NATIVE SWALLOWS.

A correspondent to one of the daily papers has remarked, that there is an almost total absence of swallows this summer in England.  Had the writer been present at some of the election dinners lately, he must have confessed that a greater number of active swallows has rarely been observed congregated in any one year.

LORD MELBOURNE TO “PUNCH.”

My Dear PUNCH,—­Seeing in the “Court Circular” of the Morning Herald an account of a General Goblet as one of the guests of her Majesty, I beg to state, that till I saw that announcement, I was not aware of any other general gobble it than myself at the Palace.

Yours, truly, MELBOURNE.

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[Illustration:  Horace Mayhew.  Richd.  Doyle.  John Leech.  Mark Lemon.  W.M.  Thackeray.

Percival Leigh.  Gilbert A. a Beckett.  Tom Taylor.  Douglas Jerrold.

Prince de Joinville.  Geo. Hudson.  Shaw Lefevre.  Prince Albert.  B. Disraeli.  Col.  Sibthorp.  Sir Fredk.  Trench.  Emperor of Russia.

Sir R. Peel.  Sir J. Graham.  D. O’Connell.  Jenny Lind.  Lord John Russell.  Louis Philippe.  The British Lion.  Mehemet Ali.  Duke of Richmond.

Richd.  Cobden.  Lord George Bentinck.  Gen. Tom Thumb.  THE QUEEN.  MR. PUNCH.  Lord Brougham.  Duke of Wellington.

MR. PUNCH’S FANCY BALL. 1847.]

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[Illustration]

Yes, the lion THACKERAY had joined the Table, and thenceforth for many years he illumined my pages with his keen wit and ripe wisdom, his graceful prose, his polished verse, and his characteristic pictures.

“The frontispiece to Volume V. (1843) was by RICHARD DOYLE, a plain foreshadowing of the celebrated design which was ever after to form the familiar Cover of the Punch Number.  DOYLE had now joined the Staff, and for many years his fine fancy was allowed full play in my pages.

“At the end of the same Volume, upon page 260 of a supplement, entitled, ‘Punch’s Triumphal Procession,’ appeared TOM HOOD’s never-to-be-forgotten ‘Song of the Shirt.’  It is one of Mr. Punch’s pleasantest Reminiscences that this gentle genius, this true poet, contributed this famous masterpiece to his pages.

“The scholarly, accomplished, and warm-hearted TOM TAYLOR was the next to join the Table, and his ‘Spanish Ballads’ (in 1846), admirably illustrated by DOYLE, made their mark, as did later his ’Unprotected Female.’  In Volume XVI.  PERCIVAL LEIGH commenced his ’Mr. PIPS, his Diary, or, Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe in 1849,’ characteristically illustrated by RICHARD DOYLE at his graphic best.  The same year was remarkable for the appearance of LEECH’s most delightful character, the simple-minded, sport-loving, philistine paterfamilias, Mr. BRIGGS, first met with in connection with ’The Pleasures of Housekeeping,’ though subsequently associated especially with humorous sporting scenes.