Mr. Percy R. Cruikshank, the son of Robert Isaac, had the following account of the origin of Tom and Jerry from his father: “The wonderfully successful Tom and Jerry, or Life in London, although ostensibly Pierce Egan’s idea, was universally given to George Cruikshank, whereas the original notion and very designs were mostly Robert’s. He conceived the notion, and planned the designs, while showing a brother-in-law, just returned from China, some of the “life” which was going on in London at the time. He designed the characters of Tom, Jerry, and Logic from himself, brother-in-law, and Pierce Egan, keeping to the likenesses of each model. Robert offered the work to Messrs. Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, of Paternoster Row, who saw nothing in it, but at length accepted the offer, and by doing so realized a large sum of money, the etchings taking immensely.... George Cruikshank, shortly before his death, said to his nephew Percy, “When your father proposed Tom and Jerry to me, I suggested that it should be carried out in a series of oil paintings, after the manner of Hogarth, but he objected, considering etching was safer, and more rapidly convertible into ready money.” * * In the introduction to the 1869 edition of the work, Mr. John Camden Hotten supposes the following origin: “One day it occurred to the editor of _Boxiana_ that if Londoners were so anxious for books about country and out-of-door sports, why should not provincials, and even cockneys themselves, be equally anxious to know something of ‘Life in London’? The editor of Boxiana was our Pierce Egan, who, as the literary representative of sport and high life, had already been introduced to George IV. The character of the proposed work was mentioned to the King, and His Gracious Majesty seems to have heartily approved of it, for he at once gave permission for it to be dedicated to himself. The services of Messrs. I. R. and George Cruikshank were secured as illustrators, and on the 15th of July, 1821, the first number, price one shilling, was published by Messrs. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, of Paternoster Row.” To the Tom and Jerry plates Thackeray returned in a _Roundabout Paper_ in the _Cornhill Magazine_, after a visit to the British Museum to renew his acquaintance with the lively pair, or Thomas and Jeremiah--his “witty way,” he says, of calling them. He found the reading so-so--“even a little vulgar, well, well.”