28 FEBRUARY 1914, Page 3

Sir John Tenniel, who died on Thursday within a few

days of completing his ninety-fourth year, was a great Victorian worthy as well as a great illustrator. For fifty years he drew for Punch, and after Leech's death in 1864 be exerted, as chief cartoonist, an influence and authority unsurpassed by any British artist. There was always an element of nobility in his work, and on great occasions be rose to the heroic level. And yet the same pen which gave us so fine a master- piece in the grand style as "Dropping the Pilot" immor- talized the gracious charm of mid-Victorian childhood in the illustrations to Alice in Wonderland.