Footnote 2: In a large water-colour _replica_ of this subject, signed "George Cruikshank, Octr. 14th, 1873, in my 82nd year," the artist stated that the landscape represented the old Pentonville fields, north of London. PLATE VII STUDIES FOR SCENES AND CHARACTERS IN "SKETCHES BY BOZ" _Facsimile_ of the Original Sketches by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK In the centre of the sheet the Artist has written: "Some of these suggestions to Chas. Dickens, and which he wrote to in the second part of 'Sketches by Boz.'" [Illustration] In considering the story as a whole, it is difficult to say how much of the powerful impression we are conscious of may be due to the illustrator. In his famous eulogy on Cruikshank, Thackeray remarked: "We are not at all disposed to undervalue the works and genius of Mr. Dickens, and we are sure that he would admit as readily as any man the wonderful assistance that he has derived from the artist who has given us portraits of his ideal personages, and made them familiar to all the world. Once seen, these figures remain impressed on the memory, which otherwise would have had no hold upon them, and the Jew and Bumble, and the heroes and heroines of the Boz Sketches, become personal acquaintances with each of us. O that Hogarth could have illustrated Fielding in the same way! and fixed down on paper those grand figures of Parson Adams, and Squire Allworthy, and the great Jonathan Wild." Again, with more especial reference to the "Oliver Twist" designs, the kindly "Michael Angelo Titmarsh" wrote: "The sausage scene at Fagin's; Nancy seizing the boy; that capital piece of humour, Mr. Bumble's courtship, which is even better in Cruikshank's version than in Boz's exquisite account of the interview; Sykes's[3] farewell to his dog; and the Jew--the dreadful Jew--that Cruikshank drew! What a fine touching picture of melancholy desolation is that of Sykes and the dog! The poor cur is not too well drawn, the landscape is stiff and formal; but in this case the faults, if faults they be, of execution rather add to than diminish the effect of the picture; it has a strange, wild, dreary, broken-hearted look; we fancy we see the landscape as it must have appeared to Sykes, when ghastly and with bloodshot eyes he looked at it. As for the Jew in the dungeon, let us say nothing of it--what can we say to describe it?" Footnote 3: The name of Sikes is frequently thus mis-spelt. It is odd that Dickens himself first wrote it "Sykes," as may be seen in the original manuscript of the story.