[Illustration: MR. JORROCKS' LECTURE ON "UNTING"]
The success of the _Jaunts and Jollities_, and of Egan's _Finish to Life in London_, suggested, it is said, to Messrs. Chapman and Hall the idea of a work which should deal with the adventures of a club of Cockney sportsmen, and serve as a vehicle for the humorous designs of Robert Seymour. Leigh Hunt and Theodore Hook were asked, in the first instance, to supply the letterpress; but, on their refusal, the young Charles Dickens, then (1835) just three-and-twenty, and only known as the author of some amusing sketches, was chosen to act as the literary illustrator of the work. Dickens rejected the idea of a sporting club, though he so far deferred to the publishers' suggestions as to create the immortal Pickwick Club, into which Mr. Winkle was introduced expressly for the exploitation of Seymour's peculiar talent. The young author also stipulated that, instead of being expected to "write up" to the artist's designs, he should be allowed a free hand with the letterpress, the illustrations being allowed to arise naturally out of the incidents described in the text. On 26th March 1836 it was announced that the first number of _The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club_ would be published on the 30th, the work to be issued in shilling monthly parts under the editorship of "Boz," each part being illustrated with four etchings on steel by Seymour. Robert Seymour (1800?-36) had already made his name as a caricaturist and book-illustrator. He had published a volume of humorous sketches (mostly dealing with sporting misadventures), and had been employed to illustrate _Bell's Life_ and _Figaro in London_. For _Pickwick_ he prepared seven illustrations, of which four appeared in the first part. Whether from overwork, or from the fact that his often hasty sketches did not invariably give satisfaction to his employers, Seymour was in a depressed state of mind at this time, and on 20th April, just before the publication of the second number of _Pickwick_, he committed suicide by shooting himself through the head with a fowling-piece.
In consequence of this catastrophe, the second number came out with only three plates, and an apology to the public. In their dilemma the publishers invited Robert William Buss (1804-75), a young artist of some promise, to take up Seymour's work. Buss, who was the son of an engraver, had studied under George Clint, A.R.A., and had been employed to illustrate Cumberland's _British Theatre_. He was also an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, where his most successful works had been in a humorous genre. Buss consented to lay aside his Academy picture and undertake the illustrations to _Pickwick_: but as time pressed, and he was ignorant of the art of etching, he put the two first designs into the hands of a professional etcher. The result was unfortunate, since, although the technical part of the work was well executed, the free touch of the original was entirely wanting, and Buss's name appeared to designs, not one stroke of which was on the plates. While the artist was busy designing other, and, as he hoped, more successful illustrations, he received his dismissal from the publishers, who were dissatisfied with the specimens already submitted to them. Although he admitted that his first two plates were "abominably bad," Buss was much aggrieved at this treatment, having been promised every consideration from the publishers on account of his ignorance of etching, and the haste with which the earlier designs had to be prepared. Later he became known as a popular book-illustrator, executing plates for the novels of Mrs. Trollope, Captain Marryatt, and Harrison Ainsworth; while, towards the end of his career, he issued an elaborately-illustrated work on English graphic satire.