Before the lawsuit between the partners in my father's firm was decided, my father, who had suffered from illhealth for years, died, and my eldest brother, although not yet of age, established himself with the assistance of some of our friends as a printer at Peterborough-court, Fleetstreet, where the “Daily Telegraph” offices now are, while I still remained with Orrin Smith. Kenny Meadows was at this time in great straits, with nothing to depend upon beyond the few drawings he made on wood and some occasional water colours for steel engravers of “Byron Beauties” and “Shakspeare Heroines,” and pot boilers—verging at times on the naughty—disposed of to dealers. His typical heads in “Bell's Life” had considerable point and character, and he lamented the want of opportunity to carry out the idea on a more extensive scale. The difficulty was to find the speculative publisher willing to take up the scheme.

Eventually Kenny Meadows's “Heads of the People,” a work of some little note in its day, which numbered Jerrold, Thackeray, Captain Marryat,” Nimrod, and many others among its contributors, was produced at the joint risk of Orrin Smith, my brother, and Tyas, the publisher. The success it met with led to the production of a far more important work, depending exclusively on Kenny Meadows's designs. This was the “Illustrated Shakspere,” and as Meadows was a slow and not very regular worker, he found it necessary to obtain outside assistance, and more particularly on the landscape and architectural portions of the illustrations. Charles Jacque, the French artist, since celebrated for his masterly etchings of landscape and cattle subjects,