GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, Artist, Designer, Etcher, Painter. Born at No. -- Duke Street, St. George's, Bloomsbury, London on September 27th, 1792. Died at 263, Hampstead Road, St. Pancras, London, on February 1st, 1878. Aged 86 years.
In memory of his Genius and his Art, His matchless Industry and worthy Work For all his fellow-men, This monument Is humbly placed within this sacred Fane By her who loved him best, his widowed wife. Eliza Cruikshank, Feb. 9th, 1880.
A sketch of his life has been written by Walter Hamilton, under the title of "George Cruikshank, Artist and Humourist." (London: Elliot Stock, 1878.) William Bates, B.A., M.R.C.S., wrote "George Cruikshank, the Artist, the Humourist, and the Man, with Some Account of his Brother Robert." (Birmingham: Houghton & Hammond, 1878.) Blanchard Jerrold wrote "The Life of George Cruikshank." (London: Chatto & Windus, a new edition with eighty-four illustrations, 1883.) An able article contributed to the _Westminster Review_, by William Makepeace Thackeray, has been reproduced in book form by George Redway, London (1884). Some time ago the following appeared in a newspaper:--One day while Dr. B. W. Richardson was engaged at his house with an old patient who had been away many years in India, George Cruikshank's card was handed to the doctor. "It must be the grandson, or the son, at any rate, of the great artist I remember as a boy," said the patient. "It is impossible that George Cruikshank of Queen Caroline's trial-time can be alive!" The doctor asked the vivacious George to come in. He tripped in, in his eighty-fourth year, and, when the old officer expressed his astonishment, George exclaimed, "I'll show you whether he is alive!" With this he took the poker and tongs from the grate, laid them upon the carpet, and executed the sword dance before Dr. Richardson's astonished patient.
At the east end of the High Street, Portsmouth, and nearly opposite the house before which the Duke of Buckingham was stabbed by Felton, in 1628, stands the Unitarian Chapel. John Pounds habitually worshipped here on a Sunday evening, and the place where he used to sit, in front of one of the side galleries, just to the right of the minister, is still pointed out. He lies buried in the graveyard, on the left-hand side of the chapel, near the end of the little foot-path which leads round the building to the vestries. Shortly after his death a tablet was placed in the chapel, beneath the gallery, to his memory. Although his grave was dug as near as possible to that part of the chapel wall opposite where he used to sit, yet this tablet was, apparently without any reason, put some distance away from the spot. In shape and material it is of the usual orthodox style--a square slab of white marble, edged with black, and inscribed on it are the words:--