Note 1 — ContentsCHAPTER I.

An example of these amusing and confusing contentions is the popular—I might almost say classic—witticism which is often resurrected at the expense of Punch. Once in a company of choice spirits Somebody suggested, when "our leading comic" was being discussed, that it would surely be an original idea and a good speculation to "start a comic Punch." Douglas Jerrold, says one writer, aimed the dart at Mark Lemon. Mr. W. S. Gilbert, according to a world-travelled newspaper paragraph, let off the gibe at his friend Mr. Burnand. Laman Blanchard, says another journalist, surprised Jerrold into silence with the taunt. Mark Lemon, declares another, threatened his proprietors with it in a moment of anger; while Mr. Walford told me that it was certainly first spoken of by George Grossmith, senr., of humorous memory. But Hodder and Vizetelly agree in fathering it on Blanchard's son, Sidney, at the time when Gilbert à Beckett's "Comic Blackstone" and comic histories were delighting all true connoisseurs of burlesque. Sidney Blanchard, Hodder reminds us, was possessed of a quaint wit, which was wont to deliver itself in a manner such as that in which he referred to a cashier who was never behind his desk when money was to be paid out: "Compared with him," said he, "the eel is an adhesive animal."