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Mr. Minns and his Cousin.
George Cruikshank
1836
Etching on copper
10.5 x 8.5 cm, vignetted
"Mr. Minns and his Cousin," Chapter 2 in "Tales," by Charles Dickens in Sketches by Boz, as published in the 1839 single volume by Chapman and Hall; illustration facing p. 234.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
Mr. Augustus Minns was a bachelor, of about forty as he said — of about eight-and-forty as his friends said. He was always exceedingly clean, precise, and tidy; perhaps somewhat priggish, and the most retiring man in the world. He usually wore a brown frock-coat without a wrinkle, light inexplicables without a spot, a neat neckerchief with a remarkably neat tie, and boots without a fault; moreover, he always carried a brown silk umbrella with an ivory handle. He was a clerk in Somerset-house, or, as he said himself, he held "a responsible situation under Government." He had a good and increasing salary, in addition to some 10,000l. of his own (invested in the funds), and he occupied a first floor in Tavistock-street, Covent-garden, where he had resided for twenty years, having been in the habit of quarrelling with his landlord the whole time: regularly giving notice of his intention to quit on the first day of every quarter, and as regularly countermanding it on the second. There were two classes of created objects which he held in the deepest and most unmingled horror; these were dogs, and children. — "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin," p. 234.
"Budden!" ejaculated Minns, "what can bring that vulgar man here! — say I’m asleep — say I'm out, and shall never be home again — anything to keep him down-stairs."
"But please, sir, the gentleman's coming up," replied the servant, and the fact was made evident, by an appalling creaking of boots on the staircase accompanied by a pattering noise; the cause of which, Minns could not, for the life of him, divine.
"Hem — show the gentleman in," said the unfortunate bachelor. Exit servant, and enter Octavius preceded by a large white dog, dressed in a suit of fleecy hosiery, with pink eyes, large ears, and no perceptible tail.
The cause of the pattering on the stairs was but too plain. Mr. Augustus Minns staggered beneath the shock of the dog's appearance.
"My dear fellow, how are you?" said Budden, as he entered.
He always spoke at the top of his voice, and always said the same thing half-a-dozen times.
"How are you, my hearty?"
"How do you do, Mr. Budden? — pray take a chair!" politely stammered the discomfited Minns.
"Thank you — thank you — well — how are you, eh?"
"Uncommonly well, thank you," said Minns, casting a diabolical look at the dog, who, with his hind legs on the floor, and his fore paws resting on the table, was dragging a bit of bread and butter out of a plate, preparatory to devouring it, with the buttered side next the carpet.
"Ah, you rogue!" said Budden to his dog; "you see, Minns, he's like me, always at home, eh, my boy! — Egad, I'm precious hot and hungry! I've walked all the way from Stamford-hill this morning."
"Have you breakfasted?" inquired Minns.
"Oh, no! — came to breakfast with you; so ring the bell, my dear fellow, will you? and let's have another cup and saucer, and the cold ham. — Make myself at home, you see!" continued Budden, dusting his boots with a table-napkin. "Ha! — ha! — ha! — 'pon my life, I'm hungry.
Minns rang the bell, and tried to smile. — "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin," p. 235-236.
Dickens's first published work was "Mr. Minns and his Cousin" (Sketches by Boz, No. 46), originally, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" in The Monthly Magazine, 1 December 1833. The sedate, affluent bachelor Mr. Minns, a civil servant at Somerset House (where John Dickens, the writer's father, began his government career in the Naval Pay Office, and where he worked when posted from Chatham to London) is interrupted in his breakfast by his boisterous suburban cousin, who has determined to ingratiate himself with Minns by inviting him to Sunday dinner, in furtherance of his scheme to have the childless Mr. Minns make Master Alexander Augustus Budden (his awkward son "Alick") his heir. The plan goes awry from the start because Minns detests both dogs and children. Dickens did not merely re-title his original conception; rather, he "substantially revised" (Slater 80) it before re-publishing "A Dinner at Poplar Walk" (focussing on the Sunday dinner rather than the invitation) as "Mr. Minns and his Cousin" in the two-volume Macrone edition of 1836 as the second selection in "Tales."
This is one of the Cruikshank illustrations re-drafted for the larger-format 1839 single-volume anthology, rather than one of those new engravings added to the 1839 Chapman and Hall volume. Cruikshank's comic rendering is both completely in tune with Dickens's intention (to show Minns disconcerted by the presence of the loud-mouthed cousin and the behaviour of his dog, centre), and a well-conceived visual extension of the text. Perfect accompaniments to Dickens's little story for which the picture serves as an introduction are the Regency drapery, blind, well-appointed little breakfast table, the casual Budden with legs stretched out, and the immaculately dressed Minns's recoiling in horror and dropping his morning paper as he regards Budden's dog snatching a morsel from the plate positioned before the hot-water urn. Large-headed, balding Minns rises from his armchair in alarm, but Budden is blissfully unconcerned about his dog's behaviour. Whereas Cruikshank here describes the dog of nameless breed as black and not wearing a coat, Harry Furniss in his 1910 lithograph clearly depicts the white, tail-less dog's "suit of fleecy hosiery."
Above: Harry Furniss's comic study of a most animated Mr. Budden and his vigorous canine companion, tryingto snatch buttered toast off the table as Minns looks on, aghast, in Mr. Minns and his Cousin (1910). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin,"Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by GeorgeCruikshank. London: Chapman and Hall, 1839; rpt., 1890. Pp. 234-242.
Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin." Christmas Books and Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875 [rpt. of 1867 Ticknor & Fields edition]. Pp. 398-404.
Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter 2, "Mr. Minns and his Cousin." Sketches by Boz. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1876. Pp. 148-153.
Dickens, Charles. "Tales," Chapter 1, "The Boarding-House." Sketches by Boz. Illustrated by Harry Furniss. The Charles Dickens Library Edition. London: Educational Book Company, 1910. Vol. 1. Pp. 300-310.
Dickens, Charles, and Fred Barnard. The Dickens Souvenir Book. London: Chapman & Hall, 1912.
Hawksley, Lucinda Dickens. Chapter 3, "Sketches by Boz." Dickens Bicentenary 1812-2012: Charles Dickens. San Rafael, California: Insight, 2011. Pp. 12-15.
Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. New Haven and London: Yale U. P., 2009.
Last modified 14 May 2017