Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/527

 ii s. iv. DEC. so, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

521

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1911.

CONTENTS. No. 105.

NOTES : Sir John Gilbert as Illustrator, 521 Whitting- ton and his Cat, 522 Epitaphiana, 524 Napoleon and Dwidll. of Scotland " Homestead," 525 " Cockrod " : "Cockshoot" Smooth or Prickly Holly Court Leet: Manor Court, 526.

QUERIES : ' Milieux d' Art 'Somerset Carpenter Arms Phillipps Family Lairds of Drumminnor Statue in Cavendish Square Our Lady's Fast, 527 Thomas Gower Dark Saturday Oxford Degrees and Ordination Beaupre Bell-H. Card -Bishop Griffith J. Hindle Ancient Terms Arno's Grove, 523 "Cousin and Coun- sellor " Capt. Stubbs at Salamanca Catholick as a Surname -Dennie of London and Jamaica, 529 Thiers's 4 Traite" des Superstitions 'Diseases from Plants Broad- bent Portraits Capt. Benjamin Joseph Coltman Family, 530.

REPLIES : Halletts of Canons, 530 "Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum ! " Timothy Bright, 531 Rating of Clergy to find Armour" Dillisk" and "Slook," 532 Holed Stones, 533 Henry Fielding and the Civil Power- Felicia Hemans Lucius, 534 " Though Christ a thousand times be slain" Langley Hill Miss Howard Gibber's ' Apology' Tattershall : Elsham : Grantham, 535 ' Writes me," 536 Theophilus Leigh Weare : Thurtell

"The Swiss Cottage" Rev. Iliff, 537 Authors

Wanted" Honorificabilitudinitatibus "Daniel Purcell Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' Guild of the B.V.M. in Dublin Southey's Letters Hamlet as Christian Name, 538 Manzoni : 'Promessi Sposi,' 539.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Old English Libraries.' Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

SIR JOHN GILBERT AS ILLUSTRATOR.

IT was as a painter that John Gilbert, in 1836, made his first bow to the public ; some two years later he tried his 'prentice hand as a black-and-white illustrator in the service of Dean & Munday of Thread- needle Street. Miss Corner's ' Histories ' were then in course of publication by this firm. The plates for ' England ' were drawn by T. H. Jones, and engraved by Daven- port. They were, however, merely small copies from famous pictures. * France ' was entrusted to John Franklin ; but his designs, stiff and tame, did not give entire satisfaction. He would nevertheless prob- ably have been kept on for the rest of the series ; but (so the story goes) during his .absence at the " Eglinton Tournament," Gilbert " called in," and was commissioned to design the plates for the remaining volumes. These sketches, after all, were

more like historical pictures than magazine or newspaper illustrations ; and, oddly enough, he never made another drawing for the Threadneedle Street firm. About the year 1838, some sketches in pen-and-ink, or pencil, were shown (says the 'D.N.B.') to Mulready by Sheepshanks, and on Mulready's advice young Gilbert turned his attention to wood-drawing. A ' Book of Nursery Rhymes,' with his illustrations on wood, appeared soon after.

It is said that he met with a smart rebuff at the outset. Some of his drawings on the wood were given to Sam Williams to engrave. Williams at that time was a sort of autocrat in the printing and publishing world ; so, when he returned the blocks with the con- temptuous remark that there was " nothing to cut ! " John Gilbert's fate as a wood- draughtsman seemed decided. But Thomas Gilks, a fairly good engraver, though more respected for his technical knowledge and judgment than for his own handiwork, offered to undertake the cuts. As a result the artist's success was assured. So grateful was Gilbert that in after years, when his word could make or mar a xylographer, he would always " put in a good word " for Thomas Gilks. Very probably, however, this little anecdote should be taken with the proverbial " grain of salt."

When Herbert Ingram was starting TJie Illustrated London News, Henry Vizetelly, his chief adviser, at once thought of John Gilbert, already pretty well known as a draughtsman who could sketch quickly from description. His work formed an important contribution to the new venture. In 1846 began his connexion with The London Journal : a connexion which lasted, with the exception of a few months' interval, first in 1850, and again in 1859, till the spring of 1863 ; when Gilbert abruptly in the middle of a long serial story announced his decision to retire finally from the practice of wood- cut illustration. George Stiff, in an " edi- torial " published, if I remember rightly, in 1848, claimed to be the " discoverer " of John Gilbert, bracketing him with Thomas Bolton, the engraver, as having owed his success chiefly to The London Journal. But in 1846 Gilbert was already so well known that, so far from that paper being his " open, sesame," to fame, it was undoubtedly his genius and his name which raised it to its unrivalled position as an illustrated story paper. When he left, the proprietors were so fearful lest his secession should cause a serious falling - off in the sale that they requested the new artists, at least for a