nuated. But
unfortunately exaggeration happened to be inherent in the
draftsmanship of both Cruikshank and Browne. And, having said this, I
may as well finish with the subject of the illustrations to Dickens'
books. "Our Mutual Friend" was illustrated by Mr. Marcus Stone, R.A.,
then a rising young artist, and the son of Dickens' old friend, Frank
Stone. Here the designs fall into the opposite defect. They are, some
of them, pretty enough, but they want character. Mr. Fildes' pictures
for "Edwin Drood" are a decided improvement. As to the illustrations
for the later _Household Edition_, they are very inferior. The designs
for a great many are clearly bad, and the mechanical execution almost
uniformly so. Even Mr. Barnard's skill has had no fair chance against
poor woodcutting, careless engraving, and inferior paper. And this is
the more to be regretted, in that Mr. Barnard, by natural affinity of
talent, has, to my thinking, done some of the best art work that has
been done at all in connection with Dickens. His _Character Sketches_,
especially the lithographed series, are admirable. The Jingle is a
masterpiece; but all are good, and he even succeeds in making
something pictorially acceptable of Little Nell and Little Dorrit.

Just a year, almost to a day, elapsed between the conclusion of "The
Tale of Two Cities," and the commencement of "Great Expectations." The
last chapter of the former appeared in the number of _All the Year
Round_ for the 26th of November, 1859, and the first chapter of the
latter in the number of the same periodical for the 1st of December,
1860. Poor Pip--for such is the name of the hero of the book--poor
Pip, I think he is to be pitied. Certainly he lays himself open to the
charge of snobbishness, and is unduly ashamed of his connections. But
then circumstances were decidedly against him. Through some occult
means he is removed from his natural sphere, from the care of his
"rampageous" sister and of her husband, the good, kind, honest Joe,
and taken up to London, and brought up as a gentleman, and started in
chambers in Barnard's Inn. All this is done through the
instrumentality of Mr. Jaggers, a barrister in highest repute among
the criminal brotherhood. But Pip not unnaturally thinks that his
unknown benefactress is a certain Miss Havisham, who, having been
bitterly wronged in her love affairs, lives in eccentric fashion near
his native place, amid the mouldering mementoes of her wedding day.