In 1869, vol. iii., New Series, contains a single example by G. J. Pinwell, _A seat in the park_ (p. 518); five by S. L. Fildes; _The Duet_ (p. 56), _The Juggler_ (p. 188), _Hours of Idleness_, the subject of a later Academy picture (p. 475), _Led to Execution_ (p. 540), and _Basking_ (p. 562); and others by Fred Barnard (pp. 166, 254, 346, 450), B. Bradley (pp. 78, 210, 496), Val Prinsep (p. 298), F. W. Lawson (p. 34), and Ford Madox Brown, _The Traveller_ (p. 144). To state that vol. iv., New Series, is absolutely without interest is to let it off cheaply. In the volume for 1870 the names of artists are omitted, and if we follow the editor's example no injustice will be done, despite a few clever drawings by R. M[acbeth]; the work, not merely in date but in spirit, is of the new decade, and as it is exceptionally poor at that for the most part, it no longer belongs to the subject with which this volume is concerned. CHAPTER IV: SOME ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES OF THE SIXTIES: II. 'THE CORNHILL,' 'GOOD WORDS,' AND LONDON SOCIETY' THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE, which began in 1860 with Thackeray as editor, showed from the very first that the aim of the Magazine was to keep the level of its pictures equal to that of its text. In looking through the forty-seven volumes of the first series it is gratifying to find that this purpose was never forgotten. Many a rival magazine has been started since under the happiest auspices, with the most loyal intention to have the best and only the very best illustrations; but in a few years the effort has been too exacting, and the average commonplace of its padding in prose and verse has been equalled by the dull mediocrity of its pictures. Only those who have experienced the difficulty which faces an editor firmly resolved to exclude the commonplace of any sort can realise fully what a strain a successful effort, lasting over twenty years, must needs impose on the responsible conductors. Thackeray, as we know, soon found the labour too great; but his successors kept nobly to their purpose, and few magazines show more honourable fulfilment of their projected scheme than the classic _Cornhill_, which has introduced so many masterpieces in art and literature to the public.