132 



LIFE AND GENIUS OF GEORGE CRUIKSHAXK. 



figures sketched by Cruikshank, are those of men, women, and chil- 

 dren, with whom the spectator is perfectly familiar : he feels that 

 they are portraits, but cannot recollect of whom : he recognizes 

 " that nose," and " this eye ;" but cannot for the moment tell to 

 whom they belong. A proud and brutal, yet foolish face, the Glas- 

 gow man is certain belongs to one of the contemptable fellows who 

 bring flocks of geese to the market by their red-rag ; my lord thinks 

 it resembles somebody with whom he has dined, at a party of bro- 

 ther borough-mongering Peers, in " the good old days" at any rate, 

 he is confident that the face exists on his once side of " the House." 



Yet, we can confidently assert, that George never keeps a note- 

 book and rarely takes a sketch from nature. His elder brother 

 Robert, books every queer head " he comes across." George, how- 

 ever, trusts to the ample stores of memory. Even that felicitous por- 

 trait of Rounding, the Epping Huntsman, which is recognized at a 

 glance, by every Cockney sportsman who has paraded his white 

 cords and hired hack, at the Easter Hunt, was drawn " at sixty days 

 after sight/' Here is the jolly old Cock of the Woods." 



That droll drawing up of the mouth that roguish [and appreci- 

 ating twinkle of the eye that well-filled waistcoat those indispensa- 

 bles are all true. He sits before us, just as he did on the day when 



