John Leech and other papers

yohn Leech. 53
' A Book oft Roses, ' The Six of Spades,' ' Hints to
Preachers' and just the other day 'Nice and her Neigh-
bours, all full — besides much else that is excellent in
sense, knowledge and feeling— of the best of ' heart-
easing mirth,' — with the generous purpose of aiding
him in a projected Memoir of John Leech ; ill health,
however, put a stop to this congenial labour (as well as
to much else), and this beautiful tribute of friendship
has remained for the last dozen years in an old box
among wood-blocks, proof-sheets, sketches, and other
disjecta membra of ' a book in progress.' As there is
small likelihood of the author carrying out his in-
tention, he trusts that the kind friend will forgive the
long delay that has intervened, and he is sure that
his readers will thank him for giving the sketch now
without the encumbrance of a commentary.
DE AMICITIA.
'Would you like to meet John Leech ?' said to me
a kindly friend and neighbour, in the spring-tide of
the year 1858.
There could only be one answer, ' Would a
famished pike like to meet a gudgeon?' seeing that
it had long been a chief yearning of my heart to
know one who had so often brought brightness into it.
Accordingly, upon one of the happiest days of the
Christian year, upon Easter Monday, I met Leech.
How well I remember the anxiety with which I