RW Buss and the Pickwick affair

Explanatory. Many years ago, in fact at the commencement of Dickens’ brilliant career as a novelist, it was my misfortune to be temporarily in connection with Messrs. Chapman & Hall and through them with Charles Dickens.

In justice to myself I feel called upon to explain the whole affair, as some few points are for the first time spoken of with which not merely the publishers, but Dickens himself, as well as the public, were and are unacquainted.

Seymour, the artist, principally known as a caricaturist, was really the originator of the “Club”, now so popular wherever the English language is read or spoken, and known by the name of “Pickwick Club”. This famous book, the basis of our great novelist’s fame, is by the reading world absolutely attributed to him as the sole author and originator of the work. How far this is true I shall endeavour to explain.

Seymour’s father was a well-to-do pattern draughtsman of the name of Vaughan, and living very comfortably in the City of London, near West Smithfield. Seymour, however, had no legal right to take his father’s name; but, as in civilised society, a name is a necessary adjunct to any individual born into this world of weal and woe, he therefore bore his mother’s name. It would appear that for some years little Seymour was under his mother’s care, and that in consequence his education amounted to very little. So deficient was he in this important matter that in after years poor Seymour was stung to the quick by the publication of his business notes, with orthographical and grammatical remarks by that pungent wit Gilbert a Beckett, who cut up Seymour remorselessly after he had urged the payment of some sums due to him for work done on the “Figaro”, the “Punch” of that day. In due time the cloud cleared off from Seymour’s youth; and his father acknowledged him and took him into his study, or office, or workshop – whatever may have been it’s designation. Here in companionship with a brother bearing the paternal name of Vaughan and an apprentice nicknamed “Wonk”, he drew patterns for the calico printers. This practice gave Seymour a neat and minute style of drawing which proved of great use to him in his after career as an artist. Mr. Thomas Vaughan followed steadily the pursuit of pattern drawing, had received a good education as times went then, and devoted his leisure time to the study and practice of music, in which for an amateur he had made much progress. But in the cases of Seymour and “Wonk”, inspiration had fallen on them - they had a soul above buttons, and entered upon the pursuit of high Art! Clubbing their earnings together they got “high” enough, even if their works did not merit this appellation, for they rented a room in the old Tower ascribed to Queen Elizabeth at Canonbury, and this room was at the very top of this high structure. Here they placed some casts from the antique as their means would allow and drew assiduously from them, thus obtaining the only real education in art which was accessible to them.

Seymour profited much by this study, but poor “Wonk’s” inspiration proved to be a mere bladder of sound, for repeated failures drove him hopelessly back to the despised pattern drawing, when he vanished from our vision. Before abandoning the pattern drawing however, Seymour picked up a few occasional pounds by drawing, very neatly, portraits of friends who consented to sit to him. At the same time he plunged into the mystic diablerces^[1]of the German literature made known to him by Faust and Der Freischük. The result of this study was a large picture filled with numerous carefully painted figures. Here we had the Giant of the Brocken, the skeleton hunt, the casting of the bullets and a full meal of all the German horrors eagerly swallowed by the public of that day. The picture itself was a very creditable work, and was for some long time in a picture room at Baker Street Bazaar. It cured Seymour of High Art, for he found that that pursuit was a very agreeable one when backed by a private fortune; and that, without such aid, a painter of High Art was only a beggar or dependent on any kind soul who would lend money on works for which there was no demand. So Seymour descended from his “fools paradise” and took to designing on wood, for which his previous practice in clear neat drawing especially fitted him. He obtained employment on Bell’s Life in London, and on the scurrilous Figaro: to these were added many drawings for works of less importance, so that at very small prices he had a very large connection.

Seymour was now fairly established as a humorous designer, principally upon wood, but he occasionally drew in lithography, and ventured upon etching. In this branch of Art there is a volume upon Christmas and it’s customs, feebly executed by Seymour, who evidently was never at home on copper or steel, the mere technicalities of biting-in always evidently annoying him.

A bitter quarrel with the Editor of Figaro was kept up for a long time on both sides with extreme acrimony, greatly irritating poor Seymour, and embittering the latter part of his life.

Residing at Islington - the Islington of many years ago - when green fields, green lanes, old trees and a really rural aspect had not given way to miles of brick and mortar, Seymour loved to ramble about the old Roman encampment and it’s delightful neighbouring walks. In these walks he constantly met with boys, with hobbadehoys and silly young men who indulged in a grotesque love of sport as they imagined, catching tittlebats^[2], and shooting cats and sparrows, with now and then a stray pig to be bagged. With the keen relish for fun enjoyed by Seymour, he enjoyed immensely the absurd and comic incidents almost daily observed in his walks. To this we owe the numerous designs of cockney sportsmen which Seymour executed. His brain and his folios overflowed with sketches of this kind. The fund of humour he brought to this work is manifest in the few selections from his designs here introduced.

Engaged by Messrs Chapman & Hall, the eminent publishers, upon some work entrusted to Seymour for pictorial fun, he repeatedly spoke to them about a scheme he had for a long time had in his mind; that was to publish these cockney scenes he had prepared, and to work them up as a “Club of Cockney Sportsmen”, while the illustrations were to be tacked together with some comic letterpress so as to form a book.

After considerable time and frequent mention of the subject, Chapman & Hall paid some attention to Seymour’s suggestions and looked over the collection he had made. Upon this Messrs Chapman & Hall considered the matter as settled, and began to think of some author who could accomplish their object successfully. The work was proposed to Leigh Hunt, and declined by him and then to other known men who wrote light articles for the magazines: but not one of them seemed to enter with cordiality upon the proposal. Seymour’s proposition thus hung fire for a considerable time; and thus the Club of Cockney Sportsmen seemed doomed never to appear.

It happened between Seymour’s visits upon business to Chapman & Hall, Mr. Macrone, publisher, had failed; and amongst his property brought to the hammer, was the copyright and remaining stock of “Sketches by Boy”, a work but little appreciated at the time although the author was Charles Dickens, and the artist supplying the illustrations no less than a George Cruikshank. The entire property in this early work of Dickens was purchased by Chapman & Hall merely, it would seem, to sell off the copies on hand at as profitable a price as possible. On Seymour’s next visit to the above publishers, they, bearing in mind the “Cockney Club” presented a copy in 2 Vols to him, and asked him to read the book, and give them his opinion as to the capabilities of the author Charles Dickens, then only heard of under the nom de plume of “Boz”, to work up the idea he had so long entertained.

On Seymour’s return home, he found a family party bent upon spending the evening with him. As soon as the tea business was concluded, Seymour opened the “Sketches by Boz”, and read one after the other to his assembled friends. Now owing to Seymour’s scanty education when he was a mere boy, it was his misfortune frequently to murder the Queen’s English; yet he read fluently; and with the exception of miscalling a few words here and there, he read well. The great point was that, he himself being brimfull of fun, perceived the originality and the intensity of this very quality in Boz’s sketches. As he read on he absolutely revelled in Boz’s humour; he laughed till he cried! And he sent all his friends into convulsions of laughter till at a late hour of the evening, or rather night, his friends with aching sides sued for quarter on the question being put as to Boz’s qualification for Seymour’s proposed work. The vote was unanimous, as one of the party told me, and moreover they dictated that no other writer could carry out Seymour’s plan with a chance of success at all equaling that of Dickens, or rather Boz at that time. This point being settled, at the very next visit paid by Seymour to Chapman & Hall, they were urged by all means to communicate as early as possible with Dickens, and propose to him to furnish the letter press to Seymour’s designs. From what passed between the publishers and him arose the “Club”, which he at once undertook to conduct in the best way he could; and, entering upon Seymour’s scheme, threw himself most heartily into the “Club”, which he named the “Pickwick Club:, a name as we now know destined to be heard all over the civilised world, and to become the foundation of Dickens unparalleled success as an author, and to lay up a fortune for the publishers of the “Club”. The name “Pickwick”, we are told, Dickens adopted from it’s alliterative sound, and from it’s owner, a coach proprietor, as seeming to him a good one for the Club.

Some doubts arise in my mind as to Mr. Pickwick ---- Mr. Chapman claims his obese figure as the result of his own suggestion; but, from former sketches by Seymour, I am inclined to believe the figures of Pickwick and his Clubmates were in existence before Dickens had any connection whatever with Seymour’s work. The etching of the “Pickwick Club” in full conclave is exactly illustrative of Seymour’s stout old gentleman in former designs, while his companions resemble the cockneys of previous scene, congregated in the parlour of a respectable public-house, such as Seymour may have occasionally visited.

Seymour’s Club, then, written to by Dickens most felicitously, was, as all the world knows under the name of the “Pickwick Club” by Boz, tolerably successful at the very first; but it’s popularity increased daily and with each succeeding number until it became pronounced by it’s publishers as a success.

The publishers at this time received many foolish letters, to be forwarded to “Boz”, upon ridiculous subjects only likely to enter the head of a shallow-pated conceited jackanapes; also some notes of remonstrance from old ladies over their tea tables deploring the state of mind that Boz must be in as to relate such a cruel statement as that of the cabman’s mode of keeping his exhausted horse up to his work. There were also considerable doubts as to the propriety of relating the wonderful story of the dog Ponto, reading the notice board against trespassing dogs as if all these matters were related in sober seriousness, instead of rollicking fun! Such mock sentimentalism and poco-do-humanitarianism were scarcely worth mention, were it not a great public interest in the “Pickwick Club” is indicated by the remarks made.

The work was now fairly established as a success; it’s popularity and it’s sale daily increasing, when an unfortunate event threatened destruction to it. This was no less than the death of poor Seymour. At this time of the two men employed on the “Pickwick Club”, Seymour was the better known. A long career as a humourous artist, and as a caricaturist on the Figaro, had obtained for him a reputation, while his co-adjutor was only then rising into public notice. This is necessary to be remembered in order to account for the widespread and deep sympathy expressed by the public and the daily journals at the untoward fate of a favorite artist. It was the misfortune of Seymour to be in great demand as a designer of humourous subject at a ridiculously small price: but as his invention was very fertile, they cost him but little labour. So ready was he, that a boy had been sent to him for a design to a given subject and instructed to wait until it was finished. Such instances were of frequent occurrence, and helped to overwork, with the numerous demands of others, a brain ill-calculated to bear such pressure. The illustrations to Pickwick, four due each month, were not only an additional demand upon his brain, but added to this was the uncertainty of what is technically called “copy”, being the proof set up for press corrections, as also the materials for the artist to produce his designs from. When this “copy” was delayed, it drove all the work into a space of time maddeningly short! Beyond this was the worry and uncertainty of the “biting-in” of the subjects upon the steel plates. An examination of Seymour’s etching for the Pickwick showed that in the application of the dilute nitric acid to corrode the lines produced by the etching point or needle he had been greatly troubled; and no doubt had to save his designs, and to keep faith with the publishers and the public, to apply for help in his need to one of the artist-engravers residing in his neighbourhood. This is not the place to give an account of the process of etching and the purely technical matter of “biting” “in”; but it may be briefly stated that to be sure of success in this operation very great experience and constant practise is required to avoid “foul biting” and the filling in of the lines by the tendency of the nitrate of iron to subside into them. I have no doubt of the fact that the worry arising from this cause added to an already overtaxed brain, overthrew poor Seymour’s mind and produced a state of insanity in which the poor fellow shot himself through the head. This deplorable event took place in a summer-house in his garden at the back of his residence in Liverpool Road, Islington. He had attached a string to the trigger of a fowling piece, and, by pulling it, sent the charge through his head. As might be supposed, this melancholy termination to the career of a favorite provider of fun created a great sensation among the public generally, and the readers and admirers of his designs for the “Pickwick Club” in particular; producing another flood of letters to the publishers, full of lamentations at his loss.

In this juncture of matters with the fate of their new work trembling as it were in the balance of success, what was to be done? Time was rapidly passing where the succeeding number of Pickwick ought to be published. It may be easily imagined how nervously anxious were Messrs Chapman & Hall to supply the place of Seymour. At this time it was a very difficult thing indeed to find a designer of humorous subjects capable of etching them on steel. With the exception of George Cruikshank there was really no artist etcher of his own designs to be found, for the style of illustrations was, with the single exception alluded to, a novelty; in fact the rage or fashion for etching had not then set in. I do not know whether Chapman & Hall had applied to Cruikshank or not; but it certainly was unlikely that he, giant as he was in his own peculiar walk, would consent to follow the footsteps of Seymour! Under all these trying circumstances, they, the publishers of Pickwick, were in a state of mind very far from agreeable. Dickens, finding his footing as the author safe, now pressed them to reduce by one half the art illustrations, and to give an additional quantity of letter press; thus securing to himself an extra remuneration at the expense of the art portion of the work, a proceeding which was clearly a breach of faith towards the original subscribers for the Pickwick. But in Dickens the publishers found a man who wished to be liberally paid for his labour, and one with whom these gentlemen could not play off any shabby bricks without fear of losing his services altogether; so their interests obliged them to adopt Dickens’ proposition - at first much to the disgust of the original subscribers. Having reduced the illustrations by one-half, the next step was to find an artist to undertake the work under these disadvantageous circumstances. Mr. John Jackson, the eminent wood-engraver being thus engaged upon a work in course of publication by Messrs Chapman & Hall, was asked if he could help them in their dilemma; and he knew of no artist who could etch his own designs, the style being then a novelty. After some consideration he told them he thought I was the most likely artist to enter upon the work, and advised an immediate application to me, as the time was fast running away to the date when the monthly number would become due. Upon this advice Chapman & Hall acted, and Mr. Hall called upon me at a time when I was busy in preparing a picture for exhibition. He placed the position they were in before me, and urged me to undertake the illustrations for the ensuing number of Pickwick. Taken quite by surprise at the application, I told him I had never in the whole course of my life had an etching needle in my hand, and that I was entirely ignorant of the practice of etching as far as practice was concerned. He assured me it was very easy to do, and that with my talent I was sure to succeed. I thought of the Irishman who, when asked if he could play the violin, answered that he could, though he had never had a violin in his hand! On my hesitating he urged me still more to try and help them in their hour of need, hinting that of course due consideration would be shown towards the want of practice in etching.

Situated thus, urged by Hall, feeling complimented by my friend Jackson, and sharing the public sympathy in poor Seymour’s sad end; besides which was my great admiration of the talent shown by Dickens whose works as Boz I had from the first sketches in the Morning Chronicle held in great esteem, I consented to put aside my picture, and devote my whole time to acquiring the peculiar touch for etching and getting practice in biting-in the design on the steel plate.

I immediately commenced pen and ink practice almost day and night as there really was no time to lose! I introduce specimens of my work. A plate was procured, etching ground, needles, and the various necessary implements for the practice of etching; and, after some trials at scratching in figures, (a most disagreeable work upon steel - observe etching on copper is quite pleasant compared to the hard surface presented by a steel plate) I succeeded in producing an etching, such as it was!

After much time entirely devoted to this end, I etched a plate, taking the subject of Mr. Pickwick at the Review being jammed in the crowd by a soldier forcing him back with the butt end of his musket; here is the only impression. Of course it was full of faults, inevitable to anyone in the early stage of practice in etching. All this occupied much time which was every hour becoming more and more valuable as the date of publication was close at hand. I had barely time to prepare my two subjects for the next number of Pickwick, in pencil, to submit them for approval to Chapman & Hall, who returned them being much pleased with my efforts. The subjects selected were “the fat boy watching Mr. Tupman and Miss Wardle in the arbour” and “the cricket match”. The little experience I had had in etching on steel, added to a sufficient knowledge of the uncertainty attendant upon applying the nitric acid, that is, biting in the design etched, made one painfully aware that a breakdown in this part of the business would inevitably cause a stop to be put to the issue of the next number. Nervously anxious on this point , and with no other motive than a sincere desire to serve in the best way the interests of Messrs Chapman & Hall, I was, in an evil hour, induced to place my designs in the hands of an experienced engraver to be etched and bitten in. This work he did very well indeed; but as might have been expected had I had time for thought, the free touch of an original work was entirely wanting; the etching itself failed, but the biting in was admirably done – “Time was up”: the plates must be placed at once in the printers hands; and so there being no help for it, the plates were printed, the numbers stitched, and duly published. Thus my name appeared to designs not one touch of mine was on the plate. I felt greatly annoyed at all this, and had I been allowed time would have cancelled these two plates and etched my designs with my own hand, resolving by the next month to publish my own two etchings and to request the others to be cancelled.

On venturing on the steel plate various experiments were made by me in etching heads, hands and figures. Of course the vexing process of “foul biting”, i.e., of the acid breaking up the ground, and biting parts of the plate that are not wanted, was one of the difficulties I encountered. I prepared a design of Mr. Pickwick at the Review being pushed backward by a tall grenadier: only one impression of this was taken, however, as through using a fresh piece of emery paper to polish the surface of the plate, innumerable fine lines were scratched all over the plate. It was, however, shown to the publishers, and approved by them, though as might be expected it was thin and scratchy in execution; the acid also was applied only once.

The etching of the Dingley Dell Cricket match was in it’s pencil sketch step submitted to and approved by Messrs Chapman & Hall. The etching itself, as I have elsewhere stated, is not my actual work on the steel. I had laid the etching ground for it on a steel plate, and commenced with the etching needle, when to my dismay I found the ground break up owing to my want of experience in laying etching grounds. Time was running fast away, so I took the plate to an engraver friend of mine who both etched it and bit it in. This is one of the two subjects done for the “Pickwick”, and was, I think, unnecessarily and unjustly the cause of my discontinuance on that work.

For more that 20 years these etchings and drawings have been hidden from me by my wife; and only since Mr. Forster has in his life of our great novelist mentioned my unfortunate connection with Chapman & Hall has a general rummage taken place by which these sketches were discovered. The sketch of Mr. Tupman and Miss Wardle in the arbour was also submitted to Messrs Chapman & Hall, and approved by them, upon which I proceeded to etch this subject.

As both subjects were on the same large steel plate, it became in this case as in the former, involved in th defective etching ground; for on trying to etch this subject I found the ground equally bad and had to give it up. My engraver friend also etched and bit in this subject. In this second etching he has lost the freedom of touch required on the figures; the landscape portion is nicely touched in, and the biting-in is well done. These two etchings were sent in good time by dint of very hard work to Messrs Chapman & Hall, thence to the printer, thence to the bookbinders.

These terminated any connection with Chapman & Hall directly, and indirectly with Dickens.

And now on taking leave of these gentlemen, I can only say that I am, after a lapse equal to the literary life of Charles Dickens, more than ever certain that I was ill-used by them. Disgusted at their treatment of me, I destroyed everything that came in any way that had any reference to the “Pickwick”. A vague impression was left on my mind that these etchings were abominably bad, and utterly devoid of promise or of hope. On again seeing them after so many years which have passed away since the painful transaction so frequently spoken of, I was surprised to find them so good. The engraved plate is really good, vastly superior to Mr. Browne’s efforts at first. The cricket match is well etched, freely touched, and for the subject selected, leaves little to be desired. The garden scene would have been better had the touch upon the figures possessed more freedom. The shading is very formal and wanting in painter like effect.

Both together they are as first efforts in a difficult and unpracticed branch of art, very much better than could have been expected, and really in many respects better than Mr. Browne’s first essays in etching. They are certainly not equal to the illustrations by Seymour; but then he had had a life devoted to comic design and to lithographic pen and ink drawing and in etching. On the contrary I had had 3 weeks practice at the most. I think perhaps the size of the figures might have been smaller, and with better effect for the subject; but the business of a designer is to fill his space as well as he can, and to do this it is not desirable to make the figures diminutive and to fill up with uninteresting details.

The truth is there was a senseless public lament because I was not Seymour; and had Mr. Browne been pushed into the gap as I was, he would have been “howled at” as I was. Had I been allowed to work my way as Mr. Browne was, and been supported by Chapman & Hall, I should have soon satisfied the public craving, as he has in time succeeded in doing.

When I state that the wretchedly ridiculous sum of 30/- ^[3] the etching fee^[4], was all the remuneration I was to realize for the work, I am sure that no one will deny that I simply undertook the work for honour and glory; certainly not because of the liberal pay! Did Dickens work for them at this rate? When Hall imparted to me this specimen of the liberality of their firm I expressed my surprise: but he assured me that Seymour received no more! I can only say that I do not wonder at Seymour, or any other unfortunate devil of an artist, blowing out his brains if he had any after such an experience of publisher’s pay! I am morally certain that Seymour’s suicide was precipitated by the incessant worry consequent upon the wretched sums not more than 10/- on an average, which he received for a design. In addition to his general engagements, he had undertaken to supply the Pickwick with four etched subjects every month, in good time for publishing day. Many of the designs he had prepared for his contemplated work were useless for the purpose, because we know from Dickens’ self, that finding the “Club” machinery hampered him in his writing, he cast it off as soon as possible, carrying Mr. Pickwick away from Islington, Goswell Street, and Cockneydom, to Rochester and into localities unknown to Seymour. If on any account copy be furnished late to the artist, as no doubt it was to Seymour, he is by that driven to work almost day and night to keep faith with the publishers and the public. Seymour had to produce fresh designs to meet Dickens’ description of Rochester, etc: this with other vexations incidental to the process of etching render it by no means difficult for an overworked brain to give way, and it’s unfortunate possessor to take refuge in suicide. Of the inner history of Seymour’s fate the public were ignorant.

Having sent in my first two illustrations, I resumed my painting till next month’s were due. Several days over the fortnight passed, when a curt note from Chapman & Hall informed me that they had placed the work in the hands of Mr. Hablot Browne! This was their mode of acknowledging the favour I had done them at their request! I had been unable to finish my picture in time for Exhibition. Did they suppose their beggerly 30/- was a recompense for this? I had had employment for Mr. Charles Knight for years, and in no case did he ever treat me in this inconsiderate and ungentlemanly way; and I was certainly greatly surprised and deeply hurt at this specimen of publishers’ generosity and sense of justice.

Besides Mr. Charles Knight I had had engagements for Mr. Bentley, Mr. Colburn, Messrs Saunders and Otley and other publishers of less rank. These have all kept their promises: It was reserved for Messrs Chapman and Hall to violate their words as gentlemen, and to treat me in a manner that I can only stigmatise as Brutal. I was advised to seek a remedy against them at law; but Hall was cunning enough to know that his promises in the name of firm were but verbal, made with me alone in my painting room, and so took a mean advantage of my unsuspecting compliance with their solicitations, knowing that I could prove nothing at law. I was so disgusted that no money compensation would have been acceptable. I simply snatched up all my etching instruments and hid them as soon as possible from my sight! Tearing up every scrap of drawing or etching that came under my hands! So much for Pickwick, and my engagement on that famous work!

After Seymour’s suicide the publishers were deluged with letters of condolence - of useless advice - offering to undertake the illustrations - of indignation at the reduction in the number of the etchings - and upon every imaginable subject that bore in the remotest degree upon Pickwick. The book was rapidly becoming famous, and everyone took an interest in it. Artists offered to do the illustrations for love, not for gain. Amongst these applicants were many of considerable reputation. W.M. Thackeray and Crowquill, besides Browne, Lee and others I heard of but have forgotten their names. Thackeray had practiced etching for some years, having taken lessons of my friend Mr. Roe, an engraver and printseller at Cambridge, while Thackeray was an undergraduate. Thackeray’s style was unsuitable, also Crowquill’s. Of Hablot Browne’s work under the assumed name of “Phiz”, it is unnecessary to speak - his designs speak for themselves.

Seymour during life received merely a journeyman carpenter’s wages; but when dead the public declared there never was his equal, and never would be. Granted that Chapman & Hall were in a difficulty; their two courses lay before them: to have asked me to relinquish the illustrations, and to have compensated me for my loss of time - or, to have stood fast by me till success attended my designs. Instead of which they unscrupulously did wrong to me and chanced the consequences. Mr. Browne was engaged without even the slightest notice to me. Mr. Browne has been placed with the Messrs Finden, engravers: but this work proving irksome and having a talent for a light touchy style of sketching, he abandoned line engraving for the more agreeable pursuit of free design: but having been in Finden’s studio, he was supposed to be well versed in the technicalities of etching, of biting in, stopping out, re-biting, burnishing, etc.

Now the whole affair of Seymour’s successor was really reduced to two men: myself and Browne. As to myself that I was treated harshly and hastily will appear from the etchings I made for Mr. Colburn not long after my disgraceful treatment by Chapman & Hall. I am ready to admit that my very first efforts were not quite satisfactory, but they were not so abominably bad as to justify Chapman & Hall’s conduct.

Mr. Browne had this advantage: the public sympathy for Seymour had subsided, their wrath had been expended upon me. Well: Mr. Browne produced his first etching. He had the advantage of a new character to delineate - the immortal Sam Weller. As far as the figure of Sam went it was good: but as an etching the drawing was thin and poor, besides being miserably etched: far worse than mine; much worse than I could do. The fact was he wanted, as I did, experience and practice. He could not successfully “bite in” the design. Accordingly my old friend Mr. Sands was called in to help and it was arranged that the plates should be polished, cleaned, and have the etching ground nicely laid and smoked with wax papers; and thus prepared sent to Mr. Browne to be etched: This he did; it was then delivered to Mr. Sands who carefully examined the work, and with etching point made the shades and various tints even, smoothing whatever might give a rough unfinished look to the etching when printed, and strengthening such parts as required such aid. This done, the acid was applied and the lines properly bitten-in: then came the delicate process of stopping out until the design had acquired strength - this done, the ground was melted off, the plate cleansed and sent for a proof to the printer’s. By this proof Mr. Sands proceeded to lay a re-biting ground and bite up certain portions to the required effect. The plate being again cleaned, and judicious touches with the graver put in, tints softened by burnishing to, the plate was again proved, and if satisfactory to Mr. Browne, was delivered to Chapman & Hall for printing. For this service, Mr. Sands was paid exactly what I was to receive for all the work; viz, 15/- for each design or 30/- for two subjects on one steel plate.

What Mr. Browne received I never heard; but I feel sure he did not work at the starvation prices paid to Seymour and me.

Mr. Browne’s point was to produce a light clever pencil sketch, which he traced on the etching ground and etched; after which he had no trouble. Why was not this attention paid to me? Just because of their conceit and vulgar offhand style of doing business. Upon such terms as they were obliged to accept from Mr. Browne, almost any artist could have supplied the illustrations. Assistance of this kind is not proclaimed by those who resort to it. Cruikshank and Seymour both have had assistance from practical biters-in; but they do not inform the public that such is the fact.

It is singular that I should have never made the acquaintance of Mr. Browne. But I have always admired his clever and spirited etchings, and cannot help thinking that those who have glorified Dickens might have bestowed some higher praise upon Phiz, for it is indisputable that much of Dickens’ popularity is due to the admirable way in which Phiz illustrated his works. Dickens was essentially of “the people”, and was at first pooh poohed by the “refined” portion of Society. But when they found him too great a lion to be dispised they attempted to “refine” him, and so managed to persuade him to slight his old friend Browne. Hence W. G. Cattermole was to be the “refined” illustrator of Master Humphrey’s Clock. The result was a failure and Browne was re-instated. For some years Dickens and Browne went on together. Then Mr. Marcus Stone was thrust in between; and the last work left unfinished by Dickens was illustrated as far as it went by some other “refined” artist.

The ungentlemanly treatment I received from Chapman & Hall was in a considerable degree compensated by an engagement to make a series of etching designs for “The Widow Married” by Mrs. Trollope. These I did upon far more liberal terms than the beggarly sum allowed by Chapman & Hall. Mr. Colbun kept his promises, and satisfaction resulted upon both sides. Engagements also with other publishers and authors were made.

As years rolled on, my connection with Pickwick has been touched upon by those who attempted the life of Dickens, often to my disadvantage. Of this I took no notice; but Forster in his “Life of Dickens” again alludes to the matter. So, for the first time I wrote to him to explain the true state of the case. He saw that I had been ill-treated. Whether in a 2^nd Edition of Dickens’ life, he will do me justice I know not: but he ought. One point of duty however I consider as only just to myself: i.e. as my children move in circles where these matters are alluded to, I am only doing what is simple justice to leave with them a complete and circumstancial account of the affair. I am, after all, sometimes amused to think how in time to come future bibliomaniacs will rave over a scarce copy of Pickwick having in it my two unfortunate etchings.

I have now done with the whole affair and with it’s unpleasant associations. I leave the matter with this quotation –

The original book^[5]contains 4 specimens of Seymour’s designs, etched by H. Wallis.

[1] The word looks like diablerces but may be diableries - Sorcery; witchcraft. /representation of devils or demons, as in paintings or fiction. / Devilish conduct; deviltry.

[2] “Speculations on the Source of the Hampstead Ponds, with some Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats;” Chapter 1, The Pickwickians.

[3] Monetary amount written in the old format for shillings.

[4] Handwriting unclear. Letters look like te or fe. Fee would make sense.

[5] The refers to the folio of prints from which Octavius Buss copied the handwritten statement of R.W.Buss.

Pickwick and its Illustrators

The Buss Story