Poet Bunn;" when he was annoyed at
that, or anything else, he was "Hot Cross Bunn." His deposition from the
management of Drury Lane and his appointment to the Vauxhall Gardens
were coincident with _Punch's_ appearance, and the publication of his
"Vauxhall Papers," illustrated by Alfred Crowquill, again drew attention
to himself. No sooner was the fierce controversy begun as to the
propriety of including a statue of Cromwell among the Sovereigns of
England in the new Palace of Westminster, a matter decided fifty years
later, than _Punch_ gravely mooted the question--"Shall Poet Bunn have a
Statue?" Then when his reign at Drury Lane was resumed, and opera was
his grand enterprise, Bunn became _Punch's_ "Parvus Apollo," while
Scribe's libretto to Donizetti's music was to be "undone into English"
by the Poet himself; and the persecuted manager was throughout the
subject of some of the happiest and most comic efforts of Leech's
pencil.

At last, after supporting a six years' persistent cannonade, Bunn
determined to strike a blow for liberty. His plan was to issue a
reply--a swift and sudden attack, as personal and offensive as he could
make it--in the form of _Punch's_ own self, enough like it in appearance
to amuse the public, if not actually to deceive it. He secured the help
of Mr. George Augustus Sala, then a young artist whose pencil was
enlisted in the service of "The Man in the Moon," and who had as yet
little idea of the journalistic eminence to which he was to rise. He had
previously submitted sketches to Mark Lemon for use in _Punch_, which
had been summarily and, as he tells me, "unctuously declined," and in
his share of the work he doubtless tasted some of the sweets of revenge,
and richly earned the epithet which Lemon thereupon applied to him of
"graceless young whelp."

If the front page of this production be compared with Doyle's first
_Punch_ cover on p. 47, the extent of the imitation will be appreciated.
The size was the same, and the _Punch_ lettering practically identical;
but otherwise the resemblance was of a general character. If the design
is examined, it will be seen that the groups are chiefly composed of
_Punch's_ victims and his Staff. At the top the "Man in the Moon"
presides; below, the "Great Gun" is firing away at the dejected
hunchback in the pillory. Toby is hanged on his master's own gallows;
and the puppets are strewn about. Thackeray leans for support against
Punch's broken big drum;