“‘Did it rain to-morrow?’ asked Monsieur Grenouille. ‘Yes it was!’ replied Monsieur Crapaud.” In the nineteenth century, humor entered the classroom as a means of teaching subjects as dry as auxiliary verbs. Percival Leigh, author of the exchange above, employed comedy to improve children's facility with English grammar, Latin, and arithmetic. This cover design for a "yellowback" reprint of his popular book is the work of another writer and artist whose preferred implement was caricature: Alfred Henry Forrester, a regular contributor to Punch magazine.
Alfred Crowquill (i.e. Alfred Henry Forrester, 1804–1872), cover design for The Comic English Grammar, ca. 1852. Pen and ink and watercolor over graphite. Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987, 1986.2213.