MARK LEMON.

THIS gentleman, who has been for many years well known to the public as a writer of most pleasant dramas, charming nouvelettes, mirthful farces, and graceful lyrics, but whose silently-exercised influence as the director of Punch' is a still more noteworthy feature in his literary history, was born in the neighbourhood of Oxford Street, London, on the 30th of November, 1809, and part of the Oxford Street Crystal Palace, it is said, stands upon the site of his birthplace. He was educated at Cheam School, Surrey, where the Rev. James Wilding was head master, and the learned Charles Butler teacher of mathematics.

His earliest literary efforts were in the lighter drama, and he devoted himself to the rapid construction of a series of pieces, most of which were very successful at the time of their production, and many of which are stock plays with theatrical managers at the present day. Several of our best actors, extant or gone, it is said, have owed no small portion of their fame to the capital characters created for them by Mr. Lemon, and more than one theatre has been saved from disaster by the aid of his ready pen. He is the author of about sixty plays of various descriptions, principally farces and melodramas,-"Hearts are Trumps," "What will the World Say?" "The School for Tigers," "The Ladies' Club," "Grandfather Whitehead," "Camp at Chobham," "Domestic Economy." Many of the remaining fifty-six need not be mentioned to the present generation, and if the future does not hear of them, it will be the defect of the system of writing plays for particular actors.

During his earlier years, as a member of the Guild of Literature and Art, Mr. Lemon occasionally donned the sock and the

buskin.

He was one of the knot of authors who in 1841 set on foot the periodical called 'Punch,' and from the first acted as joint editor; but on the secession of Mr. Henry Mayhew in about two years afterwards, Mr. Lemon succeeded to the chief post, which he has retained to the present time. To this work— which it was at first prognosticated could not live six weeks, but which is now in its twenty-sixth year-Mr. Lemon has devoted his best energies, his name is associated with its success, and the result is the best tribute to his talent and tact.

Besides the plays above mentioned, Mr. Lemon has written in 'Household Words,' 'Once a Week,' and 'London Society;' and his name is also familiar to the public from the pages of the 'Illuminated Magazine' and other serials, some of his contributions to which have since been collected and re-published under the modest title of Prose and Verse.' He has also published "The Enchanted Doll,' a Christmas fairy-tale for children; 'Legends of Number Nip,' from the German; Tom Moody's Tales;' The Christmas Hamper;' and also four novels, each in three volumes, Wait for the End,' 'Loved at Last,' 'Falkner Lyle,' and 'Leyton Hall.' He has also edited a collection of jests (for Macmillan's 'Golden Treasury' Series); and has also written some hundred songs. At Christmas-time Mr. Lemon is a large contributor to the Illustrated London News,' where "M. L." may constantly be found appended to pleasant sketches and graceful verses. In speaking of Mr. Lemon's novel, Falkner Lyle,' which was published early in 1866, the Illustrated London News' says, "In the present instance Mr. Mark Lemon has addressed himself to his work with a keener artistic sense, and a larger artistic power, than in any of his earlier novels. . . Society has for many years been indebted to him for much of its 'harmless gaiety. His dramas were always welcome, and should be wel

come now.

"But in other ways society has been, and is, Mr. Lemon's debtor, and notably for his eminent charioteering skill in driving the car of 'Punch' round the political and social zodiac. He has displayed his singular versatility in addressing himself, in middle life, to a form of composition which many men take up in youth, but few much later, and he has shown himself a master in his new art. We say this emphatically, because each of his books manifests a proof of our assertion in its new thought and varied

treatment. 'Falkner Lyle' cannot fail to be a favourite; yet no one who studies it will be prepared to say that it will not be surpassed by its successor, for it is the work-of a skilled artist, working in a rich field, and for such a worker there are no limits save those which are self-imposed."

The Era,' in a review of the same work, speaks of Mr. Lemon as certainly one of the healthiest and soundest" writers of novels of the present day. He is "always (says the reviewer of that paper) natural, genial, painstaking in the delineation of character, gives a good plot, and crowns all by incident which never wants slurring over in reading aloud in the family circle. Exaggeration and caricature do not last in their effect; but Mr. Lemon has a strong touch of both the simplicity and solidity of Goldsmith. A like knowledge of the world, which pervades the poet's writings, is to be found in the pages of 'Falkner Lyle;' and a like appreciation, also, for whatever is good or right." Mr. Lemon has, we believe, in the press (Oct. 1867) a new novel, called ‘Golden Fetters,' and also a Christmas Fairy Book.

In January, 1862, Mr. Mark Lemon appeared at the Gallery of Illustration in a course of lectures "About London." These lectures were exceedingly instructive and elaborate, not merely light and sketchy compositions intended to amuse and disappoint. The quantity of stern, sober matter contained in the lecture prevented anything in the shape of digression; but occasionally Mr. Lemon availed himself of the opportunity of throwing out an extempore witty suggestion, which produced a lively sensation, and stimulated attention amongst his audience. These lectures, which related to Old London City within and without the Walls, have been published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall in one volume, under the title of "Up and Down the London Streets."

It only remains to add that Mr. Lemon, who resides in the pretty village of Crawley, Sussex, on the old high-road to Brighton, is married, and has a numerous family of sons and daughters. One of his daughters is married to Mr. T. H. Martin, M.R.C.S., of Crawley; and another to Robert Romer, Esq., M.A., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who was Senior Wrangler in that University in 1863, and who, having lately resigned the Professorship of Mathematics in the Queen's College at Cork, is now at the Chancery bar.