Chapter I: Front Matter

Phil May

Sketches from

“PUNCH.”

Phil May

Sketches from

“PUNCH.”

LONDON:

“Punch” Office, 10, Bouverie Street, E.C.

Bradbury, Agnew & Co., Ltd.,
Printers,
London and Tonbridge.

Phil May.

_Born, April 22, 1864._ _Died, August 5, 1903._

If the death of PHIL MAY is a loss that the world of art may not soon retrieve, to his wide circle of friends it is an irreparable hurt. He had a nature made to love; so great a charm of gentleness and unaffected modesty went with his splendid gifts. The hard times of early life, that helped him in his art, as they helped another Filippo, to “learn the look of things,” left their trace, too, in the almost reckless generosity he showed for the needs of others. Less careful for himself, he suffered as a man must suffer who has a heart too quickly responsive to the claims of good fellowship always to distinguish in others between friendship and mere _camaraderie_. Among his colleagues at the Table he inspired a personal affection not less frank and sincere than their admiration, never even faintly tinged with envy, for the genius from which they caught a reflected pride. Their only jealousy was of the happy possessor of the latest of those delightfully spontaneous sketches which he used to make on the backs of the _Punch_ Dinner menus. These gifts are treasured still more dearly now, along with many unrecorded memories that linger about his vacant place.

OWEN SEAMAN.

_From_ “PUNCH,” _August 12th, 1903_.

Contents

PAGE. FROM “PUNCH.”

=“And _she_ ought to know!”= 2 _October 14th, 1893._

=Self-Criticism= 3 _April 4th, 1896._

=The Finishing Touch= 4 _August 18th, 1894._

=Q. E. D.= 5 _September 1st, 1894._

=The Plunger= 6 _December 15th, 1894._

=An Important ’Junction= 7 _September 22nd, 1894._

=Wasted Efforts= 8 _May 25th, 1895._

=A Sunday Dinner= 9 _July 27th, 1895._

=Blasé= 10 _July 7th, 1894._

=Much Ado= 11 _September 14th, 1895._

=A Soft Answer= 12 _February 23rd, 1895._

=Not what he meant= 13 _X’mas Number, 1894._

=Pickings from Picardy= 14 _September 7th, 1895._

=Botany; or, a Day in the Country= 15 _April 6th, 1895._

=A Model= 16 _December 14th, 1895._

=A Lecture in Store= 17 _February 16th, 1895._

=A Sketch from Life= 18 _September 21st, 1895._

=A Gourmand= 19 _June 1st, 1895._

=So _that_ doesn’t count= 20 _July 13th, 1895._

=A Special Pleader= 21 _April 20th, 1895._

=A Natural Query= 22 _March 21st, 1896._

=Inappropriate= 23 _January 25th, 1896._

=A Sketch near Piccadilly= 24 _October 10th, 1896._

=A Threat misplaced= 25 _April 11th, 1896._

=Obvious= 26 _July 25th, 1896._

=An Awkward Admission= 27 _July 11th, 1896._

=A Homely Test= 28 _July 24th, 1897._

=At a Literary and Artistic Banquet= 29 _May 8th, 1897._

=Notes of Travel= 30 _October 23rd, 1897._

=Sending-in-Day at the R.A.= 31 _April 10th, 1897._

=From Dottyville= 32 _August 21st, 1897._

=Another from Dottyville= 33 _July 2nd, 1898._

=Jam satis= 34 _March 14th, 1900._

=Petticoat Lane= 35 _Almanack, 1898._

=Feline Impressions= 36 _May 21st, 1898._

=An Awakening= 37 _May 7th, 1898._

=Poor Letter H= 38 _February 26th, 1898._

=Disadvantages of Performing at a Country House in the Wasp Season= 39 _January 29th, 1898._

=Art in Whitechapel= 40 _May 1st, 1897._

=The National Sporting Club, London= 41 _Almanack, 1898._

=Flippancy= 42 _September 3rd, 1898._

=A Rejoinder= 43 _April 2nd, 1898._

=An Injured Innocent= 44 _June 18th, 1898._

=Notes from Mr. Punch’s Foreign Sketch-book= 45 _December 3rd, 1898._

=Critics from the Quartier Latin= 46 _January 25th, 1899._

=’Arry in ’Olland= 47 _September 6th, 1899._

=Mistrust= 48 _November 8th, 1899._

=An Unexpected Reply= 49 _March 8th, 1899._

=“The Grey Mare”= 50 _February 15th, 1899._

=At a Garden Party= 51 _August 9th, 1899._

=The Very Latest Discovery= 52 _March 29th, 1899._

=Christmas comes but once a year= 53 _December 27th, 1899._

=Malapropos= 54 _June 7th, 1899._

=Overheard at a Country Fair= 55 _September 27th, 1899._

=Convincing= 56 _September 13th, 1899._

=Overheard on the Steps of the Army and Navy Stores= 57 _April 19th, 1899._

=Eureka!= 58 _January 10th, 1900._

=A Soliloquy= 59 _January 3rd, 1900._

=A Breezy Customer= 60 _September 5th, 1900._

=A Misunderstanding= 61 _November 21st, 1900._

=Graphic= 62 _March 7th, 1900._

=Hard Lines= 63 _June 6th, 1900._

=From Erin’s Isle= 64 _April 25th, 1900._

=Mafeking Night= 65 _May 30th, 1900._

=Another way of putting it= 66 _December 4th, 1901._

=An Artless Query= 67 _December 25th, 1901._

=Not a Water Drinker= 68 _January 23rd, 1901._

=A Connoisseur= 69 _January 9th, 1901._

=On the Village Green= 70 _September 18th, 1901._

=“An Englishman’s House,” &c.= 71 _October 23rd, 1901._

=Self-satisfied= 72 _February 27th, 1901._

=Another Mr. Weller= 73 _February 13th, 1901._

=Another from Ireland= 74 _September 4th, 1901._

=Vanitas= 75 _November 27th, 1901._

=Brothers in Art= 76 _February 26th, 1902._

=The New Play= 77 _November 19th, 1902._

=Quite Another Thing= 78 _December 10th, 1902._

=A Big Order= 79 _March 19th, 1902._

=Indirect Oration= 80 _April 9th, 1902._

=Beginning Early= 81 _February 12th, 1902._

=Candid= 82 _March 26th, 1902._

=A Different View= 83 _April 23rd, 1902._

=Paradoxical= 84 _August 20th, 1902._

=Dottyville again= 85 _February 19th, 1902._

=Awkward= 86 _January 29th, 1902._

=An Unpopular Idol= 87 _December 24th, 1902._

=An Empty Embrace= 88 _September 17th, 1902._

=Overheard outside a famous Restaurant= 89 _February 5th, 1902._

=Unexpected Effect= 90 _November 12th, 1902._

=Reckoning him up= 91 _January 8th, 1902._

=Shakespeare Illustrated (_Hamlet_,