Thackeray in reference to this awkward question: "What would you give
for your _Punch_ without John Leech?" Then he asked the confraternity to
dinner,--_more Thackerayano_,--and the confraternity came. Who can doubt
but they were very jolly over the little blunder? For years afterwards
Thackeray was a guest at the well-known _Punch_ dinner, though he was no
longer one of the contributors.

[4] I had begun an Irish story and half finished it, which would reach
just the required length. Would that do, I asked. I was civilly told
that my Irish story would no doubt be charming, but was not quite the
thing that was wanted. Could I not begin a new one,--English,--and if
possible about clergymen? The details were so interesting that had a
couple of archbishops been demanded, I should have produced them.




CHAPTER II.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE AND PUNCH.


How Thackeray commenced his connection with _Fraser's Magazine_ I am
unable to say. We know how he had come to London with a view to a
literary career, and that he had at one time made an attempt to earn his
bread as a correspondent to a newspaper from Paris. It is probable that
he became acquainted with the redoubtable Oliver Yorke, otherwise Dr.
Maginn, or some of his staff, through the connection which he had thus
opened with the press. He was not known, or at any rate he was
unrecognised, by _Fraser_ in January, 1835, in which month an amusing