4 MAY 1951, Page 5

In his special Festival number (which costs 2s.) Mr. Punch'

has taken a bold step. To reproduce the best of the past is to challenge dangerous comparisons with the present ; on a subject" so delicate I venture no judgement. But to glance through these' absorbing pages is to get a new demonstration of the extent to which Punch is embedded in the national life. There is. inevitably, Sir John Tenniel's historic " Dropping the Pilot." which is not concerned with Britain's national life : but there are also the classic curate's egg and " I used your soap two years ago" sketches, and also what I suppose is actually the original of the very much over-quoted " see what she's doing and tell her she mustn't." Wp have not quite realised how much in the way of allusion and illustration we owe to Punch.