ple, in Tenniel's drawing of the Staff at play at the
beginning of Vol. XXVII, 1854, where his tall, imposing figure contrasts
with that of his partner, Frederick Mullett ("Pater") Evans, who appears
with shining spectacles, beaming countenance, and convex waistcoat.
Jolly old "Pater," who died in 1870, was the model of Leech's
_pater-familias_; and it is remembered to his credit that he never
resented the liberty taken with him by Thackeray in "The Kickleburys on
the Rhine." It has always been the graceful and feeling practice of
_Punch_, ever since the death of Dr. Maginn, to whom a kindly obituary
was devoted in 1842, to do honour in his pages to each of his
lieutenants as they drop out of the ranks, recognising misfortune and
death--both "devil's inventions," as Ruskin calls them--as toll-gates on
the path of life, with sorrow as the tax; so that these more solemn
articles and mortuary elegies seem to mark the way, like milestones set
by loving hands. To Evans one of these was raised, and we read in it
that "they who inscribe these lines to his memory will never lament a
more kind, more genial, or more loyal friend."

[Illustration: F. M. EVANS. WILLIAM H. BRADBURY.
WILLIAM BRADBURY. F. M. ("PATER") EVANS.

(_From Photographs by A. Bassano Limited._)]

The next head of the firm was William Hardwick Bradbury, who had been at
school with Mr. Justice Romer, the husband of Mark Lemon's daughter; and
the house then became Bradbury, Evans & Co. He married the daughter of
Mr. Thomas Agnew; and when, in 1872, Mr. F. M. Evans (the son of
"Pater") left the firm, after having attended the Dinner for five years
as the son of his father, and sat for another seven years at the tail of
the Table by right of proprietorship, the business was reinforced by the
inclusion of the house of Agnew. It then became Bradbury, Agnew & Co.,
and it has been thought that Sir William Agnew's personality has tended
to colour _Punch_ up to a certain point with just a shade of his own
Liberal political opinions. Messrs. W. H. Bradbury, William Agnew,
Thomas Agnew, and John Henry Agnew were then the members of the firm,
which a few years since was converted into a limited company; and on the
death of the first-named, Mr. W. Lawrence Bradbury took his father's
place as managing head of the house, with Mr. Philip Agnew as colleague:
young men, surely, to succeed to the direction of a house which had been
the publisher of Thackeray and Dickens, founder