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MR. PUNCH'S FANCY BALL. 1847.

(Horace Mayhew. Richd. Doyle. John Leech. Mark Lemon. W.M. Thackeray.
Percival Leigh. Gilbert A. à Beckett. Tom Taylor. Douglas Jerrold.
Prince de Joinville. Geo. Hudson. Shaw Lefevre. Prince Albert. B. Disraeli. Col. Sibthorp. Sir Fredk. Trench. Emperor of Russia.
Sir R. Peel. Sir J. Graham. D. O'Connell. Jenny Lind. Lord John Russell. Louis Philippe. The British Lion. Mehemet Ali. Duke of Richmond.
Richd. Cobden. Lord George Bentinck. Gen. Tom Thumb. THE QUEEN. MR. PUNCH. Lord Brougham. Duke of Wellington.)

Yes, the lion THACKERAY had joined the Table, and thenceforth for many years he illumined my pages with his keen wit and ripe wisdom, his graceful prose, his polished verse, and his characteristic pictures.

"The frontispiece to Volume V. (1843) was by RICHARD DOYLE, a plain foreshadowing of the celebrated design which was ever after to form the familiar Cover of the Punch Number. DOYLE had now joined the Staff, and for many years his fine fancy was allowed full play in my pages.

"At the end of the same Volume, upon page 260 of a supplement, entitled, 'Punch's Triumphal Procession,' appeared TOM HOOD's never-to-be-forgotten 'Song of the Shirt.' It is one of Mr. Punch's pleasantest Reminiscences that this gentle genius, this true poet, contributed this famous masterpiece to his pages.

"The scholarly, accomplished, and warm-hearted TOM TAYLOR was the next to join the Table, and his 'Spanish Ballads' (in 1846), admirably illustrated by DOYLE, made their mark, as did later his 'Unprotected Female.' In Volume XVI. PERCIVAL LEIGH commenced his 'Mr. PIPS, his Diary, or, Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe in 1849,' characteristically illustrated by RICHARD DOYLE at his graphic best. The same year was remarkable for the appearance of LEECH's most delightful character, the simple-minded, sport-loving, philistine paterfamilias, Mr. BRIGGS, first met with in connection with 'The Pleasures of Housekeeping,' though subsequently associated especially with humorous sporting scenes.

"The frontispiece to Volume XIX., for the second half of the year 1850, was by a 'new hand,' none other than JOHN TENNIEL the 'Cartoonist' par excellence, whose work henceforth was to be—as happily it still is—the pride of Mr. Punch and the delight of the British Public. TENNIEL's first Cartoon, 'Lord JACK the Giant-Killer,' graced Mr. Punch's 499th Number, he having taken, at short notice, the place of RICHARD DOYLE, who after many years of excellent work had voluntarily withdrawn from the Table, owing to certain religious scruples, not wholly unconnected with the subject of his successor's first 'Big Cut.'

"Another member of my little army about this time was GEORGE SILVER, and my next recruits were the polished and witty SHIRLEY BROOKS, and, one who was to develop into the greatest master of Black-and-White Art this country has produced, CHARLES KEENE to wit, our dear, picturesque, unsophisticated 'CARLO,' lost to the Table—an irreparable loss!—but a few months ago.

"At the opening of Volume XXVII. for the second half of the year 1854, you will observe, Mr. ANNO DOMINI, a Picture by JOHN TENNIEL (reproduced above), in which the then existing Staff of Punch are humorously sketched. They are engaged in somewhat varied sports and pastimes. Mr. Punch is keeping wicket in a game in which THACKERAY wields the bat, and PERCIVAL LEIGH is bowling; MARK LEMON, and GILBERT À BECKETT are playing at battledore and shuttlecock, and DOUGLAS JERROLD is having a solitary game of skittles, the 'pins' being the CZAR of RUSSIA, &c. SHIRLEY BROOKS, MAYHEW, and TOM TAYLOR are playing at Leapfrog, TOM TAYLOR 'overing' MAYHEW, whilst SHIRLEY BROOKS is following up. In the background JOHN TENNIEL is sketching the Good Knight Punchius upon a wall, whilst in the immediate foreground JOHN LEECH, upon a hobby-horse, is leaping over an easel. These were the chief of my 'Young Men' at this time. In front of the tent are two gentlemen, one in a black, the other in a white, hat. The first is WILLIAM BRADBURY, the second is 'Pater' EVANS, our 'proprietors and friends' of that day.

"In 1856 an obituary notice showed that the Table had experienced one of its earliest losses, that of GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT. And on June 8th, in the following year, the boding black border appeared 'In Memoriam' of DOUGLAS JERROLD. Ah, me, Mr. ANNO DOMINI, the jingling of the cap-and-bells, howsoever merrily it may sound, is perforce interrupted now and again by the chiming of a bell of deeper note and sadder tone.

"Volume XXXIX. for 1860 saw the artistic advent of the Society Satirist of the Victorian Era, GEORGE DU MAURIER; and in Volume XLIV. for the year 1863, the presence of another 'New Boy' at my Table, was evidenced by the appearance of the burlesque London-Journalish Novel, 'Mokeanna,' in which FRANCIS COWLEY BURNAND parodied the 'Penny Dreadful.'

"The very first page of my Volume for 1864, Mr. ANNO DOMINI, recorded a great, a grievous, an irreparable loss to me and to the world. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, the greatest of my contributors, had gone for ever from my Table. And a little later—only a little later—in my Number for November 12th, 1864, appeared an obituary notice—alas the day!—of the great, the genial, the loved, the lamented JOHN LEECH.

"In the Volumes for this year, 1865, appear for the first time the fanciful, ingenious, elaborately symbolical designs of CHARLES H. BENNETT, who unhappily did not long enrich my pages with his facile execution and singular subtlety of fancy. He died on the 2nd April. His place at my Table was soon after taken by LINLEY SAMBOURNE.

"On the 23rd May, 1870, he who had sat at the head of my Table ever since its first establishment, 'who wrote the first article in this Journal, who from its establishment had been its conductor,' left empty the chief seat at my board.

"'If this Journal has had the good fortune to be credited with habitual advocacy of truth and justice, if it has been praised for abstention from the less worthy kind of satire, if it has been trusted by those who keep guard over the purity of womanhood and of youth, we, the best witnesses, turn for a moment from our sorrow to bear the fullest and the most willing testimony that the high and noble spirit of MARK LEMON ever prompted generous championship, ever made unworthy onslaught or irreverent jest impossible to the pens of those who were honoured in being coadjutors with him.'

"This, Mr. ANNO DOMINI, was the high and merited tribute which the spokesman of his surviving colleagues paid to the beloved memory of MARK LEMON.

"SHIRLEY BROOKS succeeded him in the editorial chair, which he filled fittingly and faithfully for—alas!—only four years. In 1874 I lost my second Editor. TOM TAYLOR was his successor, taking up with the Editorship, the extraction of that weekly 'Essence of Parliament,' so long and so delightfully distilled by the deceased Chief.

"Meanwhile, on April 30th, 1872, HORACE MAYHEW, had departed from our midst. A little later the Table received a further accession in the person of ARTHUR WILLIAM À BECKETT, ('Mr. BRIEFLESS Junior,') son of that GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT who was one of my earliest 'Stars.' His brother, a second GILBERT À BECKETT, took his seat at the Table a few years later. In Volume LXVIII. for 1875, E.J. MILLIKEN made his first appearance as a Punch Writer. The Author of the 'ARRY papers, 'CHILDE CHAPPIE's Pilgrimage,' &c., joined my Table two years later.