ttle_, which
was reproduced in glyphography, and circulated at a cheap price by
temperance societies. In 1850 he was employed to illustrate the second
edition of Smedley's successful novel _Frank Fairlegh_. Frank Smedley
was born at Great Marlow in 1818, and, being crippled by a malformation
of the feet, he was educated at a private tutor's instead of at a public
school. He contributed his first story, _The Life of a Private Pupil_,
to _Sharpe's Magazine_ in 1846-48, and a couple of years later it was
published under the title of _Frank Fairlegh_. The book, in which
Smedley's love of open-air life and sympathy with outdoor sports are
strongly manifested, made a decided hit, and was followed during the
next few years by _Lewis Arundel_ and _Harry Coverdale's Courtship_.
Smedley has left an amusing account of his first interview with George
Cruikshank, who, on seeing a cripple in a wheeled chair, could not
conceal his wonder, but kept exclaiming, "Good God! I thought you could
gallop about on horses." Smedley, who died of apoplexy in 1864, was
editor of the ill-fated _Cruikshank's Magazine_, started in 1853, which
only reached its second number.

George Cruikshank's last years were taken up in great measure with his
work in the cause of temperance reform, and though he still occupied
himself in book-illustration, it became increasingly evident that he had
outlived his public. His large oil-painting, _The Triumph of Bacchus_,
did not attract the multitude when exhibited at Exeter Hall in 1863,
though he had devoted three years to its execution. Thanks to the
kindness of his friends, and the grant of two small pensions, actual
poverty was kept from his door, and he lived to a green old age,
bright-eyed and alert, the best of good company over his glass of cold
water, dancing a hornpipe at past eighty, or dressing up and singing
_The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman_, which he had illustrated in 1839.
He was taken ill early in 1878, and died on 1st February, finding his
final resting-place in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral.

George Cruikshank, his biographer Blanchard Jerrold tells us, always
worked with great care and deliberation, thinking out his subject
thoroughly before beginning to realise his conception. "He made, to
begin with, a careful design upon paper, trying doubtful points upon the
margin. The design was heightened by vigorous touches of colour. Then a
careful tracing was made, and laid, pencil side down, upon