To return to George Cruikshank, who was now in the full tide of success and overwhelmed with commissions. It would be impossible here to give a complete list of his productions, but mention may be made of his illustrations to _Peter Schlemihl, the Man without a Shadow_, and to Grimm's _Popular Stories_ (1824), which were so much admired by Ruskin; of his Illustrations of _Phrenology_ (1826), which marks his first appearance as an independent author; the famous _Mornings at Bow Street_ (1815); the _Comic Almanac_, which began in 1835; the series of etchings for the _Sketches by Boz_ (1836), and those for _Oliver Twist_ in _Bentley's Miscellany_ (1839), which led to his claim that he had originated the story--a claim that naturally put an end to his connection with Dickens. In 1839 began a long series of illustrations for the novels of Harrison Ainsworth (1805-82), the editor of _Bentley's Miscellany_. Ainsworth was born at Manchester, and bred up to "the law," but on coming to London to finish his legal studies, he neglected his law books for literature. He attained his first success with _Rookwood_ in 1834, and in 1839 became editor of _Bentley's Miscellany_, in which his novel _Jack Sheppard_, with illustrations by Cruikshank, first appeared. In 1842 he started _Ainsworth's Magazine_, and engaged Cruikshank, who had quarrelled with Bentley, as illustrator-in-chief, at a salary of £40 a month. The engagement proved a fortunate one, resulting in the excellent designs to _The Tower of London_, _The Miser's Daughter_, _Windsor Castle_, and other novels, which Cruikshank himself described as "a hundred and forty-four of the very best designs and etchings I ever produced." The connection came to an end with the usual quarrel, Cruikshank claiming to have suggested the plot and characters of both _The Miser's Daughter_ and _The Tower of London_.
[Illustration: ADVENTURES IN A WHISKEY PARLOUR]
In 1847, Cruikshank was converted to teetotalism, and thenceforward laboured in the cause with almost fanatic zeal. It was in this year that he executed his famous group of eight designs called _The Bottle_, which was reproduced in glyphography, and circulated at a cheap price by temperance societies. In 1850 he was employed to illustrate the second edition of Smedley's successful novel _Frank Fairlegh_. Frank Smedley was born at Great Marlow in 1818, and, being crippled by a malformation of the feet, he was educated at a private tutor's instead of at a public school. He contributed his first story, _The Life of a Private Pupil_, to _Sharpe's Magazine_ in 1846-48, and a couple of years later it was published under the title of _Frank Fairlegh_. The book, in which Smedley's love of open-air life and sympathy with outdoor sports are strongly manifested, made a decided hit, and was followed during the next few years by _Lewis Arundel_ and _Harry Coverdale's Courtship_. Smedley has left an amusing account of his first interview with George Cruikshank, who, on seeing a cripple in a wheeled chair, could not conceal his wonder, but kept exclaiming, "Good God! I thought you could gallop about on horses." Smedley, who died of apoplexy in 1864, was editor of the ill-fated _Cruikshank's Magazine_, started in 1853, which only reached its second number.