George Paston

“ Lockhart was so much impressed by the powers of his new contributor, that he told John Murray, "I have found a man who can hunt like Hugo Meynell and write like Walter Scott,"—a criticism that did more credit to his sporting than his literary acumen, though Apperley's style is greatly superior to that of Pierce Egan and other of his sporting contemporaries. ”

“ At this juncture it became apparent to the keen eye of Rudolf Ackermann that some effort must be made to turn this fine talent into new channels, and to organise its output. He had noted the popularity of such connected series of comic designs as Woodward's Eccentric Excursion and Bunbury's Academy for Grown Horsemen, and it occurred to him that humorous works illustrated with coloured etchings by Rowlandson, and issued in monthly parts, or in volume form at a moderate price, would have more chance of success than a multitude of detached plates. ”

“ But his real talent lay in the direction of the quaint and the humorous. In 1825 he made a series of thirty-six designs representing scenes in the life of an actor, which he took to Egan and begged that popular author to write the letterpress. After some hesitation, Egan undertook the task, chiefly, as he says, with the idea of introducing a meritorious young artist to the public. For his designs Lane received £150 from the publisher, and the book really proved a stepping-stone, not to fortune, but to regular employment. ”

“ On 21st May 1828 poor Lane's promising career was cut short in most tragical fashion. While waiting for a friend at the Horse Repository in the Gray's Inn Road, he stepped upon a skylight, and, falling through, his brains were dashed out upon the pavement below. He left a widow and two children, for whose benefit Egan published a little work in verse called The Show Folks, with illustrations by Lane, as well as a short memoir of the unfortunate artist. ”

“ The earliest imitation of Life in London was called Real Life in London, or the Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, Esq., and his Cousin the Hon. Tom Dashall. By an Amateur. This book, which some have supposed to be the work of Egan in rivalry with himself, was illustrated by Rowlandson, Alken, and Dighton. A year later, in 1822, came Life in Paris, Comprising the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours of Dick Wildfire and Squire Jenkins, by David Carey; while The English Spy, by Bernard Blackmantle, appeared in 1824. ”

“ He attracted some attention by means of a satire, called the The Ins and Outs, and also wrote some long-forgotten novels and sketches. In 1822 he went to Paris, where he wrote his account of life in that city; and then, his health breaking down, returned to his native town to die of consumption. It was claimed for the illustrations to his book, which were from the pencil of George Cruikshank, that "To accuracy of local delineation is added a happy exhibition of whatever is ludicrous and grotesque in character." ”

“ Two of the coloured plates were contributed by Thomas Rowlandson, notably a sketch of the Life Academy at Somerset House, with the R.A.'s of the period busily engaged in drawing from a female model. Most of the social celebrities of the time are introduced into the book, Beau Brummell, Colonel Berkeley, Pierce Egan, Charles Matthews, "Pea-green" Hayne, and "Golden" Ball; while life at the University, in sporting and fashionable London, and at the popular watering-places, is vividly described. ”

“ The Loyal Volunteers, published in 1799, seems to have been the earliest result of the connection between artist and publisher, and this was followed by a series of popular productions, including the well-known Miseries of Human Life. ”

“ In 1837 he published his Memoirs of the Life of John Mytton, which had appeared serially in the New Sporting Magazine, and was illustrated with plates drawn by Alken and etched by Rawlings. This was followed by The Life of a Sportsman, illustrated by the same artist, which has become one of the classics of hunting literature. Apperley returned to London in 1842, and died in Pimlico the following year. ”

“ Dickens rejected the idea of a sporting club, though he so far deferred to the publishers' suggestions as to create the immortal Pickwick Club, into which Mr. Winkle was introduced expressly for the exploitation of Seymour's peculiar talent. The young author also stipulated that, instead of being expected to "write up" to the artist's designs, he should be allowed a free hand with the letterpress, the illustrations being allowed to arise naturally out of the incidents described in the text. ”

“ In 1831, in connection with Rudolf Ackermann, the son and successor of Rowlandson's employer, he started the New Sporting Magazine, which he edited down to 1836, and in the pages of this periodical the celebrated Mr. Jorrocks, humorist, sportsman, and grocer, made his first bow to the public. These papers were collected under the title of Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities in 1838, with illustrations by "Phiz"; but a later edition, that of 1843, contains fifteen coloured plates by Alken. ”

“ And then the work was straightforward to the artist's firm hand."
III Henry Alken
The books illustrated in colour at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century may be classed under certain well-defined headings—narrative, topography, costume, and sport, the last being by no means the least important. Although neither Gillray nor Rowlandson ignored the sport of kings, it was Bunbury who, drawing upon his own personal experiences, set the fashion for hunting and "horsey" books, which were most commonly conceived in a vein of broad humour. ”

“ On 26th March 1836 it was announced that the first number of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club would be published on the 30th, the work to be issued in shilling monthly parts under the editorship of "Boz," each part being illustrated with four etchings on steel by Seymour. Robert Seymour (1800?-36) had already made his name as a caricaturist and book-illustrator. He had published a volume of humorous sketches (mostly dealing with sporting misadventures) , and had been employed to illustrate Bell's Life and Figaro in London. ”

“ In consequence of this catastrophe, the second number came out with only three plates, and an apology to the public. In their dilemma the publishers invited Robert William Buss (1804-75) , a young artist of some promise, to take up Seymour's work. Buss, who was the son of an engraver, had studied under George Clint, A.R.A., and had been employed to illustrate Cumberland's British Theatre. He was also an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, where his most successful works had been in a humorous genre. ”

“ Surtees, who died at Brighton in 1864, was a fine horseman and a keen observer of social types, though, so far from being the rollicking sportsman suggested by his books, he is described as a man of rather reserved and taciturn nature. ”

“ In 1824, Egan had started a weekly newspaper called Pierce Egan's Life in London, which, being sold to a Mr. Bell, enjoyed a long period of popularity as Bell's Life in London. In the same year Pierce published his Life of an Actor, dedicated to Edmund Kean, and illustrated by Theodore Lane. Lane, who was born at Isleworth in 1800, was the son of a drawing-master in poor circumstances. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to John Barrow, an artist and colourer of prints, who was living in St. ”

“ The book was eagerly bought and read, and Westmacott, who had vainly tried to extort money for its suppression, must have made a handsome sum by its publication. The English Spy was brought out in two volumes, and contained seventy-two large coloured plates as well as numerous vignettes on wood, the majority being from the designs of Robert Cruikshank, who figures in the book under the pseudonym of "Robert Transit." ”

“ While the artist was busy designing other, and, as he hoped, more successful illustrations, he received his dismissal from the publishers, who were dissatisfied with the specimens already submitted to them. Although he admitted that his first two plates were "abominably bad," Buss was much aggrieved at this treatment, having been promised every consideration from the publishers on account of his ignorance of etching, and the haste with which the earlier designs had to be prepared. Later he became known as a popular book-illustrator, executing plates for the novels of Mrs. ”