symptoms on eating Boiled Beef and Gooseberry-pie[47]
“So you have taken all your Stuff, and don’t feel any better, eh?”[50]
Awful Apparition to a Gentleman whilst Shaving in the Edgware Road, September 29, 1846.[51]
“A Holder and a Thinner Wine”[53]
“Hollo! Hi! here, Somebody! I’ve turned on the Hot Water, and I can’t turn it off again!”[54]
Symptoms of a Masquerade[55]
The Rising Generation[57]
The Irrepressible Juvenile[58]
The Rising Generation[59]
Servant-gal-ism[63]
The Rising Generation[65]
Special Constable: “Now mind, you know—if I kill you, it’s nothing; but if you kill me, by Jove! it’s murder!”[67]
Recreations in Natural History[69]
Cabman is supposed to have taken a Wrong Turning, that’s all[70]
Mr. Briggs does a little Shooting[73]
”Fiddle-Faddle” Fashions[90]
”Fiddle-Faddle” Fashions[91]
The Mulready Envelope[96]
Fores’s Comic Envelope[97]
Mamma and the Girls[106]
Two Rude Young Men[107]
The Head of the House[108]
An Olive-Branch[109]
Two “Gangling” Young Men[110]
Preparing for the Ball[111]
The Assistant-Waiter[112]
The Band[112]
Wallflowers[114]
Mr. Ledbury[115]
Mr. Ledbury and Miss Hamilton[116]
The Waltz[118]
In the Conservatory[119]
The Belle of the Evening[120]
Mr. Ledbury’s Hat[121]
Mr. Percival Jenks[123]
Clown: “Oh, see what I’ve found!”[127]
Miss Cinthia Sings[128]
Dreadful for Young Oxford[131]
Miss Lucy and Mr. Sponge[149]
Le Premier PasTo face p. [160]
Death of St. Croix”   [172]
A Family Picture[189]
And there stood Jericho[203]
Mr. Simmons’s Attempt at Reform[215]
The Belle of the Month—August—taking a “Constitutional” in Kensington Gardens. Time, 8 a.m.[221]
The Balcony Nuisance[223]
The Belle of the Month—November—“in Distress off a Lee-shore—Brighton Pier”[229]
“Now, Jack, my Boy! There’s no Time to lose! we’ve Ten Miles to go to Cover”[245]
Effects of a Fall[253]
Billy Taylor[256]
“Where got’s Thou that Goose? Look!”[257]
Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamond[261]
King Edward introducing his Son as Prince of Wales to his Newly-acquired Subjects[262]
Unseemly Conduct of Henry, Prince of Wales[263]
The Duke of Gloucester goes into Mourning for his Little Nephews[264]
Mary’s Elopement[266]

JOHN LEECH:

HIS LIFE AND WORK

PROLOGUE.

“‘Leech’ (spelt ‘leich’) is an old Saxon word for ‘surgeon,’” writes a friend to me. “Hence, as you know, the employment of the word ‘leech’ as a term applied in former times to doctors.”

Though Leech is not a common name, I have met with several bearers of it under every variety of spelling that the word was capable of—Leech, Lietch, Leich, Leeche, Leitch, etc. Only two of the owners of these names became known to fame—John, of immortal memory, and, longo intervallo, William Leitch, a Scottish artist, and landscape-painter of considerable merit, whose pictures, generally of a classic character, found favour amongst a certain class of buyers. A large subject of much beauty was engraved, and, I think, formed the prize-engraving for the year for the Art Union of London. I have no doubt William Leitch was frequently asked if he were related to John. The sound of the names was similar, and few inquirers knew of the difference in the spelling. Whether William was asked the question or not I cannot speak to with certainty; but that John was I am sure, because he told me so himself, and, as well as I can recall them, in the following words: