Stanfield's "The Carrier's Cart" from Dickens's "The Cricket on the Hearth" (1845)

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The Carrier's Cart

Clarkson Stanfield and T. Williams (engraver)

1845

Wood engraving

11.3 cm high x 7 cm wide (4 ¼ by 2 ¾ inches), framed.

Fourth illustration for Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth: "Chirp the First," page 11.

Text enclosed: . . .voice of a man, the tearing in and out of an excited dog, and the surprising and mysterious appearance of a baby, there was soon the very What's-his-name to play.

Where the baby came from, or how Mrs. Peerybingle got hold of it in that flash of time, I don't know. But a live baby there was in Mrs. Peerybingle's arms. . . .

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 photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: John's Homecoming in the Dorset Darkness

But of this there is no doubt: that, the kettle and the Cricket, at one and the same moment, and by some power of amalgamation best known to themselves, sent, each, his fireside song of comfort streaming into a ray of the candle that shone out through the window, and a long way down the lane. And this light, bursting on a certain person who, on the instant, approached towards it through the gloom, expressed the whole thing to him, literally in a twinkling, and cried, "Welcome home, old fellow! Welcome home, my boy!"

This end attained, the kettle, being dead beat, boiled over, and was taken off the fire. Mrs. Peerybingle then went running to the door, where, what with the wheels of a cart, the tramp of a horse, the voice of a man, the tearing in and out of an excited dog, and the surprising and mysterious appearance of a baby, there was soon the very What's-his-name to play. ["Chirp the First," pp. 10-11]

Commentary: The Tension between the Natural and Constructed Environments

This is Stanfield's only commission for this novella. In the next Christmass Book, however, he received a commission for three illustrations, perhaps on the strength of this single, highly atmospheric plate. The scene was well suited to the talents of Clarkson Stanfield, a well-known landscape and marinescape artist who could juxtapose the carrier's wagon, labouring down a Dorset lane (above) with Dot's homecoming below. The eye is drawn down the page by the embedded text and the light emanating from the parlour. Inside, the illustrator provides us with a glimpse of Tilly Slowboy, holding the baby. Quite plausibly, John's dog, Boxer, rushes up to the door, well ahead of his master, to gain access to the warm of the parlour and his dinner. Thus, the essential tension is between the natural environment of the darkened countryside, with its trees on the horizon, and the welcoming, artificially lit, constructed environment of the carrier's cottage, with his bonneted wife ready to welcome him home.

Again, as in Doyle's split-frame Chirp the First on page 1, the nearly full-page illustration enclosing text is actually two pictures: the figure of the carrier in his working linen smock-frock on the highroad at dusk (above) and Dot, answering Boxer's barking at the cottage door (below). As yet, John Peerbingle has yet to enter the text, but this is already his third appearance in the narrative pictorial sequence, the others being as follows:

Relevant Illustrations from the 1867, 1878, and 1912 Editions

Left: Luigi Rossi's interpretation of the carrier's homecoming in Mr. Perrybingle's Welcome Home (Pears' Centenary Edition, 1912) contrasts the wintery blast outside and the young mother's welcome at the door. Centre: Sol Eytinge, Jr.'s version of John's homecoming, The Peerybingles (1867), occurs within the parlour, but before John has even had a chance to remove his topcoat. Right: Fred Barnard's realistic description of the middle-aged John and his young wife, John Peerbingle's Fireside (British Household Edition, 1878).

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. Illustrated by John Leech, Daniel Maclise, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, and Edward Landseer. Engraved by George Dalziel, Edward Dalziel, T. Williams, Thompson, Graves, and Swain. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846 [December 1845].

__________. The Cricket on the Hearth. Illustrated by Luigi Rossi. Centenary Edition of The Christmas Books. London: A & F Pears, 1912.

__________. The Christmas Books. Illustrated by Sol Eytinge, Jr. The Diamond Edition. 16 vols. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867.

__________. Christmas Books. Illustrated by Fred Barnard. The Household Edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1878.

__________. Christmas Stories. Illustrated by E. A. Abbey. The Household Edition. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1876.

Patten, Robert L. Chapter 8, "Chirping." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 169-199. [Review]

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Cricket on
the Hearth

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Stanfield

Created 20 February 2001

Last modified 28 May 2024

Passage Illustrated: John's Homecoming in the Dorset Darkness

Commentary: The Tension between the Natural and Constructed Environments

Relevant Illustrations from the 1867, 1878,​ and 1912 Editions

Bibliography

Relevant Illustrations from the 1867, 1878, and 1912 Editions