He started once and failed, being taken so ill at Suez that he was obliged to return.

The next year he succeeded, and brought away some thousands of drawings of the most striking views from all three Presidencies and from the tropical island.

His appetite for travel continued to grow with what it fed upon; and although he hated a long sea-voyage, he used seriously to contemplate as possible a visit to relations in New Zealand.

It may safely, however, be averred that no considerations would have tempted him to visit the Arctic regions.
A hard-working life, checkered by the odd adventures which happen to the odd and the adventurous and pass over the commonplace; a career brightened by the high appreciation of unimpeachable critics; lightened, till of late, by the pleasant society and good wishes of innumerable friends; saddened by the growing pressure of ill health and solitude; cheered by his constant trust in the love and sympathy of those who knew him best, however far away,--such was the life of Edward Lear.
-- _The London Saturday Review,_ Feb.

4, 1888.
Among the writers who have striven with varying success during the last thirty or forty years to awaken the merriment of the "rising generation" of the time being, Mr.Edward Lear occupies the first place in seniority, if not in merit.