3-000-268 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Splendid Shilling", from "Poets' Wit and Humour", 1860. 'Altogether, the range of this selection is very extended, and the taste and humour which have guided it are everywhere apparent. The illustrations are in perfect keeping with the intention of the book. They are all admirably conceived and as admirably executed...[Shown here is] a sketch illustrating the passage in John Philip's poem of "The Splendid Shilling," which runs thus: "But I, whom griping penury surrounds, And hunger, sure attendant upon want, With scanty offals and small acid tiff (Wretched repast!) my meagre corpse sustain, Then solitary walk, or doze at home In garret vile, and with a warming puff Regale chill'd fingers, or from tube as black As winter-chimney or well-polish'd jet Exhale mundungus, ill-perfuming scent".' Illustration from "Poets' Wit and Humour" Selected by W. H. Wills. Illustrated with 100 Engravings from Drawings by Charles Bennett and George H. Thomas. (Bell and Daldy). Published in "Illustrated London News", 1860.