Randolph Caldecott

Randolph Caldecott, the son of an accountant in Chester, was born in that city on the 22nd of March, 1846, and educated at the King's School, where he became the head boy. He was not studious in the popular sense of the word, but spent most of his leisure time in wandering in the country round. Thus, his love of sport and fondness for rural pursuits, which never forsook him, were evidenced at an early age. His artistic instincts were also early developed, and many treasured sketches, models of animals, &c., cut out of wood, were produced in Chester by the boy Caldecott.

Perhaps the best and most characteristic record of his early life is, that he and his brother were "two of the best boys in the school;" the genius that consists in "an infinite faculty for taking pains" having much to do with his after career of success.

First Clerk-"Got Jones' Ledger?"

Second Do. (Newly Married)-"Yes, Love!"

"Coom, then."

In 1861 Caldecott was sent to a bank at Whitchurch in Shropshire, where, for six years, he seems to have had considerable leisure and opportunity for indulging in his favourite pursuits. Here, living at an old farm-house about two miles from the town, he used to go fishing and shooting, to the meets of hounds, to markets and cattle fairs, gathering in a store of knowledge useful to him in after years. The practical, if half-unconscious, education that he thus obtained in his "off-time," as he termed it, whilst clerk at the Whitchurch and Ellesmere Bank, was often referred to afterwards with pleasure. Thus from the earliest time it will be seen that he lived in an atmosphere favourable to his after career. But the bank work was never neglected; from the day he left his school in Chester in 1861 to become a clerk in Whitchurch, until the spring of 1872 when he left Manchester finally for London, the record of his office work was that he "did it well."

"Three Friends."

During the Whitchurch days he had, as we have indicated, unusual advantages of leisure, and the opportunity of visiting many an old house and farm, driving sometimes on the business of the bank, in his favourite vehicle, a country gig, and "very eagerly," writes one of his fellow clerks and intimate friends, "were those advantages enjoyed. We who knew him, can well understand how welcome he must have been in many a cottage, farm, and hall. The handsome lad carried his own recommendation. With light brown hair falling with a ripple over his brow, blue-grey eyes shaded by long lashes, sweet and mobile mouth, tall and well-made, he joined to these physical advantages a gay good humour and a charming disposition. No wonder that he was a general favourite."

But soon he was transferred to Manchester, where a very different life awaited him-a life of more arduous duties-in the "Manchester and Salford Bank," but with opportunities for knowledge in other directions, of which he was not slow to avail himself. If in his early years his father discouraged his artistic leanings, he was now in a city which above all others encouraged the study of art-"as far as it was consistent with business." In the Brasenose Club, and at the houses of hospitable and artistic friends in Manchester, Caldecott had exceptional opportunities of seeing good work, and obtaining information on art matters.

One who knew him well at this time, writing in the Manchester Courier of Feb. 16th, 1886, says:-

"Caldecott used to wander about the bustling, murky streets of Manchester, sometimes finding himself in queer out-of-the-way quarters, often coming across an odd character, curious bits of antiquity and the like. Whenever the chance came, he made short excursions into the adjacent country, and long walks which were never purposeless. Then he joined an artists' club and made innumerable pen and ink sketches. Whilst in this city so close was his application to the art that he loved that on several occasions he spent the whole night in drawing."

For five years, from 1867 to 1872, Caldecott worked steadily at the desk in Manchester, studying from nature whenever he had the chance in summer; and at the school of art in the long evenings, sometimes working long and late at some water colour drawing. Caldecott owed much to Manchester, as he often said, and he never forgot or undervalued the good of his early training. The friends he made then he kept always, and they were amongst his dearest and best.

In Manchester on the 3rd of July, 1868-his first drawings were published in a serio comic paper called Will o' the Wisp; and in 1869, in another paper called The Sphinx, he had several pages of drawings reproduced. He was painting a little at the same time, making many hunting and other studies; they were chiefly for friends, but one picture was exhibited at the Manchester Royal Institution in 1869.

"Consider, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, the sad position in which my Client is placed-deserted by his Wife and left to support himself and tender Infant by his own Exertions."

Full Cry.

"In the Hunting Field."

There was no restraining Caldecott now, his artistic bent and his delightful humour were finding expression in sketches in odd hours and minutes, on bits of note paper, on old envelopes, and on the blotting paper before him at his desk, until everybody about him must have been alive to his talent. He might no doubt have eventually attained a good position in the bank, for, as one of his friends writes of him very truly,

"Caldecott's ability was general, not special. It found its natural and most agreeable outlet in art and humour, but everybody who knew him, and those who received his letters, saw that there were perhaps a dozen ways in which he would have distinguished himself had he been drawn to them."

The unpublished sketches dispersed through this chapter indicate but slightly the originality and fecundity of Caldecott's genius at this time.

"This is not a Culprit going to gaol-it is only a Gentleman in love who happens to be walking before a Policeman!"

There was clearly but one course to pursue-to give up commercial pursuits and go to London-if such sketches as these were to be found scattered amongst bank papers!

"Society in Manchester."

And so, in May, 1870, Caldecott, as his diary records, went to London for a few days with a letter of introduction to Mr. Thomas Armstrong from Mr. W. Slagg; and in the same year, 1870, some of his drawings were shown to Shirley Brooks, and to Mark Lemon, then editor of Punch. Mr. Clough thus records the event:-

"Bearing an introductory letter he went up to London on a flying visit, carrying with him a sketch on wood and a small book of drawings of the 'Fancies of a Wedding.' He was well received. The sketch was accepted, and with many compliments the book of drawings was detained.

"'From that day to this,' said Mr. Caldecott, 'I have not seen either sketch or book.' Some time after, on meeting Mark Lemon, the incident was recalled, when the burly, jovial editor replied, 'My dear fellow, I am vagabondising to-day, not Punching.' I don't think Mr. Caldecott rightly appreciated that joke."

From this date and all through the year 1871, Caldecott was at work in Manchester and sending to London drawings, some of which have hardly been exceeded for humour and expression in a few lines.

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"A New Contributor."

It was in February 1871, in the pages of London Society-a magazine which at that time included amongst its contributors J. R. Planché, Shirley Brooks, Francis T. Palgrave, Frederick Locker, G. A. Sala, Edmund Yates, Percy Fitzgerald, F. C. Burnand, Arthur à Beckett, Tom Hood, Mortimer Collins, Joseph Hatton, &c.; and amongst its artists Sir John Gilbert, Charles Keene, Linley Sambourne, G. Bowers, Mrs. Allingham, W. Small, F. Barnard, F. W. Lawson, M.E.E., and many other notable names-that Caldecott made his first appearance before a London public.

"Education under Difficulties."

On November 3rd, 1870, his diary says:-

"Some drawings which I left with A. in London have been shown, accompanied by a letter from Du Maurier, to a man on London Society. Must wait a bit and go on working-especially studying horses, A. said."

From this parcel of Caldecott's drawings the present writer, being the "man" referred to, selected a few to be engraved; the sketch of the Rt. Hon. Robert Lowe on horseback in Hyde Park, on page 17, "Ye monthe of Aprile" and "Education under Difficulties" being amongst the first published.

Ye monthe of Aprile.

Sketch in Hyde Park-"Rotten Row."

It was suggested to him early in 1870 that he should come to London for a short time and make sketches in Hyde Park, and it touched Caldecott's fancy, (as he often mentioned afterwards,) that he whose experiences were far removed from such scenes should have been chosen as a chronicler of "Society." The sketches were made always from his own point of view, and some were so grotesque, and hit so hard at the aristocracy, that they were found inappropriate to a fashionable magazine!-one especially of Hyde Park in the afternoon, called "Sons of Toil," had to be declined by the Editor with real regret.

"A passing glimpse of a Gentleman whom I took to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer."

The packet of original sketches lies before the writer now; the pen and ink drawing of "The Chancellor of the Exchequer" is dated June 3rd, 1870. But the best and funniest of these early works could not be published in a magazine.

"The Trombone."

For Christmas time, 1871, Caldecott made many sketches. Two were to illustrate a short story called "The Two Trombones," by F. Robson, the actor. It was a ridiculous story, bordering on broad farce, depicting the adventures of Mr. Adolphus Whiffles, a young man from the country, who in order to get behind the scenes of a theatre undertakes to act as a substitute for a friend as "one of the trombones," unknown to the leader of the orchestra. His friend assures him that in a crowded assembly "one trombone would probably make as much noise as two," and that, if he took his place in the orchestra, he had only to "pretend to play and all would be right."

"The Two Trombones."

In the first sketch we see him in his bedroom contemplating the unfamiliar instrument left by his friend; in the second he is at the theatre at the crisis when the leader of the band calls upon him to "play in" (as it is called) one of the performers on to the stage! Mr. Whiffles's instructions were to keep his eyes on the other trombone and imitate his movements exactly; but unfortunately the other trombone was a substitute also. The leader looks round, and seeing the two trombones apparently perfectly ready to begin, gives the signal, and the curtain rises. The déno?ment may be imagined! Other stories were illustrated by Caldecott, about this period, in London Society; one of Indian life, another called Crossed in Love, &c., but the artist wished that some illustrations should not be reprinted. Several drawings from London Society are omitted, from the same cause.

Christmas Day, 4.30 a.m.

"Please, Sir, Give me a Christmas-box."

"Clinching an Argument." Sketch at a "Debating and Mutual Improvement Society."

The freshness of fancy, not to say recklessness of style, in many of the drawings which came by post at this time-the abundance of the flow from a stream, the course of which was not yet clearly marked-raised embarrassing thoughts in an editor's mind. "What to do with all the material sent?" was the question in 1871-a question which Caldecott was soon able to answer for himself.

"Snowballs"

In 1871, many favourable notices appeared in the press referring to the humorous illustrations in London Society; but the sketch of all others which attracted attention to the work of the unknown artist was "A Debating and Mutual Improvement Society" on page 21, a recollection probably of some meeting or actual scene in Manchester.[1] Here the artist was on his own ground, and the result is one of the most rapid and spontaneous sketches in pen and ink ever achieved. It had many of the characteristics of his later work, a lively and searching analysis of character, without one touch of grossness or ill-nature-fun and satire of the subtlest and the kindliest. Here was the touch of genius unmistakable, an example of expression in line seldom equalled.

"Heigh-ho, The Holly!"

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"That's not Rosalind: oh dear no-

That damsel under the misletoe,

Who seems to think life jolly:

And as to the gentleman there behind,

He wouldn't have pluck to kiss Rosalind,

Can't you fancy his 'Heigh-ho, the Holly!'"

Mortimer Collins.

In an altogether different vein, drawing with pen, and a brush for the tint,-the new artist tries his hand at illustrating one of Mortimer Collins's madrigals called "Heigh-ho, the Holly!"

Amongst the most ambitious and interesting of Caldecott's drawings at this time were his "hunting and shooting friezes," of which several examples will be found in the pages of London Society for 1871 and 1872, drawn in outline with a pen; showing, thus early, much decorative feeling and a liking for design in relief which never left him in after years.

Two of the best that he did were the hunting subjects, entitled "Going to Cover" and "Full Cry."

"Going to Cover."

"The Coming of Age of the Pride of the Family" is another example, in a different style, of Caldecott's drawing in line at this period. It is reproduced opposite, in exact facsimile from the pen and ink drawing in possession of the writer.

Hyde Park-"Out of the Season."

Trivial as these things may seem now, the arrival in Manchester of the red covers of London Society containing almost every month something new by R. C., were among the events in the life of the young banker's clerk which soon set the tide of his affairs towards London.

"Coming of Age of the Pride of the Family."

Referring to drawings made for the magazine after Midsummer 1872, when Mrs. Ross Church succeeded to the editorship, Caldecott writes to a friend:-

"Florence Marryat wants me to illustrate a novelette, very humorous, to run through five or six numbers of London Society, beginning in February. Engraved illustrations, no 'process.' I think I shall do them, I want coin!"

But he had soon other work in hand as will be seen in the next chapter.

"The End of all Things."

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Sketch on a Post Card.

Early in the year 1872 Caldecott left Manchester for London, "bearing with him the well wishes of the Brazenose Club and of an extensive circle of friends." This great change was not decided upon without considerable hesitation; but, to quote again from a Manchester letter:-

"Caldecott was greatly encouraged to take this step by the sale of some small oil and water colour paintings at modest prices, and by the acceptance of drawings by London periodicals. The clinking of sovereigns and the rustling of bank-notes became sounds of the past-the fainter the pleasanter, so at least Caldecott thought at that time, with energy, ardour, and the world before him."

In February and March, 1872, he was still drawing for the magazines and illustrating short stories.

In March, 1872, he exhibited hunting sketches in oil at the Royal Institution, Manchester.

On the 16th April he went to the Slade School to attend the Life Class under E. J. Poynter, R.A., until the 29th June.

As this was the turning point in Caldecott's career, it should be recorded that at this time, and ever afterwards, Mr. Armstrong, the present Art Director at the South Kensington Museum, was his best friend and counsellor.[2] He had also the advantage of the friendship of George du Maurier, M. Dalou, the sculptor, Charles Keene, Albert Moore, and others.

On the 8th June he records, "A. urged me to prepare caricatures of people well known," probably with the view of making drawings for periodicals.

Several drawings of Caldecott's were under consideration by the proprietors of Punch, and on the 22nd June, 1872, the first appeared.

In the same month he exhibited a frame of four small sepia drawings at the Black and White Exhibition, Egyptian Hall, London.

First Drawing in "Punch," 22nd June, 1872.

On the 28th June his diary records, "in the gallery of the House of Commons attending the debate on the Ballot Bill;" and again on the 8th July. On the 9th he is "engaged on chalk caricatures all day."

A letter dated 21st July, 1872, to one of his Manchester friends is worth having for the ludicrous sketch accompanying it. He writes:-

"London is of course the proper place for a young man, for seeing the manners and customs of society, and for getting a living in some of the less frequented grooves of human labour, but for a residence give me a rural or marine retreat. I sigh for some 'cool sequestered spot, the world forgetting, by the world forgot.'"

"A Cool Sequestered Spot."

About this time it was suggested to him to illustrate a book of summer travel, and on the 20th August 1872 he enters in his diary:-

"To Rotterdam, Harzburg, &c., to join Mr. and Mrs. B. in the Harz Mountains."

"A Tour in the Toy Country."

This was the first book that Caldecott illustrated;[3] the title suggested was "A Tour in the Toy Country," and before leaving London he made the drawing on the preceding page. Caldecott, being then twenty-six, started on this journey with great readiness. The idea was altogether delightful to him; and here, as in every country he visited in after years, his playful fancy and facility for seizing the grotesque side of things stood him in good stead.

A Mountain "Beer Garden."

In a strange land, amidst unfamiliar scenes and faces, he roamed "fancy free"; in a country so compact in size that the whole could be traversed in a month's walking tour.

With Baedeker's Guide (English edition) in his pocket, and a dialogue book of sentences in German and English, he used to delight to interrogate the wondering natives; the necessary questions difficult to find, and "the elaborate and quite unnecessary" (as he expressed it), always turning up. Such little incidents gave opportunity to the observant artist to study the faces of the listeners; the interviews conducted slowly and gravely, and ending in a peal of laughter from the natives.

A "Fraulein."

A Mountain Path.

Life at a German watering-place, as seen on a small scale in summer in the Harz mountains, was Caldecott's first experience of scenes with which his name afterwards became familiar in the pages of the Graphic newspaper. In looking at these early sketches we must bear in mind that they were made at a time when Caldecott, as an "artist," was scarcely two years old; that although his sense of humour was overflowing, his hand was comparatively untrained; that with his keen eye for the grotesque he turned his back upon much that was beautiful about him, that his sense of the fitness of things, of the requirements of composition and the like, were in embryo, so to speak.

A Warrior of Sedan in a Beer Garden at Goslar, 1872.

Nevertheless, as indicated in the next few pages he has left us work which, if ever a more complete life of Caldecott should be written, would form an important chapter in his art career.

Although little fitted for a mountaineer, he could not resist excursions to the highest points, and with a will which surmounted all difficulties, reached one evening the summit of the famous "Brocken." What he saw is recorded in the sketch below.

"The Ark of Refuge."

There is a legend that when the deluge blotted out man from most parts of the earth, the waters of the northern seas penetrated far into Germany, and that the enormous rock which forms the top of the Brocken formed a shelter and resting-place.

There was no need of a romantic legend to suggest to the mind, at the first sight of the primitive hostelry on the top of the Brocken, its similitude to the "ark of refuge." The situation was delightful; we were in the "toy country" without doubt. There was the identical form of packing-case which the religious world has with one consent provided as a plaything for children; there were Noah and his family, people walking two and two, and horses sheep, pigs, and goats stowed away at the great side door.

The resemblance was irresistible, and more attractive to Caldecott's mind than any of the legends and mysteries with which German imagination has peopled the district.

The Dance of Witches.

There is "no holding" Caldecott now; on the "Hexen Tanzplatz," the sacred ground of Goethe's poetic fancy, within sound almost of the songs of the spirit world that haunt this lonely summit, he sets to work.

"Spectres of the Brocken."

The dance of witches, so weird and terrible, (as lately seen on the Lyceum stage in Henry Irving's production of Faust) took a different form in the young artist's eyes, whose fancy sketch from the Hexen Tanzplatz is reproduced opposite. He had been properly "posted," as he expressed it, he had read all that should be read about ghosts, witches, and spectres, and the result is before us. The last sketch from the dreary summit, showing the patient tourists waiting to see the view, was all we could get from him of spectres of the Brocken.

A Sketch at Supper.

One or two sketches of the interior of his Noah's ark, when some sixty travellers had assembled to supper, completed his subjects.

"Back to the View."

It may be noted that the feeling for landscape which Caldecott possessed in after years in such a high degree, if it touched him here, was not recorded in pencil. The magnificent scenery eastward through the valley of the River Bode, the grim iron foundries and ochre mines, and the wonderful view from the heights above Blankenberg, familiar to all travellers in the Harz, was recorded in only two sketches; one of a roadside inn, where we were invited to stay, the other of two tourists en route.

The Guide at Goslar.

How, at the little wayside sheds and "drink gardens" scattered on the mountain paths, the tourists sat persistently back to the view which they had toiled miles to see, were depicted by the artist in pencil, and many little incidents on the road were dotted down for future use.

In the old tenth-century city of Goslar, Caldecott's pencil was never at rest. Taking a guide to save time (whose portrait he gives us, with a note of a curious sixteenth-century street door) he explores from morning to night, choosing as subjects always "the life of the place."

Procession of the Sick.

"Drinking the waters at Goslar" in 1872 was a crude effort artistically, which may be contrasted with his sketches of the same scenes at Buxton in 1876, but the humour is irresistible. An extract from our diaries is necessary here to explain the illustration.

"The figures are pilgrims, that have come from far and wide to combine the attractions of a summer holiday with the benefits of a wonderful 'cure' for which the city is celebrated. The promenades and walks on the ramparts lined with trees, are going through the routine of getting up early, taking regular exercise and drinking daily several pints of a dark mixture having the appearance, taste, and effect of taraxacum or senna. The bottles are supplied at the public gardens and cafés situated at convenient distances in the suburbs of Goslar."

Drinking the Waters at Goslar.

A General in the Prussian Army.

On another day he encounters a school starting for two or three days on the mountains, the band making hideous noises as the procession passes out of Goslar. Everything is characteristic here and full of local colour; the order of march, the costumes and the boots of the boys, and the general gravity of the company are given exactly-making the usual allowance for exaggeration. In the background is seen one of the iron factories and an indication of a bit of Harz scenery; the sketch recalling the incident with wonderful vraisemblance. The "School on the March" in its humour and exaggeration may remind the reader of some drawings by Thackeray.

Here, as in Belgium, the harnessing of dogs to carts, drawing sometimes two people over the rough cobble stones of Goslar, excited Caldecott's pity and anger; he made several sketches of the animals and one portrait of their master who had just got down to enjoy a pipe at the corner of a street.

"A School on the March"-Harz Mountains, 1872.

Sketches at various table d'h?tes in hotels, public gardens and the like, were plentiful and perpetual. But the majority were destroyed or put away; out of fifty only one such as "A General in the Prussian Army" (see page 44) being selected for reproduction.[4]

At Clausthal we joined a party to explore one of the iron mines, and Caldecott gives a sketch of the preparations. A note from our diary will best explain the situation.

"In order to descend the mines at Clausthal, visitors have to divest themselves of their ordinary costumes and put on some cast-off suits of ill-fitting garments left at the entrance to the mine for the purpose. As we approach the mouth of the shaft where the miners are waiting with lanterns to commence the descent, our party,-consisting of four Englishmen-a professor of geology, a director of mines, an editor and an artist-present the somewhat undignified aspect in the sketch. This change of costume is necessary on account of the wet state of the mines, the thick caps being a protection against loose pieces of ore and the wet earth that falls from time to time in the galleries."

Caldecott gives the generally dismal and disreputable appearance of the party with great verve; his own portrait is presented in a few touches in the background, hurrying into garments much too big for him.

On one occasion the artist takes a solitary walk between Thale and Clausthal, a pathway lined in some parts by rows of trees with forbidden fruit, a novel and tempting experience. There being no mention of this route in the guide books, he writes as he says his "own Baedeker" in the familiar practical manner:-

"I start at 3.40 P.M. from the 'Tenpounds Hotel' at Thale to walk up the valley of the Bode, over a wooden bridge, then through a beer garden, round a rocky corner," &c. "The way next through woods of beech, birch and oak; a stream can be heard but not seen. Treseburg is reached at 5.40; a prettily situated village by the water side; homely inn, damp beds."

"Leave Treseburg at 9.40 A.M. over a bridge on the right bank of the Bode. Altenbrack at 10.50, Wendefurth at 11.50. Rubeland reached at 2.30 P.M., and so on to Elbingerode, where a halt is made for the night at the 'Blauer Engel,' a tolerable inn. Women of burden and foresters are the only wayfarers met with.

"The route hence south-west over high open land with fine views to the iron works of Rothehütte in an hour. Thence up a hill for half an hour and through dense fir woods, then out on the high road again, resting at the 'Brauner Hirsch' at Braunlage. From thence over hills commanding a vast extent of country with the familiar form of the Brocken continually in view. The road descends by easy stages through a district full of small reservoirs and leads the traveller in about two hours into the wide, clean, empty streets of Clausthal."

At Clausthal.

On the 19th September, 1872, Caldecott is at work again in his rooms at 46, Great Russell Street (opposite the British Museum) arranging with the writer for some of his Harz Mountain drawings to accompany an article in the London Graphic newspaper. These appeared in the autumn of 1872.

On the 18th October, the following entry appears in Caldecott's diary: "Called at Graphic office, saw Mr. W. L. Thomas, who took my address." This entry is interesting as the beginning of a long connection with the Graphic newspaper which proved mutually advantageous.

In November, 1872, the present writer went to America, taking a scrap-book of proofs of the best of Caldecott's early drawings, a few of which were published in an article on the Harz Mountains in Harper's Monthly Magazine in the spring of 1873.[5] His drawings were also shown to the conductors of the Daily Graphic, of New York, which led to an engagement referred to in the next chapter.

During the latter part of 1872 numerous small illustrations were produced for London Society.

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Sketch in "Punch," 8th March, 1873.