Leech executed very few illustrations for Dickens; and the amusing blunder which he perpetrated in "The Battle of Life," in allowing the lady to elope with the wrong man, and the "horror and agony" of the author in consequence thereof, have been set forth in Forster's "Life." The mistake was discovered too late for correction, and remains a curious proof of the carelessness with which distinguished artists will sometimes read the manuscript of an author however illustrious. [Illustration: JOHN LEECH. "_Illuminated Magazine._" "I HOPE MR. SMUG, YOU DON'T BEAT YOUR BOYS?" _Face p. 292._] The Surtees' novels afford singular evidence of the keenness of John Leech's critical observation. An ardent lover of sport himself, and a frequent attendant at the "Pytchley," when he went a day's hunting it was his custom to single out some fellow disciple of Nimrod that happened to take his fancy, keeping behind him all day, noting his attitudes in the saddle, and marking every item of his turn-out, to the last button and button-hole of his hunting coat. It was in this way that he obtained the correctness of detail which renders his famous sporting etchings so wonderfully true to nature. Strange to say, notwithstanding his knowledge of every detail of the huntsman's dress, even to the number of buttons on his coat, he himself, with reference to his own outfit, invariably presented in the hunting field a somewhat incongruous appearance. Either he would wear the wrong kind of boots, or would dispense with some detail which on the part of an enthusiast would be considered an unpardonable omission. Leech, however, was not what is called a "rough rider," his constitutional nervousness prevented him indeed from making a prominent figure in the hunting field, and his friends attributed this want of attention to detail in dress to his sensitiveness to criticism, and his unwillingness to place himself in any position which would be likely to incur it. FOOTNOTES: [126] Vol. iii., 1860. [127] Shirley Brooks in the _Illustrated London News_, 19th Nov., 1864. [128] George Redway, 12, York Street, Covent Garden. [129] They include also some (pirated) impressions from the designs of George Cruikshank, which set that irritable genius, as might have been expected, in a fume. [130] Chapman & Hall, 186, Strand, 1st November, 1840. [131] "Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy." [132] He subsequently returned to it for a short time only. [133] The serial commenced 17th July, 1841. [134] That this was the case, see Mr. Joseph Hatter's "With a Show in the North;" see also a remarkable letter of Mr. William Tegg in the _Athenaeum_ of 16th October, 1875. [135] Thackeray in the _Quarterly_.