y>26 Mr. Leonard Huxley [June 3. 



The next point to settle was the name of the magazine. The 

 world was familiar with magazines named after their publishers. 

 There was " Blackwood's," the original " Maga " ; there were 

 "Colborn's Magazine" and "Chambers' Journal," and " Fraser's," to 

 name no more, while " Macmillan's," generated by the same wave of 

 opportunity that had suggested the " Cornhill," was in fact launched 

 a couple of months earlier than the " Cornhill." But the name of 

 Smith, Elder did not lend itself to such a title. Names of cities had 

 lent dignity to the "Edinburgh Keview," and the "Westminster" ;• 

 Thackeray pushed the notion a step further. The storehouse and 

 office of the magazine lay in Cornhill ; let it be named after its local 

 habitation, a name " with a sound of jollity and abundance in it." 

 The choice was sneered at as undignified ; nevertheless one magazine 

 after another has been proud to proclaim its association with some 

 historic point of London, from Temple Bar and Belgravia to 

 St. Paul's and the Strand . 



The cover was designed at Sir Henry Cole's suggestion by Godfrey 

 Sykes, then a promising art student in the newly established schools. 

 at South Kensington, other specimens of whose work are to be found 

 in the interior decorations of South Kensington Museum. As a work 

 of art it won universal admiration in I860, and if to-day we are 

 critical of its subsidiary parts and of its adaptation to practical 

 purposes, we are still conscious of the great beauty of its chief f eatures r 

 as well as its historical and traditional charm. 



The first number is elated January 1, 1860, but was actually- 

 issued before the preceding Christmas Day. The unprecedented sum 

 of £5000 had been spent on advertising it : its aims were set forth 

 in the form of a letter from Thackeray to G. H. Lewes, a miniature 

 essay on what such a magazine should be. Expectation was on 

 tip-toe; the debut of the "Cornhill" doubled George Smith's 

 estimate. Printed and reprinted, the first number reached the 

 unprecedented circulation of 120,000. George Smith, with his- 

 customary openhandedness, promptly doubled Thackeray's salary as 

 editor. Thackeray could not contain his enthusiasm : his spirits 

 boiled over, and to escape the excitement of London he dashed over 

 to Paris to stay a few days with his American friend, J. T. Fields,, 

 who has left an amusing description of the visit. 



It may be frankly avowed that this first flood of popular success 

 was not maintained, though the magazine redeemed the promises- 

 with which it set out, and which were neatly summed up in a verse: 

 of Father Prout's Inaugural Ode : — 



" With Fudge, or Blarney, or the Thames on fire 



Treat not thy buyer ; 

 But proffer good material — 



A genuine Ceieal, 

 Value for twelve pence, and not dear at twenty, 

 Such wit replenishes thy Horn of Plenty." 



