CRUIKSHANK

to 'Sir', ending unfinished on Side 1, followed on Side 2 by a list of things to do and people to contact, Cruikshank apologises that your letter of the 25th of last month came to hand... my hands were so full... all I could do was to read it and lay it upon the table with many others..., followed by faint pencil, he continues in ink which although good feeling exists on the part of all parties - it requires... to have cemented those bonds of union & friendship between [members] of the different classes of society - & which I believe only require a proper confidence to carry into effect, this suggests that the letter concerns one of the humanitarian causes he was increasingly involved in, chiefly the temperance movement, which is reinforced on Side 2 by such names as Cobden and in particular Dickens, with whom he had had such a close relation as his most famous illustrator, but, as a 'moderationist' as regards alcohol, was concerned that Cruikshank was overdoing total abstinence, other entries are Steel plates / Etchings ground / British Gallery /... Write to George /... Coal / Boots / Umbrella..., and, not least, Uncle Toms [Cabin] which had created a furore in America this present year, and which Cruikshank illustrated for Cassell's, one of many competing editions in the UK, finally in pencil he writes 'History of a Leaf', and MAG in large decorative capital letters, 2 sides tall 8vo., 48 Mornington Place (later 263 Hampstead Road, N.W.1), 27th November