Note 18 — HABLÔT K. BROWNE ("Phiz")

According to the following anecdote, Thackeray did not over-estimate his own powers as a draughtsman. Mr. M. H. Spielmann tells us that after Edmund Yates had started an illustrated magazine, which had but a brief existence, Thackeray wrote to him: "You have a new artist on The Train, I see, my dear Yates. I have been looking at his work, and I have solved a problem. I find there is a man alive who draws worse than myself!"