Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/496



R. HENRY W. LUCY was born at Crosby, near Liverpool, and was at first apprenticed to a merchant, but at the age at which he is represented in our first portrait he obtained an engagement as reporter to The Shrewsbury Chronicle. In the little story of real life which begins on the next page the reader will discover allusions to this and other incidents of his career. Subsequently he joined the staff of The Pall Mall Gazette and The Daily News, being chief of the Gallery staff on the latter paper. This post he held at the age of our second portrait, when he was also writing "Under the Clock" in The World. At thirty-seven he published his first novel—"Gideon Fleyce"—and a year later he made a journey round the world, an account of which appeared in the volume entitled "East by West." At the age of our third portrait he was editor of The Daily News, a post which he soon resigned. On the death of Tom Taylor in 1880, Mr. Lucy took up the writing of the "Essence of Parliament" for Punch, which, under the title of "The Diary of Toby, M.P.," is still one of the brightest and most sparkling things appearing in the weekly press.