Mayhew, HENRY

Mayhew, HENRY, journalist and littérateur, was born in London in November 1812. He ran away from Westminster School in consequence of unjust treatment, was sent on a voyage to Calcutta, and on returning was articked to his father, a solicitor. Mayhew's first adventure in literature was the starting, in conjunction with Gilbert A. Beckett, of The Cerberus, the production of which was stopped by A. Beckett's father. The two youths in disgust left their homes, and with but fifteen shillings between them walked to Edinburgh, hoping to make fortunes there as actors and authors at the theatre of which Mayhew's brother Edward was lessee; this failed, for they were at once sent back. In 1831 they started Figaro in London, and the year following The Thief, which was the prototype of the 'Bits' journals of to-day. In 1841 Mayhew produced The Wandering Minstrel, a farce, and shortly after joined with his brother Augustus in one of the most successful of literary partnerships, during which (as 'the Brothers Mayhew') they produced some remarkably clever works of fiction, the best of which are The Good Genius that turned Everything to Gold (1847), The Greatest Plague of Life (1847), The Image of His Father (1848), Whom to Marry (1848), The Magic of Kindness (1849), Living for Appearance (1855). One of the originators and first editor of Punch, Mayhew was from early in the 'forties' a voluminous writer on many subjects—as on The Peasant Boy Philosopher (1854), The Wonders of Science (1855), Shops and Companies of London (1865), London Characters (1874), and the Criminal Prisons of London. The work by which Mayhew will perhaps be best remembered is his great London Labour and the London Poor (1851, &c.). Henry Mayhew, who had married in 1844 the elder daughter of Douglas Jerrold, died on July 25, 1887.—HORACE MAYHEW (1816-72), brother of the two foregoing, also made some mark in literature, more especially of a humorous and ephemeral kind. He was a constant contributor to Punch, of which he was at one time sub-editor.