nsisted of a _tete-a-tete_
between Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Arthur a Beckett)--not more than three
or four consecutive weeks, certainly--the "Sussex," or more often the
old "Bedford Hotel," or latterly the "First Avenue," has been the scene
of the feast; while "special dinners" (and they have been many) have
been held in special places. And not invariably has the weekly repast
been a "dinner" at all, be it observed; for on certain rare occasions,
when some important Parliamentary matter has intervened, a luncheon has
been held instead. Once, in September, 1845, it was postponed from the
Saturday night at the intercession of Charles Dickens, so that a new
play by Macready might be produced with the full advantage of the
_Punch_ men's presence. And the Dinner was once more made a movable
feast, and was held on the Tuesday instead of the Wednesday, on the
occasion of the production of Mr. Burnand's and Sir Arthur Sullivan's
opera of "The Chieftain" in December, 1894.

[Illustration: WILLIAM BRADBURY'S INITIALS.]

[Illustration: F. M. EVANS' INITIALS. (Unfinished)]

In the "Bedford Hotel"--beloved of Thackeray, for in it he wrote much of
"Henry Esmond," and stayed there when his house was in the painters'
hands--the room occupied was that known as the "Dryden." Here the Staff
would make no attempt at self-repression; and I have been told how the
idle and the curious would congregate outside upon the pavement and
listen to the voices of the wits within, and wait to gape at them as
they passed in and out.

[Illustration: HENRY SILVER'S INITIALS.]

The places at Table once occupied by the members of the Staff are
nowadays regarded as theirs by right. But in earlier days the places
were often shuffled, as at a game of "general post." Proof of it may be
had from the following plans of the Table between 1855 and 1865--perhaps
the most interesting years in the history of _Punch_, as demonstrating
the transitional stage, when the ancient order of things was rapidly
developing into the modern as we know them to-day. In 1855, then, the
disposition was as follows:--

WILLIAM BRADBURY*
DOUGLAS JERROLD JOHN LEECH
TOM TAYLOR W. M. THACKERAY
GILBERT A BECKETT SHIRLEY BROOKS
HORACE MAYHEW MARK LEMON
PERCIVAL LEIGH JOHN TENNIEL
F. M. EVANS*

--only two artists and a half (Thackeray being a commixture of writer
and draughtsman) to seven writers and a half!

Five years