Milliken, Gilbert a Beckett, Mr. Reginald Shirley Brooks (until 1884),
Mr. Henry Lucy, Mr. F. Anstey, Mr. R. C. Lehmann, Mr. E. T. Reed, Mr.
Bernard Partridge, and in February, 1895, Mr. Phil May. As Mr. Punch
approached man's estate, and arrived at years of artistic discretion, he
cultivated a pretty taste in epicurism; until to-day, if report be true,
the Dinners (prepared and sent in by Spiers and Pond), the Ayala, and
the cigars, are all worthy of the palates of the men whose wit it is
theirs to stimulate and nourish. To summon the Staff to these feasts of
reason it was in later years the practice to issue printed notices,
which after 1870 were superseded by invitation cards drawn by Mr. du
Maurier--the design representing Mr. Punch ringing his bell, while the
faithful fly hurriedly to respond to the behest. But owing to the number
of portraits it contained of old friends now departed, and the painful
recollections it consequently aroused, its later use has been
discontinued.

[Illustration: F. C. BURNAND'S INITIALS.

_(1) On joining the Table, and (2) on appointment as Editor._]

[Illustration: GEORGE DU MAURIER'S MONOGRAM.]

[Illustration: LINLEY SAMBOURNE'S MONOGRAM.]

But when our Democritus boasted fewer years, there was not so much
ceremony in his banquet, neither was there so much state; nor was the
friendship less keen or the intimacy less enjoyable in Leigh's humbler
days of "off-n-off." A wonderful company--a brilliant company; with
flashing wit and dazzling sallies, with many "a skirmish of wit between
them." From more, the quieter flow of genial humour. And among the rest,
the listeners; men--some of them--who prefer to attend than to talk,
even to the point of reserve and almost of taciturnity. Such men were
John Leech, Richard Doyle, and Charles Keene--whose silence, however,
masked subtle minds that were teeming with droll ideas, and as
appreciative of humour as the sprightliest. What jokes have been made,
what stories told that never have found their way into print! What
chaff, what squibs, what caricatures--which it surpasses the wit of a
Halsbury or a MacNeill to imagine or condone!

Of what the _Punch_ Dinner was at the time when Thackeray was still of
the band, an idea may be formed from the following extract from Mr.
Silver's Diary, with which I have been favoured by the writer, who for
several years sat at it by right. He calls it--

"A NIGHT AT THE ROUND TABLE."

SCENE: _Mr.