Play ill or well, he's sure to loose.]

"The Infamous Combe," as Walpole unkindly dubbed him, was the author of
over a hundred books; but as he only put his name to one, there is
considerable doubt about the identity of his literary offspring. Though
nominally confined in a debtors' prison, Combe, on the death of his
first wife in 1814, married a sister of Mrs. Cosway's, but this union
was no happier than the first, and the couple were soon separated. In
his old age he appears to have amused himself with a platonic
love-affair with a young girl,[2] and in the composition of his
autobiography. If this was a truthful record of his career, it must have
been a more exciting document than all his other books put together;
but, unfortunately, in a fit of resentment at the marriage of his
adopted son, he burned the manuscript leaf by leaf.

Footnote 2: His letters to her were published the year after his
death.

Before quitting the subject of the triple alliance between Ackermann,
Rowlandson, and Combe, a word is due to the method in which the
delicately-tinted illustrations to their joint-productions were
executed. According to Delaborde, the copperplate engravings printed in
colour at the close of the eighteenth century, were usually printed from
one plate, done in stipple, and the various tints were rubbed in by the
printer, who used a sort of stump for this purpose instead of the
ordinary dabbing-brush. This was a lengthy process, and not always
satisfactory, since so much depended on the discretion of the printer. A
more common method was to print broadly with three tints of printing
ink, and afterwards to complete the colouring by hand with
water-colours. Mr. Grego has described in some detail the manner in
which the etchings of Rowlandson were produced by the conscientious
Ackermann. The artist would saunter round to the Repository from his
lodgings in the Adelphi, and call for reed-pens, drawing-paper, and
saucers of vermilion and Indian ink, which last he proceeded to combine
in his own inimitable fashion. "For the book-illustrations a finished
drawing was first made, and then Rowlandson etched the outline firmly
and sharply on the copperplate, an impression from the bitten-in outline
was printed upon drawing-paper, and the artist put in his shadows,
modelling of forms and sketchy distance in the most delicate handling
possible. The shadows were then copied in acqua-tint on the outlined
plate, sometimes by the d