[Illustration: G. DU MAURIER 'PUNCH.' MARCH 24, 1866 A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, PART IV] [Illustration: G. DU MAURIER 'PUNCH.' MARCH 31, 1866 A LEGEND OF CAMELOT, PART V] CHAPTER VI: SOME ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY PAPERS IN THE SIXTIES PUNCH.--It is impossible to overlook the famous weekly that from its own pages could offer a fairly representative group of the work of any decade since it was established; a paper which, if it has not attracted every great illustrator, could nevertheless select a hundred drawings from its pages that might be fairly entered in competition with any other hundred outside them. But, at the same time, to give a summary of its record during the sixties, even as compressed as those of _The Cornhill Magazine_, _Once a Week_, etc., would occupy more pages than all the rest put together. Fortunately the labour has been accomplished quite recently. Mr. M. H. Spielmann's _History of Punch_ supplies a full and admirably digested chronicle of its artistic achievements. So that here (excluding the staff-artists, Sir John Tenniel, Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Linley Sambourne, and the rest, and the greatest _Punch_ artist, Charles Keene, who was never actually upon its staff) it will be sufficient to indicate where admirers of the men of the sixties may find examples of their work for _Punch_; Sir John Millais appears twice upon p. 115 of vol. xliv. (1863) with a design to _Mokeanna_, Mr. F. C. Burnand's laughable parody, and again with _Mr. Vandyke Brown's sons thrashing the lay figure_, in the _Almanac_ for 1865, a drawing that faces, oddly enough, one of Fred Walker's two contributions, _The New Bathing Company, Limited, Specimens of Costumes to be worn by the Shareholders_. The other Fred Walker, _Captain Jinks of the 'Selfish,'_ is on p. 74 of vol. lvii. 1869; George J. Pinwell is an infrequent contributor from 1863 to 1869; Walter Crane appears but once, p. 33 (vol. li. 1866); Frederick Shields's three initials, which appeared in 1870, were drawn in 1867; M. J. Lawless is represented by six drawings, which appeared between May 1860 and January 1861; F. W. Lawson has some initials and one vignette in the volume for 1867; Ernest Griset appears in the _Almanac_ for 1867; J. G. Thomson, for twenty years cartoonist of _Fun_, is an occasional contributor between 1861 and 1864; H. S. Marks appears in 1861, and Paul Gray, also with a few initials and 'socials,' up to 1865; Charles Keene's first drawing for _Punch_ is in 1852, he was 'called to the table' in 1860, and on a few occasions supplied the political cartoon. The mass of his work within the classic pages is too familiar to need more than passing reference. The first drawing by 'George Louis Palmella Busson Du Maurier' appears in 1860, the _Legend of Camelot_, with five drawings, which are already historic, in 1866. These delicious parodies (here reproduced) of the pre-Raphaelite manner are as fascinating to-day as when they first appeared. FUN