e Analysis of the Hunting Field_, with illustrations by
Alken, who now disappears from our view, though he left two or three
sons in the same "line of business," with whom he has sometimes been
confused, while the popular name of Alken became a general patronymic
for a whole school of sporting artists. Surtees, who died at Brighton in
1864, was a fine horseman and a keen observer of social types, though,
so far from being the rollicking sportsman suggested by his books, he is
described as a man of rather reserved and taciturn nature. The
remarkable character of Mr. Jorrocks was evolved during long, lonely
journeys, when the shrewd ex-grocer, or rather his imaginary conception,
stood his creator in the stead of a travelling companion.

[Illustration: MR. JORROCKS' LECTURE ON "UNTING"]

[Illustration: COLOURED TITLE PAGE]

IV

THE _PICKWICK_ ILLUSTRATORS

ROBERT SEYMOUR

The success of the _Jaunts and Jollities_, and of Egan's _Finish to Life
in London_, suggested, it is said, to Messrs. Chapman and Hall the idea
of a work which should deal with the adventures of a club of Cockney
sportsmen, and serve as a vehicle for the humorous designs of Robert
Seymour. Leigh Hunt and Theodore Hook were asked, in the first instance,
to supply the letterpress; but, on their refusal, the young Charles
Dickens, then (1835) just three-and-twenty, and only known as the author
of some amusing sketches, was chosen to act as the literary illustrator
of the work. Dickens rejected the idea of a sporting club, though he so
far deferred to the publishers' suggestions as to create the immortal
Pickwick Club, into which Mr. Winkle was introduced expressly for the
exploitation of Seymour's peculiar talent. The young author also
stipulated that, instead of being expected to "write up" to the artist's
designs, he should be allowed a free hand with the letterpress, the
illustrations being allowed to arise naturally out of the incidents
described in the text. On 26th March 1836 it was announced that the
first number of _The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club_ would be
published on the 30th, the work to be issued in shilling monthly parts
under the editorship of "Boz," each part being illustrated with four
etchings on steel by Seymour. Robert Seymour (1800?-36) had already made
his name as a caricaturist and book-illustrator. He had published a
volume of humorous sketches (mostly dealing with sporting
misadventures), and had been emplo