John Leech : a Biographical Sketch. By Fred. G. Kitten.
(G. Redway.)—This is a very pleasant sketch of a man for whom we cannot but have a higher regard the more we know of him. Leech was intended for the profession of medicine, and retained knowledge from his early studies that were useful for his drawing in after life. But he always had, so to speak, one foot in art. He published some sketches at eighteen, and first made himself famous by a happy cari- cature of Mnlready's postage-envelope. In August, 1841, he first contributed to Punch. He never ceased to work for that periodical, and he may be said to have done more than any one man to make it what it is. Twenty-three years afterwards he attended the weekly meeting of the contributors, and four days later he died of angina pectoris. His total earnings from Punch are stated at £40,000. He did much work besides. Dickens's Christmas Stories, "The Comic History of England," "Albert Smith's "Christopher Tadpole," and the "Bon Gaultier Ballads," to mention a few out of many books, were illustrated by him. Overwork probably shortened hie ' life, though he drew with such facility and speed that it was difficult to realise how much his work cost him in labour. It is pleasant to recall a story which does credit to Dickens's kindness of heart. Leech was illustrat- ing "The Battle of Life," and introduced a picture with the flight of Marian, and the wedding festivities above. He "made the mistake of supposing that Michael Warden had taken part in the elopement, and introduced his figure with that of Marian." The reader is, it is true, led into believing that it was so, but the fact was wholly otherwise, and could not but be otherwise. Dickens was horrified at the mistake, but he knew what pain it would cause to Leech to have the illustration cancelled, and he put up with it.
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