The Sale by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), facing page 276 in the ninth instalment (August 1855). Steel-engraving. 11 cm high by 17.5 cm wide (4 ¼ by 7 inches), vignetted, full-page illustration for The Martins of Cro' Martin, for Chapter XXV, "A Country Auction." [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: Dan Nelligan acquires the Martins' prize nags "for a song"
A servant fortunately presented himself at this awkward moment with a whispered message for Miss Martin; to which she replied aloud, —
“Of course. Tell Mr. Scanlan it is my wish, — my orders,” added she, more firmly. “The house is open to any one who desires to see it. And now, before I go, Mr. Nelligan, tell me that I have convinced you, — tell me that my reasons have prevailed, and that you acknowledge we ought to be friends.” And as she said the last words, she held out her hand to him with a grace so perfect, and an air of such winning fascination, that old Nelligan could only stammer out, —
“It shall be how you please. I never bargained to dispute against such odds as this. We are, indeed, your friends; dispose of us how you like.” And, so saying, he conducted her to the little carriage, and, assisting her to her seat, took his leave with all the respect he could have shown a queen.
“It's more than a prejudice, after all,” muttered he, as he looked after her as she drove away. “There's something deeper and stronger in it than that, or else a few words spoken by a young girl couldn't so suddenly rout all the sentiments of a lifetime! Ay, ay,” added he, still to himself, “we may pull them down; we may humble them; but we'll never fill their places!”
“And we're to see the house, it seems!” exclaimed Mrs. Nelligan, gathering her shawl around her.
“I don't care to look at it till she herself is here!” said old Nelligan, taking his wife's arm, and leading her away across the lawn, and in the direction of the stables. There was that in his moody preoccupation which did not encourage her to venture on a word, and so she went along at his side in silence.
“You're to have the black horses, Mr. Nelligan,” said Scanlan, overtaking him. Nelligan nodded. “You've got a cheap pair of nags, and as good as gold,” continued he. A dry half-smile was all the reply. “Mr. Martin bred them himself,” Scanlan went on, “and no price would have bought them three weeks ago; but everything is going for a song to-day! I don't know how I'll muster courage to tell them the results of the sale!” [Chapter XXV, "A Country Auction," 277]
Commentary: The Descriptive Context of the Illustrration
Although the illustration is adjacent to the above passage, it does not realise the dialogue between Scanlan, acting as the Martins' agent at the auction, but rather alludes to the opening scene as the Nelligan party approaches Castle Cro' Martin by carriage:
With feelings akin to those with which the populace of a revolted city invade the once sacred edifice of the deposed Prince, the whole town and neighborhood of Oughterard now poured into the demesne of Cro' Martin, wandered through the grounds, explored the gardens, and filled the house. An immense advertisement in the local papers had announced a general sale of horses and carriages, farming stock, and agricultural implements; cattle of choice breeding, sheep of fabulous facilities for fat, and cows of every imaginable productiveness, were there, with draft-horses like dwarf elephants, and bulls that would have puzzled a matador.
The haughty state in which the Martins habitually lived, the wide distance by which they separated themselves from the neighbourhood around, had imparted to Cro' Martin a kind of dreamy splendour in the country, exalting even its well-merited claims to admiration. Some had seen the grounds, a few had by rare accident visited the gardens, but the house and the stables were still unexplored territories, of whose magnificence each spoke without a fear of contradiction. [Opening of Chapter XXV, "Country Auction," pp. 266-267]
A short circuit through a very thickly wooded tract brought them at length to a large and massive gateway, over which the Martins' arms were sculptured in stone; passing through which they entered a great courtyard, three sides of which were occupied by stables, the fourth presenting a range of coach-houses filled with carriages of every description.
The scene in the twentieth illustration, marking the mid-point of the program for a serislised novel of sixty-eight chapters and 625 pages issued over nineteen months, serves as an admirable visual complement to Lever's description of the setting for the auction at the head of the twenty-fifth chapter. The whole focusses on the impressions and explorations of Mrs. Nelligan, who quite by accident encounters Miss Martin in the mansion. She had pushed on, hoping to gain access to the house through one of the servants whom she knows. However, a groom she has encountered has already pronounced the mansion "off-limits" to the local agriculturalists who are thronging the auction (perhaps as many as four thousand) in hopes of purchasing at a bargain the prize livestock. Had Mr. Martin not been so precipitate is requiring the sale to proceed with all expedition, Scanlan would have been able to secure far better prices.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.
Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Chapter 11: "'Give Me Back the Freshness of the Morning!'"Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004. Pp. 108-127.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. London: Chapman & Hall, 1856, rpt. 1872.
Lever, Charles. The Martins of Cro' Martin. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Novels and Romances of Charles Lever. Introduction by Andrew Lang. Lorrequer Edition. Vols. XII and XIII. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown, 1907.
Steig, Michael. Chapter VII, "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington & London: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter XII, "Aspirant for Preferment, 1854-1856." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell and Russell, 1939; rpt. 1969. Pp. 203-220.
Created 24 September 2022