Excerpt from Sketches and Travels in London: Notes of a Journey From Cornhill to Grand Cairo The papers brought together under the head of Sketches and Travels in London were contributed to Punch from 1847 to 1850, over the signature of "Spec," - except "Going to See a Man Hanged," which had appeared in Fraser's Magazine in 1840, but was added to the collection in the revised edition. Of this last Mr. Eyre Crowe speaks in his account of early days in the Coram Street house, and reflects the evidently deep impression of the experience Thackeray transmitted to those about him: "He tossed on his pillow, thinking all night of the wretch Courvoisier, the Swiss valet, whose exit is described in 'Going to See a Man Hanged.'" The later sketches and travels were most of them written in the Young Street study; Mrs. Ritchie has described his method of work upon them there, and upon the drawings with which in most cases he accompanied them; his daughters helping him by preparing the woodblocks, and sometimes the boy from the Punch office "waiting in the hall." Mrs. Ritchie confirms, too, the statement often made, that the original of Whitestock in "The Curate's Walk" was her father's old friend William Brookfield. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.