While the _Penny Magazine_ was yet in vigorous life, and the _Illustrated London News_ was as yet unborn, there used to be a weekly gathering of authors, actors, and artists, at a tavern in Wych Street, Strand, where the late Mr. Mark Lemon presided as the genial host. This company of merry men were mostly on the sunny side of life, and disposed to look upon the world and the world's cares with a laughing eye. They were ever ready to go out of their way for the sake of a joke, and a pun, good or bad, was pleasant to them. In this congenial atmosphere _Punch_ germinated, and in July, 1841, that shrewd observer and good-humoured satirist appeared. Mr. _Punch_, like some other great men, had a hard struggle in his early days; but prosperous times came, and he now combines in his own person the dignity of age with the vivacity of youth. _Puck_, _Diogenes_, and numerous other imitators of _Punch_, attempted to obtain a share of public favour, but most of them died after a brief existence. The best of these that survive are _Fun_ and _Judy_, which, with the _Hornet_, _Vanity Fair_, _Figaro_ (a revival of the name), _Moonshine_, _Funny Folks_, and others, continue their weekly budgets with a smartness and vigour not unworthy of their great prototype. FOOTNOTES: [1] There was another Sunday paper in existence about this time, the _Sunday Reformer and Universal Register_. In the number for Dec. 29th, 1793, there is a copperplate portrait of Robert Lowth, D.D., Lord Bishop of London, then recently deceased. [2] 'Old Stories Retold,' in _All the Year Round_. [3] Grant's _Newspaper Press_. [4] 'Old Stories Retold,' in _All the Year Round_. [5] _Passages of a Working Life._ [6] At this time there was another illustrated weekly magazine in existence--the _Mirror_, which began about 1822. The engravings it contained were chiefly of a topographical character. [7] The _Saturday Magazine_ was started in imitation of the _Penny Magazine_, and, like its prototype, had a considerable popularity for some years. CHAPTER VIII. The _Illustrated London News_--The Early Numbers--The Burning of Hamburgh--Facetious Advertisements--Bal Masque at Buckingham Palace--Attempted Assassination of the Queen--The Queen's First Trip by Railway--First Royal Visit to Scotland--Political Portraits--R. Cobden--Lord John Russell--Benjamin Disraeli--The French Revolution, 1848--The Great Exhibition, 1851--The Crimean War--Coloured Pictures--Christmas Numbers--Herbert Ingram--The _Pictorial Times_--Other Illustrated Journals.