Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/167

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Mayhew
153
Mayhew

Reader's Manual,' Lond. 1874, 8vo.
  1. 'Treaties between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers,' 1877, 8vo.
  2. 'The Chinese Government,' Shanghai, 1878, 8vo.

In 1867, with N. B. Dennys and Lieutenant Charles King, he wrote 'The Treaty Ports of China,' and in 1877 translated the 'Pekin Gazette' for that year, Shanghai, 1878, 8vo. His official report on 'The Famine in the Northern Provinces of China' was published as a parliamentary paper. In 1861 he became fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; he was also a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, to whose 'Journal' in 1869 he contributed a paper on the 'Lamaist Septem in Tibet.' He was a constant contributor to periodical publications, especially the 'China Review,' published at Shanghai, and rendered valuable service to the British Museum by procuring for its library one of the few existing copies of the 'Imperial Encyclopedia of Chinese Literature' in 5,020 volumes.

[Works in Brit. Mos. Library; Journal of Royal Asiatic Society; Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, 1878, pp. 326-7; Times, 6 May 1878.]

A. F. P.

MAYHEW, AUGUSTUS SEPTIMUS (1826–1875), author, born in 1826, was seventh and youngest son of Joshua Dorset Joseph Mayhew, attorney, of 26 Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, who died in 1858, and was brother of Henry and Horace Mayhew, both of whom are separately noticed. Like his brothers he devoted himself to literature from an early age, and in conjunction with his brother Henry he produced many popular works of fiction. The best remembered is 'The Greatest Plague of Life, or the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant,' 1847, which displays much humour and power of acute observation, but is now chiefly sought after for Cruikshank's excellent plates [see for other joint writings under Mayhew, Henry]. A Dutch version appeared at Amsterdam in 1858. 'Paved with Gold, or the Romance and Reality of the London Streets,' 1857, and 'Faces for Fortunes,' 1805, 3 vols., are the best of his separate writings, which also include 'Kitty Lamere, or a Dark Page in London Life,' 1855; 'The Finest Girl in Bloomsbury,' a serio-comic tale of ambitious love, 1861; 'Blow Hot, Blow Cold,' a love story, 1862.

With Henry Sutherland Edwards he was joint author of six dramatic pieces: 'The Poor Relation,' 1851; 'My Wife's Future Husband,' 1851; 'A Squib for the Fifth of November,' 1851; 'The Goose with the Golden Eggs,' a farce, Strand Theatre, 1 Sept. 1859; 'Christmas Boxes,' a farce, Strand, 1860; and 'The Four Cousins,' a comic drama, Globe Theatre, May 1871. He also wrote for 'The Comic Almanac,' 1845-53, which he edited from 1848-50, and contributed to 'The Boy's Birthday Book,' by Mrs. S. C. Hall and others, 1859.

He resided at 7 Montpelier Row, Twickenham, but died in the Richmond Infirmary, whither he had gone to undergo an operation for hernia, on 25 Dec. 1875. He was buried in Barnes cemetery 30 Dec. He left an only son, Richard Mayhew.

[Academy, 1 Jan. 1876, p. 8; Era, 2 Jan. 1876, p. 15; Hodder's Memories of My Time, 1870, pp. 62–5; Times, 28 Dec. 1875 p. 7, 30 Dec. p. 6.]

G. C. B.


MAYHEW, EDWARD (1570–1625), Benedictine. [See Maihew.]

MAYHEW, HENRY (1812–1887), author, was the son of Joshua Dorset Joseph Mayhew, a London attorney, and was born in 1812. He was educated at Westminster School, though not on the foundation (see F. H. Forshall, Westminster School, p. 329), but ran away under some sense of ill-usage, and, going to sea, made the voyage to Calcutta. On his return he was articled to his father for three years, but soon abandoned law for literature. His first venture was the publication, along with Gilbert a Beckett, of 'Figaro in London,' a weekly periodical, (1831-39), and in 1832 he started 'The Thief,' the earliest of the great crowd of paste-and-scissors journals. He began his career as a dramatist with 'The Wandering Minstrel,' at the Royal Fitzroy Theatre, 16 Jan. 1834, a one-act farce, in which was introduced the well-known cockney song, 'Yillikins and his Dinah.' In 1838 his farce 'But However,' written in collaboration with Henry Baylis, and dedicated to Benjamin Wrench, was produced at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, 30 Oct. Contrary to general belief, he did not collaborate with his brother Horace [q. v.], but, along with his brother Augustus Septimus [q. v.], he wrote in 1847 'The Greatest Plague of Life,' and a fairy tale, 'The Good Genius; in 1850, 'The Image of his Father' and 'Acting Charades;' and in 1870, 'Ephemerides, or the Comic Almanack;' and with Athol Mayhew he wrote a three-act comedy 'Mont Blanc,' adapted from Labiche and Martin's 'Voyage de M. Perrichon.' He is, however, best known as one of the originators and for a short time joint editor of 'Punch,' in 1841, and as the first to strike out the line of philanthropic journalism which takes the poor of London as its theme. His principal work, in which he was assisted by John Binny and others, was 'London Labour and