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As to the humorist's pencil, even throughout these early days, it must have been an unfailing source of delight, not only to the owner but to the companions of his form. 'Draw us some pictures,' the boys would say; and straightway down popped a caricature of a master on slate or exercise paper. Then school books were brought into requisition, and the fly-leaves were adorned with whimsical travesties of the subjects of their contents. Abbé Barthélemy's 'Travels of Anacharsis the Younger' suggested the figure of a wandering minstrel, with battered hat and dislocated flageolet, piping his way through the world in the dejected fashion in which those forlorn pilgrims might have presented themselves to the charitable dwellers in Charterhouse Square; while Anacharsis, Junior, habited in classic guise, was sent (pictorially) tramping the high road from Scythia to Athens, with stick and bundle over his back, a wallet at his side, sporting a family umbrella of the defunct 'gingham' species as a staff, and furnished with lace-up hob-nailed boots of the shape, size, and weight popularly approved by navvies.

'A Gingham'

Then Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary was turned into a sketch book, and supplemented with studies of head-masters, early conceptions of Roman warriors, primitive Carthusians indulging disrespectful gestures, known as 'sights,' at the rears of respectable governors, and boys of the neighbouring 'blue coat' foundation, their costume completed with the addition of a fool's or dunce's long-eared cap.

Fantastic designs, even when marked by the early graphic talent which Thackeray's rudest scribblings display, are apt to entail unpleasant consequences when discovered in school-books, and greater attractions were held out by works of fiction.

In a state of suspense

Pages of knight-errantry were the things for inspiration: Quixote, Orlando Furioso, Valentine and Orson, the Seven Champions, Cyrus the Grand (and interminable), mystic and chivalrous legends, quite forgotten in our generation, but which, in Thackeray's boyhood, were considered fascinating reading;—quaint romances, Italian, Spanish, and Persian tales, familiar enough in those days, and oft referred to, with accents of tender regret, in the reminiscences of the great novelist. What charms did the 'Arabian Nights' hold out for his kindling imagination,—how frequently were its heroes and its episodes brought in to supply some apt allusion in his later writings! It seems that Thackeray's pencil never tired of his favourite stories in the 'Thousand and One Nights,' precious to him for preserving ever green the impressions of boyhood. How numerous his unpublished designs from these tales, those who treasure his numberless and diversified sketches can alone tell. We see the thrilling episode of 'Ali Baba' perched among the branches, while the robbers bear their spoil to the mysterious cave, repeated with unvarying interest, and each time with some fresh point of humour to give value to the slight tracings.

Fancy sketch

A worthy Cit

A Grey Friar