“ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK was born in London on the 27th of September, 1792. His parents were of Scotch nationality. The father, namely, Isaac Cruikshank, was an artist by profession, having considerable skill in water-colour painting and etching. The mother was a Miss Macnaughten, of Perth, a protégé of the Countess of Perth, and the possessor of a small sum of money. She was a person of energetic temper and strong will, and so thrifty that by saving she added considerably to her original pecuniary possession. ”

“ In 1847 and 1848 there came from his pencil his first direct and outspoken contribution to the cause of temperance in "The Bottle" and the "Drunkard's Children," although in some of his earlier designs he had satired the prevalent vice of drunkenness; he capped them all, however, in the eight plates of "The Bottle," in which he depicts the terrible downward march of degradation in the tragedy of an entire family, from the easy temptation of "a little drop" to the final murder of the wife. ”

“ Such was pretty much the sort of education the young men had, and luckily George had the sense and talent to turn it all to good account later on with his pencil.
In course of time the artist was firmly established in business, and had numerous patrons among the publishers, some of whom were thriving to a considerable extent through Cruikshank's labours. After numerous isolated sketches, which brought him no small amount of fame, the first considerable series of designs by him appeared in Dr. Syntax's Life of Napoleon, consisting of thirty illustrations. ”

“ Some of his productions of 1799 are still extant. "George's first playthings," says Mr. Bates "were the needle and the dabber;" but play insensibly merged into work, as he began to assist his hard-worked father. His earliest inclination, it is said, was to go to sea, but his mother opposed this. The earliest job in the way of etching, for which he was employed and received payment, was a child's lottery ticket. This was in 1804, when he was about twelve years of age. in 1805 he made a sketch of Nelson's funeral car, and whimsical etchings of the fashions of the day. ”