remarked, "Mr. Alfred Bunn was bitterly opposed on personal
grounds by a person named Punch; but Mr. Bunn having intimated his wish
to have a Word with Punch, the latter skulked out of court, and _was not
heard of afterwards_."

"A Word with Punch"--which the _Punch_ men are said to have bought up as
far as possible--had a considerable sale, and an "edition de luxe" was
also issued, coloured. The engravings in it were made by Landells, a
modest piece of vengeance which must, however, have been gratifying, so
far as it went. It may be added that J. R. Adam, "the Cremorne Poet,"
took up the cudgels unasked in _Punch's_ behalf in a reply entitled "A
Word with Bunn;" but this little octavo is as insignificant as its
author, and attracted little notice.

Once again, in the early days of "Fun," _Punch_ came very near to being
startled with another such infernal machine. Mr. Clement Scott tells
me:--"We were offended with _Punch_ for some reason--it was in the Tom
Taylor days--and we meditated, planned out, and nearly executed a second
edition of 'A Word with Punch.' Tom Hood was furious. Sala was in our
conspiracy. In fact, all the 'young lions' of 'Fun' were 'crazy mad.' We
thought we could annihilate poor old _Punch_ with one blow. But we never
did it--because, I think, although we were plucky, we were impecunious!
We were very proud, but, alas! our pockets were empty; so the whole
company--Hood, Sala, Jeff Prowse, Harry Leigh, Brunton, Paul Gray, W. S.
Gilbert, W. B. Rands, Tom Robertson, Clement Scott and Co., had to knock
under."

From Bunn's time may be dated the better taste and greater chivalry that
have since distinguished _Punch_, even in his most rampant moods. He has
always had his butts--from the soft-hearted and, at the time,
unpardonably hirsute Colonel Sibthorpe, to Sir R. Temple and Mr.
McNeill, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Roebuck, Edwin James, ex-Q.C. (who was
disbarred for corruption and set up in New York, joining, as _Punch_ put
it, the "bar sinister"), Madame Rachel (the "beautiful for ever"
enameller, who had not yet been convicted), Colonel North, Sir Francis
Baring, Cox of Finsbury, Wiscount Williams of Lambeth, the Duke of
Buccleuch, Lord Malmsbury, and a host of others. But his attacks rarely
overstepped due limits; nor did _Punch_ ever find another aspiring Bunn
among them. Amongst the inanimate objects which at various times _Punch_
made his mark were Trafalgar Square and its Fountains (or the "Squirts,"