No. 2, _Jack Shepherd_, illustrated by me, and published in monthly parts in _Bentley's Miscellany_. This story _originated from Mr. Ainsworth_, and, when preparing it for publication, he showed me about two or three pages of manuscript on 'post paper'; and _I beg that it may be observed that this was the only bit of manuscript written by this author that I ever saw in the whole course of my life!_
No. 4, _The Tower of London_, the Original Idea of which was suggested by me to Mr. Ainsworth, and also _illustrated_ by me and published in monthly numbers. In this work Mr. Ainsworth and I were _partners_ holding equal shares.
And now comes the question of how it should so happen, as Mr. W. H. Ainsworth and I were such friends and fellow-workers and partners in the work of _The Tower of London_, that he should have got another artist to illustrate _Old St. Paul's_ ('one of my pet subjects, which I had nursed in my brains for years, and which I had long intended to have placed before the public with my own hands,' as G. C. relates in another charge)? And, after that was finished, to have employed a French artist to illustrate _Windsor Castle_. Ay, _that is the question!_ And now comes the answer and the reason for this most extraordinary proceeding. I must here first state that as large sums of money had been realised from my ideas and suggestions for the work of _Oliver Twist_, it occurred to me one day that I would try and get a little of the same material from the same source; and as Mr. Ainsworth and I were at that time upon the most friendly--I may say brotherly--terms, I suggested to him that we should jointly produce a work on our own account and publish it in monthly numbers, and get Mr. Bentley to join us as the publisher. Mr. Ainsworth was delighted with the idea of such a partnership, and at once acceded to the proposition; and when I told him that I had a capital subject for the first work he inquired what it was, and upon my telling him it was _The Tower of London_, with some incidents in the life of Lady Jane Grey, he was still more delighted; and I then told him that I had long since seen the room in 'the Tower' where that beautiful and accomplished dear lady was imprisoned, and other parts of that fortress to which the public were not admitted, and if he would go with me to the Tower I would show these places to him. He at once accepted my offer, and off we went to 'Hungerford Stairs,' now the site of the Charing Cross Railway Station, and whilst waiting on the beach for a boat to go to London Bridge, we there met my dear friend the late W. Jordan, the well-known editor and part-proprietor of _The Literary Gazette_, who inquired where we were going to. My reply was that I was taking Mr. Ainsworth a prisoner to the Tower! With this joke we parted. I then took Mr. Ainsworth to the royal prison, and when we arrived there I introduced him to my friend Mr. Stacey, the storekeeper, in whose department were these 'Chambers of Horrors'; and then and there did Mr. Ainsworth, for the first time, see the apartment in which the dear Lady Jane was placed until the day she was beheaded, or, in other words, the day on which she was murdered, and which place I had long before made sketches of for the purpose of introducing them in a _Life of Lady Jane Grey_, and which for many years I had intended to place before the public.