he sentiment of a great
past animates them all, and kindles in them the hope and ambition for as
great and as proud a future.

The exclusiveness of _Punch_ notwithstanding, he has not always been as
inhospitable (if that is the word to use of an essentially business
meeting of a private nature) as some of his friends would have us
suppose. There are many who claim the distinction of having dined at
_Punch's_ Table, but few who can sustain their pretension. Some,
however, there are--a very few, it is true; but more than have been
officially recognised as _Punch_ diners. Mr. Harry Furniss has publicly
contended that his aunt, Mrs. Thompson, was one of these. As the lady,
before she married Dr. Thompson, is said to have been originally engaged
to Landells, the first _Punch_ engraver, this might well be; for about
the time of the transfer of the property from him to Bradbury and
Evans--and Landells, it will be remembered, did not give up the whole of
his share till some time afterwards--the rules and regulations were not
by any means so stringent as they ultimately became. In any case, the
claims of "Mr. F.'s Aunt" have in her time been as strenuously insisted
upon as ever they were at the Finchings'. Then came Charles
Dickens--whose presence, I believe, is not contested. Before his quarrel
with Mark Lemon and Bradbury and Evans, because _Punch_ declined to
print a justification of himself in connection with his purely domestic
circumstances, he was the guest of _Punch's_ publishers, who were his
own publishers, and who were also the publishers of the "Daily
News"--upon the preparations for which Dickens, as first editor, was
then engaged. Moreover, Dickens was an intimate friend of Douglas
Jerrold, whose influence on _Punch_ at that time was paramount; so that
the double circumstance is amply sufficient to account for Dickens's
presence at No. 11, Bouverie Street. Much the same considerations may be
held to explain Sir Joseph Paxton's frequent attendance. The great
gardener--it was _Punch_ who christened his big exhibition building "The
Crystal Palace," "What shall be done with the Palace of Crystal?"--was
the intimate of Mark Lemon. He had also the most cordial relations with
the Staff, some of whom he would entertain in the gardens of Chatsworth,
where he acted as the agent of the Duke of Devonshire, grandfather of
the present duke, and himself on the best of personal terms with Mr.
Punch. And I have proof that he exerte