Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/37

Rh week; at the last it was 1,500l. per annum. During the twenty-nine years of his control of ‘Punch’ it not only attained the position of a social power, and numbered among its contributors almost all the humorists of the day, but it was singularly free from all virulence, undue personality, or grossness—the best proof that there can be of the purity and good nature of Lemon's singularly amiable and honest mind. In addition to his work on ‘Punch,’ he was busy with other enterprises. Late in life he began writing novels, though with indifferent success. ‘Wait for the End’ appeared in 1863, ‘Loved at Last’ in 1864, ‘Faulkner Lyle’ in 1866, ‘Leyton Hall’ in 1867, and ‘Golden Fetters’ in 1868. ‘The Taffeta Petticoat,’ though finished, was not published before he died.

He was an amateur actor of much talent and humour. His performances began in 1845 at Miss Kelly's Theatre in Soho, in connection with the Guild of Literature and Art. He took the parts of Brainworm in Jonson's ‘Every Man in his Humour,’ which was repeated at Knebworth, Hertfordshire, in 1847, and of the Mysterious Stranger in ‘Two o'clock in the Morning.’ He acted in 1847 in Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, and in 1849 appeared at Devonshire House as Sir Geoffrey Thornside in a performance before the queen of Lytton's ‘Not so bad as we seem,’ and in 1856 and 1857 he took part in performances of the ‘Lighthouse’ and of Wilkie Collins's ‘Frozen Deep’ at Tavistock House, playing Lord Crayford, and in 1867 he played in the ‘Wolf in Sheep's Clothing’ at the Adelphi, in a performance arranged by the ‘Punch’ staff for the benefit of the widow of Charles Bennett, a contributor to the paper. He also gave readings, especially of an adaptation of his own play, ‘Hearts are Trumps,’ in 1867, and he arranged and took the chief part in a series of scenes from the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ which he entitled ‘Falstaff,’ first at the Gallery of Illustration in Regent Street, and subsequently in 1869 at various places in the north of England and in Scotland. A portrait of him in this character by John Tenniel appeared in the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and is prefixed to Joseph Hatton's ‘With a Show in the North,’ which gives an account of this dramatic tour. He wrote also at different times a considerable number of fairy tales: ‘The Enchanted Doll,’ 1850, ‘The Lost Book,’ ‘Legends of Number Nip,’ adapted from the German, in 1864, ‘Tinykin's Transformations’ in 1869, and ‘Leyton Hall,’ ‘Tom Moody's Tales,’ and ‘A Christmas Hamper;’ and he published a well-known collection of jests as ‘Mark Lemon's Jest-Book,’ and in 1867 the ‘New Table-Book.’ He had delivered at the Gallery of Illustration, from January 1862 till some time in 1863, a series of historical and descriptive lectures called ‘About London,’ illustrated by set scenes on a small stage, which subsequently appeared in ‘London Society’ in 1867 as ‘Up and Down the London Streets,’ and were separately republished. On 23 May 1870 he died at Vine Cottage, Crawley in Sussex, where he had lived for some time, and was buried at Ifield Church. A testimonial was subscribed after his death for the benefit of his widow and children. ‘Uncle Mark,’ as he was widely called among his friends, was in person robust, handsome, and jovial, humorous rather than witty in his conversation, indefatigable and prolific in production. He married, in September 1839, Helen Romer, who died in 1890, by whom he had three sons and seven daughters. The second son, Harry, wrote ‘The Co-operative Movement’ in 1868 and a few other farces, and was assistant to his father in his work on ‘Punch,’ as well as contributing to that periodical. His daughter Betty married, in 1864, Sir Robert Romer, lord justice of appeal 1899–1906. 

LEMON, ROBERT (1779–1835), archivist, born in London in 1779, was the son of Robert Lemon, chief clerk of the record office in the Tower. After being educated at Norwich grammar school under his uncle, George William Lemon [q. v.], and assisting his father at the Tower for about eighteen months, he was appointed on 24 June 1795 an extra clerk in the state paper office. In February 1801 he became second clerk. The keeper, John Bruce (1745–1826) [q. v.], who was also historiographer to the East India Company, availed himself of Lemon's services in preparing the ‘Annals’ of the company (1810). Lemon became deputy-keeper of the state paper office on 23 Jan. 1818, and began to arrange systematically records including royal letters, Irish and Scottish correspondence, royalist composition papers, and Gunpowder plot papers. At the end of 1823 he found the manuscript of Milton's treatise, ‘De Doctrina Christiana.’ Thereupon, on the advice of Sir Robert Peel, home secretary, a commission for publishing records of historical value was