In 1847, Cruikshank was converted to teetotalism, and thenceforward laboured in the cause with almost fanatic zeal. It was in this year that he executed his famous group of eight designs called _The Bottle_, which was reproduced in glyphography, and circulated at a cheap price by temperance societies. In 1850 he was employed to illustrate the second edition of Smedley's successful novel _Frank Fairlegh_. Frank Smedley was born at Great Marlow in 1818, and, being crippled by a malformation of the feet, he was educated at a private tutor's instead of at a public school. He contributed his first story, _The Life of a Private Pupil_, to _Sharpe's Magazine_ in 1846-48, and a couple of years later it was published under the title of _Frank Fairlegh_. The book, in which Smedley's love of open-air life and sympathy with outdoor sports are strongly manifested, made a decided hit, and was followed during the next few years by _Lewis Arundel_ and _Harry Coverdale's Courtship_. Smedley has left an amusing account of his first interview with George Cruikshank, who, on seeing a cripple in a wheeled chair, could not conceal his wonder, but kept exclaiming, "Good God! I thought you could gallop about on horses." Smedley, who died of apoplexy in 1864, was editor of the ill-fated _Cruikshank's Magazine_, started in 1853, which only reached its second number. George Cruikshank's last years were taken up in great measure with his work in the cause of temperance reform, and though he still occupied himself in book-illustration, it became increasingly evident that he had outlived his public. His large oil-painting, _The Triumph of Bacchus_, did not attract the multitude when exhibited at Exeter Hall in 1863, though he had devoted three years to its execution. Thanks to the kindness of his friends, and the grant of two small pensions, actual poverty was kept from his door, and he lived to a green old age, bright-eyed and alert, the best of good company over his glass of cold water, dancing a hornpipe at past eighty, or dressing up and singing _The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman_, which he had illustrated in 1839. He was taken ill early in 1878, and died on 1st February, finding his final resting-place in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral. George Cruikshank, his biographer Blanchard Jerrold tells us, always worked with great care and deliberation, thinking out his subject thoroughly before beginning to realise his conception. "He made, to begin with, a careful design upon paper, trying doubtful points upon the margin. The design was heightened by vigorous touches of colour. Then a careful tracing was made, and laid, pencil side down, upon the steel plate. This was carried to the printer, who, having placed it between damp paper and passed it through the press, returned it, the black-lead outline distinctly appearing on the etching ground. And then the work was straightforward to the artist's firm hand." III HENRY ALKEN