The firm of Dalziel Brothers deserves more notice than it has received in the many incidental references throughout this book. To Mr. Thomas Dalziel (still alive though past fourscore) and to his brother Edward may be awarded the credit of exercising keen critical judgment in the discovery of latent talent among the art students of their day, and of acting as liberal patrons of the art of illustration. In a most courteous letter, written in reply to my request for some details of the establishment of the firm, the youngest brother of the four (Mr. Thomas Dalziel) writes: 'We were constant and untiring workers with our own hands, untiring because it was truly a labour of love. The extension and development of our transactions and the carrying out of many of the fine art works which we published, is unquestionably due to my brother Edward Dalziel, and to this I am at all times ready to bear unhesitating testimony.' That these talented engravers were draughtsmen of no mean order might be proved in a hundred instances; one or two blocks here reprinted will suffice to establish their right to an honourable position as illustrators. [Illustration: T. DALZIEL DALZIELS' 'ARABIAN NIGHTS,' p. 161 BEDREDDIN HASSAN AND THE PASTRYCOOK] [Illustration: T. DALZIEL DALZIELS' 'BIBLE GALLERY,' 1880 THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM] Among the young artists to whom they gave commissions, at the time in a student's career when encouragement of that description is so vital, we find:--Fred Walker, G. J. Pinwell, A. Boyd Houghton, J. D. Watson, John Pettie, R.A., Professor Herkomer, R.A., J. W. North, A.R.A., and Fred Barnard. Artists of eminence, who in all human probability would never have experimented in drawing upon wood but for Messrs. Dalziels' suggestion, include the late Lord Leighton, P.R.A., Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., and Mr. H. Stacy Marks, R.A. Other illustrators who owe much to the enterprise of this firm, and who in turn helped to make its reputation, include Mr. Birket Foster, Sir John Gilbert, R.A., Mr. George Du Maurier, Sir John Tenniel, and Mr. Harrison Weir. It has been impossible to credit these engravers with their due share in every work mentioned in our pages, because to do this would have necessitated, in common justice, a complete record of the other engravers also; in itself enough to double the length of the chronicle already far too verbose. The engravings in _Punch_ in its early years, and the _Cornhill_ through its finest period, were intrusted to Messrs. Dalziel, while of _Good Words_ and _The Sunday Magazine_ the choice of pictures and their reproduction alike were entirely under their control.