The greeting was renewed a couple of months later, and _Punch's_ admiration, thus early expressed, never wavered in all the years that elapsed before Mark Twain was entertained by _Punch_ at his table on the occasion of his last visit to England in 1907, when he came over to receive the degree of Doctor of Literature from the University of Oxford. [Sidenote: _W. S. Gilbert_] The relations of W. S. Gilbert with _Punch_ were made public property to a certain extent by Gilbert's statement, in the preface to the collected edition of the _Bab Ballads_, that the _Cruise of the Nancy Bell_ had been "offered to the Editor and declined by him on the ground that it was too cannibalistic to suit the taste of his readers." The _Bab Ballads_ (so called from the signature "Bab" which Gilbert appended to his illustrations) appeared in _Fun_, which was founded in 1861, and were, while they lasted, the chief attraction of that paper. Gilbert was undoubtedly nettled by Mark Lemon's decision; had it been otherwise, he might very probably have become a regular contributor to _Punch_. But it is not strictly correct to say, as the author of the notice of Gilbert in the _Encyclopædia Britannic_a does, that Gilbert continued to contribute to _Fun_ because he had failed to gain the _entrée_ into the pages of _Punch_. As a matter of fact he had frequently contributed, both with pen and pencil, to _Punch_ in the early 'sixties. In 1865 his contributions included an amusing illustrated squib on the hydrophobia scare, the lines to "An Absent Husband," and a long prose piece "A wonderful Shilling's worth!" on the performances at the Polytechnic. The last named was Gilbert's final contribution to _Punch_. _The Nancy Bell_ was offered and rejected early in 1866, and appeared in _Fun_ of March 3 without illustrations. The nonsense verses, "Sing for the Garish Eye," which appeared in _Punch_ on April 16, 1873, were from Gilbert's pen, but the explanation given a fortnight later showed that they had been printed inadvertently; a "valued contributor" having forwarded them for _Punch's_ private diversion and not for publication. They had actually been printed elsewhere ten years earlier. The _amende_ was handsomely made, but Gilbert never contributed again to _Punch_. One cannot help regretting that he began the _Bab Ballads_ with just the only one to which exception could have been taken, for it _is_ cannibalistic!