“On the morning of the 1st of February,” writes his young friend, Grace Stebbing, ** “there was still living a bright, brave-spirited old man, who had worked on untiringly almost to the end, even to within three weeks of his death, when I, one of those privileged to claim his friendship even from my infancy upwards, met him hurrying along the streets with cheerful, eager aspect, to keep ‘a business appointment.’” ** The Graphic, February 9th, 1878. [Illustration: 279] [Illustration: 280] CHAPTER VIII. THE END. George Cruikshank fell ill in the first month of 1878, and was attended by his sympathetic and distinguished friend, Dr. B. W. Richardson. He died at his house in the Hampstead Road, on the 1st of February. He was buried temporarily--the Crypt of St. Paul’s being under repair--at Kensal Green. The only member of the Royal Academy who attended his funeral was Charles Landseer, R.A., who was almost as old as Cruikshank. But Messrs. Tenniel and Du Maurier were there, with poor W. Brunton, a clever caricaturist, who was to fall in his youth. Cruikshank’s friend, George Augustus Sala, and Lord Houghton, were among his pall-bearers; and in the group about the coffin were Edmund Yates, S. G. Ball, General M’Murdo, and John Sheehan, the “Irish Whisky-drinker.” On the 29th of the following November, a hearse, followed by a mourning-coach containing Mrs. George Cruikshank, conveyed the mortal part of the illustrious artist to St. Paul’s, and four sergeants of the volunteer corps which he had commanded brought up the procession. The coffin was silently lowered to its final resting-place immediately after the afternoon service. [Illustration: 281] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life Of George Cruikshank, Vol. II. (of II), by Blanchard Jerrold