85, Fleet Street, on the
very site in St. Bride's Churchyard of the tailor's house where Milton
once kept school. In the editorial office the _Punch_ Staff would often
write their articles, Thackeray especially taking advantage of the
convenience. "In three hours more," he wrote to Mrs. Brookfield in 1850,
"Mr. W. M. T. is hard at work at _Punch_ office."

The management of the weekly "copy," the arrangement for series, and the
dealing with outside applications of all sorts, quite apart from
artistic contributions, were together no light task for the Editor,
especially when one or other of the writers failed him, and the
illustrations that were to accompany their articles had to be retaken
into consideration. From the beginning outside contributions were
remorselessly discouraged; yet some remarkable poems and sketches have
come to _Punch_ unsolicited from famous and brilliant pens, as will
subsequently be seen. Still, the paper has always been a fairly close
borough--as, after all, it has a perfect right to be; and by that means
has been enabled to keep its distinctive colour--in contrast with the
"Fliegende Blaetter," for example, whose staff may truly be said to
consist of the whole German people. To each writer was allotted a
certain space, which he was expected to fill; and when there was a
deficit in the amount of his contribution--which there generally was,
and a heavy one--it was duly entered up. Thus for a long while Douglas
Jerrold's half-yearly total was theoretically 162 columns (or a weekly
average of six and a quarter); Gilbert a Beckett's, 135 columns (five
and a quarter); Percival Leigh's, Tom Taylor's, and Horace Mayhew's, 54;
and Thackeray's, 46 columns; but few of them ever came up to their
proper total. In earlier days, before Albert Smith left, the following
were the weekly tasks: Jerrold, five columns; Gilbert a Beckett, four;
Smith and Leigh, two each; and after Smith's departure a Beckett
succeeded to Jerrold's figures.

The records of the Staff's contributions were kept as follows, their
relative proportions being exactly shown. I take one volume at random,
the seventh, that for the second half-year of 1844:--

-------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | | |Total |
| | |Septem-|Octo- |Novem- |Decem- |of Six |Weekly
Contributors | July |August| ber | ber | ber | ber |Mo