1921] on Chronicles of Cornhill 899 



and a large order was placed for distribution among the armies on 

 active service, where it was much sought after. In peace, it seems, 

 the reign of popular sensationalism spreads widest ; in war, it is 

 challenged by the yet cruder sensationalism of reality, and a larger pro- 

 portion of the public turn away to a finer art and a clearer atmosphere. 



To turn to another chapter of " Cornhill " history : the relation of 

 the editor or proprietor of the magazine to his contributors, and the 

 personality of the successive editors. Up to the early days of the 

 "Cornhill," writers of every kind, including many who may nowadays 

 be gibbeted as eminently Victorian, were far more unconventional 

 and Bohemian in their social ways than their latter-day critics. 



Thackeray, who had lived much in these irresponsible circles, 

 never lost a streak of this careless Bohemianism. When literary 

 business had to be transacted with George Smith, it could never be 

 so well done, he averred, as after a capital dinner at Greenwich, 

 animated by a bottle of his favourite brown hock at 15s. a bottle. 



These genial meetings were the germ, no doubt, of the occasional 

 dinners to a gathering of contributors. These "Cornhill" dinners 

 do not constitute a parallel to the weekly " Punch " dinners. The 

 latter consisted of the " Punch " staff ; they were preliminaries to 

 the work of making up the next number ; the former originally took 

 place every month at George Smith's house, but afterwards were held 

 at no regular interval, and their object was amenity, not business. 

 They formed a pleasant means whereby George Smith kept up with 

 old contributors, made acquaintance with the new, and brought old 

 and new into touch with one another in a manner which made for 

 the personal continuity of the "Cornhill" tradition. And as the 

 founder of the "Cornhill" began, so his successors followed. 



The only contemporary reference to these dinners is to be found 

 in a Roundabout Paper, " On Screens in Dining Rooms," a strong 

 but dignified rebuke to Edmund Yates, in later days the cynical 

 owner of " The World," who was at feud with Thackeray, and made 

 a spiteful attack upon the " Cornhill," Thackeray's magazine, and its 

 proprietor, Thackeray's friend, using a garbled story of what took 

 place on one of these private occasions. 



Thackeray left a deeper mark upon the " Cornhill " than the 

 shortness of his editorship might suggest. During the two and a 

 half years that he was editor, and the year and a half that followed, 

 his long novels and his many essays gave concrete form to a great 

 part of the original programme laid down in conjunction with 

 George Smith, and stood firm as an examplar to his successors. His 

 fellow-worker remained to watch over the fortunes of the " Cornhill " 

 for nearly forty years, and passed on his ideas unimpaired to his 

 successor, while Thackeray's own son-in-law, Leslie Stephen, was 

 editor for a decade or more. It is not too much to say that the 

 first impulse at the heart of the " Cornhill " continued essentially 

 through the years. 



