"Vanity Fair"

To view each of these cartoons at larger size (in a new window), and also to read some biographical comment and other items from the issue of "Vanity Fair" in which they appeared, please click on the relevant picture.

A copy of Volume XXVI of "Vanity Fair" has been in my care for a short while, and I have taken the opportunity to transcribe the biographies of the cartoon displayed in each of the issues, together with some short extracts and snippets from the volume. I have also photographed the cartoons and reproduced them as best as I (and Photoshop) can—not always as successful as hoped for.

"Vanity Fair" is the masthead title of the weekly English magazine launched, owned and edited, until 1889, by Thomas Gibson Bowles (1842 - 1922), the magazine being issued from November 1868 until January 1914. It is unconnected with the contemporary American magazine of the same name or with the present magazine.

Bowles was a political animal and of Conservative Party leaning, standing as an MP from 1897, first for the Conservatives, then the Liberals, and finally for the Conservatives again. His magazine was published apparently almost exclusively for the upper classes of Victorian and Edwardian England.

"Vanity Fair" is noted for the full-page coloured lithograph produced within each issue, being a crayon cartoon of notable figures of the day. There were several artists, the best known being Sir Leslie Ward -"Spy" (1851 - 1922). Other artists were Carlo Pellegrini -"Ape" (1838 - 1889) and Theobald Chartan - "T".

With each cartoon, short biographical notes were included by Bowles, under the nom-de-plume of "Jehu Junior" (all contributors, including even those answering the weekly puzzles, used assumed names) and these biographies are variously anodyne, sarcastic/ironic, and/or extremely critical (especially of non-Conservative MPs), and most are quite amusing. The description of Lord Chelmsford and his part in the Zulu wars seems so extreme as to be actionable (see the first picture in the second row).

At the other extreme, the subject is sometimes described as "He is a gentleman", a sign of approval but possibly a sign also that Bowles was unable to find anything interesting to fill the editorial space. Of one old gentleman, Bowles said, "He takes no part in public affairs ; but he is extremely fond of children."—no connotations attach as might be so were this description used nowadays.

Volume XXVI covers the period from July to December of 1881, in all 27 weekly issues plus an additional "Winter Number". This was just after the death in April of that year of Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) and during a Gladstone (Liberal) government. Electricity was just being introduced for public lighting. In foreign affairs, interests apparently centred, separately, on "the Cape", Ireland, Turkey and the French. The impression is however of a society mainly intent on blasting to pieces all the wild-life of the country and generally making the world its playground.

The excerpts, other than the biographical notes, have been selected to give a flavour of the writings—most are short articles, chosen to save my labour in typing! They include three items concerning the well-being of Ashdown Forest, a topic of some local interest for me.