In devoting another chapter to periodicals one must insist upon their relative importance; for the time and money expended on them in a single year would balance possibly the cost of all the books mentioned in this volume. In a naïve yet admirable article in the Christmas Bookseller, 1862, written from a commercial standpoint, the author says, speaking of some pictures in Good Words: 'Some of these, we are informed, cost as much as £50 a block, a sum which appears marvellous when we look at the low price of the magazine'; he instances also the celebrated 'J. B.'3, 'whose delineations of animals are equal to Landseer. The magazines to be noticed are those only which contain original designs; others, The National Magazine, the Fine Arts Quarterly, and the like, which relied upon the reproductions of paintings, are not even mentioned.
Any periodical containing the work of Millais and Sandys is, obviously, in the front rank, but The Churchman's Family Magazine, which started in January 1863, did not long maintain its high level; yet the first half a dozen volumes have enough good work to entitle them to more than passing mention. This, like London Society, was published by Mr. James Hogg, and must not be confounded with another of the same price, with similar title, The Churchman's Shilling Magazine, to which reference is made elsewhere. In the familiar octavo of its class, it is well printed and well illustrated. The first volume contains two full pages by Millais, Let that be please (p. 15) and You will forgive me (p. 221); three illustrations by E. J. Poynter to The Painter's Glory (pp. 124, 131, 136); three by T. Morten (pp. 137, 432, and 531); five by J. D. Watson, Only Grandmamma (p. 89), Christian Martyr (p. 104), Sunday Evening (p. 191), The Hermit (p. 260), and Mary Magdalene (p. 346); three by Charles Green to How Susy Tried (pp. 57, 64, 71), and one each to Henry II. (p. 385), and An Incident in Canterbury Cathedral (p. 482), a drawing strangely resembling a 'John Gilbert.' H. S. Marks is represented by Home Longing (p. 113) and Age and Youth (p. 337); H. H. Armstead by Fourth Sunday in Lent (p. 245) and Angel Teachers (p. 539); J. C. Horsley by Anne Boleyn (p. 136); F. R. Pickersgill by The Still Small Voice (p. 586); G. H. Thomas by Catechising in Church (p. 225), and R. Barnes by Music for the Cottage (p. 289) and The Strange Gentleman (p. 293). Besides these the volume contains others by Rebecca (sister to Simeon) Solomon (p. 571), L. Huard, D. H. Friston, H. C. Selous, T. Macquoid, W. M'Connell, T. Sulman, E. K. Johnson (Spenser, p. 576), and J. B. Zwecker—a very fairly representative group of the average illustrator of the period. The second half of 1863 (vol. ii.) enshrines the fine Frederick Sandys, The Waiting Time, an incident of the Lancashire cotton famine (p. 91). Another of M. J. Lawless's most charming designs, One Dead (p. 275), (reprinted under the title of The Silent Chamber), will be found here. M. E. Edwards contributes two, Ianthe's Grave (p. 128) and Child, I said (p. 405); G. J. Pinwell is represented once with By the Sea (p. 257); and T. Morten with The Bell-ringers' Christmas Story (p. 513). The other artists include H. C. Selous, C. W. Cope, F. R. Pickersgill, E. Armitage, A. W. Cooper, E. H. Wehnert, E. H. Corbould, Marshall Claxton, P. W. Justyne, P. Skelton, Paulo Priolo, D. H. Friston, H. Sanderson, Creswick, and T. B. Dalziel. In vol. iii. (1864) M. J. Lawless has Harold Massey's Confession (p. 65); C. Green, Thinking and Wishing (p. 223); G. J. Pinwell, March Winds (p. 232); M. E. Edwards, At the Casement (p. 354); and T. Morten, The Twilight Hour (p. 553). Among other contributors are Florence Caxton, L. Huard, H. M. Vining, W. M'Connell, Rebecca Solomon, H. Fitzcook, John Absolon, Percy Justyne, F. W. Keyl, W. J. Allen.
In vol. iv. are J. D. Watson's Crusaders in Sight of Jerusalem (p. 557), T. B. Dalziel's In the Autumn Twilight (p. 441), and A. W. Cooper's Lesson of the Watermill (p. 339); Florence Caxton illustrates the serial. And in vol. v. M. E. Edwards's Deare Childe (p. 114), and The Emblem of Life (p. 64), and A. Boyd Houghton's A Word in Season (p. 409), are best worth noting. Vol. vi. has a good study of a monk, Desert Meditations (p. 493), and a Gretchen's Lament (p. 82), by M. E. Edwards. From vol. vii. onwards portraits, chiefly of ecclesiastical dignitaries, take the place of pictures.
This somewhat scarce publication is often referred to as one of the important periodicals of the sixties, but on looking through it, it seems to have established its claim on somewhat slender foundation. True, it contains one of Sandys' most memorable designs—here reproduced in photogravure from an early impression of the block, a peculiarly fine drawing—to Christina Rossetti's poem, Amor Mundi. It was reproduced from a photograph of the drawing on wood in the first edition of Mr. Pennell's admirable Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmen, and in the second edition are reproductions by process, not only of Mr. Sandys' original drawing as preserved in a Hollyer photograph, but of preliminary studies for the figures.
The rest of the illustrations of the magazine, which only lived for a few months, are comparatively few and not above the average in merit. The numbers, May 1865 to May 1866, contain eight drawings by J. D. Watson, illustrating Mrs. Riddell's Phemie Keller. Thirteen by Paul Gray illustrate The White Flower of Ravensworth, by Miss M. Betham-Edwards. Others noteworthy are: Gythia, by T. R. Lamont; Dahut, and An Incident of 1809, by J. Lawson; Mistrust and Love's Pilgrimage, by Edward Hughes; a fine composition, Lost on the Fells, by W. Small, and a few minor drawings mostly in the text. It was published by T. Bosworth, 215 Regent Street. This is a brief record of a fairly praiseworthy venture, but there is really no more to be said about it.
Another sixpenny illustrated monthly more definitely religious in its aim than Good Words, of which it was an offspring, was started in 1865. The illustrations from the first were hardly less interesting than those in the other publications under the direction of Mr. Alexander Strahan. Indeed, it would be unjust not to express very clearly and unmistakably the debt which all lovers of black-and-white art owe to the publisher of these magazines. The conditions of oil-painting demand merely a public ready to buy: whether the artist negotiates directly with the purchaser, or employs an agent, is a matter of convenience. But black-and-white illustration requires a well-circulated, well-printed, well-conducted periodical: not as a middleman whose services can be dispensed with, but as a vital factor in the enterprise. Therefore drawings intended for publication imply a publisher, and one who is not merely a man with pronounced artistic taste, but also a good administrator and a capable man of business. These triple qualifications are found but rarely together, and when they do unite, the influence of such a personality is of the utmost importance. Mr. Strahan, who appears to have combined in no small degree the qualities which go to make a successful publisher, set on foot two popular magazines, which, in spite of their having long passed their first quarter of a century, are still holding their own. A third, full of promise, Good Words for the Young, was cut off in its prime, or rather died of a lingering disease, caused by that terrible microbe the foreign cliché. Others, The Day of Rest and Saturday Journal, also affected by the same ailment, succumbed after more or less effort; but the magazines that relied on the best contemporary illustrators still flourish. The moral, obvious as it is, deserves to be insisted upon. To-day the photograph from life is as popular with many editors as the cliché from German and French originals was in the seventies; but a public which tired of foreign electros may soon grow weary of the inevitable photograph, and so the warning is worth setting down.
Like its companion, Good Words, it has known fat years and lean years; volumes that were full of admirable drawings, and volumes that barely maintained a respectable average. From the very first volume of the Sunday Magazine we find among others R. Barnes, A. Boyd Houghton, M. E. Edwards, Paul Gray, J. Lawson, F. W. Lawson, J. W. North, G. J. Pinwell, and Marcus Stone well represented. The standard of excellence implied by these names was preserved for a considerable time. To this Pinwell contributes two drawings, The House of God (p. 144) and Only a Lost Child (p. 592), a typical character-study of town life. Paul Gray has a full page, The Maiden Martyr (p. 272), engraved by Swain; either the drawing is below his level, or it has suffered badly at the hands of the engraver. The Orphan Girl (p. 296), Clara Linzell's Commentary (p. 401), and Dorcas (p. 617), by the same artist, are all interesting, but do not represent him at his best. The single contribution by A. Boyd Houghton, Friar Ives (p. 384), is not particularly good. In Winter, by J. W. North (p. 328), we have a most excellent drawing of a snow-clad farm with a thrashing machine at work in the distance, and two children in the foreground. The delicacy and breadth of the work, and its true tonality deserve appreciation; it was engraved by Swain. Drowned (p. 585), by Marcus Stone, is not very typical. The Watch at the Sepulchre (p. 940), by J. Lawson, is a spirited group of Roman soldiers. Caught in a Thunderstorm, by R. P. Leitch, engraved by W. J. Linton, is interesting to disciples of 'the white line.' Edward Whymper supplies the frontispiece, The Righi. M. E. Edwards, in the drawings to Grandfather's Sunday (pp. 481, 489), appears to be under the influence of G. H. Thomas. Robert Barnes has twenty illustrations to Kate the Grandmother, and one each to Light in Darkness (p. 25) and Our Children. A series of fourteen to Joshua Taylor's Passion, engraved by Dalziel, are unsigned; the style leads one to credit them to F. A. Fraser, who in later volumes occupied a prominent position. F. W. Lawson, in A Romance of Truth (pp. 641, 649) and The Vine and its Branches (p. 904), has not yet found his individual manner. The rest of the pictures by T. Dalziel, F. J. Slinger, R. T. Pritchett, F. Eltze, W. M'Connell, etc., call for no special comment.
In 1866 J. Mahoney's Summer, the frontispiece to the volume, is a notable example of a clever artist, whose work has hardly yet attracted the attention it deserves; Marie (p. 753), a study of an old woman knitting, is no less good. Birket Foster's Autumn (p. 1) is also a very typical example. Paul Gray's Among the Flowers (p. 624), a group of children from the slums in a country lane, is fairly good. W. Small, in Hebe Dunbar 'from a photograph' (p. 441), supplies an object-lesson of translation rather than imitation, which deserves to be studied to-day. In it, a really great draughtsman has given you a personal rendering of facts, like those he would have set down had he worked from life, and thereby imparted individual interest to a copy of a photograph. This one block, if photographers would but study it, should convince them that a good drawing is in every way preferable to a 'half-tone' block from a photograph of the subject; it might also teach a useful lesson to certain draughtsmen, who employ photographs so clumsily that the result is good neither as photography nor as drawing, but partakes of the faults of both. Three designs to the Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood, by Dr. George Mac Donald, (pp. 641, 713, 785), the first quite in the mood of the hour, a capital piece of work, and A Sunday Afternoon in a London Court, complete Mr. Small's share in this volume. Robert Barnes supplies the other eight drawings to Dr. Mac Donald's story, and another, The Pitman and his Wife (p. 17), an excellent specimen of his 'British Workman' manner. F. J. Shields, a very infrequent contributor to these magazines, has a biblical group, 'Even as thou wilt' (p. 33). Edward Hughes (who must not be confounded with Arthur Hughes, nor with the present member of the Old Water-Colour Society, E. R. Hughes) is responsible for Under a Cottage Roof (p. 192), The Bitter and Sweet (p. 249), The First Tooth (p. 337), and The Poor Seamstress (p. 409); although a somewhat fecund illustrator not devoid of style and invention, his work fails to interest one much to-day. J. Gordon Thomson, so many years the cartoonist of Fun, is represented by On the Rock (p. 544). F. W. Lawson's Hope (p. 120) and A. W. Bayes's Saul and David (p. 703), with a drawing of wild animals drinking, by Wolf, complete the list of original work, the rest being engraved from photographs.
In 1867 A. Boyd Houghton is well to the fore with twelve illustrations to the serial story by Sarah Tytler, The Huguenot Family in the English Village, besides full-page drawings, some in his best manner, to A Proverb Illustrated (p. 33), Heroes (p. 129), Luther the Singer (p. 256), The Martyr (p. 348), The Last of the Family (p. 393), and A Lesson to a King (p. 817). W. Small is only represented twice, with Wind me a Summer Crown (p. 65) and Philip's Mission (p. 752). J. W. North has three admirable drawings, Foundered at Sea (p. 280), Peace (p. 560), Anita's Prayer (p. 609), the first and last of these, both studies of shipwrecks, deserve to be remembered for the truth of movement of the drawing of the waves, and one doubts if any sea-pieces up to the date of their appearance had approached them for fact and beauty combined. Both are engraved by Dalziels in an admirably intelligent fashion. F. W. Lawson's The Chained Book (p. 104) and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (p. 496), and In the Times of the Lollards (p. 529), all deal with acrimonious memories of the past. After the scenes of cruelty, persecution, and martyrdom which unfortunately are too often the chief dishes in the menu of a religious periodical, it is a relief to turn to the Cottar's Farewell (p. 417), by J. D. Watson, or to the 'Norths' before quoted. This most straightforward and accomplished study of a dying peasant and his family shows the dignified and simple treatment which the artist at his happiest moments employed with complete mastery.
In 1868 A. Boyd Houghton is again the most frequent contributor of full-page designs; a bare list must suffice. Sunday at Hippo (p. 57), Three Feasts of Israel (p. 67), Paul's Judge (p. 88), Sunday Songs, Sweden (p. 112), The Charcoal Burners (p. 118), a drawing which looks like an intentional 'exercise in the manner of Gustave Doré,' who, despite his enormous popularity in England, seems to have had singularly little influence on English artists, so that this stands out as a unique exception. Houghton has also The Feast of the Passover (p. 185), The Poor Man's Shuttle (p. 273), Feast of Pentecost (p. 296), Samuel the Ruler (p. 357), George Herbert's Last Sunday (p. 424), Baden-Baden (p. 520), The Good Samaritan (p. 552), Church of the Basilicas (p. 561), Joseph's Coat (p. 616), St. Paul Preaching (p. 681), and The Parable of the Sower (p. 777). G. J. Pinwell is seen in three examples, A Westphalian Parsonage (p. 192), Madame de Krudener (pp. 704, 785); S. L. Fildes is here for the first time with The Farmer's Daughter (p. 656); J. Pettie has a small drawing, My Sister (p. 176); J. Wolf, a clever 'lamb' study (p. 529); and W. Small a most typical, almost mannered, Sunday Morning (p. 182). J. Mahoney supplies twenty-eight illustrations to The Occupations of a Retired Life, by Edward Garrett, besides separate plates, Sunday Songs from Denmark (p. 16), Love Days (p. 137), and Just Suppose (p. 649). J. Gordon Thomson contributes eighteen drawings for Dr. George Macdonald's The Seaboard Parish, and others of no particular interest are attributed to Shield, F. A. Fraser, C. Morgan, Miles, Lamont, and Pasquier. Here, as in many other volumes, are vignettes and tail-pieces by T. Dalziel, some of them most admirably drawn and all charmingly expressed in the engraving.
In 1869 A. Boyd Houghton still maintains his position. This year his drawings are Wisdom of Solomon (p. 16), The Jews in the Ghetto (p. 44), Martha and Mary (p. 65), Rehoboam (p. 85), Jewish Patriotism (p. 125), Sunday in the Bush (p. 161), Miss Bertha (pp. 384, 513), Babylonian Captivity (p. 633), John Baptist (p. 641), and Samson (p. 760). G. J. Pinwell illustrates Edward Garrett's The Crust and the Cake with thirty-four cuts. In one of these (p. 529), as in two other designs by the same artist, you find that in drawing the lines of a harpsichord, or grand piano, he has forgotten that the reversal required by engraving would represent the instrument with its curve on the bass, instead of the treble side—a sheer impossibility, which any pianist cannot help noticing at a glance. His one other contribution this year is The Gang Children (p. 25). Represented by a solitary example in each case are J. M'Whirter, Sunday Songs (p. 12); J. Pettie, Philip Clayton's First-born (p. 69); Edward Hughes, Mother Mahoney (p. 196); Towneley Green, Village Doctor's Wife (p. 505); Robert Barnes, A Missionary in the East (p. 57); and Arthur Hughes, Blessings in Disguise (p. 156). J. Mahoney has The Centurion's Faith (p. 60), Building of the Minster (p. 352), Hoppety Bob (p. 417), Roger Rolf (p. 608), and Christmas Eighteenth Century (p. 252). Francis Walker, with his Sunday Songs (p. 93), Bird Fair, Shoreditch (p. 409), Feast of Tabernacles (p. 600), Widow Mullins (p. 673), and A Little Heroine (p. 736); H. French, with 'It is more blessed' (p. 229), and A Narrative Sermon (p. 632); and F. A. Fraser with Jesuit Missions (p. 101), Wesley (p. 152), The Year (p. 217), A Queer Charity (p. 576), and A Schwingfest (p. 665); the three latter belong by rights to the men of the seventies rather than to the group with which this volume is concerned.
In 1870 A. Boyd Houghton, one of the heroes of the sixties, reappears with five contributions, one, quite out of his ordinary manner, being a design for a group of statues, St. Paul's Companions (p. 33); the others are My Mother's Knee (p. 16), Sunday at Aix-les-bains (p. 88), Achsah's Wedding Gifts (p. 104), and Sister Edith's Probation (p. 600). J. Mahoney signs but two: A Sun-dial in a Churchyard (p. 704) and Passover Observances (p. 736). F. A. Fraser and Towneley Green supply the illustrations to the serials. W. J. Wiegand contributes decorative head-pieces, and Hubert Herkomer has two drawings, Diana's Portrait and Diana Coverdale's Diary.
In 1871 Houghton has but two: A Woman that was a Sinner (p. 104) and The Withered Flower (p. 512). Arthur Hughes, in three delightful designs, My Heart (p. 10), The First Sunrise (p. 302), and Tares and Wheat (p. 353); J. Mahoney with Diet of Augsburg (p. 417) and Our Milkmen (p. 217); and W. Small with The Sea-Side Well (p. 249), One of Many (p. 446), and fourteen illustrations to The Story of the Mine, are about the only remnants of the old army. John Leighton, a frequent contributor of decorative borders and head-pieces, has a typical full-page, A Parable (p. 408). The 'seventies' are represented by R. Macbeth's Tom Joiner's Good Angel (p. 313); and C. Green (who, like Small, belongs to both periods) with his designs to The Great Journey (p. 119) and Mills of Clough (pp. 560, 728).
A popular monthly periodical that is still in full vigour under a slightly altered title, started in the decade immediately before the date that this book attempts to cover. As Cassell's Family Paper, a large folio weekly, beyond the fact that the ubiquitous Sir John Gilbert did innumerable good things for its pages, one is not greatly interested in it. But in 1865 it was changed to a quarto shape, and although L. Huard supplied the front page pictures to vol. i., and so the artistic position of the paper was not improved, yet soon after the change we find a great illustrator contributing the weekly drawing for its chief serial. For despite the indifferent engraving accorded to many of the blocks and the absence of any signature, the autograph of William Small is legible in every line of the illustrations to Bound to the Wheel which started with vol. ii. in August 26, 1866, and has sixteen half-page illustrations. This was followed by The Secret Sign, with the same artist for a few chapters. Then another hand appears, and soon after the monogram F. G. shows that the second Gilbert (a brother, I believe, of the more famous artist) has replaced W. Small. To one drawing of another serial, The Lion in the Path, the signature of T. Morten is appended.
In April 1867 its title is changed to Cassell's Family Magazine, and it is printed on toned paper. The serial, Anne Judge, Spinster, by F. W. Robinson, has thirty illustrations by Charles Green. No doubt the originals were worthy of that admirable draughtsman; indeed, despite their very ordinary engraving, enough remains to show the handling of a most capable artist. The succeeding serial, Poor Humanity, is illustrated by B. Bradley. J. D. Watson contributes occasional drawings—Ethel, on p. 22, being the first. M. Ellen Edwards also appears, with F. W. Lawson, F. A. Fraser, Henley, C. J. Staniland, R. T. Pritchett, M. W. Ridley, J. Mahoney, and G. H. Thomas. It is noteworthy of the importance attached to the illustrator at this date, that the names of those artists who have contributed to the magazine are printed in bold type upon the title-page to each volume. These, as later, bear no date, so that only in volumes bound with the wrappers in British Museum fashion can you ascertain the year of their publication. In vol. iii. (May 1868 onwards) you discover on p. 9 a drawing, Cleve Cliff, by G. J. Pinwell. Its serial, A Fight for Life, is illustrated by G. H. Thomas, whose pictures are not signed, nor have I found that the authorship is attributed to the artists within the magazine itself. But in the 'In Memoriam' volume, published soon after his death, several are reprinted and duly credited to him. They were all engraved by W. Thomas. The first appearance of S. L. Fildes, Woodland Voices, is on p. 137 of this volume. T. Blake Wirgman has also a notable composition, A Sculptor's Love, and in this and in volume iv. there are other drawings by Fildes, Pinwell, and many by F. Barnard, F. S. Walker, and other popular draughtsmen of the period.
In 1870 we find another change, this time to a page that may be a quarto technically, but instead of the square proportions we usually connect with that shape, it seems more akin to an octavo. The illustrations are smaller, but far better engraved and better printed. W. Small illustrates Wilkie Collins's cleverly-constructed story, Man and Wife, with thirty-seven pictures. His character-drawing appears at its best in 'Bishopriggs,' the old Scotch waiter, his love of beauty of line in two or three sketches of the athlete, 'Geoffrey Delamayne,' the working villain of the story. The dramatic force of the group on p. 305, the mystery of the scene on p. 529, or the finely-contrasted emotions of Anne Silvester and Sir Patrick on p. 481, could hardly be beaten. The other contributors to this vol. i. of the new series, include R. Barnes, Basil Bradley, H. K. Browne, W. R. Duckman, E. H. Corbould, M. E. Edwards, E. Ellis, S. L. Fildes, F. A. Fraser, E. Hughes, F. W. Lawson, H. Paterson, and others, most of whom it were kindness to ignore. For side by side with Mr. Small's masterly designs appear the weakest and most commonplace full pages. Hardly one, except S. L. Fildes's A Sonnet (p. 9), tempts you to linger a moment. In vol. ii. the serial story, Checkmate, is illustrated by Towneley Green. The drawings throughout are mainly by those who contributed to the first volume. In the third volume, Charles Reade's A Terrible Temptation is illustrated by Edward Hughes; a somewhat powerful composition by J. D. L[inton], p. 377; one by W. Small (p. 9), and others by J. Lawson, F. W. Lawson, M. E. Edwards, are all that can claim to be noted.
This illustrated shilling monthly, the same size and shape as most of its predecessors, was not started until 1866, and its earlier volumes have nothing in them sufficiently important to be noticed. In the seventies better things are to be found.
This monthly periodical, as we know it of late years, suggests a magazine devoted to fiction and light literature, with a frontispiece by some well-known artist, and small engravings in the text mostly from photographs, or belonging to the diagram and the record rather than to fine art. I am not speaking of the present shilling series, but of the long array of volumes from 1868 until a few years ago. Nor does this opinion belittle the admirable illustrations by Walter Crane, M. Ellen Edwards, and other artists who supplied its monthly frontispiece. But the first four half-yearly volumes were planned on quite different lines, and these deserve the attention of all interested in the subject of this book, to a degree hardly below that of the better-known magazines; better known, that is to say, as storehouses of fine illustrations. As these volumes seem to be somewhat scarce, a brief résumé of their contents will not be out of place. In the year 1866 we have William Small at his best in twelve illustrations to Charles Reade's dramatic novel, Griffith Gaunt. Whether because the ink has sunk into the paper and given a rich tone to the prints, or because of their intrinsic merit, it is not quite easy to say, but the fact remains that these drawings have peculiar richness, and deserve to be placed among the best works of a great artist not yet fully recognised. One design by F. Sandys to Christina Rossetti's poem, If, is especially noticeable, the model biting a strand of hair embodies the same idea as that of Proud Maisie, one of the best-known works of this master. A. Boyd Houghton has a typical Eastern figure-subject, The Vision of Sheik Hamil; Edward Hughes one, Hermione; Paul Gray, a singularly good drawing to a poem The Lead-Melting, by Robert Buchanan. Another to a poem by George Macdonald, The Sighing of the Shell, is unsigned, whether by Morten or Paul Gray I cannot say, but it is worthy of either artist; J. Lawson has one to The Earl of Quarterdeck, M. Ellen Edwards one to Cuckoo and one to Cape Ushant, a ballad by William Allingham; a group, with Napoleon as the central figure, is by G. J. Pinwell, and J. Mahoney contributes three: Autumn Tourists, Bell from the North, a girl singing by a Trafalgar Square fountain, and The Love of Years. The next year, 1867, is illustrated more sparsely. Robert Falconer, by George Macdonald, has one unsigned drawing, and nine by William Small; these, with A Knight-Errant by Boyd Houghton, make up the eleven it contains. In the next year Walter Crane illustrates the serial, Anne Hereford, by Mrs. Henry Wood, and also a poem, Margaret, by his sister.
This semi-religious monthly magazine, published by Messrs. Cassell and Co., was not illustrated at first. It is almost unnecessary to describe it volume by volume, as a reprint of its principal illustrations was made in 1867, when fifty-two pictures were sandwiched between poems, and published in a small quarto volume entitled 'Idyllic Pictures, drawn by Barnes, Miss Ellen Edwards, Paul Gray, Houghton, R. P. Leitch, Pinwell, Sandys, Small, G. Thomas, etc' The curiously colloquial nomenclature of the artists on the title-page is the only direct reference to their share in the book, which is well printed, and includes some admirable illustrations. The book is now exceptionally scarce, and like its companion, Pictures of Society, selected from London Society, must be searched for long and patiently. Personal inquiries at all the accessible shops in London, Bath, and Edinburgh failed to find one bookseller who had ever heard of either book. Yet, in spite of it, single copies of both turned up alternately on the shelves of men who were at the moment of its discovery glibly doubting its existence. The ignorance of booksellers concerning this period is at once the terror and the joy of the collector. For when they do know, he will have to pay for their knowledge.
Yet it would be unfair to the reputation of a periodical which issued so many designs by representative artists of the sixties to dismiss it without a little more detail. Started as a non-illustrated paper on October 6, 1864, it entered the ranks with a very capable staff. In 1866 a third series on toned paper still further established its claim to be considered seriously, and the fact that these few years supplied the matter for the volume just mentioned shows that it fulfilled its purpose well. In volume i. third series (1866), pictures by A. Boyd Houghton will be found on pages 532, 585, 664, 728, 737, 776, and 868; and in vol. ii. 1867, he appears upon pages 88 and 456. Those by William Small (pp. 90, 232), G. J. Pinwell (pp. 60, 641), and J. D. Watson (p. 596) also deserve looking up. M. W. Ridley, an illustrator of promise, is also represented. In vol. iii. 1868, J. D. Watson's designs on pages 25, 57, 497, 680, 713, and 745 are perhaps his best. Drawings by John Lawson (p. 108), Hubert Herkomer (p. 73), A. Boyd Houghton (pp. 97, 705, 721, 737), S. L. Fildes (pp. 327, 417, 433), G. J. Pinwell (pp. 121, 193, 449, 481, 585 and 753), C. Green (p. 241), J. Mahoney (p. 328), and T. B. Wirgman (p. 649) all merit notice. In vol. iv. many of the above artists are represented—S. L. Fildes (p. 396), J. D. Watson (p. 407), W. Small (p. 696), and the designs by S. L. Fildes and J. D. Watson in the Christmas number being perhaps the most noticeable. Other frequent contributors include R. Barnes, C J. Staniland, M. E. Edwards, J. A. Pasquier, G. H. Thomas, F. W. Lawson, and Edith Dunn. Although not to be compared artistically with its rivals, Good Words and the Sunday Magazine, it is nevertheless a storehouse of good, if not of exceptionally fine, work.
A periodical of the conventional octavo size, affected by the illustrated shilling periodicals of the sixties, was commenced in 1867. The first two volumes contain little of note, and are illustrated by R. Huttula, John Leigh, E. F. C. Clarke; the third volume has M. E. Edwards, and in the fifth volume Walter Crane supplies two full pages (pp. 267, 339). Despite the fact that it credited its artists duly in the index, and seemed to have been most favourably noticed at the time, it may be dismissed here without further notice.
This shilling monthly was started in August 1867 with illustrations by 'Phiz,' W. Brunton, D. H. Friston, and A. W. Cooper. A. Boyd Houghton's contributions include The Story of a Chignon (i. p. 544), For the King (ii. p. 149), and The Return from Court (ii. p. 377). J. D. Watson appears in vol. iii. pp. 87, 399, 665, and a drawing, signed A. T. (possibly Alfred Thompson), is on p. 207. But the magazine, although published at a shilling, and therefore apparently intended as a rival to the Cornhill and the rest, is not important so far as its illustrations are concerned.
This international magazine, heralded with much flourish in 1867 by Messrs. Routledge, is of no great importance, yet as it was illustrated from its first number in September 1867 to July 1874, it must needs be mentioned. Examples of the following artists will be found therein:—F. Barnard, G. A. Barnes, W. Brunton, M. E. Edwards, Paul Gray, E. Griset, A. B. Houghton, R. C. Huttula, F. W. Lawson, Matt Morgan, Thomas Nash, J. A. Pasquier, Alfred Thompson, and J. Gordon Thomson.
Yet another shilling magazine which was started in October 1867, and published by Messrs. Virtue and Co., is memorable for its twenty-two drawings by Millais. These appeared regularly to illustrate Trollope's Phineas Finn the Irish Member. A few illustrations by F. A. Fraser were issued to Ralph the Heir, the next story, and to The Three Brothers, but from 1871 it appears without pictures. By way of working off the long serial by Trollope, Ralph the Heir, independent supplements as thick as an ordinary number, but entirely filled with chapters of the story in question, were issued in April and October 1870. So curious a departure from ordinary routine is worth noting.
A most delightful children's magazine, which began as a sixpenny monthly under the editorship of Dr. Norman Macleod in 1869, bids fair to become one of those books peculiarly dear (in all senses) to collectors. There are many reasons why it deserves to be treasured. Its literature includes several books for children that in volume-form afterwards became classics; its illustrations, especially those by Arthur Hughes, appeal forcibly to the student of that art, which is called pre-Raphaelite, Æsthetic, or Decorative, according to the mood of the hour. Like all books intended for children, a large proportion of its edition found speedy oblivion in the nursery; and those that survive are apt to show examples of the amateur artist in his most infantile experiments with a penny paint-box. From the very first it surrounded itself with that atmosphere of distinction, which is well-nigh as fatal to a magazine's longevity as saintliness of disposition to a Sunday-school hero. After a career that may be called truthfully—brilliant, it suddenly changed to a periodical of no importance, illustrated chiefly by foreign clichés. How long it lingered in this state does not concern us. Indeed, it is only by a liberal interpretation of the title of this book that a magazine which was not started until 1869 can be included in the sixties at all; but it seems to have continued the tradition of the sixties, and until the first half of 1874, although it changed its editor and its title (to Good Things), it kept the spirit of the first volume unimpaired; but after that date it joined the majority of uninteresting periodicals for children, and did not survive its recantation for many years.
In 1869 Arthur Hughes has twenty-four drawings to George Macdonald's At the Back of the North Wind, and ten to the earlier chapters of Henry Kingsley's Boy in Grey. The art of A. Boyd Houghton is seen in three instances: Cocky Locky's Journey (p. 49), Lessons from Russia (p. 101), and The Boys of Axleford (p. 145). J. Mahoney has about a dozen; H. Herkomer one to Lonely Jane (p. 28); and G. J. Pinwell one to Black Rock (p. 255). Although, following the example set by its parent Good Words, it credits the illustrations most faithfully to their artists in a separate index, yet it developed a curious habit of illustrating its serials with a fresh artist for each instalment; and, as their names are bracketed, it is not an easy task to attribute each block to its rightful author. The list which I have made is by my side, but it is hardly of sufficient general interest to print here; as many of the sketches, despite the notable signatures upon them, are trivial and non-representative. Other illustrations in the first volume include one hundred and fifty-five grotesque thumb-nail sketches by W. S. Gilbert to his King George's Middy, and many by F. Barnard, B. Rivière, E. F. Brewtnall, E. Dalziel, F. A. Fraser, H. French, S. P. Hall, J. Mahoney, J. Pettie, T. Sulman, F. S. Walker, W. J. Wiegand, J. B. Zwecker, etc.
In 1870 Arthur Hughes contributes thirty-six illustrations to Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood, by George Mac Donald (who succeeded Dr. Macleod as editor), forty-eight to the continuation of the other serial by the same author, At the Back of the North Wind, four to the concluding chapters of Henry Kingsley's Boy in Grey, and one to The White Princess. A. Boyd Houghton has but two: Two Nests (p. 13), Keeping the Cornucopia (p. 33); Miss Jane 'wandering in the wood' (p. 44) is by H. Herkomer, while most of the artists who contributed to the first volume reappear; we find also E. G. and T. Dalziel, Charles Green, Towneley Green, and Ernest Griset.
In 1871, Arthur Hughes, the chief illustrator of this magazine, to whose presence it owes most of its interest (since other artists are well represented elsewhere, but he is rarely met with outside its pages), contributes thirty pictures to Dr. George Mac Donald's Princess and the Goblin, and fourteen others, some of which have been republished in Lilliput Lectures and elsewhere,—one, Mercy (p. 195), reappearing in that work, and again as the theme of a large painting in oils, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy 1893, and reproduced in The Illustrated London News, May 3rd of that year. A. Boyd Houghton, in Don José's Mule (p. 28), has a most delightfully grotesque illustration, and in two drawings for The Merry Little Cobbler of Bagdad (pp. 337–338), both in his 'Arabian Nights' vein, is typically representative. For the rest, W. Small in My Little Gypsy Cousin (p. 95), a good full page, and Ernest Griset with ten of his humorous animal pictures, combine with most of the artists already named to maintain the well-deserved reputation of the magazine. In 1872 Arthur Hughes supplies nine delightful designs for Gutta-Percha Willie, by the Editor; twenty-four to Innocent's Island, a long-rhymed chronicle by the author of Lilliput Levée, and a curiously fantastic drawing to George Mac Donald's well-known poem, The Wind and the Moon. Some one, with the initials F. E. F. (not F. A. F.), illustrates On the High Meadows in nineteen sketches; with the exception of two by J. Mahoney, the rest of the pictures are chiefly by F. A. Fraser, T. Green, F. S. Walker, W. J. Wiegand, and J. B. Zwecker.
In 1873 the magazine changed its name to Good Things. The most attractive illustrations are by Arthur Hughes: ten to Sindbad in England (pp. 25, 89, 129, 193, 236, 432, 481, 594, 641), two to Henry and Amy (pp. 72, 73), and one each to A Poor Hunchback (p. 17), The Wonderful Organ (p. 24), and My Daughter (p. 136). J. Mahoney has a small design, The Old Mill (p. 600). The rest are by Ernest Griset, W. J. Wiegand, and Francis Walker. On and after 1874 the cliché enters, and all interest ceases. At this time the business of trading in clichés had begun to assume large proportions. You find sometimes, in the course of a single month, that an English periodical hitherto exclusively British becomes merely a vehicle for foreign clichés. In this instance the change is so sudden that, excepting a few English blocks which we may presume had been prepared before, the foreigner is supreme. That, in at least three cases, the demise of the publication was merely a question of months is a sequel not to be regretted. But we need not assume too hastily that the cliché killed it—possibly it had ceased to be profitable before, and the false economy of spending less has tempted the proprietor to employ foreign illustrations.
Another shilling illustrated magazine, was started in 1869. The British Museum, it seems, possesses no set, and my own copy has disappeared, excepting the first volume, but so far as that proves, and my memory can be trusted, it was illustrated solely by Matt Morgan, a brilliant but ephemeral genius who shortly after migrated to New York. The peculiarity of this magazine is that, like The Tomahawk, a satirical journal illustrated by the same artist, its pictures were all printed in two colours, after the fashion of the old Venetian wood-blocks. The one colour was used as a ground with the high lights cut away; the other block, for the ordinary convention of line-drawing. Some of the pictures are effective, but none are worthy of very serious consideration.
Although Dark Blue, a shilling monthly magazine, did not begin until March 1871, and ran its brief career until March 1873 only, it deserves mention here, because quite apart from its literary contributions which were notable, including as they did Swinburne's End of a Month, Rossetti's Down Stream, its earlier volumes contain at least two drawings that will be prized when these things are collected seriously. Besides, it has a certain cachet of its own that will always entitle it to a place. Its wrapper in colours, with three classically-attired maidens by a doorway, is singularly unlike that of any other publication; possibly F. W. L. would not be anxious to claim the responsibility of its design, yet it was new in its day, and not a bad specimen of the good effect of three simple colours on a white ground. Its serial, Lost, a Romance by J. C. Freund, was illustrated by F. W. Lawson, T. W. Perry, T. Robinson, and D. T. White; and its second serial, Take care whom you trust, by M. E. Freere and T. W. Ridley. A full-page drawing (they are all separately printed plates in this magazine), by Cecil Lawson, Spring, is far more interesting. Musaeus, by A. W. Cooper, a somewhat jejune representation of the Hero and Leander motive, and other illustrations by E. F. Clarke, W. J. Hennessey, M. Fitzgerald, D. H. Friston, S. P. Hall, J. A. H. Bird, are commonplace designs engraved by C. M. Jenkin; but The End of a Month, a study of two heads, by Simeon Solomon, and Down Stream, by Ford Madox Brown, (here reproduced from the original drawing on wood by kind permission of Mr. Frederick Hollyer), represent the work of two artists who very rarely appeared as magazine illustrators. The literature includes many names that have since become widely known, but the project failed, one imagines, to secure popular support, and so it must be numbered with the long list of similar good intentions.
It would be unjust to ignore a very popular penny magazine because of its purely philanthropic purpose. For from the first it recognised the importance of good illustrations as its great attraction, and enlisted some of the best draughtsmen to fulfil its didactic aim. We cannot help admiring its pluck, and congratulating the cause it championed (and still supports), and its fortune in securing coadjutors. The first number, issued in February 1855, has a design, the Loaf Lecture, by George Cruikshank on its first page; for some time H. Anelay and L. Huard were the most frequent contributors; then came John Gilbert and Harrison Weir, the earliest important Gilbert being The Last Moments of Thomas Paine (January 1862). As a sample of white-line engraving, a block after a medallion of the Prince Consort, by L. C. Wyon, and another of H.M. The Queen, would be hard to beat. Among these more frequent contributors, we find drawings by J. D. Watson, My account with Her Majesty (August 1864) and Parley and Flatterwell (December 1865) being the most notable; and others by A. W. Cooper, and lastly many by R. Barnes, whose studies of humble life yet await the full appreciation they deserve. These large and vigorous engravings maintain a singularly high level of excellence, and, if not impeccable, are yet distinctly of art, and far above the ephemeral padding of more pretentious magazines.
Of all unlikely publications to interest artist or collector a halfpenny monthly devoted to teetotalism might take first place. Not because of its price, nor because it was a monthly with a mission, for many cheap serials have attracted the support of artists who gave liberally of their best for the sake of the cause the publications championed. The Band of Hope Review is no esoteric pamphlet, but a perfect instance of a popular venture unconcerned, one would think, with art. It would be easy to claim too much for it; still the good work in its pages merits attention. It was started in 1861 as a folio sheet about the size of The Sketch, its front page being always filled by a large wood-engraving. The first full page, by H. Anelay, a draughtsman whose speciality was the good little boy and girl of the most commonplace religious periodicals, promises little enough. A series of really fine drawings of animals and birds by Harrison Weir commenced in No. 2. The third issue included a page by L. Huard, whose work occasionally found its way to the shilling magazines, although the bulk of it appeared in the mass of journals of the type of the London Journal, Bow Bells, etc. In the fifth number John Gilbert (not then knighted) appears with a fine drawing, The Golden Star; J. Wolf, honourably distinguished as an illustrator of animals, is also represented. For December 1862 John Gilbert provided a decorative composition of The Ten Virgins, that is somewhat unlike his usual type. In August 1865 Robert Barnes appears for the first time with admirably drawn boys and girls full of health and characteristically British. Afterwards one finds many of his full pages all vigorous and delightfully true to the type he represents. In August 1866 a group, Young Cadets, may be selected as a typical example of his strength and perhaps also of his limitations. In 1870 the falling off apparent everywhere is as noticeable in this unimportant publication as in those of far higher pretensions. Here, as elsewhere, the foreign cliché appears, or possibly the subjects were engraved specially, and were not, as was so often the case, merely replicas of German and French engravings. But all the same they are from oil-paintings, not from drawings made for illustration.