The coloured plates to the four volumes of The Gentleman's Pocket Magazine" (1827-1830) render these small volumes of great worth, and the last copy sold in the rooms made £16. It is not generally known that the "Comicalities" in the fourth volume, generally attributed in their entirety to Robert, contain, likewise, a great deal of the work of the younger artist; in fact, "The Englishman in France" at p. 394, is the sole work of George Cruikshank, who claims it is an autograph note, I believe, to Mr. Truman, as he did likewise portions of the plate entitled: "The Cold Duck," while several of the others seem to bear traces of his skilful touch.

Of the twenty-four "London Characters" that appeared in volumes 1 and 3 of the Magazine fifteen bear the signature of George, and nine that of Robert, but there can be no doubt that George Cruikshank was partly responsible for these latter, as well as for those which he acknowledges; so much so is this the case that upon the re-issue of these plates by Robins the publisher evidently regarded the elder brother's share as unimportant, for upon the title-page the plates are described as "Designed and Etched by George Cruikshank," no mention being made of Robert.

A further interesting example of work attributed to Robert, but which George subsequently acknowledged to be entirely his own handiwork, may be found in the plates to "The Old Sailor's Jolly Boat." This publication, originally commenced in monthly parts by Tyas, was taken over, after the first few numbers, by Strange, whose imprint is found upon the title, which, as was customary, was issued with the last part part. The book is very scarce with the imprint of Tyas on the first plates, although the reprint by Willoughby issued shortly afterwards is of little value. The five plates to this work which are by George are as follows : Jack is Port with his Despatches," "Bagging the Tartars," " Dick Fitton and Davy Jones," "Save me, Save me," and "Go at him, Jack." Several of these illustrations bear the signature of Robert, and the explanation of this anomaly may be best found by quoting from the letter written by George Cruikshank to G. W. Reid in 1870, in which the artist states : " and when my dear brother, Robert, left off portrait painting, and took almost entirely to designing and etching, I assisted him at first to a great extent, in some of his drawing on wood, and his etchings; and all this mixture of head and hand work has led to a considerable amount of confusion." It may be added that George identified many of such to Mr. Bruton and Mr. Truman.

In this connection there may be mentioned " Fairburns Edition of the Whole Proceedings on the Trial of James Watson, Senior. for High Treason, &c., &c. in 1817," a very scarce book, containing several plates, including a full-page portrait, entitled "A Correct likeness of James Watson, The Elder, (Taken in Court). Drawn and Engraved by Mr. I. R. Cruickshank, (sic) expressly for Fairburn's "Edition of the Trial." In spite of this imprint the copy in the Truman Collection was autographed by George as being: "By me, G.C. and think a little by brother Robert." This plate is given in the Reid and Douglas Catalogues, but not the book, which, as I have mentioned before is extremely rare. It was issued in twenty-four numbers, "Price Three-halfpence" each, the last part consisting only of an index, titlepage, and preface. The work is printed in columus, two to a page, and each column is numbered. The folding frontispiece: "An Accurate View of the Inside of the Court of King's Bench, Westminster," is unsigned, but in all probability is by Robert Cruikshank there is also another plate in addition to the two already mentioned, upon which appear portraits of Thistlewood, Hooper and Preston. That of Thistlewood is ascribed to George, by Reid, and the two latter are the work of Robert Cruikshank, but George did not identify the former cut, so its authorship remain doubtful, although very similar in execution to the likeness of Watson.

One of the most famous little books, and which considering its size, is remarkable in that it is ascribed to the joint efforts of the three great men of the Victorian era-Dickens, Thackeray and Cruikshank-is "The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman." It is generally assumed that the Notes are by Dickens, while the Ballad was reset by Thackeray; the illustrations are too well known to need detail, but the artist always maintained his statement in the preface that he was

in a great way responsible for the words, which he had heard sung by an itinerant musician outside a public house in London.

In this connection it is interesting to record that there is in existence, a probably unique copy of a folio broadside, dating about 1790, with two crude woodcuts, and entitled Young Baker." That the author, or "resetter" of Lord Bateman" drew his inspiration from this item may be the better realised by a comparison of the first lines of the poem illustrated by Cruikshank with the first stanza of the broadside :

Young Baker was a Gentleman,

"And a clever Young Youth was he;

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He set his Foot on Ship board

Strange Countries for to see.

The Wind blew East, and the Wind blew West,

It drove Him into the Turkish Country,

And there was confined in prison strong,

Till of his life he was quite weary;

The Turkish Lord had a Daughter fair,

And of a tender Heart was she :

She stole the Keys of the Prison Door,
And vow'd Young Baker she'd set free."

The likeness extends right through the twenty-three stanzas. Who the writer of this original version was cannot, of course, be surmised, but, as may be seen, he was really the creator of the ballad made famous, nearly half a century subsequently, by the issue of Tilt's publication.

A volume bearing the alluring title, The Chronicle of Infamy, or Authentic Memoirs of the Most Remarkable Characters who have Violated the Laws of their Country" by J. Hudson, Esq., was published in 1820, with the imprint of W Emans, No. 7 London Road, upon the title-page.

This book contains five plates, being portraits of the notorious characters whose misdeeds are detailed; two of the plates are by George Cruikshank, namely, that of F. Meyer (coloured), and Charles Louis Sand (the murderer of Kotzebue). My copy, which is the only one I have seen, bears a note in the auto graph of Mr. Truman that G. C. had acknowledged to him that they were his work. The plates appear to have been published separately, as they bear the imprint of H. Gray, 2 Barbican, while the book in question is not found in either the Reid or Douglas Catalogues, although the plates are noted therein. That the plates are not inserted is evident from the "Directions to the Binder."

The State Lottery" by Samuel Roberts, also Thoughts on Wheels" by James Montgomery, is the title of a thin octavo volume issued by Sherwood, Neely and Jones in 1817. It is remarkable for the variety of states of the coloured frontispiece by George Cruikshank, for it is found in four different conditions. The first issue, of which I believe only one example to be in existence, -the Bruton copy-bears the imprint of Longmans, who, it must be presumed, were originally intended to be the publishers. In this connexion it is interesting to note that in the second issue, next described, there is sometimes found four pages advertising Longman's publications at the end of the volume. This second state is recognised by the plate having no lettering beyond the imprint "Published by Sherwood, Neely and Jones, London. Dec. 16, 1816." The Third Issue, which is the first mentioned by Reid or Douglas, has the frontispiece lettered, New State System of Education," together with a similar imprint and date to the last condition. In the fourth and last state the plate has the bottom margin cut off, thus removing all lettering, and has also been retouched in the top left-hand corner. In the earlier issues a two-page leaf should be found directly after the title, entitled "Explanation of the Frontispiece. A Sham State Lottery amongst the Blue-Coat Boys," but in the last state this leaf is always absent.

The four volumes of The Humourist" contain thirty-six coloured plates and vignettes which are regarded as the masterpieces of the artist's etching needle. The peculiarities of the publication, and its various" points," are too well known to need reiteration in this article, but a fact that appears to have escaped the notice of bibliographers is that an undated edition, in one volume, seems to