Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/338

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340
THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

of writing paper by Sir Gilbert, dated May, 1877. It is a Cavalier, "treated in a cavalier manner." Another clever drawing by the same artist, done a year later, represents an inn of the medieval era, with the landlord rushing out with the bill, at his heels a dog "of the Middle Ages" barking, and a knight galloping away on horseback, with his fingers extended, and very rudely placed in close proximity to his nose. It is called "Tick." Sir John Gilbert writes underneath, "The artist, anxious to serve and please his employer, has given to the subject suggested the grandest and most thoughtful care. In truth, it is one which calls for the deepest consideration, principally because of the novelty of the subject: never before has a gallant knight been so depicted. Let it not be seen. Hide it, destroy it—the designer is ashamed of it." The explanation of it all is written on the picture by its present owner: "Sent to me by Sir John Gilbert, R.A., in consequence of my Punch notice about his 'Ready' picture in Royal Academy, 1878, wherein I suggested that his next subject should be Tick.—F. C. B." Just then a wire-haired fox terrier, the property of one of Mr. Burnand's sons, rushes up as a reminder to note a couple of canine etchings by Harding Cox.


Danvers the dancer.
From a Sketch by John Tenniel.

Nearer in the direction of the conservatory is a black and white of Miss Dorothy Dene, by Sir Frederic Leighton, a delightful little group of Dutch children by G. H. Boughton, and hard by a couple of pictures, reproduced in these pages. They are reminiscences of Mr. Burnand's famous burlesque of Douglas Jerrold's nautical drama, "Black-Eyed Susan," which had a run of over four hundred consecutive nights at the Royalty Theatre. The first is by Fred Walker, and shows Fred C. Dewar as Captain Crosstree, and Miss Patty Oliver as the dark-eyed Susan (see next page). Their signatures are appended. In this burlesque a low comedy actor, who was a marvellously clever dancer also, named Danvers, played Dame Hatley. His feet moved at such a rate that when John Tenniel went to see it he chronicled the effect of the dancer's feet, as seen in the other drawing, writing below it—

Decr. 15, 1875.

Dear F. C. B.,
The sketch you see
Of Dame Hatley
In your comédie
Burlesq—u—e
Was sketched by me
From memorie.

Haste,
Yours,
J. T.

The drawing-room is a quiet, pretty apartment, lighted by a huge chandelier suspended in the