Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-08-23
ENGLISH HUMOR.
How the London "Puneh" OrigI-
mated,

London Society,"
Punch first saw light in Crane Court,
Fleet street, in the very house where the
first PARIS Life Fill was rolled into ex-
istence. Mr.. Herbert Ingraham latter
wards M. P. for his native town Of Bos-
ton, Lincolnshire) was then pushing I"
that well-knowH patent medicine, the
proprietorship of which Mark Lemon
eventually persuaded him to relinquish,
not only on the score of personal dig
nifty, but on moral grounds, and in the
interest of the Illustrated News.
The idea of Punch was the joint work
Of Henry Mayhem and Marx Lemon.
Mr.. Last says he first mentioned a pro-
posal for a comic and satirical journal.
Mr.. Holder says the idea originated
with Mr.. Mayhem, who mentioned it to
him. Mark Lemon always spoke of it
to me as the project of himself and
Mayhem. 1t is pretty certain, how
ever, that the first meeting took place
some time in June, l94l, at Mark Lemon S
house in Newcastle street, Strand. and
that Mr.. Last, the printer, and Mr.. Henry
Mayhem we're present Mr.. Lemon and
Mr.. Mayhem both undertook to commu.
nicate with writer's and artists. Mr.. Last
mentioned Mr.. Ebenezer Landells as
good engraver. A few days afterwards
meeting was held at the Edinburg Cas-
tie, in the Strand, at which Douglass
Jerrold, Henry May hew, Stirling Coyne,
Lsndells, the engrsver, and William
Newman and Archibald Henning
(artists) we're there Mr. Henry Bayliss
and Mr. Holder were present and look
ers-On. Several authors who did not
attend we're written to for contributions,
including Mr. Gilbert a'Beckett, II. P.
Grattan and w. H. Wills. 1t was ar
ranged that Mr.. Henning should be the
principal artist, and he was to have the
assistance of Mr.. Newman, Mr.. Brine
and NJ. Phillips. Mark Lemon had
drawn up the prospectus.
This was written on blue foolscap
paper. 1t was at first intended to call
the paper the Funny Dog, or, the Lon
don Charivari, allusion being made to
funny dogs with comic tales Mark
Lemon, it will be seen, had actually be-
gun the title, writing as far as the Fun;
but this was afterwards struck out and
Punch inserted The first idea, it
must be confessed on all hands,
like many other clever ideas, was
an adaptation from the French.
The second was agreed upon
the beginning and was discovered acci-
dentally like many greater inventions.
At the Edinburgh Castle meeting there
was the customary badinage that bright
ems the conversation of literary men.
Somebody suggested that the paper like
good mixture of punch, would be moth.
ing without fair modicum Of lemon,
when Henry Mayhem, beaming with de-
light, exclaimed, A capital idea Let
US call the paper Punch" There is
nothing new under the sun. Somebody
else then remembered that Douglass
Jerrold had once edited a paper called
the Penny Punch. CONSERVATION for
five minutes. The mystic spirit of
copyright cast its shadow over the meet
ing But on examination it turned out
to be only the shadow it has always been,
and the title of Punch was iearlessly
written down. This is Mr.. Lasts version
in the main and it was generally in
dorsed with only slight alterations over
cigar one summer day long ago, at the
late editor unostentatious cottage in his
favolite village of Crawley.