JOHN LEECH" ARTIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 72

JOHN LEECH" ARTIST.

It was 40 yaars on the 29th of last October since England lost one of the greatest of h°.r oomic artists, John Leech. He was born in Benn^et street, off Stamford street, .at the Surrey side of the Thames, in -the private residence of his father, who kept an old-fashioned inn on Ludgate Hill, known as the London Coffee House. The latter, a handsome, joval Irishman, 'was a student of S'hakeapeare, who could roil off a score of the poet's lines from memory, could sketch in water-coloxirs, and tell the drollest of Hibernian stories. His social gifts and sympathetic ''personality made him many distinguished friends, among whom was the sculptor, Flaxman, who, in seeing John Leech, jun., at the age of three, drawing as he^a.t on his mother's lap, 1 declared that if the boy were allowed to -follow the bent of his genius, and was "not cramped" with lessons in drawing," he would astonish the world.— i — At Charterhouse. — j No doubt 'the father thought art a poor trade, for he deoided that his son should be a * doctor. By way of fitting him for this profession the lad, at the age of seven, was sent to the Charterhouse School, much to the grief of his gentle mother, who, that | she might daily oatoh a glimpse of her boy ■without interfering with. Ms studies, hired a room in a neighbour ing house, from the wirdow of which she daily watched him in tlvj playgrcaind She must at the same time have seen there another boy, li-er son's friend, who became famous as the author of "Vanity Fair." Thaokeray and Lech were together until the latter, when 16, was sent to Si. Bartholomew's Hospital, where his studies in anatomy were to help him in his later calling. Here lie met three other students, Gilbert a Beckett, Albert Sfl^jth, and Porcival Leigh, who gave up medicine for literature. — An Extraordinary Doctor. — An unhappy change in tbe circumstances of John Leech, sen., sent his son as assis Ifant to an eccentric medical practitioner at Hoxton. This man, Dr Whittle, had the muscles of a Hercules and the vanity of a child. An amateur athlete, he boasted of a magnifioa&iit physique*, and laid claim to b-j considered living embodiment of classio sculpture, seme semblance to the maimed figures of which might be concerted to him because of his broken nose. To pick up stones with his mouth as he ran throuisih the street 11 ' was not les3 a joy to himself than to his juvenile ra-gamuffin neighbours ; while he spent his plentiful leisure in trapping pigeons on, his roof. It wag probably before he married the stout ard consolable widow of a public-house-keeper, and, with biceps proudly showing tinder rolled- up shirt sleeves, sei-ved pots of beer, that his assistant made humorous drawings of London life, which, at the age of 18, he published under the title of "Etchings and Sketchings, by A. Pen, E=q" — Punch's Birthday. — i A little lafc&r. and tho town was roaring ' ever the first numbers of the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club." The artist who had so humorously illustrated the ' earh^v obapters> finding hfw intolerable.

committed suicide, when young Loech pro posed to oontinue the wo^k So did Thackeray. Both offers vvere declined in favour of "Phiz"— H. K. Browne. At the age of 19, Loeoh, who had given up nied.i:ne for art, wa* contributing to "Bell's Liie in London," and illustrating humorous books, thos© of his old friends, Gilbert a Beckett and Pereival Leigh, among others. But presently camew the chancs of his life. On July 17 1841, the first number of Punch was is°ued, and three weeks later Lcerfi's first sketch appeared in its pages, tVK! subject being 1 a grimy group of aliens. It was headed "Foreign Affairs," and had for signatuie a leech wriggling in a bottle. Fiom that date until his death he* was a constant contributor to Punch, from which ho leoeived in the ensuing. 23 years over J3< 1 0,000. Though over 6ft high, his figure was supple and graceful, his faoe-, with its lii?h blue-grey eyes, its wide forehead, and gentle, grave expression, was sympathetic and -winning. So was his manner, that gained hiir_ scores of friends and won him the woman of his heart. — Leech's Romance. — His wooin,g- was not without romance. One day, in the London streets, he was fascinated at first sight by a beautiful girl. Not daring tr address her, he followed her •o her home, made inquiries as to its inhabitants, and sough' an introduction to them. In' that way h.9 made the acquaintance of Miss Annie Eaton, who soon a.fter became his wife. Always highly nervous, Leech dreaded noi c e3, especially street oipans and German, bands. One of his earlier sketches in Punch had beneath it the words, "Wanted, by an aged lady ot a nervous temperament, a professor who will undertake to mesmerise all organs in her street. Salaiy, sc much an organ." With overwork his nerves became more strained. A blow was given to his health while he was visiting Oharles Dickens, at BoiKihurch, in 1849. Wh.il© bathing, Leech was struck by a wave in the forehead andi stunned — Victim of Noise. — He wa carried to bed still insensible, and "20 of his namesakes" were put en hig temples, as Dickens .vrote. Instead of recovering, the patient grew worse. - "The< night before k»st," writes Dickens t« Fcrster, "he was in such an ilarming state of restlessness, 'which nothing wO'iild relieve, that I proposed to Mrs Leech to try magnetism. Accordingly, in the middle "of the nigM, I fell to. a.nd after a very fatiguing bout of it put him to sleep for an hour and 35 minutes. A cban-ge came on in. the sleep, and he is deeidedlyi better. I talked to the astoumied Mrs Leech across him when he was asleep a- if he had been a trvss of hay." From this date his nerves became still mote ' unstrung, *iis suscepti-' blity to noi?es more intense. In the hopa cf escaping them he left his houre in Brunswick square' and took a residence in Kensington, which he fitted with double windows, only tc find that he was not only distracted by .organs and bands, but by th hamDKi of a neighbouring mechanic. When: friends laughed at his somplaints of noise, h-i assured them it would kill him, for he believed it accountable for the disease from which he agonic? — Snigina peetoris, or breast pain. Always inclined to melancholy, he said his death would be soon and sudden. Four days before it cams lie was present a+ the weekly Punch dinner. When be died, his son and daughter, whom he adored, were entertaining other children at a party down-staiis. All that was left of him vvas laid to rest at Kensal Green, clc?e beside the remains of his school-fellow aijd life-long friend. Thackeray, who had! died a few months previously. — T.P.s Weekly.