Costigan, Becky, Emmy, Lord Steyne, as no one else could have drawn them.
But he had not beheld the creations of Boz in the same light of
imaginative vision. Sometimes, too, it must be allowed that Mr.
Thackeray drew very badly. His "Peg of Limavaddy," in the "Irish Sketch
Book," is a most formless lady, and by no means justifies the enthusiasm
of her poet. Thus the task of illustrating "Pickwick" fell to Mr.
Browne, and he carried on the conceptions of his predecessor with
extraordinary vigour. The old vein of exaggerated caricature he
inherited from the taste of an elder generation. But making allowance
for the exaggeration, what can be better than Mr. Pickwick sliding, or
the awful punishment of Stiggins at the hands of the long-suffering
Weller? We might wish that the young lady in fur-topped boots was
prettier, and indeed more of a lady. But Mr. Browne never had much
success, we think, in drawing pretty faces. He tried to improve in this
respect, but either his girls had little character, or the standard of
female beauty has altered. As to this latter change, there can be no
doubt at all. Leech's girls are not like Thackeray's early pictures of
women; and Mr. Du Maurier's are sometimes sicklied o'er with the pale
cast of an aesthetic period.

It is probable that the influence of Mr. Browne's art reacted in some
degree on Dickens. In the old times every one whom the author invented
the artist was pretty certain to caricature. Thus the author may have
felt the temptation to keep pace with the frolic humour of the artist.
Mr. Browne cannot be blamed for a tendency to exaggerate noses and other
features, which was almost universal in his time. None of us can say
what conception would now be entertained of Dickens's characters if Mr.
Browne had not drawn them. In the later works of Dickens (when they were
illustrated) other artists were employed, as Mr. Stone and Mr. Fildes.
These are accomplished painters of established reputation, and they of