Note 19 to Chapter 1 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
Thackeray explained the measurement in a letter to Doyle, 5 June 1854, Letters 3: 372. Alternatively, Thackeray could have counted words as is indicated in his October 1854 letter to Mark Lemon explaining why he would no longer work for Punch at the new rates they proposed, "A page of Newcomes contains 47 lines of 56 letters = 2612 letters, 4 Pages = 10448" (photocopy supplied by William Baker).
Last modified: 4 April 2001