The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-07 00:00:00

Recent Wills and Bequests,

the materials with which he works, it would be difficult to
assign limits to the claims of John Leech to public recogni-
tion; but, if there are clearly-defined limits in which his
position may be fixed as an artist, let us remember that he
was a great teacher, as sensitive as he was humorous,
open to all genial and healthy influences, always steering
clear of sentimentality, on the one hand, and coarseness on
the other. He epitomised the life of his generation, seizing
with the true instinct of genius the types of the various
classes of which the community is composed. Nor was his
intuition ever at fault in the representations of any part of
the subject he selected for his sketch. He was Hogarthian
in the truth and meaning with which all the salient points
of the scene ho represented were touched; he was equally
at home in the hunting-field or at the seaside, in
a lady's boudoir or a costormonger's club, in the park or
on a cab-rank, in the kitchen or in the nursery; and the
atmosphere, as it were, of each was expressed by a few
mysterious touches which 'give the sense of dulness or of
brightness, of summer breezes or of autumnal glooming.
Of his humour it is almost unnecessary to speak, because
it is just that part of his nature which was widely, almcst
universally, appreciated. But, although he was one of the
greatesthumorists of this or of any age, his faculty was always
restrained, so to speak, by the presence of a genial sympathy.
He struck at all our follies, vices, affectations, and conceits
—but with no cynical arm, and in no misanthropical spirit.
He held the " mirror up to nature ;" and in it we might tee
ourselves reflected, and take the truth to our hearts that there
were classes and conditions of life; in' this society of ours,
besides our own supreme individualities and cliques, the
existence of which may serve to teach a lesson as well as
to provoke a laugh ; and that such reflections can be sug-
gested by sketches in which the lessen is veiled behind tho
fun is the sign of a power of which, as far as we know.
Hogarth is, in another manner, the only previous example.
How John Leech passed from the rank of a caricaturist into
that of an artist may best be seen by a reference to the
back numbers of runch. The pages of this periodical con-
tain the chief records of his artistic life ; and his death will
prove, it is to be feared, an irreparable loss to those with
whom he had been so long associated. The sketches which
he produced twenty years ago bear witness to the inborn
faculty—the native humour which found its vent in a
prof.esion for the exercise of which he had never been
clualifiod by cduoEstion, yot ba wbiob, wii6 a soma, 1...-
stinct, he at once cultivated and restrained his powers,
to the end that he might attain the greatest pos
Bible results within the restricted bounds which the limited
materials at bis command imposed. In all his earlier
sketches the humour is paramount, and it is expressed by
means of that exaggeration of drawing and character which
distinguish the mere caricaturist; but with this position, a
native-born artist like John Leech could never rest con-
tent; and we find that he gradually but surely advanced
to a higher level, ever progressing, and never so great as at
the time of his death—his lamented death at the early age
of forty-seven, in the full brightness of his powers, cut
down, as it were, like a tree full of sap, and bearing
fruit a hundredfold. We may easily count the living
artists who may fairly be said to take a higher position
than John Leech. Seen in one aspect, he takes pre •
eminence of all, for he has rescued his generation
from oblivion. A collection of his works will be for
our childen's children a record of our customs, our habits,
our fashions, our social relations, and even our figure of
speech. We shall speak again through him to those who
shall come after ns; and, in this view, his versatility and
the multitude of his productions leave little room for the
regret that has sometimes been expressed that such rare
faculties should not have found a worthier medium of ex-
pression than rough woodcuts in the pages of Punch. It is
as an artist, even more than as a humorist, that John Leech
is rightly appreciated among his brethren, and it would be
well that the public at largo should understand fully the
greatness of the loss that we deplore. The difference be-
tween his drawings and those of his imitators is one of kind
and net only one of degree. He did not merely reproduce
a street incident selected for the illustration of a bit of
popular slang, or a hunting-field in order to depict
the scrapes of a Mr Briggs, or a Scotch salmon river
or hill side on purpose to set forth in a ridiculous
light the accidents to which sporting tourists are liable ;
such incidents he took, indeed, for his subjects, and deli-
neated them with wonderful truth and inexhaustible
humour ; but they are also set forth with a graphic power
that places the author in the first rank among the artists of
his time. There is now no one left among us who can re-
present not merely the incidents and humour of a hunting-
field, but who can, as it were, carry us into the field with
him—make us partakers in the excitement of the sport
and sensitive to the very atmosphere of the scene; there is
no one left who can set before us the real aspect of an Eng.
lish or Continental watering•place so that we instinctively
recognise its truthfulness, and this not merely in one or two
particulars, but as a whole—the bright sun!ight, the move-
ment of the sea, the scudding clouds, being all suggested
by a few scratches which ho knew how to make infi-
nitely suggestive, The images of the persons and of the
things he represented were photographed on his brain, and
his drawings were representations of real living people en-
gaged in the pursuit of business or pleasure, and not of a
mere collection of models brought together to act parts
according to the common recipe of pinturp_making. In his
keen observation, which nothing escaped, and in the power
of retaining and turning the fruits of it to account, lay the
secret of his influence and his success, His active brain
seems latterly to have acted upon his nerves, and he was
unable to sleep or rest ; and, though he had been ailing for
some time, he died unexpectedly and suddenly at his own
house on Saturday evening ,about 7 o'clock. He has re-
joined his old friend and schoolfellow Thackeray, and we
are left to mourn his less, and to recall the shadow of the
grave, gentle face and dignified presence that have vanished
from amongst us like a dream.
THE EXAMINEU.—After four-and-twenty years of ser-
vice to the public, John Leech is now resting from his
labour. Death only could take the pencil from his busy
hand. There had been no pause in the genial current of
his wit, His health had failed, he had been to see his doc-
tor on the previous day, but last Saturday evening there
was a children's party in his house, and he died then with
the voices of the children in his ears. Upon them, and
upon all that is good and graceful and belongs to the true
cheerfulness of life, he had laid a loving touch in all his
work. He found his place in the world early, went straight
to it, and held by it firmly to the last. He was not to be
tempted into a second seat at what was thought a higher table
of the oil painters. Among them, however good his work, he
could have had little influence on the main body of his coun-
trymen. Knowing thevalue and use of his skill as a caricatu-
rist of the follies of the day he waged a wholesome war against
that which Fielding at the outset of his own career de-
clared to be the only fit subject of ridicule, affectation;
provoking laughter against all forms, whether in child
or man, of the endeavour to appear what one is not. But
always it was a kindly laughter of good fellowship, telling
many a truth whimsically and wisely in few strokes of
simple outline, through which he seemed to express cha-
racter, and criticise it too, in every light turn of the hand
that answered with so wonderful an aptitude to each
directing movement of his wit. He drew, indeed, 'vin-
dictively when he attacked the organ grinders by whom
his sensitive brain was tortured, and by whom he was
driven out of a comfortable house in Brunswick-square to
the doubtful quiet of Kensington. How much distress he
suffered from their discordant grinding noise was tol
only too truly wo now feel, in Mr Mark Lemon's
letter addressed to Mr Buss, when he was about to
bring into Parliament his bill for the regulation
of street music (already published in Ihe k'un).

(Front the illustrated London News.)
Tho will of Admiral the Right Hon. George, r.oic
dogan, C,8., of Stanton Downham, Suffolk, and 131, J-0
dilly, was proved in her Majesty's Court of Probate °
19th ult., by the Hon. Frederick William Cadogan,
and Lady Augusta Cadogan and Lady Honoria
Cadogan, the daughters. The personalty was s'
£35,000. His lordship executed his will in 1861, a`
a codicil in 1862, and died on the 17th September
the age of 81. After leaving some tokens of rem(
to his sons and daughters, his lordship disposes of
perty in trust for his two daughters for their lives,
their decease to be transferred to his son Fredericic 6
lately. To Mrs Hill, the confidential servant of
Countess, is left a legacy of £l,OOO, together with 11110'
ship's gold watch. Liberal legacies are also left
steward and valet, an annuity of £2O to his upper
servant, and one year's wages to his other servants'
legacies to be paid free of legacy duty.
The will of Sir H, L. Yea, of Taunton St. Marl
len, Somerset, was proved in the London Court by
Fry, Esq., Taunton, the sole executor. Sir Henry ,
recently succeeded to the title on the death of his '
the late baronet. Sir Henry executed his will on
last, the week preceding his death, and died at the al
He has bequeathed to his nephew, the Rev. B. •
M.A., his Bruton Turnpike Bonds. To his godchild,
Fry (the son of.his executor), he leaves £lOO ; and
a few other legacies to the executor's children and
vants. The residue, real and personal, he leaves =
cuter "in testimony and grateful acknowledgment
great care and attention he has uniformly paid m 0
to him during the many years he had lived with
The will of Mr F. Robson, described therein as
Frederick Brownhill, more commonly known as
Thomas Robson, comedian," 19, Atupthill-square,
stead-road, was proved in the London Court, on
October, by the executors, Charles Brookes,
Mount-street, Lambeth, surgeon, and Wm.
Clement's Inn, Strand. The personalty wags M.'
£6,000. The will was brought into court by 1'
Esq., solicitor, of New Inn, Strand. The signature
—Thomas Frederick Brownhill—appears to be
written. The attesting witnesses are H. C.Andreo
Oakley-square, and T. Dignam, solicitor, Sise-lan'
The will is dated May 18, 1863, and he died cal thf•
August last, in his 43d year. He bequeaths all PI
ture, the lease of his house, Ampthill-square,
estate and interest in the Olympic Theatre, and
investments, in trust ',for his wife and two
bequeathing to his wife, Rosetta Frances, an
legacy of £lOO, and an interest to be derived frora :10 0
perty during her life or widowhood, and aftervit,r..o
equally divided between their son and daughter,
and Frances Brownbill.

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