Before the work had reached its third number, the talented artist who had undertaken the illustrations, and who has immortalised the features of Mr. Pickwick, was unfortunately removed by death, and Mr. Hablot Browne (the well-known _Phiz_) was chosen to replace him, and continued to illustrate most of Mr. Dickens’s novels for many years after. During the years 1837–1838, Mr. Dickens carried on the editorship of _Bentley’s Miscellany_, where his novel of “Oliver Twist” (illustrated by George Cruikshank) first appeared. To this magazine, during the time that he conducted it, he also contributed some humorous papers, entitled “Full Report of the Meetings of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything.” But, finding his editorial office irksome, he soon abandoned it. During his engagement with Mr. Bentley, he edited and partly wrote the “Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi,” {11} a book now almost forgotten, though not without passages of pathos and humour. Dickens, in the introductory chapter (dated February, 1838), gives the following account of his share in the work:— “For about a year before his death, Grimaldi was employed in writing a full account of his life and adventures, and as people who write their own lives often find time to extend them to a most inordinate length, it is no wonder that his account of himself was exceedingly voluminous. “This manuscript was confided to Mr. Thomas Egerton Wilks, to alter and revise, with a view to its publication. While he was thus engaged, Grimaldi died; and Mr. Wilks having, by the commencement of September (1837), concluded his labours, offered the manuscript to Mr. Bentley, by whom it was shortly afterwards purchased. “The present editor of these volumes has felt it necessary to say thus much in explanation of their origin. His own share in them is stated in a few words. Being much struck by several incidents in the manuscript—such as the description of Grimaldi’s infancy, the burglary, the brother’s return from sea, and many other passages—and thinking that they might be related in a more attractive manner, he accepted a proposal from the publisher to edit the book, and _has_ edited it to the best of his ability, altering its form throughout, and making such other alterations as he conceived would improve the narration of the facts, without any departure from the facts themselves.” His next work was “Nicholas Nickleby,” published in monthly numbers. The following passage from the original preface, which is only to be found in the old editions, alludes to the great success that attended this story:—