"Mr. Dickens named all the characters in this work himself, but before he had commenced writing the story he told me that he had heard an omnibus conductor mention some one as Oliver Twist, which name, he said, he would give the boy, as he thought it would answer his purpose. I wanted the boy to have a very different name, such as Frank Foundling or Frank Steadfast; but I think the word Twist proves to a certain extent that the boy he was going to employ for his purpose was a very different sort of boy from the one introduced and recommended to him by, Sir, your obedient servant, "GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. "HAMPSTEAD ROAD, _December 29, 1871_." PLATE XII STUDIES FOR BILL SIKES IN THE CONDEMNED CELL _Facsimile_ of Original Sketches by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK [Illustration] In 1872 Cruikshank issued a pamphlet entitled "The Artist and the Author, a Statement of Facts," where he positively asserted that not only was he the actual originator of "Oliver Twist," but also of many of Harrison Ainsworth's weird romances; that these authors "wrote up to his suggestions and designs," just as Combe did with regard to "Dr. Syntax" and Rowlandson's previously-executed illustrations. In another published letter, dated more than a year prior to that printed in the _Times_, the artist emphatically declared that the greater part of the second volume of "Sketches by Boz" was written from his hints and suggestions, and he significantly added, "I am preparing to publish an explanation of the reason why I did not illustrate the _whole_ of Mr. Dickens's writings, and this explanation will not at all redound to his credit." Indeed, so thoroughly was he imbued with this conviction, that on April 20, 1874, in responding to a vote of thanks accorded him by the Mayor of Manchester for an address on Intemperance, he reiterated his statement relative to the origin of "Oliver Twist." The Mayor having referred to the artist's designs in Dickens's novels, Cruikshank intimated that the only work of the novelist he had illustrated was "Sketches by Boz"; his worship remarked, "You forget 'Oliver Twist,'" whereupon Cruikshank replied, "That came out of my own brain. I wanted Dickens to write me a work, but he did not do it in the way I wished. I assure you I went and made a sketch of the condemned cell many years before that work was published. I wanted a scene a few hours before strangulation, and Dickens said he did not like it, and I said he must have a Jew or a Christian in the cell. Dickens said, 'Do as you like,' and I put Fagin, the Jew, into the cell. Dickens behaved in an extraordinary way to me, and I believe it had a little effect on his mind. He was a most powerful opponent to Teetotalism, and he described us as 'old hogs.'"[4]