me.’ It is a sensible, well-printed book, showing some knowledge both of original authorities and of the latest books on the subject. 5. A new edition in numbers of Dugdale's ‘History of Imbanking and Draining the Fens and Marshes, &c., with several new Additions. Lynn, printed and sold by W. Whittingham,’ Nos. i. ii. iii. were ‘just published’ in 1792.
[Johnstone's Life of Parr, i. 161; Bibliotheca Parriana, p. 698; A General History of the County of Norfolk, 1829, pp. 399, 479, 1051; Critical Review, March 1784, April 1784; Gent. Mag. November 1797, p. 982; Cutting's Gleanings about Gayton in the Olden Time, pp. 46, 160–5; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19166, f. 432; Davy's Athenæ Suffolcenses.]
LEMON, MARK (1809–1870), editor of ‘Punch,’ eldest son of Martin Lemon, hop-merchant, by his wife, Alice Collis of Boston, Lincolnshire, was born in a house at the north-east corner of Oxford Circus, London, on 30 Nov. 1809. His father dying in 1817, he was brought up by his grandfather, also Mark Lemon, a farmer long settled at Hendon, and was sent to school under the Rev. James Wilding at Cheam in Surrey. At the age of fifteen he went to his uncle, Thomas Collis, a hop-merchant at Boston, to learn his business, and then, through the influence of his mother's second husband, he was appointed for a time manager of Verey's brewery in Kentish Town. But his real genius was for journalism and the stage. From an early date he was in the habit of sending poems and tales to the magazines, and in 1835 he began his prolific career as a playwright. On 25 April 1835 there appeared at the Strand Theatre the ‘P.L., or No. 30 Strand,’ and this was followed at the Adelphi, at various times, by ‘Domestic Economy,’ ‘Jack-in-the-Green,’ ‘The Slow Man,’ ‘A Moving Tale,’ and ‘The Railway Belle,’ the last two being played in 1854. ‘Destiny’ was the first of his plays acted at the Surrey Theatre, and it was followed by a five-act drama in blank verse, ‘Arnold of Winkelried,’ in July 1835. In several of his best-known plays, such as ‘Hearts are Trumps,’ produced at the Strand Theatre in 1849, and ‘The Silver Thimble,’ Mrs. Stirling and the Keeleys appeared. Between 1841 and 1844 the following works of his were played at the Olympic: ‘The Little Gipsy,’ ‘Gileso Scroggini,’ ‘My man Tom,’ ‘Lost and Won,’ ‘Captain pro tem,’ ‘Self Accusation,’ ‘The Gentleman in Black,’ ‘The Ladies' Club,’ ‘Love and Charity,’ ‘The Adventures of a Gentleman,’ ‘Love and War,’ ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ ‘Whittington and his Cat,’ ‘The Demon Gift,’ and ‘Gwynneth Vaughan.’ ‘Mrs. Webster at Home’ appeared at the Adelphi in April 1853, and ‘Number Nip’ in 1854; ‘Paula Lazarro’ at Drury Lane in 1854, and ‘Medea, or the Libel on the Lady of Colchis’ in 1856. Others of his plays are ‘The M.P. for the Rotten Borough,’ ‘Bob Short,’ ‘What will the World say?’ a five-act play which appeared in 1841, ‘The Turf,’ performed in 1842 at Covent Garden, and ‘Grandfather Whitehead.’ He wrote several farces—‘The School for Tigers,’ and others. ‘The Ancestress’ and ‘Self-Accusation’ were melodramas; ‘The Pacha's Bridal’ and ‘Fridoline,’ of which the music was written by his brother-in-law, Frank Romer, and ‘The Lady of the Lake’ were operas; ‘The House of Ladies,’ ‘Love and Charity,’ and ‘The Gray Doublet’ burlettas; ‘The Chimes,’ ‘St. George and the Dragon,’ ‘Number Nip,’ and ‘Peter Wilkins’ extravaganzas. In some of these, and also particularly in his adaptation of Dumanoir's and Dennery's ‘Don César de Bazan,’ he collaborated with Gilbert à Beckett. His plays numbered some sixty in all.
Meanwhile he contributed to ‘Household Words,’ ‘Once a Week,’ the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and the ‘Illuminated Magazine.’ His first editorship was that of the ‘London Journal,’ for which he had written the Christmas story almost from its commencement. For a short time he edited the ‘Family Herald’ and ‘Once a Week.’ He also established and edited the ‘Field.’ Being an intimate friend of Herbert Ingram, founder of the ‘Illustrated London News,’ he acted as his secretary, and assisted in the management of his paper for some years. The first Christmas supplement that it published was from his pen.
It is as one of the founders and first editor of ‘Punch’ that Lemon is best known. From 1841 his history is the history of ‘Punch.’ Whether the title of that paper was borrowed from Douglas Jerrold's ‘Punch in London’ or not, the conception of the journal itself is due to Lemon and Henry Mayhew, and occurred to them in June 1841, at Lemon's house in Newcastle Street, Strand, where Lemon drafted the first prospectus. The first number was published by Bryant on 17 July 1841, and the periodical was owned in equal shares by Ebenezer Landells the engraver, Last the printer, and Lemon and Mayhew, who jointly edited it. For some time it was most unsuccessful, and was only saved from disaster by the money which Lemon was making by his plays. The paper was then purchased by Bradbury & Evans. Mayhew retired from the editorship, and the sole charge was left to Lemon, who retained it to his death. His salary at first was 30s. a
